Having a large database of loyal donors is the goal of any nonprofit organization. Because advertising costs per donation are particularly low in this group. How do you turn your occasional donors into lasting donors?
These donor retention tips help you earn some loyal donors.
1. Gain confidence
People who give their trust are more generous and also forgive a little slippage. Strive to earn the trust of your donors. Start by posting success stories, providing your figures or asking known personalities to get involved with you. This transparency is a good invitation for some donors who are new or sitting on the fence – it is not that you are not doing good work, there are a lot of people fighting online for your donors’ attention. Give them the opportunity to understand how you work and connect with you.
2. Communicate with transparency and credibility.
Its only natural for your donors to be curious about how their money if going to be utilized, where or how much of the donations are actually going to the cause. Tell your donors the amount of donations collected and how these donations are used. This can be done by a lot of methods- starting by sending an automated receipt of the donation with all the deduction details, when and how much donation will be charged from recurring donors, etc. This is a one time setup if you are using a donor management software like GiveCentral. Successful nonprofits organizations also make a part of their communication plan – when they share direct stories of people affected by them.
3. Express gratitude
By their donations, donors show confidence. If they do not hear about it afterwards, they are probably wondering if the donation has reached its destination. Therefore you must give thanks for every donation – by letter, emails or phone. Especially before sending the donation solicitation. Perhaps famous sponsors of the organization could co-sign the thank you letters. When composing a personalized thank you letter, you can use our templates and tips for donor thank yous.
4. Engage with donors
Donors volunteer a portion of their wealth. They do not expect any direct consideration. However, show your major contributors, through specific gestures, how much you appreciate their contributions. For example, by immortalizing them on donation boards or inviting them to events.
5. Maintain the dialogue
The best channels for this are emails, monthly newsletters, journals, and now social media channels and the blog. Take it a notch further, by inviting your donors to express their opinions and commit to your aspirations and the values you share.
6. Offer a long-term commitment
The people who do you their favors probably don’t want to think every time about the projects they want to support. To do this, also offer them long -term commitments through sponsorships, affiliations and volunteering. Probe, preferably in personal interviews, the needs of your donors.
8. Rank the donors
Rank donors using what is called the donor pyramid. The objective of all activities is to move a person from one level of the pyramid to the level above it. The amount of donation is also an important classification criteria that helps to establish a relevant relationship between expenses and income.
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