Leslie Crutchfield and Heather McLeod Grant outline six critical components that are common to great social sector organizations in their book Forces for Good. One of the six focuses on donors and volunteers. "Create meaningful experiences for individual supporters and convert them into evangelists for the cause, "they write.
Just what is a meaningful experience? Their examples include special events that engage volunteers and donors in the work of the organization, as with Habit for Humanity and Teach for America, and VIP events such as Environmental Defense Fund's exclusive rafting trips or the Heritage Foundation's invitation-only VIP gatherings.
Each of the experiences described are highly focused on the work of the organization and the social needs they are working hard to meet. When organizations forget the mission in creating and executing their special events, volunteers and donors begin to forget which charity event they are attending. It's just another party.
Every event hosted by a non-profit offers the opportunity to provide new insight into the organization's work, and even more importantly, the reason behind their existence -- why is everyone building a house, or rafting a river, or eating another chicken dinner.
There is not enough hard data that shows the net benefit of investing in building strong donor relationships. But Forces for Good is an excellent invitation to explore why some nonprofits are so successful in maximizing social change.
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