New Year Kickstart: Wish Lists Work

A sizable chunk of any nonprofit’s budget supports equipment, goods, and services. Too often, we miss creative ways to fund those budget items and free up resources for more missionally focused projects.

In our two-post New Year Kickstart blogs, this entry seeks to help you engage and attract donors with these effective and easy tools. Today’s idea is that wish lists work!

Maybe your van needs new tires, or the food pantry shelving has seen better days. Maybe your front entry walk concrete is crumbling. Whether planned or unplanned costs, these day-to-day operational needs add up quickly in every budget. Consider giving your donors an opportunity to meet those needs!

Here’s how:

1. Develop a wishlist of your top 10-15 program or operational needs in this month or quarter. This could be anything from a printer for your office to snacks for your after-school program. It could even include services like sidewalk concrete replacement!
2. As you identify those needs, aim to include items that have a range of costs to give donors at every level an opportunity to help. Donors love giving to something tangible and knowing they’ve been part of a solution.
3. Whether it’s a social post linked to a spot on your website or a standing communication piece, make that wish list available to your supporters.
4. Communicate it! Wish lists work, but not if no one reads them, so be sure to plan for promoting it in your communications.
5. Refresh your list often…at least monthly or quarterly. When you develop your annual operating budget, take a close look at items that could be a good fit for the wishlist.

As givers fulfill needs, you have a tremendous opportunity to acknowledge, thank, and share the stories of needs being met. This is a tool that can give donors at all giving levels a chance to participate in your mission. It’s amazing what can happen if we’re transparent about our organizational and missional needs.

Besides individual giving, this tool gives those who work in specific industries or companies a chance to participate in philanthropy in a new way. One organization in the midwest recently had a cattle ranch donate 50+ pounds of ground beef to their kids’ summer program meals. While this is tremendously budget-relieving for the organization, it also provides a creative way for donors to partner in that mission.

Wish lists work, and they’re one of many unique ways to build and deepen relationships with your givers. Launch the New Year off right with this simple but effective tool.

- Tim Smith