Donor experience as a fundraising strategy – 6 essential steps.

A donation or fundraising strategy is like a marketing campaign! Nonprofit organizations have everything to gain if they consider their donors as clients, clients like any other organization. Here are 6 tips for setting up a better donor experience.

Are donors like other customers ? In setting up a fundraising strategy, nonprofit organizations think they are completely different. Yet their needs are not that different. While it may seem odd to see and treat donors as clients, the relational development process, the brand awareness issues and the end goal are no different between a nonprofit and a private organization.

Fundraising strategy: building the donor experience

What should the donor experience of an association or nonprofit organization look like? What type of content will be most valuable, useful and engaging to convince and increase the retention rate ? Both donors and clients need to be courted, convinced and converted into ambassadors to provide long-term support.

Like any traditional customer experience, the goal of the donor experience is to build the relationship by investing time, monitoring performance metrics and implementing agile optimization processes .

6 tips for a better donor experience

1. Define a clear goal

“Stay humble,” “embrace change,” “make the difference” … Specifying the exact goal will help you to set guiding principles. It must be consistent with your missions and values to provide a fluid donor experience that resonates with your shared goals.

2. Know your donors

This is the key to your giving strategy: rely on the great principles of customer intelligence to best target the expectations of your communities . Draw a portrait of your different donors, identify their most physiological needs , but also their deepest aspirations .

3. Create an emotional connection

Emotions shape attitudes and influence decisions . If your donors are emotionally engaged with you, they will be more likely to support your cause. They will be willing to invest more time and money or even reach out to their network.  

4. Gather feedback

To improve the impact and success rate of your fundraising strategy, gather the opinion of your donors, via a small survey or a call on social networks. Invite your donors to share their ideas and make good use of them to personalize your communication.

5. Treat the content

A donation strategy focused on a better user experience must offer content that facilitates the relationship, makes it useful and enjoyable . Start by creating content that meets the information needs , simplify the life of your communities and generate positive feelings. Remember to adapt them to the different moments of the life cycle of your donors: your brand equity will thank you.

6. Measure your results

Yes, nonprofits, much like other organizations also have their ROI and results targets! For your donation strategy, you need to talk about numbers, return on investment and profitability of efforts . You do not know where to start? Try the NPS or Net Promoter Score : the indicator of customer satisfaction and loyalty . To evaluate it, ask one simple question to your donors: ” Would you recommend our organization to a friend or relative? “.

You set up a donation strategy? Do you want to increase the results of your fundraisers? Keep your donors loyal? Also think about building and optimizing your brand storytelling .