We all have donors who no longer engage with us or haven’t made recent contributions. However, rather than seeking to acquire new donors, it is more productive to re-engage with these lapsed donors who are more likely to take action as they are already familiar with your organization and the processes. Here are some tips to help you succeed on this path.
Preventive strategies VS curative techniques
Organizations must seek to optimize donor experience and satisfaction by understanding their behavior. This is the best way to “hold” them, keep them active and limit the loss of donors. On the marketing front, this satisfaction requires a thorough personalization of the actions and operations undertaken. The goal is to offer your donors tools or services that really interest them.
Prevention is better than cure. But how do you begin to recover lapsed donors, once you have identified them? In this blog, we will discuss 4 innovative methods that will help you connect with lapsed donors again.
- Identify donors through segmentation
The first thing you need to do is to identify lapsed donors in your CRM by grouping them into a segment. This presupposes, of course, that you have a minimum of information about your donors and that you know their behaviors.
After consolidating these donors you can better align appeals based on donor interests.
- Know when to stop
You have to know, at some point, to draw a line on the donors who really do not react at all to your solicitations. Repeated recalls can quickly be perceived by donors as a form of unwanted invasion and may evoke resistance to appeals. It is important to respect their decision.
- Surprise to revitalize donors
Create messages your donors will love. Send them emails that are out of the ordinary. The idea is to try to be as inventive as possible without falling into provocation and exaggeration. Try to make your donor feel a sense of urgency and at the same time provoke a click.
- Offer your lapsed donors a satisfaction/opinion questionnaire
If your donors are not actively engaging with you, maybe they have good reasons. Is your process a hassle? Do you send too frequent emails? A donation route that they do not understand?
Your dormant donors probably have a lot to teach you. Questionnaires are always appreciated by donors. They feel valued because you show them that their opinion counts.
These techniques should not make you forget that the main goal is to actively engage donors in the future. For this, we will recommend that you place donor satisfaction at the heart of your marketing strategy.
