As your nonprofit expands its outreach and begins to cultivate new and larger donors, development directors, executive directors, board members and active influencers will (and should) be looking for more and varied means of reaching out to engage your “mission investors”. One of the most effective and least employed methods is one of the simplest: pick up the phone and CALL your donors.

Donor outreach is a huge and somewhat daunting area of fundraising. While there are many opinions on how best to reach out, how often and in what manner, making as personal a connection as possible is universally recommended. When a one-to-one meeting isn’t an option, the next best thing is a phone call from a board member or senior level staff.

A phone call shows real interest and a desire for an honest back and forth dialogue in a way that email simply does not. Even when the email comes from a real human and is personal, they often sit in Inboxes for days or weeks, with some busy philanthropists admitting to never actually reading fundraising emails at all!