When Goofus and Gallant Raise Funds

Two paths to fundraising failure — and one to success.

Remember Goofus and Gallant? They're two boys, brothers maybe, whose morality tales in children's magazine Highlights (that mainstay of doctors' waiting rooms) had a profound impact on the moral and behavioral development of many a boomer-aged kid — though not always the way the authors intended. (They are also, I'm compelled to mention, registered trademarks of Highlights for Children Inc.)

Goofus has messy hair and a wicked grin. He's impulsive, rude and disobedient. Gallant is neatly combed and wears a bland, vacant smile that matches his good manners and common sense. He's a model kid.

Goofus does everything wrong. Gallant does everything right. But everyone likes Goofus better. Gallant and his earnest, brown-nosing ways just get on your nerves. And despite the way they tell the story, you just know Goofus is sometimes more effective than Gallant.

Let's imagine that Goofus and Gallant grew up to become fundraisers. It might be true, because there are two well-established schools of fundraising that mirror their two characters. It would be nice and easy if we could say those two schools were Bad Fundraising (Goofus) and Good Fundraising (Gallant), but it's more complicated than that. Let's take a look:

Goofus Fundraising
Goofus Fundraising is focused on big, terrible problems. It's very persistent about problems. It grabs you by the throat, shakes you, then rubs your nose in problems. Not much hope. Little good news. Just problems that make you feel like a jerk if you don't shell out a few bucks.

Goofus Fundraising is often successful. After all, donors give to make the world a better place. So pointing out a problem that needs solving makes sense. It speaks clearly to donors where they are.

But there's a downside: Goofus Fundraising tends to leave donors disengaged over time. They keep giving, and the same problems keep arising. This leads to weak donor-retention rates. Sure, giving is its own reward, but it's much better when you accomplish something through your giving.

Low donor retention really hurts. And it hurts more all the time, because it's getting tougher (and more expensive) to get new donors to replace those you lose. It's much better (and cheaper) to keep the donors you have — a tall order if the very way you motivate them to give slowly turns them off from giving!

Goofus Fundraising is usually favored by agencies and consultants. That's because they focus on short-term results, knowing that's how the folks who hired them judge them. A string of weak fundraising campaigns and you've lost a client.

Goofus-model organizations tend to find themselves working harder and harder (and paying more) to replace the dispirited donors who are giving up and leaving them. It's like being on a merry-go-round that's way too fast and no fun at all.

Gallant Fundraising
Gallant Fundraising is a refreshing contrast. It's polite and positive. It doesn't really talk about problems at all. Instead, it paints beautiful pictures of the nonprofit's many accomplishments and projects with pure confidence about future results.

Sadly, it seldom works. Because it's not about what the donor can do; it's about what the nonprofit has already done. If you want to motivate donors to action, you have to create a bit of discomfort. Feel-good fundraising may feel good, but that's about all it accomplishes.

Some people argue that Gallant Fundraising trades short-term success for long-term results. It doesn't. You can't keep donors for the long haul if you don't get them to take action now. That's like trying to drive across town without pulling out of the parking lot.

Nonprofit organizations love Gallant Fundraising. It makes them feel validated about their work and the fine organizations they've built and run. Really though, making yourself feel good by sending out weak fundraising is an awfully expensive form of therapy.

Organizations on the Gallant plan either go into financial collapse, find different funding sources, or lurch back and forth between Goofus and Gallant in a brand-crushing, schizophrenic dance.

If our only choices were Goofus Fundraising or Gallant Fundraising, we'd be in a world of hurt: caught between an approach that works in the short term but cuts us off long term, and one that we like but doesn't work at all.

Third Way Fundraising
Good news: You don't have to choose between Goofus and Gallant. There's another kid who also grew up to be a fundraiser, and he has a better way. Maybe you haven't heard about him, because not a lot of people work the way he does. We'll call him, for no particular reason at all, Geoffrey. He's watched Goofus and Gallant for a long time and noticed that each of them did some things right and others wrong.

Geoffrey Fundraising doesn't live in a fantasy "Kumbaya" world. It tells donors with clarity and urgency that there's a problem to be solved. It does so in ways that may make donors uncomfortable.

But here's where Geoffrey parts ways with Goofus and borrows a page from the Gallant playbook: He tells donors there's hope. He puts just as much energy into describing the solution as the problem. He makes it very clear to donors that when they give, progress will be made. He's as clear and specific about that as he is about the problem itself.

Then Geoffrey Fundraising does something that both Goofus and Gallant missed: It makes the whole thing about the donor. It tells donors things like these:

● We share the pain and the triumph with you because we respect you and know you can handle both.

● The reason we're so insistent in describing the problem is we know it's something you care about.

● We're excited about the solution because you can make it happen.

● Our excellence matters only because it helps you maximize your generosity.

● We write to you because we know you're a special person with the qualities that make this message important to you.

That's the platform of every fundraising message. It's also the foundation of the relationship with donors. It shows up in all kinds of ways beyond a more holistic style of fundraising:

● Receipts that show up promptly thank the donor for the actual gift she made, not dissolving it into an organizationwide soup of support.

● Newsletters that are all about the successes and are completely clear that they're because of the donor.

● Respecting donors enough to let them opt in to and out of the ways we communicate with them and handle their information.

● Meaningful fundraising offers that let them direct their dollars as they choose, not forcing them into unrestricted giving.

● Lots of thankfulness, affirmation and recognition.

That's Geoffrey Fundraising. If you're pummeling your donors like Goofus or boring them to death like Gallant, now would be a great time to change.

Jeff Brooks is creative director at TrueSense Marketing (truesense.com) and keeper of the Future Fundraising Now blog (futurefundraisingnow.com). Reach him at jeff.brooks@truesense.com

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