How to Use Your Equivalency Language

In the first part of this blog series, I shared with you the importance of creating equivalency language and how to create it for your organization. That’s the hard part.

Once you have equivalency language, you get to the fun part: using it in your donor communications.

While people immediately assume the only way that you can use equivalency language is in a donor offer, that’s just scratching the surface of how you can use this to inspire your donors!

Intro Communications

If you’re using the Veritus Way, you know that you want to be relationally qualifying your donors. And using equivalency language in your introductory communications can be a big help there. Remember, this may be the first time that your donor has ever really heard from a gift officer, so you can show them the added value that you bring by sharing with them what the impact of their gift means in terms of your mission.

We’ve seen one of our clients include equivalency language in the follow-up email as a part of their Introductory series. It read something like this:

Just a quick follow-up to my voicemail to say thank you on behalf of those who we serve at ORG… To help illustrate the impact of your gift this year, in YEAR, $1,000 is the equivalent of providing one month of care for survivors including shelter, basic necessities, and medical care. I am meeting with some of our faithful donors – through the phone or on zoom – and wondered if you would be available for a short conversation? I’d love to know more about your partnership with ORG these past # years. Would you have a few moments in the next couple of weeks to connect?

The team who used this template saw a nearly 50% engagement rate of donors responding either through email correspondence or booking an appointment to connect with the gift officers!

Solicitations / Donor Offers

Picture this: You have a caseload donor that consistently gives $3,000 every year. You’ve connected and engaged with them, you understand their passions and interests, and you think they could make an increased gift to $5,000. But $5,000 is not enough to ask for a restricted gift. So how do you inspire them to increase from $3,000 to $5,000 using what you know about their passions and interests—and without asking for a restricted gift?

You use equivalency language.

Identify a number relative to their area of passion and in the $5,000 range, and let them know in the solicitation that “I hope you’ll consider an increase to $5,000, which is equivalent to…” This can be as simple as a handwritten note on a direct mail appeal or membership renewal. We’ve seen several clients who have used this strategy when sending out appeals or renewal notices and saw significant increases as a result.

Make the Case or YMAD Touchpoints

We can use equivalency language in our touchpoints with the intention of educating donors on the costs of what we do. Most donors don’t realize how much goes into the work of non-profit organizations, and this is an opportunity to enlighten them. Let’s say for instance, you’re sharing a testimonial from a student going through one of your summer programs. You can include a line in the touchpoint, stating “Susie, did you know that it costs ORG approximately $23,000 to put all 30 students like Stephen through our program for one month? We’re so grateful for donors like you that help us provide this lifeline programming during the summer season.”

Make the case or gap statements are another great use for equivalency language. Perhaps you’re sharing more about the need for your residential treatment program. You can share something like “John, we know there are so many people still in need of our services. Our intake team has a wait list of 20+ people right now, and we know that it costs ORG approximately $10,000 to house a new arrival for the first month of our program.” We haven’t asked John for anything yet, but now we’ve educated him on the need and the approximate cost, which can be influential when we’re ready to ask for a gift in the future.

Stewardship Communications

Even if you haven’t used the equivalency language in your solicitation, you can still use it in your stewardship communication to truly demonstrate the impact of their giving—particularly if you see a donor increase their gift. What better way to celebrate that increased support than by sharing with the donor what that generous increased gift equates to in terms of impact?

I worked with a major gifts officer at a public media station who saw a donor on her caseload increase their giving from $5K to $10K. The gift officer wanted to do something special to show the donor the impact of this wonderful increase. She knew that this donor’s favorite show was Antiques Roadshow, so she found equivalency language, sharing that $10K was approximately a third of what it cost the station to distribute a whole season of that show.

When she shared that piece of info with the donor, the donor immediately responded: “Maybe I could give enough for a whole season next year!”

Once you have this tool at your disposal, the possibilities are endless. Sharing this information will bring your donors closer to the work and give them a greater understanding of what it takes to make an impact. If you have equivalency language, I encourage you to be intentional in using it regularly. And if you don’t have it yet, go check out my first blog and get yourself started!

This is the second part of a two-part blog series on equivalency language

Part 1: How to Create Equivalency Language