After speaking at last week's Fundraising First Thing, Jaz Nannar, managing director and strategist at Burnett Works explains why charities need to stop talking at supporters and listen to them instead.

Listening is an art. Or at least, good listening is an art. 

Data may tell us how people give, what they respond to, how frequently they donate or what they don’t respond to. But none of it usually tells us why. So here are four tips to better understand your supporters:

Don’t underestimate supporters’ intelligence

What triggers a supporters’ connection to a cause and then to a charity? As you’d expect, it’s often about life experiences that have shaped people along the way.

The experience of living with cancer, of losing someone they love to dementia. Of feeling grateful that their own children were fed, clothed and watered, while others were born into a world where none of that is secure.

Supporters often choose to find out more about the causes that matter to them. To become experts on the medical condition, or to learn as much as possible about the prognosis. Even to research charities and whether the reality matches the marketing. They are also often very well informed when it comes to your competitors. It’s often part of validating the decision to support a charity.

Deliver a tangible, compelling need

People can smell a genuine fundraising need from a mile off. They may give despite the lack of one – because the cause runs so deep – but often they don’t give because the case doesn’t add up for either the head or the heart.

I spoke to one woman who was fundraising with a group of women for other women in tough circumstances. Jeanette said that she and her local branch had been raising money for women and children at a refuge. They came bearing gifts for the children - but the staff mentioned that the mothers often received nothing.

Jeanette asked the staff what the mothers needed. The answer was simple. A diary so that they could log all of their appointments with social services, health professionals and so on.

Jeanette didn’t just listen to what they said. She understood that a diary was a bit of a luxury item for the women in the refuge. And so when she delivered 30 diaries a week later, she came bearing good-quality, leather bound ones. The staff had tears in their eyes when they were given to the mothers.

Jeanette was clear. She wanted the diaries to signal her desire for the women to have the best possible life. Not the cheapest, most disposable one.

Tackle head-on any barriers to giving

In my phone conversations with supporters, people usually thank me for the interesting chat. They have valued the time we’ve had together. And I don’t hide from the charity fundraising stuff that might be bugging them.

If it’s bugging them, it’s a potential barrier to fundraising and you’re better off knowing and tackling that than not knowing it at all. Supporters will be having those conversations anyway; better they have them with us so that you can tackle it head on in the messages you put out there.

Anything and everything comes up, I find. “Why am I being asked for a legacy when I’m a 40-something with young kids and I’m not really at that life stage to leave a decent gift?” “What about the big charity salaries?” which we talk about through the lens of what people with bigger salaries are actually responsible for, and the achievements that happen on their watch.

Start with improving the donor experience

This approach is not just listening for the sake of listening. It’s listening so that you can distil comments into common threads and themes – often across continents and causes. It’s these common threads that end up supporting a fundraising proposition.

Which, in turn, supports the messages that see the light of day in the real world. Which, in turn, produces results that really stand out. Beating a cold banker back by doubling response. Average gifts of £7.75 through Facebook acquisition. Response rates of 60% in sizeable segments of a Christmas warm appeal.

Good listening really is an art form. But the results that follow are anything but subjective.

Jaz Nannar is managing director and strategist at fundraising and marketing agency, Burnett Works.

The next Fundraising First Thing will be held on 10 May 2016. To book your place, click here.