Do you want to touch your donor’s hearts? Do you want them to feel like they are making a difference? Do you want to inspire them to keep giving? Then it’s time to get specific.

I am so tired of seeing charity communications that use big numbers, vague terms, meaningless statistics and ambiguous mission statements.  “Last year we funded $15 million innovative research projects, “Our mission is to create food stability across southern British Columbia”, “Working together for a future free from bullying”.  These statements aren’t tangible and they certainly don’t touch our donor’s hearts.

Last year I polled fundraisers and found that less than half of us are reporting to donors on specific things we’ve done with their money. That’s horrible!  It’s one of the reasons that over 70% of your donors will never give you a second gift.

The power of getting specific is backed up by psychology research – and has been tested over and over in fundraising. One specific story about a person who has been helped, a park that has been saved, a cat that is fed and happy – is more powerful than the largest statistic or most eloquent mission statement.

Jeff Brooks says: “Make your message about people, not statistics and facts. Numbers numb. Stories and pictures of people stir donors to action… Your donors likely feel powerless to put an end to poverty or injustice. But they can easily imagine reaching out to one person and making a difference. The other crucial thing about the problem in your story is you must show it to be solvable. By the donor.”

Here are a few charities who I think are doing a great job of being specific.

One in Four Ireland is a small Irish charity who is putting out some of the best fundraising I’ve seen in a long time. I highly recommend becoming a donor just so you can be inspired by the excellent communications they send. Each thank you letter has real life testimonial from one real person who was helped by the charity. They also share them on social media:

Another charity doing a great job of this is the Innocence Project. Instead of using their Instagram feed to share photos of staff at conferences – they are sharing snippets of lives of the people they have worked to free:

“Our client Nathan Brown was exonerated last week after spending 17 years in prison. The day after he was freed, he went shopping with his legal team… here he is trying on his first “real” shirt in 17 years!”

That’s incredibly powerful! It helps me really understand what it is the charity does, why it matters and why it must continue. When you visit their home page, he first thing you see front and centre are real life stories of individuals they have helped.

Fundraiser extraordinaire Jen Love recommends creating a custom thank you message for every appeal you send, and I couldn’t agree more! Here is an example of a charity that did that so well. Volunter-run Vancouver cat rescue charity VOKRA once sent me an appeal all about one cat – Mr. Bungo:

This e-mail appeal was a great example of getting specific with a story. And a few weeks later, I heard from Mr. Bungo again:

Last year VOKRA rescued over 1,853 cats. But a story about just ONE of those cats has more impact on donors than bombarding them with statistics.

Getting specific works so well because, according to Caryn Stein, “the most effective stories feature one individual in need. Donors give more when they feel they’re helping another person to whom they can relate”. So take out your thank you letter, or your last donor report, get out the red pen, and get specific.

Do you have one specific story of a person/place/animal/thing that has been helped by your charity & your donors? I would love to hear about it.

Rory Green has been fundraising since the age of 10, when she volunteered to help run her school’s annual Bike-A-Thon for juvenile cancer research. Fundraising became her vocation at 14, when she lost a friend to Leukemia. Rory Green has been in the philanthropic sector for over eight years and is currently the Associate Director, Advancement for the Faculty of Applied Science at Simon Fraser University. In her spare time Rory is the founder and editor of Fundraiser Grrl, the fundraising community’s go-to source for comic relief. You can email Rory at rorygreen@live.com