A common mistake that many new and smaller organizations make is putting too much emphasis on acquiring new donors instead of paying attention to the supporters they already have. The last thing you want is to put existing donors on the backburner, which is why it’s critical to build out a stewardship strategy.
Effective donor stewardship is all about turning first-time donors into lifelong advocates for your cause. And if you’re already like many developed nonprofits, you likely have some strategies in place to keep retention high, but is your stewardship strategy the best it could possibly be?
If not, we’re here to help! When the pandemic hit in early 2020, many nonprofits scrambled to maintain supporters’ attention remotely, and at Donately, we witnessed many of these challenges firsthand. We’ve helped many nonprofits overcome their stewardship difficulties and supercharge their fundraising and engagement efforts.
Using this firsthand experience, we’ve put together a quick guide based on tactics that tend to prove successful for nonprofits of all sizes. So that you can enhance your donor stewardship strategy, here’s what we’ll cover:
- Start with an optimized donation process.
- Gather data and segment donors.
- Stay in regular contact with supporters.
- Offer additional engagement opportunities.
Don’t let donor loyalty become an afterthought. A solid stewardship plan will help you retain supporters’ attention and maximize fundraising dollars. Ready to supercharge your stewardship efforts? Let’s dive in!
1. Start with an optimized donation process.
First things first, make sure you’re kicking donor relationships off on the right foot by optimizing your donation process. With many of your daily interactions occurring online, you must focus on digital opportunities first and foremost. This means investing in the right online donation tools to support your efforts.
Build an optimized donation process by selecting the right types of fundraising technology, including:
- A donation form builder. To collect donations online, you need the ability to build online forms. Make sure your donation platform enables you to easily customize forms to suit your organization’s exact needs. Double-check that you can customize fields to collect their name, contact info, and any other data you need. Then, put donors in charge of their giving by offering them the ability to cover processing fees and opt into recurring donation options for continued support.
- Secure payment processing tools. Donors won’t be comfortable sharing their payment data if your payment processing tool appears untrustworthy. Invest in a PCI-compliant processor that enables donors to give whichever way is best for them, whether it’s via credit/debit card or ACH direct deposit. Check out this donation processing buyer’s guide from iATS Payments by Deluxe® if you’re unsure where to start your search.
The technology you employ is the base of your fundraising and donor stewardship efforts. If prospects struggle to make a gift, they might not give again, or worse, they may abandon that initial donation altogether.
A clunky process can convey that you don’t value the donor experience. In turn, donors may abandon their relationships with your team and take their support elsewhere. Instead, focusing on the donor experience from the get-go allows you to get ahead of this potential problem.
2. Gather data and segment donors.
An abundance of data can be overwhelming if you don’t regularly collect it and have a plan for putting it to use. However, accumulating the right data in an organized fashion will give you valuable insights into your donors, why they support your cause, and how you can further their commitment.
With help from your donation tools, collect and organize information such as:
- Past donations. Take note of how much and how frequently your donors tend to donate. This gives you an idea of when to reach out for another donation and how much to request in your appeals.
- Contact preferences. Make sure you have updated contact information and adhere to their contact preferences. Otherwise, they’ll assume you’re only doing what’s convenient for your team, or they won’t even see your messages at all.
- Initiatives they support. Keep up with which campaigns and programs individual donors contribute to. This way, you can reach out and encourage them to give to initiatives they’ll be excited to support.
These are just a few of the points you should be gathering. No matter what information you collect, ensure it flows directly from your donation form into your donor management system. This will eliminate manual data entry and ensure that all information is accurate. When handled correctly, these metrics will help you determine how to best connect with each individual supporter.
From here, you’ll be able to group your donors into meaningful segments based on commonalities, rather than trying to connect with everyone in a large, heterogeneous donor population at the same time. As best described in Doubleknot’s donor segmentation guide:
“When a nonprofit demonstrates that it understands its donors’ passions and preferences, donors feel appreciated and valued…When you know how, when, and why your supporters feel motivated to give, you can create powerful, personal, and meaningful asks.”
In theory, these groups can be whatever you choose. This could include donors who have similar contact preferences, support similar initiatives, attend the same events, share similar demographics (like age or location), or any combination you want. So long as your technology supports segmentation, you’re good to go!
3. Stay in regular contact with supporters.
With the pandemic keeping your team apart from donors, you’ll need to go the extra mile to stay connected to them. Although you likely made snap judgments to adjust your marketing tactics, it may be time to revisit your communication strategies now that the dust from the pandemic has settled.
Regardless of your cause, here are some strategies that any organization should work into its donor communications:
- Perfect the art of saying “thank you.” Within 48 hours of a donation, your team should reach out to thank a donor for their generous contribution, even if they’ve been giving recurring donations to your nonprofit for years. To simplify this process, ensure your donation platform enables you to automatically trigger thank-you emails and tax receipts each time someone donates. For larger contributions, be sure someone on your donor communications team reaches out personally.
- Convey the impact of their gifts. Everyone loves to see the difference they make, so impact should be a central element of each conversation. When possible, share updates on new programs that your donors have funded or any other tangible results. This empowers donors to connect the dots between the act of giving and the ultimate impact it made.
From modern outlets (like email and social media) to traditional methods (like phone calls and direct mail), there are countless ways to stay in contact with donors. Just remember to put your donor data to use by adhering to the outlets that each individual responds most positively to. In turn, donors will be more receptive to your messages and more likely to stick with your nonprofit.
4. Offer additional engagement opportunities.
Many donors can still step up to the plate to continue financially supporting your cause, but not everyone is in a sound place to donate right now. While we suggest continuing your regular fundraising asks, you should also make sure everyone’s able to contribute since many individuals have been struggling with financial stability due to pandemic-related economic challenges. Otherwise, you could turn donors away, interrupting their relationship with your organization.
Additional opportunities vary depending on your organization and its unique base of supporters. Pay attention to which opportunities have historically worked. Then, in addition to your regular fundraising asks, expand to include other points of engagement, such as:
- Peer-to-peer fundraising. Even if donors can’t personally contribute right now, they can still raise money for your cause. Host a peer-to-peer campaign, and invite them to fundraise on your behalf. They’ll personalize their own fundraising pages, which they’ll share with their friends and families and encourage them to donate. According to Donately’s peer-to-peer fundraising guide, participants will come to understand all the effort that goes into bringing your vision to life, forging a deeper connection to your cause.
- Volunteering. Even with our current socially-distanced reality, there’s still an awful lot of people who are willing to volunteer at nonprofits like yours. Just make sure you implement protocol to enforce health precautions such as shift scheduling for social distancing, hand sanitizer stations, gloves, and so on. Similarly to peer-to-peer fundraising, donors will gain a deeper appreciation for your cause by going behind-the-scenes and getting directly involved with volunteering. Visit this guide to learn how to create an exceptional volunteer experience for supporters, even with the current challenges.
By offering additional engagement opportunities, you’ll convey that you care about donors’ support, making them much more likely to stick around after the pandemic’s effects subside. Peer-to-peer fundraising and volunteering are just two options. There are plenty of other opportunities that donors can engage in, such as sharing your social media posts and giving in-kind donations. It’s all up to your donors’ preferences.
Just because we’re physically apart from supporters doesn’t mean stewardship efforts should fall by the wayside. Working from home and maintaining social distancing requirements puts you in a unique position to get creative with your donor relationships.
At the end of the day, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for donor stewardship. It looks different for every organization. However, there are quite a few common areas that all nonprofits should consider. The strategies presented in this article can help to jumpstart your plan.
To recap, you’ll want to start by developing a trustworthy donation process to make a positive first impression and keep donors coming back to your nonprofit. Then, use the data you gather during this process to group donors into meaningful groups and to formulate an effective marketing plan that resonates with them. From here, you’ll want to develop other engagement opportunities to keep donors involved in your work.
With time and extra effort, you’ll notice a spike in supporter engagement and will be equipped to form lifelong partnerships with your donors. Good luck!
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