From the Donor Power Blog:

You can’t go wrong if you think of your donors as your owners. They’ve invested in you, and demand some kind of return for their investment. Not money, but a better world. It’s something you need to deliver — and clearly let them know you’ve delivered.

I’d go one further - think of your donors as shareholders. They have lots of choices about where they can invest their donations, and they’ve chosen to invest it with you. That means you have to treat them like you would shareholders by delivering results, measuring them, and communicating information about your organization. At the same time, your service recipients are your customers, and you need to treat them as such by providing value for them, because that’s what your shareholders demand of you.

If you’re going to be responsive to your donors as shareholders, you need to run like a business, by determining what your objectives are, measuring performance and outcomes, and then communicating that information to your donors so they’re motivated to invest in you again.

Update: Duh! If I had read further in the post, I would have noticed he already advocated Donors as Shareholders. Donor Power Blog, you are so empowering!

Categories: Business and Economics, Marketing, Metrics, Philanthropy, Strategy