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By ELIZABETH CHUNG
It’s the age-old question asked by development professionals everywhere.
“How do we retain our donors?”
The confusion persists because frankly, nonprofits still struggle to keep donor retention rates high. By some accounts, only 43% of donors give again the following year. The retention rate for first-time donors plummets even further, to 27 percent.
Get Key Retention Insights in The State of Modern Philanthropy 2019
That being said, don’t lose hope just yet. There are still steps you can take to keep your valuable supporters around and combat donor attrition. Here, we list best practices and donor retention strategies on how to keep supporters and motivate them to give again.
1. Demonstrate Your Impact
As a donor, nothing is worse than feeling like your donation has disappeared into the abyss. After responding to an appeal, donors are too often left wondering how their money is being used and whether it will actually have an impact. And when you don’t know how your money is being used, you won’t be motivated to keep giving. To prevent donors from feeling this way, organizations must continually demonstrate how supporters’ contributions are making a difference.
In a survey of 2,833 donors, nonprofit technology firm Software Advice, uncovered what practices would encourage future donations, according to donors themselves. When asked what communications they wanted to receive from the nonprofits they support, most respondents (60%) said they wanted impact and success stories. Not only do supporters want effective communication, but also their decision to give again hinges greatly on the organization’s ability to show what it can accomplish. Donors want to know how their money is being applied toward results that are lasting and effective.
Here are a few ways to demonstrate your impact to your constituents:
2. Get Personal with Your Thank-Yous
Saying thank you should be an obvious part of any organization’s donor retention strategy. It’s surprising, though, how often this part can get glossed over. According to one study, not saying thank you is one of the top reasons why donors choose to leave an organization.
Donors expect the usual auto-receipt. However, try stepping up your communications to show donors they mean much more to you than just a transaction. Add a personalized touch to your follow-up messages to really make your donors feel appreciated.
A handwritten note from staff, for instance, can make supporters feel instantly connected to the people behind your organization. In fact, the Software Advice study found that personalized letters were the top requested form of follow-up outreach. Whenever possible and realistic, make it a priority to follow up donations with personal notes.
If it’s infeasible to send all your donors a personal letter, you can use segmentation to send different groups of donors a tailored thank-you email. The main point is to add a personalized touch to your communications. It’s the small details that help people believe they’re not just donors, but valued partners in your mission.
3. Contextualize Follow-Up
As you consider your donor retention strategies, remember that all donors are important, but they don’t all share the same connection to your organization. The way you choose to follow up with each group of supporters should be individualized to their own giving history. Like any other relationship, your donors are likelier to stay in the conversation when you are communicating in a way that’s relevant to them.
This means you need to segment your donors and build follow-up strategies for each group. You can use a CRM to track supporters’ giving habits, and an email marketing tool like HubSpot or MailChimp can help you set up tailored workflows or campaigns for different groups of contacts.
Try splitting up your contacts by the following criteria:
4. Surprise and Delight ‘Em
It’s one thing to keep up a conversation with donors, but it’s another to inspire and delight them. Steer away from making each message an ask, or a story about a person in need, and instead find playful ways to surprise donors and foster positive emotional connections with your organization. Reach out to donors in an unconventional, personalized manner that exceeds their expectations, and you can set your organization apart and strengthen donor loyalty.
To jumpstart your creative juices, here are a few ways you can provide a fresh take o donor communication:
• Personalized Vine shout-outs (cross-promoted on Twitter for more publicity!)
• Interactive Tweet chats or Google+ Hangouts
• Instagram collages that express appreciation for supporters
5. Create a Feedback Loop
In the for-profit industry, there is a growing distinction between “customer service” and “customer success.” While the former is largely reactive (a customer initiates dialogue, and the organization listens), the latter is proactive (the organization initiates dialogue to understand a customer’s experience). There’s a reason why the latter approach is so effective: when you pay attention and reach out to patrons for feedback, you communicate you value the relationship and want to keep it healthy.
The same principle applies to the nonprofit community. Proactively asking supporters about your organization’s performance shows that you care about their donor experience. It can also give you valuable insight into how you can improve your retention efforts.
One way to create a feedback loop is to send out a survey, perhaps a day or two after a campaign. Check out tools like SurveyMonkey, KwikSurveys, and Typeform (my personal favorite) to build short questionnaires asking for honest responses and opinions about your communications. Not only will people be impressed by your proactive outreach, but you can also learn how you can improve your stewardship strategies.
Tip: Prevent people from abandoning your survey by keeping it to 3-12 questions, and no longer than 5-10 minutes to complete.
Conclusion
When all is said and done, there is no one surefire solution to keeping retention rates high. These steps, however, provide an excellent place to start. Round up your team and continue to brainstorm ideas to buff up your organization’s donor retention strategies. You know your donors best, so tailor your communications accordingly and strengthen those relationships!
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