Connection Café: Know Your Constituents

	Know Your Constituents
	Posted by Cheryl Black at Feb 03, 2012 10:58 AM CST Categories: Constituent Empowerment, Fundraising, Nonprofit Trends

At my wedding rehearsal a couple years ago, the minister asked my groom-now-husband and I if we had any final adjustments to the ceremony. I had just one: “I don’t want to be announced as Mr. & Mrs. Ross Black. I want to be Ross and Cheryl Black.”

Cheryl's Wedding I took Hubby’s last name but then and now I feel very strongly that I have my own name and prefer not to be “Mrs. Husband’s Name.” Everything, from our mortgage to our cutesy return address labels reads “Ross & Cheryl Black”; nothing says “Mr. & Mrs. Ross Black.” Nothing. Nada. Zilch.

When I get mail addressed to “Mrs. Ross Black” I throw it away without even opening it. They clearly don’t know me. Similarly my grandmother used to politely but quickly end any phone call that began with the caller asking for her by her first name. She’s always gone by “Mrs. Husband’s Name.”

Imagine that Grandma or I are your donor. How bummed would you be to learn that you didn’t get to so much as ask us for a donation because you called us by the wrong Mrs.? Wouldn’t that just kill you a little?

It’s just one of the many reasons why you can’t trust your brain or your co-worker’s brain, to house all your donor information. There are simply too many donors (I hope) with too many eccentricities to rely on a human brain. You need a tool to help you manage all those constituents and relationships.

That’s why there’s (enter the heavens opening up, sun shining down between the clouds, other-worldy music playing) the CRM.