Keynote Interview: Greg Warner

One morning in May, I began the day by getting to know Greg Warner, founder of MarketSmart and one of this year’s keynote speakers. Greg created MarketSmart, a planned and major gift marketing software and services firm, after his own negative experience as a donor. Annoyance with one of his favorite charities inspired him to create tools and systems designed to help us listen to our donors and offer them meaningful experiences that will deepen their relationships with us. He posits this will lead to donor retention. What a concept! 

Greg maintains a simple position: Donors give to our organizations because they want us to make them feel good. “How do you make donors feel good? You listen,” he explained. Too many charities get that wrong, Greg says. When he talks about listening, he clarifies that it’s possible to listen at scale by leveraging technology. Surveys are a very powerful way to learn about how donors feel about our organizations. In Greg’s experience, some donors will be more candid in a survey than they will in a conversation. Surveys can tell us things we don’t know about even our most engaged donors. 

According to Greg, many organizations aren’t even offering a positive experience during the process of giving. “Next time you give to your favorite charity, pay attention to how long it takes to consummate the gift. It takes too long. It’s not fun.” We create unnecessary friction that feels transactional instead of giving donors what they really want – to know they’re a part of our organization. 

I asked Greg about what a fun giving experience looks like. He further explained that donors want to feel like heroes, which means we have to treat them like heroes. He brought me back to the same simple concept. We can’t make donors feel heroic if we aren’t asking them about themselves. “We have to meet donors where they are, but we don’t know where that is if we aren’t listening.” 

Greg couldn’t hide the disgust in his voice when he talked about how arrogant charities can be when communicating with donors. “We think our programs are so awesome that people should just give!” What if we included donors in our mission, successes, and celebrations? Because donors don’t see themselves in our stories, they don’t find value in their giving experience and we lose them to other charities. Donors are looking for value in their philanthropic relationships. Duh. 

Listening to donors and meeting them where they are isn’t manipulation any more than Amazon is, Greg clarifies. Amazon makes it easy for consumers to get what they want. They make us feel good. Most basically, Greg challenges us to get to know our donors and to give them what they want – to feel good. We know as donor relations professionals that our donors deserve that and more.