Retention

Deeper relationships lead to increased giving. You already know that. But did you know that these relationships also create loyal donors? People who feel connected with an organization see themselves as a part of the solution. As long as the believe that “you + me = we” and we’re changing lives together, they’ll stick around for a long time.

Here are five tips that are critical for deepening those all-important relationships.

“Dear Bernard…”

I’ve been reading The Nation all my adult life. I’ve subscribed to it for 30 years. And I used to give a donation every month — but not anymore.

“Bernard, don’t let them win!”

Sorry. There are other progressive organizations. Hell, there are other progressive magazines. If I want to do my part to keep the right-wingers from stamping corporate logos on people’s minds, I can give my money elsewhere.

“Bernard, we want you back.”

Too bad. Because my name is not Bernard.

Have you tried asking your donors for feedback? This is a huge new trend that smart fundraisers are spearheading. Why can this be so important? Well, how can you send communications to them if you don’t know if they like what you are sending? How can you offer “donor experiences” if you don’t know what they want? How can you make sure they are happy if you don’t try to have a two-way conversation with them?

There are four types of email thank-yous to consider when you’re developing an integrated direct-marketing campaign. I’ve outlined them here and added my 2 cents about how you can make each of these efforts even more compelling to get your first-time donor to want to learn more about your mission.

Lisa Van Giesen from Billhighway shares 10 low-cost donor engagement strategies and five peer-to-peer fundraising tips she gleaned from the second annual Engage Conference.

Being donor-focused makes all the difference in your fundraising success. It means that everything you do is centered on donors and how they see things. It helps them feel good about their decision to give to you, and ultimately, this keeps your donors around for a long time. So where do you start to become more donor-focused? Here are three things you can start doing this week that will pay big rewards with a minimum investment of time.

Fundraising publications and blogs are full of good advice for improving donor retention, yet one of the most obvious steps to improved retention — a prompt thank-you to a gift — just seems too overwhelming for many nonprofits. According to Grizzard’s 2013 DonorGraphics™ media usage study, donors estimate that they receive acknowledgments of their donations only 74 percent of the time. That presents a differentiation opportunity that can help facilitate donor loyalty.

So we’re all on the donor retention bandwagon, right? Treat your donors well; use their personal information to show that you know what interests them; thank them promptly and frequently; describe the impactful results of their support, etc. But what about the acquisition variable in the retention equation?

While the above techniques are important, they all happen after the donor comes in the door — but retention potential comes into play long before that moment. And if donors don’t join your organization for the right reasons, then no amount of engagement and retention activities will keep them on board.

As Adrian Sargeant shares, “Improving donor retention by just 10 percent can double the lifetime value of your donor database.” Plan for increases in retention by using methods like the ones here.

There are a lot of good organizations doing things right. But there are way too many organizations that are not donor-centered. So, I’ve been thinking about this for some time now. I researched consumer and donor bill of rights lists on the Internet and have talked with Jeff Schreifels about it. And we’ve come up with six rights that we believe capture what every major donor should be entitled to in his or her relationship to the organization to which they donate.