How to deal with irrational donors: Don't

Law-watchers say "hard cases make bad law." We could probably ad a nonprofit corollary to that: Crazy donors make bad fundraising.

The For Impact Daily Nuggets Blog looks at this issue at The Irrational Investor, making the observation that around 1 out of 40 prospects are "completely irrational." They ask weird questions. They have eccentric agendas. They just throw you for a loop. But ...

... you cannot and should not be focusing on 1 out of 40. You need to focus on the other 39 -- RATIONAL investors -- the prospects ... that want to save lives, change lives and impact lives ... the prospects that want to have real conversations ... with YOU.

(A 1-in-40 irrational rate seems high to me; that's 2.5% crazy. Yow.)

It's always best to focus on the normal part of any audience you engage. Nearly all of your donors are reasonable, like-minded, clear-headed, and rational. Aim your efforts at these people.

The effort you put into dealing with your irrational donors is time you aren't spending with the normal ones who give you all the money. And no amount of prep is going to help you turn a crazy person sane.

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Comments

[Pigtown]

I just had a donor create a huge issue, but he wasn't actually a donor to us. He funds artists who come in a teach our kids. I had mentioned that our kids were being taught to dance through a grant. One sentence. One picture.

He e-mailed the whole staff and board to complain that he wasn't mentioned by name, that the dance teacher wasn't identified by name and that he didn't get the credit that he deserved. He wanted a correction sent to people who'd received the newsletter. All for a grant that he doesn't even give to us!