Non-profits and businesses have a lot to learn from each other. Non-profits would likely do better if they placed more emphasis on earning their donors' trust and businesses too would make more profit if they focused their efforts on building trusting relationships with their customers.

So how can nonprofits earn their donors' trust?

The answer: “trustiness”.

Jeff Brooks from www.donorpowerblog.com noted this in his recent blog post “How to earn donors’ trust” where he embraced the “trustiness” issue and commented that non-profits can apply the same rules businesses do to build trusting relationships with donors.

Trustiness, a take-off on “truethiness” is ….

. . . that “not quite sure I am being told the facts” feeling clients have just before they write the check or open their pocketbook. It’s the alarm bell going off in their minds which produces the inner dialogue, “I’m not so sure this is a good idea, but the salesperson seems to be telling me the truth.”

Try these five steps in trust building and see for yourself.  

First: Always assume the customer or client knows the truth. Even when they don’t they can quickly find the truth about you, your company and your products. The truth is only a click or two away. The safe bet is the consumer already knows.

Second: Recognize that trust starts with you. Every sales and marketing professional is starting with an empty trust bucket. Honest people are offended by this, but they fail to recognize their advertisement, word of mouth campaign, or sales process has been preceded by many broken promises and lies. It’s not about you. It’s about sales and marketing in general - don’t take it personally. You have to act your way to trust – that’s why it starts with you.

Third: Disclose your agenda to your customers and clients. The first act of building trust is to show people your agenda; no secrets. This seems counter-intuitive to “seasoned professionals” who have always looked at sales as a finite game with winners and losers. To win the sale they were taught to keep your real agenda hidden. Trust in conversational marketplaces requires buyers and sellers know exactly what each other is trying to achieve.

Fourth: State the good you hope to do for your client. People need to know the “good thing” you intend for them. They can guess the “good thing” you intend for yourself, but question that you care about their well-being. Make your intentions clear.

Fifth: Ask for permission. Asking for permission is an act of respect - give respect and get trust in return.

(Read more about The Truthiness About Trustiness here)

P.S. We have learned about Jeff's blog through NonprofitBlogExchange - check it out!