donor retention

6 Ways to Effectively Show Fundraising Impact to Donors

July 15, 2020 By Jon Osterburg

The global pandemic has changed the day to day lives of individuals and nonprofit organizations alike. Nonprofits are struggling to get the fundraising revenue they need as everyone is feeling the effects of the economic downturn resulting from the virus.

Many nonprofits are focusing their efforts on their long-term fundraising plans and in the meantime, simply keeping their doors open and their staff members paid.

However, as we adjust to the “new normal” and resources provided by the government such as the CARES Act start running out of funding or expiring, nonprofits need to find fundraising strategies that will sustain them through these troubled times.

One of the most important things that nonprofits can do to improve their fundraising strategies and adjust for the times is to put an emphasis on impact.

Individuals contribute to causes rather than to organizations. Therefore, showing them how their gifts are making a difference for your cause through financial transparency is always a great idea to further your fundraising efforts.

There are three different types of impact that your organization can show to your supporters. You can show them the impact donors make:

On your long-term annual strategy and goals.
Toward reaching your fundraising goal during campaigns.
Toward your short-term goals and mission.

Within these categories are various strategies that your nonprofit can use to communicate the impact that your supporters have on your mission. We’ll walk through six of our favorite strategies within the categories in this article.

Ready to learn more? Let’s get started.

Annual Impact

All of the combined contributions made by your supporters help your nonprofit achieve your long-term annual goals. Expressing your accomplishments that have resulted due to this combined generosity is a great way to explain the large-scale impact of supporters.

1. Form 990

Your nonprofit is required to communicate some elements of impact you’re making toward your mission to the IRS each year as a part of your Form 990.

Jitasa’s article on Form 990 filing explains the purpose of filing saying, “The Form 990 is the tax form that tax-exempt organizations fill out each year to remain compliant with the requirements of the IRS. It’s the IRS’s method of evaluation to make sure your nonprofit is legitimate and that you’re being financially honest.”

In order to ensure your organization is being “financially honest,” your nonprofit is required to report on key financial information about your organization as well as how you’ve used your finances in order to work toward your mission.

It’s important to recognize that your Form 990, due to the honest and transparent nature of the document, is a valuable fundraising tool because of the transparency it encourages.

As you file your tax forms each year, your nonprofit should consider:
Hiring an accountant to ensure all of the information on the forms is correct and well-documented.
Posting your 990 so that you provide the financial data directly to your supporters.

Your nonprofit’s Form 990 is publicly accessible, so your supporters can go look it up if they so choose. However, even better than encouraging supporters to view this official documentation is providing them an extended version that offers additional context. This comes in the form of an annual report.

2. Extended Annual Report

Your nonprofit’s annual report is your organization’s opportunity to express the progress you’ve made toward your long-term goals and recognize the supporters who have helped you achieve this progress.

In your annual report, your nonprofit has the opportunity to express your financial information, including your fundraising campaign successes, your completed projects, and your plans that may not have turned out how you had originally planned. That’s right, you should be sure to include the “failures” that you’ve encountered.

By creating an extended annual report, your nonprofit can communicate the context in which things did not go as planned and outline how things will change in the future. This shows that you’re not only transparent with supporters, but constantly learning from your experiences.

In Bloomerang’s nonprofit annual report guide, they explain that the primary elements of a complete annual report include the following:

Your financial information. A visual representation such as a pie chart of this information helps ensure your supporters can read it effectively. Be sure to express your fundraising expenses, your overhead expenses, and the costs associated with projects and programs in this chart. You can make a similar one with revenue, charting out the revenue from fundraising, grants, and fees for goods and services.
A project report. This is your time to explain to your supporters all of the victories and project successes you’ve had over the past year. Essentially, it’s your time to really show the larger impact of all of the fundraising gifts you’ve received. Give an overview of the new projects that you’ve launched, those that you’ve completed, and others that are in progress. Get supporters excited about all of the philanthropic steps you’ve taken towards your mission. After all, this is what they’re funding by contributing.
Appreciation for your supporters. In your annual report, you can give a shout out to your major donors who have made an incredible impact towards the successes you’ve had over the past year. By acknowledging their generosity in this wide-spread report, you not only show your gratitude, but you also provide an incentive for other supporters to give at the level of the acknowledged major supporters.

Expressing the impact of your combined donations and contributions from supporters allows them to see the big picture goals and achievements that have come about from their and other’s gifts throughout the year.

Campaign Impact

While annual reports and tax forms provide an effective overview of the annual goals and successes at your organization, rarely is this the only way that you should communicate impact to supporters. You should also make sure that supporters have an immediate understanding of how their contribution has made an impact on the specific campaign.

3. Fundraising Thermometer

A fundraising thermometer is a gamification strategy that provides additional incentive for supporters to give and help your nonprofit reach your campaign goal. The thermometer is generally placed directly on your fundraising page and provides a visual representation of your campaign goal.

When you choose your revenue goal for each campaign, you should make sure it’s based on your philanthropic need, is aspirational as to push the limits of your fundraising capabilities, and is achievable as to motivate your supporters to reach it.

Representing that goal on your fundraising thermometer allows supporters to see exactly how their donation will affect your progress to that overall goal. It provides the incentive to give more in order to help the bar reach the top of the thermometer and help your nonprofit reach its overarching objective. The many benefits of a fundraising thermometer include:

It shows the immediate impact of a donation to help reach a goal, satisfying the desire for instant gratification after contributing to a campaign.
It provides an effective and visual way to track your progress transparently with donors.
It provides additional incentive to give, which encourages supporters to give more.
It motivates your staff and volunteers to maintain momentum as the campaign continues.

Your supporters want your nonprofit to reach its goals. By engaging them and showing them how their donation can make this happen, your nonprofit can maximize the support you have from contributors to your campaign.

4. Supporter Acknowledgement

Another way to show your supporters the impact they’ve had on your specific campaign goals is to tell them! This is an especially effective strategy when it comes to major campaigns and major donors.

Take, for instance, a capital campaign that your nonprofit has been working so hard to carry out. You’re working your way through the quiet phase of the campaign, having synced up with your nonprofit bookkeeping and accounting team to make sure you have the fundraising capacity to reach the aspirational goals in both the quiet and public phases of the campaign.

You have five incredibly generous major donors who support you during the quiet phase of this campaign, contributing a bulk of the revenue that you need to reach your goal.

These are the supporters that you should acknowledge for their generosity in order to communicate the immense impact that they’ve had on your campaign.

You can acknowledge them in a few different ways:

Keep these supporters in the loop as you proceed with the campaign. Give them progress updates and ask for their opinions and feedback on various aspects of the campaign.
Shout out to the supporters on public platforms such as social media, your newsletter, or in your annual report.
Organize an appreciation event with an exclusive invitation list. Be sure this event (or virtual event) is focused on stewardship and acknowledgment rather than fundraising.

Simple acknowledgment can make an enormous difference in your efforts to communicate the amazing impact your donors have on your nonprofit’s campaigns. Do your part to make sure they feel appreciated and understand the difference they’ve made for your mission.

Mission Impact

5. Upfront Explanation of Gift Impact

As stated earlier, nonprofit supporters give to causes, not to organizations. Therefore, one of the best ways to reel in your supporters is to provide them examples of what their generous contributions will accomplish for the cause before they even give.

On your donation page, we recommend providing a simple explanation of the impact that various sizes of gifts can make toward your mission. This is an especially effective strategy when your nonprofit has included suggested giving levels on your donation page because it makes it easy for supporters to choose the impact they want to have before donating.

For example, a city homeless shelter asking for donations may use the following explanations of donation impact on their giving page:

A donation of $25 will feed a homeless individual for a week.
A donation of $100 will feed a family of four for a week.
A donation of $500 will provide all food and shelter for a family of four for a month.

This shows the potential impact of specific gift sizes on the goals of the cause. When a supporter chooses to give $100, they’re really choosing to support that family of four for one week.

6. After-the-Fact Explanation of Gift Impact

Just as you can provide the explanation of impact before a donor gives, you may also choose to share the impact of gifts in response to the donations. This should become a natural part of your organization’s letters of thanks to supporters.

When you write a thank-you letter to your supporters, be sure to make it specific, personal, and include the impact statement regarding their contribution.

There are two ways you can accomplish this. The first is to explain the impact of each donation made to the organization. For instance, this letter may include phrasing like this:

Dear Susan,

Thank you so much for your gift of $100 to the Thoughtful Thanksgiving campaign. Your generosity has provided the Smith family, a family of four, with food for the entire week of Thanksgiving.

Or, you may decide to explain the impact of the entire campaign while still specifically referencing their individual donation. This letter may look something like this:

Dear Susan,

Thank you so much for your gift of $100 to the Thoughtful Thanksgiving campaign. Due to generosity like yours, this campaign successfully provided food for 500 families who would’ve otherwise had very little for the week of Thanksgiving.

Both approaches are effective, although the first is more personal and may better connect with the donor’s emotions. If you’re looking for more examples of full-length letters of thanks, check out the free templates from resources like this one.

As your nonprofit adjusts to the “new normal” that society has been hurdled into, remember the importance of communicating impact to your donors both and now and into the future. It’s a great way to show them that they can still make a difference even in these troubled times.

Retain New Donors With Easy Stewardship Emails

June 16, 2020 By Allison Weber

In times of crisis, many nonprofits gain a large number of new donors—but few retain them. According to The Fundraising Effectiveness Project, less than half of all donors are retained year over year.

While there are countless donor retention strategies, many can be expensive or time-consuming. Thankfully, there’s a quick way to keep your nonprofit top of mind with your new (and old!) high net worth donors: a donor stewardship email program. To start, you simply need to put yourself in your donors’ shoes and do a little planning.

Many people give to a nonprofit once and then move on. In many cases, this is because other organizations inspire them in new ways. As a result, for your nonprofit to retain its existing donors, you need to keep them motivated to continue supporting your mission.

You may not be able to inspire them to feel exactly how they did the first time they learned about your work. It’s tough to compete with the excitement of something new. But you can offer value in another way—by building meaningful relationships with them.

So imagine this: you’re a new donor who recently gave a large gift to your nonprofit. What’s the best way for the nonprofit to build a relationship with you? By showing that you matter. And saying it often.

A donor stewardship email program does just that—it keeps donors engaged in your work through consistent, thoughtful outreach. It creates an authentic connection between your mission and their interests. And prevents your longer term donors from feeling like they don’t hear from you much unless you’re making a fundraising ask.

To get started with a stewardship email program, map out a plan that addresses the basics: what to send, when to send, and how to send it.

What To Send

Just because a stewardship email is thoughtful doesn’t mean that it needs to be complicated. In fact, it shouldn’t be. Your high net worth donors are busy, so be brief to get your message across. Plan to send short emails that do two key things: express gratitude and offer something useful.

Let your donors know that you saw something and thought of them, so you wanted to pass it along. Depending on your donors’ interests, examples of useful items could include:

Evidence of the impact of their support (annual reports, progress updates)
Materials to help them learn more about your cause (white papers, press releases)
News articles relevant to your mission and their interests (new research, current events)
Assets that will help them share their passion for your work (suggested social posts, printables)
Messages of gratitude (thank you videos or quotes from your staff and the people you serve)
Sneak peeks into upcoming happenings (events, campaigns)

It’s crucial to put yourself in your donor’s place as you think about what to share. Think about what truly excites them about your work. After that’s clear in your mind, decide from there what resources to share.

How to Send

There’s no need to invest in the latest marketing technology for stewardship emails. Ask donor relationship managers to send stewardship emails from their normal email inbox. That way, their messages feel personal, not commercial and mass produced. Simplify the process by creating a quick written email template with areas where relationship managers can add in:

The donor’s name
Why they think the resource is relevant to the donor’s interests
Instructions on how to view or use the resource
An invitation for feedback on the resource
A sincere message of thanks for their support

When it’s time to send a message, the relationship manager can simply paste the template into a blank email, edit as needed, and send.

When to Send

Reach out to your donors often, but don’t overdo it. Perspectives vary on how often to communicate with donors, and you should experiment with what works best for your nonprofit.

As you test different rhythms, pay attention to how much time you are investing, changes in your donor retention rates, and what responses, if any, you receive from your donors. It may take several months for your experiments to bear fruit. Relationship-building takes time.

If you’re looking for a number to start at, send one stewardship email per month to each of your high net worth donor for one year. Create a donor communication calendar that outlines possible topics you can highlight each month during the year, depending on when you know that different organizational materials will be published or various holidays and events are happening. But always be ready to adjust your calendar as new topics take priority.

When asking for feedback on the resources you share, don’t hesitate to ask whether your donors would like you to continue sharing similar content with them in the future. That will help you understand whether you should change your strategy or stay the course.

A donor stewardship email program may sound complex, but it’s actually very straightforward. It will help you build relationships with top donors through quick, thoughtful gestures, provided via email. It’s an excellent solution for busy nonprofits looking to stay connected and supported by the generous people helping them realize their vision of a better world.

Utilizing Financial Transparency as the Foundation to Fuel an Art Culture that Moves People

February 12, 2020 By Chris Safford, CMA, MBA

In today’s landscape, managing the increased cost of operating a nonprofit can be a challenge to any organization, even the arts. Still, research and experiences continue to prove that they make profound impacts on communities and an individual’s overall well-being and identity.

California Arts Council made one the largest investments in arts and culture in nearly two decades, reinforcing the state’s commitment to organizations trying to address societal challenges and shaping the future of our next generations with arts.

Relative to this, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA), one of the nation’s most innovative contemporary arts centers, strives to reinvent the role an arts institution can play in the community it serves through local programs within local San Francisco schools and communities. Since its founding in 1993, YBCA has been on a mission to generate culture that moves people through year-round performing arts, civic engagement programming and visual arts.

Today, the center’s initiatives range from fighting for food justice with art and cooking alongside the Healthy Corner Store Coalition of San Francisco to developing a curriculum focused on community memory, using art and gardening as tools for local youth with Bessie Carmichael Elementary School. The center also spotlights artists and activists across the community, hosting a multitude of performances, programs and exhibitions.

Evolving the Arts Through Technology

It’s critical for nonprofit organizations to effectively manage grants and donations, as well as continue their initiatives to secure the necessary funds to expand their services and offerings. As a premier performing arts center, it was essential for the YBCA to remain extremely organized and establish strong financial visibility and accountability in order to continue supporting current activities and scale their operations. Doing so required an approach to adopting technologies that allow them to derive deep insights into operational expenses and use the data to inform business actions that align with the company’s future goals.

Looking to grow their organization, streamline its systems, move to the cloud, and modernize its financial management, the YBCA needed to implement new technology that both fit where they were at, as well as support the organization’s goals for the future.

Honing in on Culture by Eliminating Siloed Finances

The YBCA team decided to turn to Sage Intacct to implement radical changes the growing organization needed to track against its goal to generate a culture that spurs and supports societal movement. With Sage Intacct, YBCA was able to analyze the operational context for every transaction, introduce automated processes, develop meaningful key performance indicators (KPI) and bring together datasets that were thought to be unimaginable before. By doing so, the team was able to dedicate more time to strategic activities, sped up its lengthy financial processes while increasing budget accuracy by 30% and improving finance productivity by 25%.

For nonprofits, having a granular view into whether funds are being used effectively and efficiently is vital. The ability to generate insights into the fluidity of key operational tasks and functions, including the center’s grants, projects, programs, departments, revenue types, and donor activities all within one platform, enables organizations like the YBCA to inject efficient processes across its operations. For example, with this streamlined process, the center’s finance team can quickly deliver any information the city requires before releasing grant funding each year, which prevents the interruption of funding that could ultimately result in the delay of vital programs. The elimination of duplicate data entry led to a 60% faster close, saving $30,000 on extra employee costs to help execute their financial processes and instead get to the core of the mission they strive to accomplish on a daily basis.

These tools also offer a window into important trends and provide valuable data for future campaigns and assisting when establishing realistic goals. YBCA is now able to better target their audiences by importing individual donor demographics and event attendance data into Sage Intacct. This enables the organization to progress while keeping its mission in clear view, ensuring that important movements have the opportunity to be showcased for years to come.

The Power of Acknowledgement – Three Elements of Donor Retention

January 1, 2019 By Bill Sayre

What 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

August 28, 2018 By Gary Smith

It 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

May 29, 2018 By Jordan Behan

In 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.”

“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.

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

May 16, 2018 By Gabe Cooper

Every 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.

November 14, 2017 By Charlie Vanek

Millennials. 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

April 19, 2017 By Bill Sayre

As 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

Plants 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

Plants 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.”

April 2, 2017 By David Allyn

“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.

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.