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donor retention

The Power of Acknowledgement – Three Elements of Donor Retention

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Donor Retention - Fundrasing AdviceWhat is your philanthropy’s superpower? Every nonprofit has powers, but the most important one that eludes many organizations is the power of donor retention. Unfortunately many nonprofits expect to lose more than 60 percent of donors after their first donation.

It is time to take on high first-time donor attrition rates and secure donor loyalty. Studies show that over the long term, retaining 10 percent more of first-time donors can lead to a 200 percent lifetime return. Here are three nonprofit powers to help improve donor retention and turn one-time donors into life-long supporters:

Efficient Donation Processing and Acknowledgement

When a new donor makes a contribution they may feel they have fulfilled their duty to support your cause. Yet the power of speed – efficient donation processing and meaningful acknowledgement – encourages them to come back. Supporters expect timely, accurate and efficient processing of their donations. Whether outsourced or handled in-house, it is critical that donations are managed with care and precision.

Cutting edge technology can allow nonprofits to process donations faster and more accurately, allowing quicker donor acknowledgement. Automated mail extraction and high-speed scanning equipment helps minimize processing costs, while searchable web-based document image archive and retrieval systems allow donor inquiries about transactions to be researched more quickly and efficiently as well.

Saying Thank You

Once donations are processed, the next power to use is the strength of gratitude. A heartfelt thank you can help secure the second donation, turning a one-time donor into a life-long supporter. To super charge a thank you letter, nonprofits should personalize it to make it more meaningful. Nonprofits can do this by using the donor’s name, referencing the specific campaign that they responded to, discussing how their donation will be used, and even acknowledging repeat donors’ past gifts. Follow-up communications and solicitations can discuss more specifically how funds were used to make a difference. For example, if they gave in response to the recent earthquake in Nepal, specific information on the relief that was delivered and its impact can be provided along with an ask for an additional gift to continue the efforts or to have funds available for immediate use when the next disaster strikes.

Saying thank you doesn’t need to be limited to mail. Follow up calls are another way to say thank you that can make a significant impact on a donor and ensure their first time giving isn’t their last. Calls are easy to personalize and can truly show donors the importance of their contributions. Thanking donors via follow up calls strengthens donor relationships and leads to higher rates of donor retention, in addition to more frequent giving and larger gifts.

Whether saying thank you with a hand written note, a call, on social media, or through a video, nonprofits can make donors feel like superheroes by focusing on what they helped the organization to accomplish. It is the joy that comes from hearing the difference they made that encourages donors to stay involved.

Donation Security

Nonprofits are also responsible for keeping donors and their personal information safe, both physically and in the cyber world. By protecting donors in a world of breaches and identity fraud, nonprofits can safeguard valuable donor relationships.

Nonprofits can build trust through physical security of donor funds and information. A first step is to implement a 24/7/365 surveillance system to safeguard donations and donor information in the facility where donations will be processed. Additionally, tracking of the vehicles used to transport the mail from the post office to the donation processing facility should be used.

Once donors and their contributions are physically safe, nonprofits can focus on the cyber-sphere, starting with the basics. One of the first steps is ensuring standard data security software like firewalls, antivirus software, spam and spyware, data-loss prevention software and intrusion detection software are in place. Data encryption is also essential. End-to-end encryption should be used on all inbound and outbound data files creating another obstacle for hackers.

Additionally, all organizations that deal with donor credit card information should be Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliant, ensuring credit card information is being handled appropriately and securely. PCI DSS provides a framework for data security that covers prevention, detection and reaction to security incidents, holistically safeguarding donor information.

These security elements are critical to maintaining your nonprofit’s reputation with both first-time and life-long donors. Having the strength and ability to protect donors creates a sense of trust.

Donors can be a nonprofit’s biggest believers or their kryptonite. These three elements of donor retention – efficient donation processing and acknowledgement, appropriate donor recognition and robust security – can help retain new donors and make them feel like superheroes. As a helpful resource, we encourage you to take our donor retention assessment to discover your nonprofit’s retention opportunities.

Want to Increase Repeat Donors? Just Follow the Rules

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Fundraising Donor RetentionIt takes a lot of effort to bring in new donors. That’s why hanging on to the donors you have—and getting them to donate again and again—is key for any nonprofit.

So how you do you increase your pool of repeat donors? Here are a few rules to get you there.

Rule 1: Remember, you’re only as good as your last interaction.

The interaction a donor will remember most is the last one they had with your organization, so offer the best service possible at all times to all of your donors. Make sure you keep the donation process easy and streamlined. Acknowledge donations in a timely fashion and don’t keep donors waiting for promised tax documentation.

Rule 2: Let donors “get their feet wet.”

Small donations can lead to larger ones down the line. Are you looking for products or supplies? Offer a “trial donation” where the donor only commits to a small amount. If that goes well, you can contact them to see if they would like to make a larger donation.

Rule 3: Spread good will.

Give donors the chance to piggyback on your public relations efforts. Sure, you may publicize their name in your lists of donors, but consider going one step further. Ask if they would like to talk about their donations in your press releases or promotional materials.

Rule 4: Ask for feedback and follow through.

It’s a good idea to send out surveys to your clients to ask about how the donation process went for them. Keep it short to increase your chance of receiving a response, and consider 10 percent a good return rate. Make sure you designate someone to go through the surveys and notify staff of any problems they need to address.

Rule 5: Honor your donors’ preferred form of communication.

To develop positive relationships with donors, nothing beats in-person meetings with telephone conversations the next best. But taking those steps can backfire if a donor prefers you contact them only by email. Find out how your donors prefer you contact them, and then honor that request. If you’re receiving product donations, set up a schedule for how frequently you should contact a business. Some companies may want to donate on a quarterly basis, others every six months. It’s best to set those parameters up front.

Rule 6: Remember to ask the next question.

If you call and a company says they have nothing to donate at that time, ask if you can call back in six months. A lot of companies have “gatekeepers,” so if you call in six months and tell the person answering the phone, “Joe asked me to call him back,” your call is more likely to go through. And if you’re lucky enough to schedule an in-person meeting with a potential donor, remember the next question you should ask is whether anyone else would like to join you for the meeting. The more people you know within a company, the stronger relationship you’ll be able to build and the better chance you’ll have that that relationship will continue if your main contact leaves the company.

Rule 7: Add value to those donations.

Give your donors value beyond the tax benefits they receive. Offer specifics on where their donations went and how your organization used them. Give them as much personal connection as you can to the good their donation is doing. Taking the time to do that is the best way to turn that one-time donor into a long-term giver.

How Technology Makes Pickups and Drop-Offs of Nonprofit Donations Easier

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nonprofit scheduling softwareIn Nashville, Tennessee, two families turn the key to enter their new homes, built by Habitat for Humanity. Thanks to the generosity of donors, families all over the world will be sleeping soundly tonight in homes built by the global charity.

Habitat for Humanity was founded in 1976 with a mission to build simple, decent, and affordable housing for families in need. For the work of building, they depend on the kindness of volunteers all over the world. For fundraising, a major part of the revenue that they generate comes from their ReStore locations, where they sell donated building materials, new and used.

Especially in larger city centers, these ReStore locations process a lot of volume—with donors requesting pick-ups and dropping off goods that can be resold. It’s a concept that a lot of nonprofits that operate retail locations will be familiar with. To help them process these donations and issue receipts, many ReStore locations have leveraged technology to save time and effort, both for donors and the teams in the stores. Here’s how.

Online Booking Gives Donors the Control They Want

Taking bookings for pickups over the phone takes time, and requires nonprofits to have dedicated team members focused on that task alone. The same is true of emailed booking requests—a time still has to be confirmed between both parties and the back-and-forth can take a non-trivial amount of time.

Online booking puts the control in the hands of the donor. The nonprofits can offer available pick-up windows in the booking tool, leaving it up to the donor to choose a convenient time. No more guesswork and no more back-and-forth. The LA chapter saw a saw a 300% increase in Habitat for Humanity donations by using online booking. “It’s really important for us to make it easy for people to donate,” says Karen Moore, ReStore Acquisition Manager for Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles (Habitat LA). “(It’s) really very simple for our donors; a step-by-step program for people to schedule a pick-up of the items they want to donate.”

“We opened our second store location in September 2016,” says Robin Henrichsen, ReStore Donations Manager of Twin Cities Restore in Minnesota. “To support increased donation pick ups and sales, we expanded our truck fleet from one to two trucks. This change was easy to implement in the software system and got us up to speed quickly for increased donations pick ups. We increased donation pick ups 170% in the first year with two trucks.”

Nonprofits Save Time on Scheduling and Administration

Since the customer has made the booking themselves, the nonprofit’s scheduling software automatically adds the booking to the calendar. It can even suggest the most convenient route for pickups. This way, the teams working at the ReStores can focus on staging the materials in the stores and ringing up sales at the register.

“We’re more organized, and we are able to take less time to schedule a pick-up,” says Kyle Thornhill, ReStore Manager of Habitat for Humanity of Huron Valley. “In the past, when someone would call to add an item to their pickup or to switch their date, we’d have to shuffle through papers and then rewrite their donation receipts. This took lots of time and also created a window for human error, which occurred often.” The switch to using nonprofit donation software worked. “We were doing approximately 40 pickups a week and (now) we’ve been doing approximately 64 pickups a week,” says Thornhill. That’s an increase of 60%. “We are currently having our best year-to-date and have beaten our sales records for each month since this past July.”

Donor Gifts“Since we implemented online donation scheduling, we’ve seen that over 50 percent of all donation pickups are now scheduled online. That’s a better use of time than having to schedule over the phone with a member of our Call Center staff,” says Ryan Smith, Chief Retail Officer of Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver. “Our donations have gone up 25 percent, our sales 35%, and earnings 40%.”

 

No Need to Create Manual Receipts for Donors

Receipts are another way that technology can save time. When the donor processes the booking themselves, the system can issue a donation receipt digitally. This saves both paper and time, which makes the locations much more efficient over the long term.

Even Drop-Offs Can Be Made Easier with Technology

Habitat for Humanity of East Bay/Silicon Valley has take the use of tech at their ReStore to the next level. Donors have the option of entering their items into an online donation form before dropping them off. Or, when donors bring items to drop off, they can also use one of the location’s iPad “kiosks” to process the donation and get a receipt.

Online Donation Management Software

Donors used to have to wait for store staff to record their donations and issue receipts, but the new way saves much more time. “The online form saves our donors time and offers them the convenience of automatically receiving a professional-looking email receipt containing all the details they need for tax purposes,” says Matt Nelson, Project Specialist at Habitat East Bay/Silicon Valley.

With so many conveniences it brings to nonprofit retail locations, and an increasingly savvy public who demand convenience, booking and scheduling software can be a major asset in helping nonprofits grow their donations and resulting revenue.

 

About Vonigo
Vonigo is a service business management platform that helps streamline operations and increase sales of mobile service companies and nonprofits. Vonigo offers a unified suite of configurable cloud-based modules including; CRM, scheduling, online booking, work order management, estimating, dispatch, routing, GPS, invoicing, payments, reporting, and more all accessible over the internet from any desktop or mobile device. Millions of jobs have been successfully booked and managed with Vonigo.

Going Deeper: How to use Social, Financial and Location Data to Inspire Donors

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Donor Management SoftwareEvery thriving nonprofit needs loyal, committed donors who feel like they are a part of your cause. And, in order to retain truly engaged donors, you need build personal relationships at scale. The problem is that building thousands of authentic personal relationships can seem almost impossible. After all, each relationship requires time, energy and resources from your already strapped team. Even though this task seems daunting, there is hope! The right types of data can give you the fuel you need to know your donors better, communicate with them on an individual level and ultimately grow giving.

The secret weapon to building relationships at scale lies in three key data sources: social, financial and location. Here’s a look at how you can tap into this information to create sustained engagement around your cause.

Social Data

Last year, 81 percent of people in the U.S. had a social media profile. That number always seems stunning to me, but not surprising. The broad adoptions of social media allows your nonprofit to tap into a wealth of personal data on your donors. And with modern software, you can dynamically mine insights on your donors instead of having to manually comb through your social profiles one at a time.

For example, let’s say you have a donor who’s been with you for three years and has given a gift to your organization around tax time every year. You want to understand her motivations and interests better, and are hoping to encourage her to give a little more (or a little more frequently).

By reviewing the information she’s shared on Facebook and Twitter, you might learn that she’s on the board of several organizations, in a senior position at a Fortune 500 company and has a cousin who sits on your board. This one piece of data tells you she could be a great fit for recruiting corporate sponsors for your 10K fundraising event because of her personal and corporate connections. It also likely means she has a high net income and so you should avoid a $50/month recurring donation ask.

A good CRM uses insights like these to give you recommendations about what kind of gift you can ask donors for, what events you should invite them to and how you can leverage their hobbies and interests to grow giving. Simply by unleashing algorithms that dig through social channels, you can learn about donors’ occupation and co-workers; interests and passions; friends and social connections; other organizations and networks relevant to your cause; and how supporters are related and connected to one another.

Financial Data

Although you can get some idea of what income bracket a giver may fall into by knowing their job title and company name, you need deeper financial details in order to compel additional giving. For instance, every donor has a unique “giving capacity.” This means the maximum amount of money (or time) a person can comfortably give to your cause without breaking their budget.

Best-in-class CRM software is able to combine your own historical financial data with data from third party wealth databases (real estate holdings, etc). From these analytics, you can gauge a person’s overall giving capacity, and identify if there’s a large gap between what they’ve donated and what they could donate. If there’s a significant gap, you’ll be able to use specific campaigns to target the donor and ask for more, knowing you’re not pushing them past what’s comfortable for them.

Also based on this financial data, you can create forecasts around what giving might look like in the next few months, or years. This can give you the insight you need to stay the course you’re on (if predictions are positive) or switch up your tactics (if they’re negative). More data gives you more power to make the best decisions for your organization.

Location Data

A lot of times a donor’s physical location (home address, work, etc) can provide the most valuable insights into their giving behavior. By leveraging geo-locations to figure out how givers are connected to one another (and to our organization) geographically, you can create a more complete picture of each individual donor. And by knowing where each person is located, you can offer them volunteer or participation opportunities that are relevant to them and more likely to be attended.

Knowing which donors are clustered together in neighborhoods, around churches or near landmarks important to your cause helps quickly optimize fundraising. This is especially true if you can see what issues/campaigns drive giving in particular areas. Mapping donors helps target direct marketing efforts, determine event locations and identify your biggest evangelists for the cause.

The amount of data available today can seem overwhelming. But when you are able to tap into the most relevant data… at exactly the right time… you can transform your fundraising. Going deeper into the social, financial and location details behind the people funding your organization can help you quickly build relationships at scale and create a profound impact on your success.

This type of in-depth data helps you better personalize your communications, leaving the donor feeling known and appreciated – and leaving you with far better odds of getting larger, more frequent gifts.

Are You Using DAF’s to Attract a Younger Donor Base? You Should Be.

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DAFs Donor Advised FundsMillennials. Some associate this word with new opportunities: they consume information differently than older audiences, use different evaluation processes to make decisions, and have very different expectations in multiple areas of their lives. For many across the public and private sectors, this word is symbolic of an audience that is hard to attract and retain. Community foundations will rely on millennials, as well as Generation X, for their organizational sustainability going forward, but have experienced many challenges engaging these new donors. Younger generations expect that the organizations they donate to have the technology to answer specific questions around the constituents that benefited from their donation as well as the longer term impact on the community or issue.

This movement from checkbook philanthropy to investment-minded philanthropy is a significant change that community foundations need to account for moving forward. It also contributes to a second challenge facing many organizations: how do I make a younger donor emotionally invested in a community they may not have lived in for a significant period, or to remain emotionally invested in a community they have moved away from? Let me ask you a question. Have you considered donor-advised funds (DAFs)?

Community foundation-supported DAFs encourage a level of transparency and accountability that is craved by millennials when investing their funds in a philanthropic cause. By investing in a DAF, donors serve in an advisory role, choosing where their money goes and supporting specific issues and causes they care about. Though this level of involvement may cause some uneasiness, this is an opportunity for community foundations to strengthen their relationships with millennial donors by offering expertise on causes and local organizations.  This provides an opportunity to gain a great partner, increasing the likelihood they’ll become a recurring donor, especially if your donor management technology enables them to consider and see the direct impact they are making. According to the Council of Foundations, donors are also more likely to serve on your board, or participate in special events sponsored by your community foundation. What a great way to engage those younger donors you will need to serve in leadership positions in the future!

Another straightforward and simple reason to consider DAFs: they’re popular. According to the National Philanthropic Trust, grantmaking from DAFs to qualified charities jumped almost 17% from 2014-2015. In 2016, a donor-advised fund, Fidelity Charitable, made headlines when it took the top spot on the Philanthropy 400, a ranking of the US charities that raise the most money. For millennials, DAFs provide an easy way for them to give in a way that allows them to feel more in control of the difference they are making. The Nonprofit Times acknowledges that often this audience wants to make a philanthropic contribution, but is unsure where to give and how much. So, beyond the obvious tax break benefits, community foundations can capitalize on their impact stories when discussing the possibility of DAFs with prospective donors.

As demonstrated in the Philanthropy 400 list, the growing popularity of DAFs means they are also being utilized by top firms as investment options. Fidelity, Schwab, and Vanguard are all offering DAFs as financial management options for their clients, again touting the benefits of tax breaks and the high level of flexibility around when clients need to use these funds. While community foundations often see these private sector financial institutions as competition, increased general awareness of DAFs as a result of their mainstreaming could mean less work for your organization when it comes to educating potential donors on what this type of investment looks like. Instead, you can focus on the key differentiators for community foundations: your unique knowledge of the needs of the community, and your experience helping other donors tell their community impact stories.

If your community foundation does not yet offer DAFs it’s time for you to join the 80% of your peers that do (2014 Urban Institute Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy). If you are part of the 80%, that’s great! Continue to share the unique benefits a community foundation DAF can offer donors, and make sure you have the technology that give millennials the experience they expect, and that can tell your donors the impact stories they are looking for..

Good luck!

Increase the Perennials in Your Nonprofit Garden – Four Ways to Better Manage Donors and Improve Retention

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Nonprofit Donor Retention TipsAs we enter spring, gardens are growing and blooming thanks to the efforts of their caretakers. While many include both perennial and annual blossoms, the daisies, peonies and roses that come up year after year truly offer a beautiful return on investment for gardeners. For nonprofits, this brings to light similarities with donors and donor care.

While your nonprofit garden is undoubtedly populated with annual and perennial donors, caring for those that come back year after year is especially important. Typically about three out of four first-time donors will turn out to be like annual plants, only giving once. To maximize the impact of fundraising efforts, nonprofits need to focus on donor retention and making every donor a perennial donor.

When it comes to donor retention, it is essential that nonprofits understand the vital importance of the back end of donation processing. In order to grow, nurture and sustain donor relationships, nonprofits need to take immediate steps after a gift is made. Here are four ways that the back end of donation processing can help your organization improve donor retention:

Nurture Donor Relationships with Appreciation

Just as gardens need water and fertilizer to thrive, donor relationships need appreciation. The power of acknowledgement lies in the backend of donation processing. Showing appreciation can come in many forms and should be appropriate for the donor’s level of engagement. Thank you letters are an important first step for all donors, and they need to be carefully tailored to take into account donor attributes, from gift size to specific campaigns or reasons for giving. Thank you calls can make a big impact as well, even leading to a 40 percent increase in donor retention, as revealed in Penelope Burk’s Donor Centered Fundraising.

Whether showing appreciation through the phone, email or direct mail, it is critical that acknowledgements are timely, meaningful and personalized. Actively illustrating to a donor how their gift makes a difference helps cultivate a first time donor into a perennial supporter.

Acknowledge Individual Care Needs and Add a Personal Touch Via the Call Center

Fundraising Tips - Donor RetentionPlants have different soil, sun and watering needs, and donor care needs to be personalized as well. The call center is the perfect place to make this happen. Many Merkle RMG clients have seen more than a 50% increase in subsequent response rates from implementing outbound thank you calling programs. Contact centers offer an opportunity to make real connections with donors through human-to-human conversations. The ability to appeal to donor emotions and share the impact of a gift in terms of a donor’s specific reason for giving can generate additional donations and increase giving amounts

At the same time, call centers can help address donor challenges, bringing wilting relationships back to life. Call centers allow nonprofits to respond to feedback from unhappy donors and resolve the challenges they’re having with a nonprofit in a way that may encourage continued donations. Often, busy nonprofits receive a response requesting to remove a prospective donor from a mailing list, and rather than explore the issue further, donors are quickly removed. However, by utilizing the call center, the nonprofit may discover that perhaps what the donor really needs is for the method or frequency of correspondence to change, preventing a lost donor by effectively responding to such requests.

Protect Your Garden: Ramp Up Security Efforts

Gardeners know they need to keep plants safe from insects and animals if they expect them to grow, just as nonprofits know donor information must be protected. Trust is critical to maintaining donor relationships and this starts by physically and virtually securing donor information.

Building a secure virtual environment can be achieved through basic data security practices, such as firewall, antivirus, or intrusion detection software. As many donations come in via credit card, following the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council’s (PCI SSC’s) standards for processing credit card information is important. PCI offers a framework through its Data Security Standards (PCI DSS), which takes a comprehensive look at security and can ensure credit card information is properly handled and protected.

Physical surveillance and reliance on trusted employees are also key in locations where donor data and donations are handled. This means maintaining 24/7/365 video surveillance, GPS tracking on donation-carrying vehicles and background checks on individuals handling payments.

From the start, establish trust between the donor and your organization by safeguarding payments and personal information so potential issues are minimized. As a result, donors will be more likely to make a long-term commitment to a nonprofit’s mission.

Give Donors Room to Grow Through Recurring Gift Programs

Fundraising Donor RetentionPlants need the right amount of room and flexibility to blossom – and so do donors. Sustainer programs are growing in popularity as they make giving easier for donors, while also ensuring a more reliable, predictable stream of funding for nonprofits. However, without the right back end support, these types of programs can quickly become frustrating for both parties.

Recurring gift programs should offer donors the flexibility to give whenever and however they choose, encouraging participation. Back end support also needs to account for common issues, like expiring credit cards, taking care of necessary updates without putting an additional burden on the nonprofit or letting planned donations lapse. Sustainer donors have many of the same needs as other donors, such as quick acknowledgement and being shown appropriate gratitude, but unfortunately these needs are occasionally overlooked in recurring giving programs. A stronger back end management solution can help prevent this from occurring, allowing sustainer programs to flourish.

What’s Next?

In order to move forward with your mission, nonprofits should remember that successful fundraising begins with the back end. When nurtured, first-time donors turn into long-term gift givers. With appropriate acknowledgement, call center utilization, security and recurring gift program management, nonprofits can improve donor retention and see their organizations flourish.


Forget “Donor Management.” It’s Time to Talk About “Donor Partnership.”

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Donor Management Tips“Donor management” is a common phrase used to describe the way fundraising staff interact with donors. You’ll often hear about “donor management software” and “donor moves management.” As the CEO of Oliver Scholars, a nonprofit organization with a 30-year track record of success, I believe it is a good idea for development professionals to think in terms of “donor partnership” than “donor management.” Donors are your key partners in the fundraising process. Donors want your organization to succeed and can be your most passionate champions. In fact, a good partnership can change the entire trajectory of an organization’s fundraising. Successful partnerships with donors can result in major gifts that make possible an expansion of staff, program, and results. On the flip side, organizations that fail to maintain strong partnerships with donors often see their funding decline. They may even have to close their doors, leaving the individuals and communities they serve without critical resources and services. While every partnership is different, we believe the following five guidelines can help ensure a vibrant organization-donor relationship:

Consider Everyone a Potential Donor

Every individual who interacts with the organization should be considered a potential donor, and ensure that every experience that individuals have with the organization offer them the opportunity to feel close and connected with the mission. Always offer individuals who interact the chance to learn more about the organization’s impact, who you serve, and feel the mission in a way that is personal for them.

Make it Easy. Being a donor is harder than you may think. Often it isn’t easy to find the information you are looking for an organization’s website. Other times it isn’t clear which staff member to call for assistance or even to make a gift. Fundraising professionals (and all staff members) need to think of themselves as “personal concierges” who strive to provide donors with exceptional service. Make sure you provide all the information they will need to attend an event (date, time, location, room, directions, etc.) Your donors are investing their money in your organization; they deserve white-glove service. You want to make it as easy as possible for someone to work with your organization so that they are eager to contribute.

Listen More Than You Talk. Very few people prefer to be talked at rather than listened to. Donors are no exception. They want to tell you about their lives, their interests, and their reasons for giving. The more you listen, the better you will understand a donor’s motivation. And the more you understand a donor’s motivation, the better your case for support to the donor can be. If a donor has no interest in 80% of what your organization does and loves 20%, that is important to know – no need to waste your time sharing details about topics that don’t interest the donor. For instance, at Oliver Scholars, we have some donors who care greatly about our preparation program for high school and others who care most about where our students ultimately go to college. We individualize communication based on our audience.

5 Tips Donor Management Ask for input. Partnerships involve give and take. Donors are investors who not only want to share their money but also their insight and advice. You don’t have to take all the advice you are given, but at least be open to hearing what your donors think. You already know that their values align with yours because they have chosen to invest in your mission. An outsider’s perspective can be invaluable. At Oliver Scholars, we regularly solicit feedback from our donors through email queries, one-on-one meetings, committee discussions, and board meetings.

Keep your donors informed. Donors want to know where there money is going. What are your organization’s recent achievements? Give your donors a chance to celebrate them with you by keeping them informed. Of course, quantitative results are always better than vague descriptions of success. Have there been setbacks? Donors appreciate honesty and transparency. No donor wants to be surprised by learning bad news from a third party. Meanwhile, don’t forget to invite donors to program related events! Give them a chance to meet staff, clients, and other partners.

Remember that donors don’t owe you anything. It’s easy to fall into the habit of expecting donors to give (and getting annoyed when they don’t). But donors don’t owe you anything. It’s their money. How would you like it if someone expected you to hand over your hard-earned cash? Every gift a donor makes is an act of generosity. That means there is nothing more important than saying “thank you!” Your “thank you” needs to be heartfelt, timely, and personalized. (A form letter will not do!)  Pick up the phone, send a card, at the very least, write a personal note on that tax acknowledgment letter. Without proper stewardship, even your most loyal donors may drift away.

New Data Helps Nonprofits Develop Better Donor Relationships

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nonprofit donorsThe vast majority of nonprofits use relationship management software to create donor profiles, record information and track giving history. Relying on traditional technology for administrative support is a regular and essential practice across the industry. But as competition for charitable dollars intensifies, is this type of technology providing enough support to help development officers measurably increase donations? And are nonprofits missing the opportunity to utilize technology to its full potential to strengthen relationships before an ask is even made?

Development executives will attest modern philanthropy is more relationship-based than ever before. Nonprofit executives must take into account the varying factors that drive an individual to give, like which charities their friends and neighbors support. They also need to understand that prospective donors have much more to give than monetary contributions. Until now, nonprofits have used technology as a means to track their fundraising progress and not necessarily as a tool to expand their donor knowledge, increase the number of donors they can manage and strategically align fundraising efforts.

As the culture of fundraising has evolved, nonprofits need to update their expectations of how technology can better support them. The future of nonprofit technology lies in the combination of data with psychology, enabling nonprofit executives to gain insights to make more informed and strategic asks. If your organization has yet to tap into technology for more than its administrative needs, take these steps and reconsider how data can paint a broader picture of every donor:

  • Learn from Social Media -Accessing social data allows nonprofits to get a glimpse at a more personal side of the donor, which helps relationships to form. Did they go to college in east coast? Does your donor love tennis? Taking a look at social profiles before a meeting helps to break the ice and get to know the person better. This data also gives nonprofits insights into an individual’s philanthropic goals and needs. If a donor has grandchildren, discussing legacy planning might be of interest to them. Have they recently retired? Volunteerism might be a good option.
  • Know Who They Know – Relational data helps nonprofits discover connections in a donor’s family, workplace and community who may also share an interest in your cause. From this data, a development officer can gain insights to guide their next action. Perhaps timing is off to ask for a cash gift. Instead, by referencing relational data, a nonprofit will know whether to ask for an introduction within the individual’s company to inquire about developing a corporate partnership. Another option might be requesting a donor host a giving circle with friends and family. If your donor is already a strong advocate for your nonprofit, they will be a champion of your cause in their circles, which will ultimately grow your organization’s network of supporters.
  • Review Financial Data – It’s difficult to know what the right ask for an individual. Development officers should be confident that their requests are not under or over a donor’s giving capacity. Accessing prospective donor’s financial information is now possible thanks to wealth data overlays. This information enables development officers to be more strategic when meeting with clients, and have a clearer understanding of what they can give. Additionally, this data assists nonprofit leaders to determine whether a monetary gift is an appropriate ask, or if hosting a fundraiser, estate planning or volunteering would be a better fit.
  • Receive Predictive Analytics – Predictive analytics paint a broad picture of a donor’s giving behavior. For instance, a development officer can see patterns in giving, like a donor averaging three $1,000 gifts per year. If that suddenly dips, the executive will be flagged with an alert to get in touch with the donor by phone or email to re-establish the relationship. Data points assist nonprofits so as to also tell when it is a good time to ask for a donation of a larger size.

Data is a highly powerful reference tool that helps guide nonprofit fundraising strategy, enable executives to be more prepared when meeting with donors and take relationship building to the next level. By taking a donor’s social, relational and financial data into consideration, nonprofits can better understand a donor’s philanthropic goals and move them from first time donors to passionate advocates.

9 Steps to Retaining Donors

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retaining donors - fundraising helpGetting a donation is one thing, but keeping those donors coming back is something else entirely. Here’s what you can do to turn those one-time donors into long-term benefactors:

  1. Keep Service Strong

When you’re dealing with products, making sure the donation process goes smoothly helps encourage companies to continue to donate. Did you make it easy for the donor to ship their products to you, did you accept and account for those products in a timely fashion, did you promptly send out promised tax letters recognizing the donation? All those questions have to have positive responses—not just for the first donation, but for every donation. In the donor’s eyes, you’re only as good as their last interaction with you.

  1. Offer Trial Donations

For potential donors, giving them the opportunity to get their feet wet can be all that’s needed to reel them in. If they have two truckloads of products to donate, but are unsure if they want to commit the entire inventory to an unfamiliar group, suggesting a “trial donation” can help. Have them donate a small quantity, maybe just a pallet full of their products. If that donation goes smoothly, follow up to see if they’re now comfortable making a larger donation.

  1. Get Customer Feedback

To stay on top of how your nonprofit is doing, consider sending out surveys to clients asking about how the entire process went for them. Make sure the survey is complete, yet not too lengthy. The longer the survey, the less likely you’ll be to get a response. Even so, don’t expect huge returns. Ten percent or so is probably typical. Make sure someone regularly reviews the surveys and addresses systemic problems or issues specific to certain donors. You can also use the surveys as a bit of good will. Ask your donors if they want to piggy back on your public relations efforts, offering them the chance to tout their own donations in your press releases and other promotional materials.

  1. Make Communication Count

Once a company has made a donation, it’s important to keep the lines of communication open. That means honoring how and how often a company wants to be contacted. Some companies want to communicate strictly by email.  But if you have a choice, phone contact is the better option, with occasional in-person meetings to really help develop positive relationships.

  1. Call Just Enough

When soliciting donations, you have to walk a fine line between keeping your organization in a company’s thoughts and becoming a pest. So how often do you call? It’s best to set up those parameters up front. When you’re first looking for product donations, ask how often companies take inventory or look to move excess product out of their warehouses. Is it on a quarterly basis, every six months? Find out, and time calls around then, when they are more likely to have items to donate.

  1. Get Past the Gatekeepers

If you make a call and a company has nothing to donate, then ask if you can call back in six months or some other set amount of time. If they say yes, then you already have a foot partway in the door. This is especially valuable with companies that have “gatekeepers.” When you are able to tell the gatekeeper that, “Joe asked me to call back,” you’re more likely to have your call go through.

  1. Build Relationships

Keeping in touch by phone and building a personal relationship with someone can help you increase your network of donors. Maybe that person will put another department that isn’t under their purview in touch with you when they notice that department has excess product. Or maybe they’ll let you know when they’re moving to another company or being transferred, so you can keep your contact list up to date.

  1. Meet Face-to-Face

In-person visits are invaluable. If you can, it’s best to avoid limiting yourself to meeting with just one person. When you’re setting up a visit, ask if there is anyone else in the company who might like to join you. That way, a meeting with one person can turn into a meeting with four or five. That not only leaves the door open to more donations, but it keeps you from having to start from square one if the one person you were dealing with leaves the company.

  1. Give Your Donors Value

Don’t assume that what a company values most is the tax benefits it receives. Many companies want to know where their donation went and how it was used. If you can provide that information, do so. It could be the best step you take to turning one-time donors into repeat donors.

 

 

 

3 Ways in Which Donor Data Helps Nonprofits Raise More Funds

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Nonprofit AdviceHow many times have you had the thought of whether the donations you make are being used efficiently? Nonprofits across the globe are now turning to data to make the processes much efficient and bring about transparency. They store and analyze data to not just improve their own logistics but also to be able to target potential donors the right way.

The data is available in the form of data stored in donor databases, blog posts, and social media posts and so on. All this data offers a gold mine of insights for the nonprofits.

NONPROFITS’s today are talking about when and how to tap into this data and what to do with it. They want to know how to sort, analyze and manipulate the data and put it to use. By leveraging analytics tools and solutions to analyze the wealth of donor information, Nonprofits can gain powerful insights into their donors’ behaviors and needs.

Especially small nonprofits are really struggling, and data analytics and social media strategy can go a long way in strengthening local nonprofits thrive in the competitive environment. If NONPROFITS’S figure out ways to merge the data across different channels and create a single view of the donors, they will have a competitive advantage in the following three areas

  1. Better retention/reactivation strategies: Nonprofits can develop better retention/ reactivation strategies if they have access to donor data, intelligent data mining can help in generating more donations through reactivation and retention than trying to generate new accounts. For Example. CRY foundation which is focused on child empowerment has donor data across continents. Understanding the mode of communication to which the donor responds best, they have been able to increase their donor retention rate every year. This in turn have only aided them in ensuring a deeper impact every year on wards.
  2. Better marketing decisions: Leverage history and response behavior to make better targeted marketing offers to donors increasing the chances of success. Nonprofits can connect their donor base and put up creative appeals intelligently better offers and increase the donation in response for their appeals.
  3. Better donor experience: If we know a certain nonprofit donors talks better to a certain agent – try and route calls to that agent. If they are online – display information relevant to them based on their web traversal history. Monitor social postings, and identify the opinion leader in a pack of friends to determine where to make an appeal. This will increase the awareness as well as increase donation. Another method to better donor experience is learning from what Akshaya Patra an India based nonprofit organization that focuses on providing mid-day meals for about 2 million Children in ten states of India. They collect data on feedback from Children in order to ensure high quality of meals every day. This data can be passed on to potential or current donors to ensure that their donation is making a difference to the lives of the children.

Even though just two examples have been mentioned in this article many other organizations that are also turning towards data to utilize resources effectively, save time & costs, and thereby increase efficiency of operation tremendously. Even though many organizations are not too optimistic about depending on data for driving their decisions, organizations that have done so has seen great improvements.

Co-Authored by Dheeraj Pandey & Danesa Thandassery

 

 

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