The Resilient Nonprofit Fundraising Guide

Expectations have changed. The last few years forced us to spend more time online than ever before. We spent much of this time shopping for goods and services on Amazon and other digital marketplaces. These interactions have conditioned donors to expect effortless experiences every time they go online, including when they make a donation!

It's hard to keep up—but it’s critical that we do. We need to meet donors where they are and ensure we’re addressing their needs and preferences as they spend more time online. We cannot rely on the status quo anymore.

Privacy-related changes in technology platforms (like browsers and mobile operating systems), regulatory actions, and consumer preferences are forcing organizations to rethink how they collect, analyze, and use data to engage with their audiences. Because privacy practices have become more stringent, organizations are focusing more on collecting first-party data (information a company collects directly from consumers and constituents).

We face a trust crisis. Worldwide, people distrust institutions at record levels with nearly 6 in 10 saying they tend to distrust something until they see evidence it is trustworthy. Last year, trust in nonprofits fell in countries like Germany, the US, the UK, and the Netherlands. In these countries, NGOs face higher levels of distrust than other places in the world.

The good news is nonprofits are generally the second-most trusted institutions behind only business. This presents an opportunity for nonprofits to become a go-to source of information for people looking to make a positive change in the world.

The number of U.S. households that give dropped from 66% in 2000 to 49% in 2018. Many experts predict this trend to continue in 2022 and beyond. With a shrinking donor pool, retention is becoming even more critical to sustainability. And yet, 85% of nonprofits surveyed for our 2021 Nonprofit Trends Report believe donor retention is getting harder. With economic uncertainty looming, fundraisers need to double down on donor retention.

Think about a foundation program officer you have a strong relationship with. When you first met, did you set the date, time, and location? Of course not! You likely met when and where it was convenient for them. Connecting with individual donors should be no different.

You need to meet donors in the digital spaces where they find information, look for inspiration, and connect with like-minded people. Often this means making sure your content shows up on channels where people are already browsing, like:

• Search engines
• Social media platforms
• Emails
• Other blogs and websites

Email is still a nonprofit’s most powerful engagement channel. Even so, research has shown it can be surprisingly difficult to sign up for a nonprofit’s newsletter. Make sure to test all sign up forms before deploying, and make them easy to find on your website and other channels.

Making your organization easy to find online is just the first step. In our State of Nonprofit Marketing report, 82% of marketers said the ability to meet constituent expectations depends on their organization’s digital capabilities. Fundraisers need to partner closely with their marketing colleagues to make it easy for supporters to engage with organizations on a variety of digital channels.

Good content on your website inspires action and is often the first touch point on someone’s journey from stranger to donor and advocate. You can use content your audience values as a type of currency offered in exchange for email addresses and other personal information. This first-party data is essential for staying in touch, cultivating interest, and eventually asking for a donation.

Here are a few ideas for what you might offer prospective donors in exchange for their email and other data:

• Breaking news on issues they care about
• An advocacy toolkit to help change a law or policy
• Access to a private LinkedIn group for networking with like-minded professionals

Once you have an individual’s personal information, you can start cultivating a relationship by providing content and opportunities to engage with your mission. It’s important to provide information, stories, and calls-to-action that resonate with their specific interests and engagement preferences. Otherwise, you risk a potential donor unsubscribing from your list.

It will likely take some time to collect all the personal data you need to deliver compelling content. Plan to collect some information about their interests and preferences along with their email or phone number. You’ll also want to track how supporters engage with specific types of content to gain a more nuanced understanding of what they want to receive.

Segmentation involves grouping audiences by interests, behavior, and preferences for personalized cultivation and solicitation. Meaningful segmentation gives you the ability to engage prospective and active donors in ways that build trust and strengthen their connection to your mission. For example, you may want to send an appeal to volunteers who’ve never made a gift or invite new donors to volunteer for the program they funded. We know retention is higher for monthly donors so you might launch a sustainer program and target new donors for a recurring gift.

Grouping supporters by how they engage with your organization over time can often help you decide the next best cultivation step to take. For example, did a donor just hit their 1-year anniversary volunteering for your organization? Recruit a board member to make a gift in honor of their volunteer service. Does a donor consistently respond to appeals throughout the year? Invite them to join your monthly giving program!

When conditions make external donor acquisition more difficult than usual, focus your time and attention on people already in your system. Invest in programs to convert, retain, and upgrade the volunteers, advocates, and donors that already support your mission.

Volunteers and advocates are among your organization’s most passionate supporters. Their first-hand experience with your mission has primed them to make that first gift. However, don’t assume generic appeals will move them to donate. In fact, current supporters expect a higher degree of personalization because they expect your organization to know them.

The key to converting volunteers and advocates to donors, and then retaining them as donors, is having a single view of all the ways they engage with your organization. Unifying data in a single system gives fundraising visibility into a prospect’s full history with the organization, which makes it easier to tailor cultivation activities, appeals and stewardship.

Expressing sincere gratitude for their contributions is the first step in building trust with your donors. As humans, the need to feel that our actions matter can be a powerful motivator. Showing thanks is a simple yet powerful way to validate donors and strengthen their emotional connection to your mission. Genuine gratitude communicates lets supporters know they are valued while creating a sense of shared purpose.

How you express gratitude should be personal because giving is personal. A personalized thank you, whether handwritten or emailed, signals sincere gratitude upon which trust is built and personalizes a donor’s experience.

Here’s some examples:

• Did the donor give to support a specific program? Include a note in your message about how their gift will be used to make an impact.
• Was the gift solicited by a board member? Arrange for the thank you message to come from the board member.

For today’s donors, expressing gratitude isn’t enough. Donors expect a higher degree of accountability from the nonprofits they support than they have in the past. In fact, 7 in 10 nonprofits surveyed for our Nonprofit Trends Report, 4th edition (2021) said their donors expect digital access to key impact performance metrics (KPIs).

Many organizations are responding by being more transparent, with 31% saying they’ve recently provided donors online access to dashboards showing the impact of their gifts in action. Of those who have made this change, 86% say it was impactful.

Maintaining relationships with hundreds or thousands of people means keeping track of a lot of information. Your ability to track and use that information can have a tremendous impact on your ability to deepen relationships with your supporters. Clean, centralized data is vital for the effective use of information.