5 Best Practices to Improve Donor Retention in 2021
Fundraising always has its ups and downs, but last year really threw nonprofits and other social good organizations for a loop. With a global pandemic affecting almost every aspect of life and a resulting economic downturn forcing leaders like you to rethink budgets, how you engage and show value to your donors is incredibly crucial.
Although we’ve made progress, the COVID-19 situation is still uncertain in 2021. Now more than ever, retaining your donors should be a top priority. For one thing, donor retention is more cost-effective than acquiring new donors. Plus, when donors develop stronger relationships with your organization, their gifts are more likely to grow over time, producing greater revenue.
You can use your online efforts to begin the donor journey and maintain it through effective marketing and personalization of digital content. Even if some of your supporters cannot give at this time, it’s still worth it to leverage your donor connections and set the stage for future engagement.
From offering the best virtual opportunities to leveraging your donor management software, there are a couple of best practices that any fundraising leader can use to improve donor retention in 2021 and beyond. This guide will walk you through the following:
Show donor appreciation
Optimize your donor communications
Report on supporter impact
Host peer-to-peer campaigns
Offer virtual engagement opportunities
Focusing on donor retention isn’t just about trying to solicit more gifts. It’s more about building relationships and setting the stage for long-term support rather than just continuing to receive one-time donations. Ready to learn more? Let’s begin.
1. Show donor appreciation
Showing donor appreciation should already be a regular habit for your nonprofit. As soon as someone makes a charitable gift, the donor should not only get a confirmation message for the donation, but also some sort of thank you either right away or soon after the contribution.
Your donor appreciation efforts are more important now than ever. The negative effects of the pandemic are still present in society, causing continued economic uncertainty. If someone does decide to give, it’s worth it to go the extra mile in your thank you notes to show your donors the genuine value they’ve brought to your cause.
How you show that donor appreciation will likely depend on the supporter’s communication preferences as well as the depth of your relationship with them. For instance, a thank you email should be sent after every gift while an additional handwritten letter may be more suitable for large donations or those from long-term supporters.
To build and sustain relationships during this unpredictable time, here’s a couple of additional donor appreciation methods:
Personal phone calls
Handwritten letters
Virtual events
Branded merchandise
Demonstrations of impact
If you don’t know how to start a donor thank you letter or email, Fundraising Letters offers a great resource. They even have a dedicated section for donor appreciation letter templates that you can browse through and then tweak for your own needs! By using templates like these as a jumping-off point, you’ll be sure you include all of the necessary elements in your thank-you message and avoid missing key components.
2. Optimize your donor communications
Your donor appreciation email should not be where your communications stop. In times of crisis, your relationships with supporters are more at risk of lapsing, and it’s worth it to take the time and optimize your communication strategies.
For one thing, you should keep your supporter base updated with any major organizational updates. Include forward-thinking information like how you’ll get your organization back on track after the disruptions of last year. You may even use this as an opportunity to request additional support!
The best way to optimize your donor communications is to leverage the features of your fundraising software and email marketing tool. Using the solutions already at your disposal can help you create more personalized and valuable communications for your supporters. Most online campaigns have a general email open rate of 17.80%, but by taking additional optimization initiatives, you can secure an above-average open and click-through rate from your outreach.
How can your email marketing tools bring your donor communications to the next level? Consider the following features:
Segmented donor communications. Consider dividing your existing donors into groups based on common data points. For instance, segment donors based on gift size or past event involvement. This way, you can create targeted communications for those groups of supporters and know that your content resonates more directly with the reader.
Automated communications. Some communications are necessary but shouldn’t really take up too much of your team’s time. Your donor thank you notes and gift receipts are great examples of emails that should be automated. As soon as the gift is submitted, a thank you message should be sent out with the specific donation amount. Review your CRM’s capacity to send automated emails to streamline this process and integrate it with your other fundraising efforts.
Personalized content using key data. Did you know that emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened? Make sure to consider the segment of your audience to which you’re reaching out and craft the subject line accordingly. Then, consider the other personalization features that can help boost your messages. Simply adding the donor’s name, the campaign they contributed to, or donation size within your email body can show supporters that you view them as more than just a number.
The above three tips use your existing donor data to improve communications. These can help you create more targeted emails, as well as emails that bring more genuine value to your supporters. This way, they’re more likely to open the communications sent from your organization and engage with your cause.
3. Report on supporter impact
A common reason donors don’t give again to the same organization is that they simply just don’t know what happened to their previous gift. While a donor appreciation email shows the supporter that their gift is received, consider sending a follow-up email summarizing the actual impact of the fundraiser and how that gift helped advance your mission.
To create accurate reports on the impact of a campaign, you’ll likely need a dedicated nonprofit fundraising constituent relationship management (CRM system). A great CRM system will store more than just basic information about your donors. It should track all of your fundraising and engagement efforts.
By viewing this information as a whole, you’ll be able to track your progress toward your campaign goals. Then, by diving deeper into the individual donor engagement metrics around a campaign, you can see exactly how supporters made a difference in your progress toward your goal.
Use these impact reports and insights to summarize to donors just how much their gift has done for your overall mission. It’s important to get as specific as possible. For instance, you can say, “Thanks to your gift of $X, we reached our fundraising goal of $Y and were able to provide 1000 meals for families in need.”
This way, your donors know exactly how their contribution helped and can better visualize the impact that they have created. When supporters know they made a difference, they’ll be more likely to support the organization and give again!
Creating these impact reports can also help you improve your fundraising campaigns, which will ultimately help your donor retention rates. Since you’re likely limited to virtual engagements and events at this time, having a dedicated place to store metrics and track interactions can provide insights into improvement opportunities for future online campaigns and efforts. What kind of engaging online opportunities can you host? The next two sections can help.
4. Host peer-to-peer campaigns
Another way to focus on donor retention rates is to build a community between your supporters. A common way that nonprofits build their supporter network and community is by hosting peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns.
Peer-to-peer fundraising is a great way to get supporters invested in your mission. This is because they give your supporters the chance to act as advocates for your cause. All you need to do is recruit a group of passionate volunteers and set up peer-to-peer fundraising teams! And, this campaign is completely COVID-19 friendly— people can raise money solely through their digital networks.
To help you plan a peer-to-peer fundraising event, take a look at the below graphic explaining the process of hosting one of these campaigns from Charity Engine’s guide to virtual fundraising events:
Send participants the appropriate materials explaining how to use your online peer-to-peer tools. For instance, if they need to create individual P2P fundraising pages, make sure you clearly explain how.
As your P2P participants spread the word and fundraise for your cause, that doesn’t mean your own work is done. You should still use your marketing tools to advertise the campaign, such as through email and on social media accounts. This can include hashtags and pictures shouting out top P2P volunteers.
Make sure you have a dedicated volunteer manager to help facilitate the P2P campaign. They should call each fundraiser team captain to discuss communication strategies and other engagement techniques. This should include how to best communicate with email, social media, and word of mouth.
Give team shout outs over email, social media, and on your organization’s website. This not only highlights the accomplishments of your P2P campaign, but can also act as a motivator for participants to fundraise with even more gusto in hopes of receiving the next shout out.
Design campaign-specific merchandise. Everyone loves branded items, whether t-shirts, hats, or mugs. This is also a great way to connect your participants and help them feel a part of your mission.
Consider letting supporters design their own t-shirts. This is also a creative way to encourage participants to get more involved with your community. You can establish a contest where your P2P volunteers submit designs in the hope that theirs is picked.
Now more than ever, it is crucial to be thoughtful and conscious of the challenges that your supporters might be facing. Make sure to check in with your supporters and ask how they’re doing before asking them to volunteer, fundraise or donate. Consider reaching out by phone or email instead of with your general P2P fundraising links.
Many P2P campaigns are sponsored by generous companies. Just because your event is now purely virtual, doesn’t mean the extra support isn’t needed. The sponsoring company can help get their employees behind your virtual fundraising event campaign, or create excitement around a gift-matching opportunity.
Hosting a peer-to-peer campaign not only raises funds for your organization, but also helps you develop supporter relationships by giving them a key role in your organization’s campaign. When your P2P participants are put in the position of advocating and fundraising for your cause, this builds the connection between them and your mission. This is great for donor retention and can increase the chance that they’ll continue to support your organization far into the future.
5. Offer additional virtual engagement opportunities
On top of peer-to-peer fundraising, there are many other virtual opportunities that you can offer your supporters. Just because traditional in-person fundraising events are on pause doesn’t mean your regular engagements should be. Continuing to offer exciting opportunities and events for your supporters is a key way of retaining their support for the long run.
What are some virtual engagement opportunities you can offer? This will likely depend on the fundraising solution and digital engagement tools you have at your disposal, but here are some popular examples that you can implement today:
Simulated virtual audience. Many organizations host ticketed fundraising events like charity concerts, variety shows, and other types of performances. This might not seem possible with the current social climate, but with live-streaming tools, you can still offer these types of experiences. For instance, host a virtual concert and have your supporters watch talented musicians from the comfort of their own homes.
Virtual auction. You might think auctions are purely an in-person experience. After all, your attendees bid in real-time while regarding a coveted item from your auction table. With key mobile bidding software and other auction tools, it is indeed possible to adapt your auction for the virtual setting! Instead of shouting their bid or writing it on a slip of paper, they can bid using their computers or mobile devices. Then, winners will have the prize shipped to them.
Virtual volunteer opportunities. Volunteering is a great way to show support— especially when finances are tight. Consider offering virtual volunteer opportunities, like helping with phone banking or writing social media posts. This is a great way to keep engagement up with donors that can’t currently give at this time but still want to help your mission.
Retaining your donors during this time is not an easy task. By offering ample virtual engagement opportunities, you keep your mission at the forefront of your supporters’ minds. Even if they can’t give at this time, it’s still worth it to offer ways that they can support your organization and build the foundation for future engagement.
Maintaining valuable donor relationships ensures long-term support for your mission and can help you navigate any fundraising challenges. Use the above best practices to help aid your own engagement efforts and retention rates. Good luck!