Communicating for Change: 5 Simple Ways to Encourage Generosity Now!
By Kristi Posewitz, TPF’s Director of Marketing
Whether you are a church or nonprofit, it’s important for you to communicate regularly with your church members and donors for a variety of reasons. Most importantly, to ensure your continued ability to support your mission, it is critical that generosity is a key piece of these communications. But this takes a lot of resources, planning, and tools you might not have, right? Wrong!
While ideally, a more detailed process is preferable, that’s not always a possibility for many of us. Whether you have a fully defined generosity vision statement and communications strategy, or if you are just getting started, this blog post was created to provide five easy ways you can encourage generosity TODAY. It’s time to keep it simple and get started!
- Define Your Quick Hit Generosity Strategy
Your strategy can be as detailed or as simple as you need. At the very least, before you do anything, take a few minutes to answer the following questions:
a. What do you want to accomplish? (Make a concrete and actionable list that will help you
define your success.)
b. Why is it important for people to give to your church or organization? (Use this answer to
drive the messaging and visuals you will use for your generosity communications.)
c. Who are you talking to? (Be sure to address each of your audiences in ways they will
understand.)
d. What platforms will you use? (Email, social media, print, direct mail, mobile are all effective
options.) - Make it Easy to Give – and Talk About It
We all know that there are many ways for people to support your church or organization. However, church members and donors are not always aware of their options. Identify each of the ways they can contribute and TALK ABOUT THEM. For example, provide directions for online giving opportunities in multiple communications (and make them easy to find!). - Create Inspirational Legacy Content that Ties to Your Mission
It’s true! Content is king. There are a variety of things you can do here. Most importantly, identify and tell compelling stories of generosity. You want to spark emotion in your audiences. You can also create content for emails, social media, inserts, and brochures. TPF provides several complimentary tools if you would like assistance with content designed to inspire generosity. Your goal is to incorporate this kind of content in everything you do—from your newsletter to your website, it’s time to talk about generosity. - Plan an Event
This one is easier than you think. TPF can help. As part of our educational services, we work closely with our current and potential partners to plan and execute legacy events focused on the nuances of planned giving. Simply call your TPF Relationship Manager to discuss event planning and follow-up. - Say Thank You
Just like when you were little, don’t forget to say thank you. There are so many ways you can do this that truly touches your givers, as well as those around them. Hand-written notes, legacy events, and generosity celebrations are just a few examples of effective gratitude.
Encouraging generosity is a never-ending process that should be constantly changing in your church or organization! The good news is that TPF has the resources to help. Our educational webinars and complimentary print resources are all available at www.tpf.org. For more information on the best ways to reach the different generations of your audience, you can view Stefanie Marsden and Jake Wilson in our latest webinar, “GENERATIONAL GENEROSITY: Making the Greatest Impact for Good,” at http://bit.ly/2wxMnSE. Additionally, your TPF Relationship Manager is always happy to assist you. I would encourage you to reach out to him or her at any time. Lastly, please don’t hesitate to email me at kristi.posewitz@tpf.org with any questions. I look forward to helping you enable and expand YOUR mission.