Just getting a donor is half the battle; the other half is keeping them.
When you fail to retain a donor, you’re actually losing money. If your nonprofit organization wants to grow, you’ll need to perfect the donor retention process.
One way to earn and retain donors is by focusing on donor cultivation. If you do, those hard-earned donors will be much more likely to stick around. Let's dive into five key tips to help you start earning and retaining more donors today.
As you build up your donors, you’ll want to have a database that stores all their information in one central location. This makes accessing information quickly a breeze. Donor management software is a central hub for personalized information about each and every one of your donors. Nonprofits of all sizes can benefit from using this type of software.
While most nonprofits only include the information donors submit in donation submissions, some organizations include each donation amount. Even though this is a great first step, there’s so much more you can do.
Some additional important donor management software features to look for are:
Similarly, fundraising features to look for in your donor management software are:
Streamlined donor data |
Online fundraising |
Direct mail fundraising |
Data tracking |
Reporting |
When all of your donor data is in one central location, it’s easier to pull this information when planning your fundraising strategies. Your software should offer several tools to create a positive, customized donor experience. By using these tools, you can even expand your online fundraising plan. Discover what tools to look for in your salesforce donor management software.
An effective donation software can improve donor retention by helping you coordinate outreach. Fundraising software helps your nonprofit raise more money with less effort, freeing up time and money that can be used on the fundraising campaign itself.
By making the most of your donation tools, you’re one step ahead of the competition.
Your donation software should allow you to cleanly store important donor data like:
Donor name |
Donation amount |
Amount of the donation that’s tax deductible |
Campaign the donations fund |
Method of donation |
Person of whom the donation is in honor or memory |
Not only is using donation software a great way to revamp your fundraising approach, but you can also improve the donor experience with appealing campaign pages, easy-to-use forms, and much more.
Corporate giving programs are a mutually beneficial opportunity for nonprofits and corporations. These programs are an easy way to boost your organization’s funds, double your volunteers’ contributions, and engage your supporters.
There are 4 main corporate giving programs you should be aware of:
Corporate giving programs are often underutilized due to lack of awareness by donors, volunteers, and even nonprofit professionals. Educating your supporters about these overlooked opportunities maximizes the return of their efforts. Making use of such programs multiplies their contribution and makes them feel more vital to the success of your organization.
These programs don’t require much more effort from supporters aside from brief paperwork. When supporters know their contribution is valued and significant, you re-engage them and form stronger, more loyal, relationships – keeping them for years to come.
Prospect research is the process of learning more about your donors from publicly available data and is essential for identifying potential high-impact donors.
It gives you additional insight as to who your donors are and what motivates them to give. No matter what your goals are, any nonprofit can benefit from donor prospect research by saving time and resources and boosting fundraising efforts.
Prospect research tools can measure a donor’s capacity to give, as well as how likely they are to give. These tools go through your donors’ personal backgrounds, measuring individuals’ giving history, wealth indicators, and philanthropic factors.
So, how do you pick the right prospect research software? As with any software, it’s based on your nonprofit’s needs.
Look for software that analyzes the following:
Social discovery is just one type of prospect development that focuses on social media insights.
Social discovery can reveal specific information about your donors, such as:
These factors indicate affinity capacity, philanthropic interests, and professional stability. When searching for the right prospect research technology, make sure to find one that’s capable of doing a social profile search on current and potential donors.
The more data you gather, the more you’ll know about your donors, including their preferences, affiliations, and so forth. When your donors feel as though you’ve taken the time to get to know them, their loyalty increases, helping you to gain and keep their support.
A golden donation is that sought-after second donation. Only 19 percent of new donors give again after their first donation. However, if a donor gives a second time, 63 percent will give again.
The process for securing a second donation is fairly straightforward and may align with some of your nonprofit’s existing practices:
The State of Modern Philanthropy 2019 reveals first-time donor’s behavior patterns and exposes the value of recurring donors. Recurring donors are over five times more valuable than one-time donors. They actively give to prove their investment, and you don’t want to lose these valuable supporters.
Remember to choose the right donor management software, use donation tools, leverage corporate giving opportunities, do smart prospect research, and focus on getting recurring donations. Retaining donors is something many nonprofits fail to do properly. Put these strategies to use and you’ll be on your way to keep their support for years to come.
Intrigued? It's your turn to find the right donor management software for your company's needs. See the rundown on G2.
Gerard Tonti is the Senior Creative Developer at Salsa Labs, a fundraising software company for growth-focused nonprofits. Gerard's marketing focus on content creation, conversion optimization, and modern marketing technology helps him coach nonprofit development teams on digital fundraising best practices.
As a nonprofit professional, you've likely researched effective donor management strategies...
It has been proven that data-driven decisions result in fewer risks.
Does trying to get to know your donors feel like stumbling around in the dark?
As a nonprofit professional, you've likely researched effective donor management strategies...
It has been proven that data-driven decisions result in fewer risks.
Never miss a post.
Subscribe to keep your fingers on the tech pulse.