The Disappearing Donor: Where Your Ministry's Lapsed Givers Went, and Why

This little book makes available the details of an extensive research project that investigated why donors abandon the non-profit organizations about which they once felt such enthusiasm. In addition, the author provides fifteen short chapters of interpretation and suggestions for the non-profit workers who find themselves on the losing end of this pilgrimage of the heart. Because the object of this study was lapsed donors, reading this book is not an exercise in happiness for those of us who work in field where the partnership of committed donors is critical to the harvest. However, this difficulty is the very element that makes the book worthwhile. Donors to non-profit organizations sometimes overreach their brief, that is true. They can be whiny, fickle, even cruel. However, they need to be heard, as does each of one of our several constituencies. Moreover, it is astounding how a difficult or disenchanted donor, treated with patience and respect, can become an enthusiastic partner in a whole new adult relationship when we go the extra mile to hear out his or her concerns. The Disappearing Donor is best read quickly once, then returned to as a reference book and a mine of suggestions as one moves forward in the adventure.