Most charities could do a better job of broadening their base of support and appealing to donors of diverse backgrounds. As you develop fundraising strategies targeting groups that vary by race, ethnicity, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, or ability, you’ll need to ensure your messages and images are welcoming.
“Just because you serve the community through your programs, that’s not enough anymore,” says Mando Rayo, a communications strategist and co-founder of the New Philanthropists, an effort in Austin, Tex., to create a diverse pipeline of trustees, donors, and nonprofit executives. “You have to show that you’re an inclusive organization, or taking steps to be inclusive.”
Mr. Rayo and other consultants and fundraisers shared tips with The Chronicle for creating appeals that connect with emerging donors, inspiring them to give and get involved.
Establish your organization in the community.
“You can’t go in and start asking for support unless you’re really in those communities in a meaningful and consistent way,” says Jed Levine, executive vice president and director of programs and services at CaringKind, an Alzheimer’s charity in New York City. The organization has spent years working on outreach to black, Latino, Orthodox Jewish, and Chinese New Yorkers, who may not have had ready access to its services, or may not take advantage of them due to language and cultural barriers.
“If you want people to support you,” Mr. Levine says, “you have to be present, you have to be visible, and you have to be real.”
That doesn’t happen overnight. The most successful direct-response fundraising follows consistent and inclusive outreach by marketing and program staff, says consultant Mae Daniller, a direct-mail specialist who works mainly with museums and cultural organizations.
Her chief ground rule: Do not send an appeal targeting a particular population unless you plan to keep showing your commitment for the long haul.
Foster diversity from within.
Ideally, the people helping you create content are representative of the people you want to reach, says Charrosé King, senior social-media specialist with the American Psychiatric Association. “Having different people working with you is the best way to do that,” she says.
“If your organization lives its values, reaching an audience that shares those values will be easier.” says Diana Cardenas, a New York marketing consultant who works with nonprofits. (The Chronicle has several resources to help you diversify your own staff and board.)
Consider your own point of view.
Think about your own identity and how it might influence the ways you describe and depict your constituents in fundraising materials. Are you an insider or outsider in relation to the communities you serve?
“If you’re young, if you’re middle-aged, you might bring your own lens, your own prejudices with you and not realize how something might appear to the population group that you’re trying to reach out to,” says Ms. Daniller.
Ask for feedback.
Talk to members of the target community about your outreach so they can help guide your future strategy, says Mr. Rayo. You might test appeals and messages through a focus group, a survey, in-depth interviews, or simply by taking someone out for coffee.
Taking time to do this with someone who doesn’t know about your cause has two benefits, says Fayruz Benyousef, a consultant to nonprofits: “They’re going to become educated about you, and at the same time they’re going to give you really good feedback.”
She also recommends asking people to introduce you to others to whom they think you should talk.
Mr. Levine, of CaringKind, cites a colleague who eschews the popular notion of “cultural competence” — being able to communicate effectively with people from different groups — in favor of “cultural humility.”
“That means not assuming that we can become competent in and fully versed in the culture of another group, but rather recognizing our own limitations, being upfront with that, and asking for assistance and what would be appropriate,” Mr. Levine says.
If your organization is not as diverse as you would like, be transparent about it, Mr. Rayo says. “Don’t be afraid to say, ‘We haven’t had a lot of success engaging people in a certain community,’ or, ‘We’re not diverse but now we want to be — can you help us?’ ”
Find out how relevant your organization is within a community by asking questions like these:
- What matters to you?
- How would you like to hear from us?
- Are there ways in which you want to become involved with us?
“If you don’t ask, you’ll just assume, and then you’re the one out of luck,” says Ms. Benyousef.
Spending time with the audiences you are trying to reach is the best way to break stereotypes, Ms. Cardenas says. “We all have them, and those are the first killers of any attempt to communicate with a diverse audience.”
Translate language and culture.
The words, voice, and tone you use must be inviting and welcoming. For example, an appeal to recent college graduates would likely be written in a different voice than an appeal to baby boomers.
In some cases that could mean translating your appeals into another language. In others, it might mean describing an audience as they would describe themselves, with appropriate pronouns or identifying terms — even if it differs from your organization’s normal writing style.
For example, Ms. Cardenas, who is from Colombia, says she understands a message that is designed for Latino communities broadly, “but I will value more one that talks to Colombians specifically.”
Choose images thoughtfully
Consider how you’re depicting the people you serve. Avoid images that seem paternalistic, says Mr. Rayo.
“If the only picture you show is the poor Latino and black kid, then you’re setting up more barriers,” he says. “And beyond that, consider the power dynamics. Is it always a white man leading the group, or do we switch it up and have different people shown as leaders?”
When Ms. King looks at her organization’s materials, she tries to ensure that a variety of people are represented. You don’t need a perfect rainbow every time, she says, but think about who is and is not shown.
One of Ms. Daniller’s clients, the Fleet Science Center in San Diego, had success working photographs of multiple generations into its mailings when it was trying to encourage grandparents to become museum members.
For science centers and children’s museums, she says, “we like it if we have an image of a child in a wheelchair or somebody else with some kind of disability interacting with the exhibitions in a way that anyone would.”
While tokenism should certainly be avoided, Ms. King thinks about using nonprofit communications as a way to break stereotypes.
“We want to contribute to a narrative and a society that shows different people in a positive light and uses our images and stories to fight stereotypes,” she says. “Even if we’re not writing a story about diversity, our content still helps to do that just by existing.”
