Debbie Meyers

ADRP Founding Board Member

Writer/Editor, Rutgers University Foundation

Talk about pressure – I’m writing Penelope Burk a thank-you letter. 

You know – Penelope Burk, who wrote “Donor Centered Fundraising,” which lists 20 attributes of an effective acknowledgment, based on her social science research. Who invented the term “donor-centered fundraising.” Who surveys donors every year about why they continue supporting their chosen charities.

That Penelope Burk. The first science-based advocate for donor relations. 

In our recent Zoom interview* highlighting her relationship with ADRP over its past 20 years and serving as our inaugural conference keynote speaker, I mentioned that I lent out my autographed copy of her ground-breaking book “Donor Centered Fundraising” and never saw it again. The next day, I went on her website and purchased it, only to receive a refund three minutes later.

Her assistant emailed me that Penelope wanted me to have the book as a gift.

The book arrived, and I found that she had flagged a section with a turquoise sticky note that read “your story.” In the section “Managing Donor Relations,” she quoted my response to a pre-ADRP listserv query about how to develop a customer service survey covering key stewardship functions:

“I’ve just been asked to conduct a similar assignment and I have to admit, I’m stumped. I’m supposed to develop ‘objective performance evaluation criteria.’ I thought, ‘Well, we produce X number of endowment reports and acknowledgements.’ But that’s not the assignment. Rather, I’m supposed to come up with some way of measuring how effective my department is – not how many letters and reports we send out, but how much donors appreciate them. I think I’ll switch to brain surgery; it must be easier!” 

Her inscription read: 

To Debbie, whose important question on whether the impact of donor relations could be measured inspired me to articulate the connection between stewardship and profit.

With gratitude.

Penelope 

Without exaggeration, I can say that inscription is the highlight of my almost-40-year career. Hands down. Nothing can top that. 

OK, enough about me. (BUT WASN’T THAT THE COOLEST THING EVER?!!!) 

What does this mean for you? That last phrase: the connection between stewardship and profit. It’s a constant struggle to justify and evaluate our work when much of it seems subjective. If we make a donor cry happy tears, we know we did our job well. But we can write an absolute masterpiece of an acknowledgment and have no idea how effective it was. Was it thrown away? Appreciated? 

Penelope’s research highlights three things that define donor-centered fundraising. Donors want:

1. A prompt, meaningful acknowledgement

2. To know how their gift will be used

3. To know results before you ask again

“Understanding that donors make their decisions about giving again (or not) and giving more (or not) in between appeals – not when they are solicited – puts the work emphasis where it actually belongs,” she says. In other words, the emphasis should belong on us.

These three things – that’s what we do. And more than two decades of Penelope’s research show that what we do matters to the bottom line, providing direction to fundraisers about how they should spend their time and allocate resources. It proves that we are an integral, crucial part of every effective fundraising enterprise. 

Looks like I have more to thank her for than just a book.