4 Ways to Engage Donors
Successful fundraising requires donors
who are engaged with your organization’s mission.
Donor engagement is critical to your fundraising success - not only for potential financial contributions but also for spreading the word and raising awareness about your mission.
Engaged donors will spread the word about your organization among not only the current membership but also to their family, friends and local community.
However if you aren’t creating strategic, consistent communication or community events to let people know what’s going on, your membership is going to be less likely to give.
What is an engaged donor?
Someone who authentically interacts with and financially supports your organization’s mission.
Engaged donors actively volunteer and give to your organization. So how do you get your members to care about (and financially support) your mission? Consistent, strategic, thoughtful communication.
And how do you keep them engaged year and year? Consistent, strategic, thoughtful communication.
Depending on whether you are launching an annual fund or capital campaign, an engaged donor has different traits and metics. Here are some of the general metrics we recommend you track to understand how engaged your donors are and how likely they are to support your fundraising efforts.
Email communication:
Out of sight, out of mind when it comes to donors. If your members aren’t hearing from you regularly they will forget to donate. We’ve seen the best results when clients send at least 1 email per month.
Email opens/clicks:
Sending out regular communication is the first step but are your donors interacting with your communication? By tracking your email open rate and click rate you can see who actually cares about what you’re sending. We recommend aiming for 69% open rate and at least 45% of people making 2+ clicks a month to create an engaged donor base.
Number of donors:
You have a list of members but how many of them actually give? We recommend aiming for 10-35% of your member base donating annually. These numbers are different for annual giving vs. capital campaigns but knowing how many your donors currently give is a good place to start.
Giving history:
When looking at the giving history of your members, both frequency and donation size are relevant metics. How often do your members give? What is the average donation size? Even if it is a small donation every year, that indicates and engaged donor. Something as small as $50 a year over multiple years can have tremendous value for your fundraising.
4 Ways to Increase Engagement
Fundraising is a marathon, not a sprint. We see time and time again organizations who want to ask their members for financial support but aren’t putting the work in to engage their donors.
Maybe you don’t have the time, maybe you aren’t sure where to get started, or maybe you’re afraid to talk about the issues in the organization so you’ve gone silent. At the end of the day it takes a lot of work, organization and resources to create the consistent touch points you need to keep your donors engaged.
We hope these tips will help take the guesswork out of engaging with your membership.
1. Maintain a consistent communication schedule
Strategic, consistent, meaningful communication is a critical part of your fundraising strategy. When members know what is going on in your organization it keeps your mission top of mind.
Every communication offers an opportunity for your members to donate. Your communication strategy can be anything as casual as a text or facebook group to something as formalized as a monthly newsletter. The most important part is that it is frequent and consistent!
We believe in using email because it is an easy way to share stories and updates about the organization. Bonus it also gives people a reason to click back to your website.
In the email communication we create for clients, we include 3-4 story excerpts about the members the link back to the website where they can update their contact information, register for an event, and get reminders to donate. .
INSIDE TIPS:
Create an editorial calendar for frequent, consistent, meaningful communication.
Hearing from you at least once a month keeps members connected to your mission and vision.
We recommend our clients create 17 touches a year (minimum). That includes 12 emails, 2 newsletters and 2 appeal letters for fundraising.
2. Create a consistent event schedule
Events are a great way for you to bring members together. In fact the main value of most alumni associations is to have a place and reason to get together with other members.
We recommend hosting at least 1 big event a year so your donors can fun for a purpose. This annual event will allow people to get together socially, let the leadership about the strategy for the coming year, and strengthen relationships.
In addition to your large annual event we recommend having at least 1 local or regional event in cities where your members are located. This allows local chapters to strengthen their community and doesn’t require travel.
Even a simple happy hour or organized time to watch a sports game can give members the motivation to connect, reminding them of the value of your organization in the process!
INSIDE TIPS:
Find a volunteer who will be the point person to organize the event. Some events we recommend are a homecoming tailgate, charity golf event, art festival, or dinner/dance banquet.
To increase your attendance, send out a save the date notice so your members can plan for the event (especially if it’s annual).
Make sure you take photos of the event and share if with the membership in one of your monthly communications.
3. Surveys
When creating content and communication, you want to talk about things your members care about. A great way to find out what is in the hearts of minds of your donors is to ask them directly.
Surveys are an excellent way to connect with your membership. Start by sending out an email request and following up with a phone call. Not everyone is going to fill out the survey so it’s an ongoing process. You can even include a link to the survey in your annual appeal letters or on your website!
The information we gather during the survey process informs the content we will create and consistently send out. Once you identify which members are engaged with your organization you can interview them to create a story profile to share with the rest of the membership.
INSIDE TIPS:
Use an online tool like Survey Monkey or Google Forms to send and collect responses.
We recommend asking 3-7 questions. This allows you gather useful information but not overwhelm your members with a time consuming task.
Some questions we love to ask are what memories they have about the organization, why they give or do not give, the impact the organization has had on their life or what new updates they would like to share with the organization’s member base.
4. Storytelling from the POV of your members
Now that you know what your members care about, have a plan for creating consistent communication and events, it’s time to start telling the story of your organization’s mission from the perspective of your donors.
Talking about the needs of your organization isn’t very interesting to your members. And they certainly don’t want to get that news monthly. Instead of talking about institutional news, talk about what your membership indicated they were interested in (which you now know from the survey).
By telling the story of your organization’s mission from the perspective of your members, it motivates them to read and engage with your communication. We recommend using the Storybrand process which focuses on making your members the hero of the story. and we want to celebrate their story to create emotional connection.
The takeaway?
Now that you understand the key elements to creating engaged donors, it’s time to get to work! In order to build authentic connections with your members that lead to generous giving, you need to start engaging them now.
Remember, when donors are engaged with the vision and mission of your organization, they are inspired to give financial support.
Understanding what your members care about and then creating strategic, consistent communication from your member’s POV as well as annual community events will help engage your donors year after year.
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