Book a meeting with our team to discuss how you can enhance your donor journey to increase donations and improve donor retention.
What is a donor journey?
The donor journey is a path of experiences that your donors go through when they interact with your non-profit organization. This journey shows every single touchpoint a donor has with your foundation. It helps you see where you can improve your donor stewardship. The goal is to make their journey much more enjoyable.
The field of donor relations and gift stewardship is always evolving. This is partly due to the changing demographics of today’s philanthropists. These informed donors are increasingly scrutinizing the outcomes of the organizations they fund. Donor relations is truly an art. It’s about cultivating interactive relationships with donors. This helps influence donor retention, raise gift values, and increase giving pace.
1. Inspire
The competition for donors’ dollars is definitely increasing. Some even say more than 500 new charities are registered every single week. Donors are doing more research into the causes they wish to support. As the world becomes more global, the list of opportunities grows ever longer. As donors become more strategic in their giving, it’s critically important to find ways to inspire them. You want them to include your cause in their long-term planning.
Integrated marketing is a sure way to inspire prospective donors to engage in a cause. Simply put, organizations must work together across all departments. They need a coordinated approach to achieve shared outcomes and attain goals. Also, inspiration comes in different forms for different people. So, a multi-channel approach is essential. This includes everything from direct mail to videos, email, and multimedia advertisements. All are important to reach the different segments of your target audience.
And what should be included in these multi-channel messages to guarantee inspiration? Why, stories, of course. Storytelling takes us on a journey from just thinking to truly feeling. They challenge us emotionally, and through emotions, we are able to build meaningful relationships and connections. Furthermore, stories can visually relate the incredible impact a prospective donor’s gift could have on one individual’s future.
2. Engage
Once a donor has been inspired to make that first donation, you must then ensure you retain their interest, involvement, and commitment. Donors really need to remain connected to the cause in which they found value and inspiration. They must also feel confident in your organization, as it’s the connecting link between the donor and the cause. Donor engagement is maintained through consistent communication. This includes thanking the donor effectively and often. It also means providing them information about the overall progress of the campaign, and specifically the impact of their gift.
3. Communicate
Keeping the donor satisfied with their philanthropic choice usually assures ongoing support. This applies to both the cause and the organization administering their gifts. While there are no guarantees that a donor will never leave, there are ways to keep the majority of donors satisfied. This keeps donations coming in and fosters true partnerships between the donors and your foundation. Converse with your donors. First and foremost, thank them, and then thank them again. In addition, let them know how their gift is impacting the benefactors of your cause. Also, share the progress your organization is making towards reaching your goals. Lastly, find out what they like and don’t like. Ask which channels they prefer to communicate through, and what truly inspires them. In other words, you need to cultivate a relationship.
4. Belong
Human beings are most comfortable when they feel they are part of a group. Donors want to be a part of your family of donors. They also want to belong in the broader sense to a group of people who are changing the world for the better. They want to belong to those who make a real difference in the lives of others. How will they know if they belong? You need to tell them the impact their gift is having, both in terms of your cause and your benefactors or recipients. Impact stories can and should be shared through a variety of channels. But it must be an ongoing dialogue if the donor is to remain a part of your philanthropic family.
