Retention

Are your donors satisfied? Satisfaction with the development office is one of the major drivers of donor loyalty. Unfortunately, most organizations don’t talk about this. Even worse, most organizations don’t bother to find out.

Yes, I know: There’s too much other work to do. Organizations don’t have the resources to explore donor satisfaction. Blah blah blah.

But if you want loyal donors, how can you ignore the satisfaction thing?

Last week I blogged about the Stop Acquiring New Donors Meme, the most boneheaded fundraising meme of our time. The meme, arising from the general drop in donor retention rates, says you should stop acquiring new donors until you fix your retention. Which is like saying you should stop breathing until you end air pollution.

But retention is a real issue, and you really need to improve it.

Here are four common fundraising practices that hurt donor retention. If you are doing any of these things, change it now. You can improve your retention.

As the year draws to a close, focus more on renewing current and lapsed donors than on acquiring new ones.

It was a well-known speaker in the fundraising industry. The speaker's assertion: Donor retention has gotten so bad, we should just stop acquiring new donors and focus all our energy on retention. I wouldn't really bother bringing it up if it were just one boneheaded idea from one industry expert who hasn't done the homework. But I keep encountering this "Stop Acquiring New Donors Meme." People are saying that all over the place. I wonder how many fundraisers have actually taken this horrific bit of advice.

There's a donor retention article every single day it seems. Why is this so hard?

You've optimized your acquisition process. You're gaining new donors. You're sending them the content you promised when they signed up. You should be growing your donor base, right? Not if you aren't able to plug the leak on the other end. You may want to consider opt-down and other options, rather than a simple "Bummer, see ya later." There are three ways to do this effectively: 1. Reduce frequency. 2. Focus content. 3. Facilitate e-mail address changes.

In my recent webinar with 4GOOD/Nonprofit Webinars about How Creative Thank-Yous and an Attitude of Gratitude Can Supercharge Your Fundraising, it became apparent there’s one question many of you struggle with: How on earth do you develop a system that assures thank-yous really get out in 48 hours? Heres' the biggest secret: 1. You’ve got to get everyone in your organization to buy in to the 48-hour rule. This is perhaps the most important thing you can do to sustain donor relationships.

Lose your mid-level donors, and your major gifts will dry up sooner than you might imagine.

This year, the FSV advisors tackled the issues every-sized organization and mission need to know to thrive well into the next decades.

Nothing could be as gratifying or rewarding as stewarding your donors, yet it’s clear from the latest statistics that we’re still not getting it right. Take a cue from my oh so fabulous subscribers and members, who are using fun and novel ways to deepen their relationships with their donors. What tips could you swipe?