How to Further Engage Your Donors Through Soft Credits
Some of you may not be familiar with what soft credits are, but you have actually been tracking these for years!
For example, anyone who's hosted a fundraising walk has had team captains that brought in supporters to your organization - and all of those donors that they're bringing into your organization came from their network. Therefore, the team captain should be soft credited for all of those wonderful donations and people that they're bringing in to learn more about your mission.
Now that you have an idea of what soft credits are, it's really important to track them. When you start tracking them, you're going to realize two benefits to finding out this information about your amazing supporters.
The first and the most important benefit is learning who these influential supporters are within your organization.
These are the people that are going out on your behalf and serving as ambassadors for your organization! They're sharing your mission and bringing in the people that they know. They are engaging them in the important work that your organization is doing.
So, it's really important to know who those influential supporters are, so you can then graduate them to volunteer leadership positions within your organization.
The second benefit, which is pretty nice for every donor and supporter, is they're going to get recognition.
Everyone loves seeing their name in lights, so to speak, and you need to give them that proper sense of accomplishment and recognition for all their work that they're doing for your organization’s cause.
I encourage you to start tracking your donor’s and soft crediting the ones that are engaging their networks.
Reach out, connect with them, and thank them for the great work that they're doing. You will likely be pleasantly surprised by their willingness to grow their support of your organization through time, talent and treasure.
Learn more about engaging your donors through a customized development or stewardship plan!
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