Do you understand donor retention?

It's funny how blogs work. You post something, people read it that day, and you think OK, that's nice, a bunch of people apparently got something useful from this.

Then out of the blue several weeks or months later you get a comment or email about a post that you had sort of forgotten about.

 So it is with my blog post of April 28, "Marketing Your Mission".

Apparently "Tom" took issue with it. "This is the most stupid thing I've ever read" would tend to indicate that Tom doesn't find the use of the word "marketing" to be congruent with "nonprofit mission".

According to Tom, mission is all about emotional engagement. All that other stuff about being a good "investment" for the donor doesn't matter. People just "know" that you will use their money well, because after all, you're a charity.

In Tom's defense, the emotional characteristic is what drives donors to investigate your charity further. It is the thing that defines the need to give that they want to fill. At some level, they have an interest in helping something or someone. Maybe they Google "animal rescues" or "battered women's shelters" or whatever.

At that point they get thousands, if not millions of returns. So then they add their state or county or town to the search terms, and they get a few to a few dozen more specific returns.

That's still a lot, and it's unlikely they are going to send a check or donate online to all of them. There has to be some way to decide which one to support.

At that point they are probably going to be looking for a website or social media page. Who are you, and what are you all about? What real impact or change are you accomplishing?

That process is exactly the same as it is for someone looking for a product. You want to buy a used car so you search "used cars". At that point you may not know if you want a Chevrolet, or Ford or Toyota or whatever. You get a list of used car dealers that are within your search zone, and then you check to see if they have a website and look at what's for sale. There are dozens of bright, shiny cars that fit your basic criteria to pick from on each site. You don't want to visit, much less drive all of them, so you start looking for a way to zero in on just a few.

What happens next?  Well, I don't know about you, but I start looking for the dealer that is going to give me the best value for my dollar. Is their price lower, do they give you a free gas card if you test drive their car, or do they offer a free oil change for a year? I also look at the general premises if they have a picture of their lot or showroom. Does it look clean, organized and at least somewhat permanent?  Have they been in town for a while? Do they have good online reviews?

In short, why should I  pick one car lot over all the rest?

Why would a donor be any different?  There are lots of charities that all focus on the same problem. Their "bright shiny cars" are the stories they tell about who or what they have helped, and 90% of them are going to have good stories, because they really try to do good work.

At that point, two things happen. Maybe one story connects emotionally with the donor more than others, and they just hit the donate button. Those are the "impulse donors". They drop a few bucks and promptly forget about it. Those are "Tom's" donors.

Other visitors do some digging to see how many people have been helped in total and investigate  how much money it takes to help them in a significant way. These can be your long-term supporters.

The latter are probably the people with more money to donate. Nobody misses a single $5 donation even if it is misspent or the charity goes out of business, but if they want to spend $1000 or $10,000 dollars or more, they are going to look under the hood of that bright shiny car. Or maybe they can't afford that much, but they want to send a small donation every payday. They are looking for a connection, not a moment of satisfaction.

And that's where the marketing mindset comes in. The sooner you step out in front and say "We helped change the lives of 100 people for a day at a cost per person of just $10.00/day" the easier it is for the donor to see that $1000 will help one person for more than three months, or all 100 for a day.

Contrast that with the group that says, "You can help more people like Jane. Please give generously". How many more people? What do they really need to help another Jane?  Exactly what is a generous donation? They don't say.

Yes, it does reduce the giving to a dollars-and-cents equation. And yes, the emotional appeal was the catalyst between the donors desire to give and solving your money problem. But the donation was assured by the concrete statement showing the value delivered for the donation. It gives the donor a reason to select your charity to support at a much higher level than just an impulse donation.

Of course, you have to continue to connect with that donor to retain their interest. Maybe through a website, a blog, a newsletter or just by keeping fresh stories on your social media page. But first you have to cultivate the desire for an ongoing relationship.

In the retail world, they call that building brand loyalty. In the nonprofit world, it's donor retention. Whatever you call it, it is all a form of marketing. With all due respect to "Tom" I think you ignore that at your peril.

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To keep your donors, think like a store.

If I asked you why you shop at your favorite store what would you say? Would your answer sound like any of these?

•         It is conveniently located.
•          The people are friendly.
•          They carry the brands I like.
•          The checkout lines are short.
•          They always thank me for shopping with them.
•          They give coupons for shopping there.

If you are nodding your head to any or all of these, you are reacting to your "customer experience". Something about your favorite store keeps you coming back as a paying customer.

That is the key to donor retention. The basic things most people want from a store are value for their dollar, appreciation for their patronage , and consideration of their time. They don't buy from a store because the store needs to pay its electric bill. They buy because the store fulfills their needs or wants.

Donors want the same feeling when they donate. They want to know that 

• Your mission fulfills their needs, i.e. they feel  their money helps achieve the outcomes they are expecting.
• They want to know that you truly appreciate them for supporting you.
•  They want the donation process to be easy.

Notice the italicized words above. This is often a hard concept for newer nonprofits to grasp. They get so focused on their mission, they forget that donors may have needs and expectations as well.  According to a 2012 report by Giving USA, nearly 9 out of 10 support dollars comes from individuals rather than from grants or sponsorships, so donor motivation is something you need to understand.

Every donor is looking for a reason to support you and your mission. Something about what you are doing needs to resonate with them. They usually know generally what type of cause they want to support. It's your job to let them know why your organization does that best, not to tell them that you are so broke you will be having a going-out-of-business-sale soon.

For stores the process is easy. They just monitor inventory. If a pink and orange starfish print shirt isn't selling, all they have to do is look at how many are left over at the end of the day, and they know it wasn't what customers wanted.

You can create an inventory for your donor appeals as well. Which ones bring in the most support over the shortest period of time?  Do some appeals work better at one time of year than another? What presentation works best, i.e. all text, lots of pictures, personal stories, community events, donor appreciation days,  video, short social media posts, interactive blogs, or private newsletters just for donors? Analyzing your fundraising results will keep you from repeating approaches that don't work.

Not every donor is going to donate every time, any more than every retail customer buys something every time they see an ad. What you want to do is keep donors connected to your organization. You can't force or guilt them into donating. Serial generic appeals usually wind up in the trash at some point.

When they do have the inclination and ability to donate, keep the checkout times short. A three or four step process online  is like standing in a fifteen person checkout line.

Offer them a chance to stay connected, but not at checkout. One NPO used a cliffhanger strategy. They presented most of a story about an animal rescue, but left the outcome hanging. If you wanted to know what happened you could sign up for their email newsletter. They had about a 70% positive response.

Always thank your donors. You should have a process to capture their contact information. Send them a short thank you note addressed specifically to them. A generic popup window when they finish checking out isn't going to provide the same feeling of connection as a personal note addressed just to them.

The nonprofit version of a coupon might be something as easy as a personal invitation to an event,  a badge, or a refrigerator magnet or other inexpensive merchandise item with your name and a short message telling them why their contribution matters.

Not all donor contact has to be or even should be online.  A food pantry serving a very local area sends a personalized small notepad as their "thank you" with the phrase  " Mary, each one of your dollars provides one sack lunch. Thank you from all our kids"  and their organization name.  If you depend on local support an all-online approach may  seem too detached to keep donors engaged.

Stores succeed because they understand where their money comes from and how to capture it.  The next time you think about fundraising, try thinking like a store. 

Making donors feel special as your organization grows.

Donor retention is and has always been a problem for nonprofits. Every major nonprofit advisory organization is advising that donor retention should be on every nonprofits list of top three things to do in 2014. Blackbaud's 2012 statistical giving report states that small nonprofits were far ahead of their large counterparts in that category, increasing their overall giving by 7.3% in 2012.

I believe that trend can be attributed to the fact that smaller organizations tend to have more of a personal relationship with donors. It's easier for their donors to connect with them, and vice-versa. They have missions that more directly impact their donors. It's easier for interested prospective donors to go to meetings or attend events to support a local charity than to go to a gala event clear across the country.

The trick seems to be in retaining that sense of small-town camaraderie as the organization grows. Online fundraising seems to be gaining ground, growing by 11% on 2012, but along with that, donors report that they feel more remote from the organization. The more the organization grows, the more likely it becomes that it will lose that personal interaction.

Many organizations maintain a social media presence, but is that really what donors want?  Expecting donors to "like" you or retweet you is not the same thing as interacting with them on a more personal level. Anyone can read a Facebook posting or a tweet, but they have to initiate the contact.

As far as it goes, macro-connecting at that level is useful, but it tends to fully engage only those people who are already closely connected to the organization as volunteers or staff. Donors say that expecting them to go to a Facebook page really isn't very personal.

The most common reason given for not giving repeat donations is that the donor didn't feel appreciated. The larger the organization gets, the harder it is to maintain that one-on-one relationship with donors.

One way to overcome that feeling of rejection is to keep donors in the loop with a blog or a print or e-newsletter targeted only to donors. Please don't equate that with an appeal letter. These forms of communication should convey a feeling of " You are special and we really appreciate you!". Your purpose should be about replicating that feeling of small town intimacy, not sticking your hand out in every post or newsletter.

To be useful, these communications need to offer more than just an instant replay of a social media posting. Those are nice, but should be expanded upon in blog or newsletter communications.

Perhaps the blog or newsletter could educate donors about exactly what you did with their money last month. Perhaps there was a particularly touching story that you can share only with donors, or if you deal with complex issues, you can offer educational content to further emphasize why continued support is needed.

For-profits understand that keeping customers and buyers engaged is an important part of staying profitable, and they use CRM, or Customer Relationship Management techniques to keep their customers engaged, i.e. to keep their business top-of-mind with their customers.

Donor retention is exactly the same theory. You want to stay connected, or at least be the first thing the donor thinks of when they think about your mission focus. That way, when the inevitable appeal for donations does go out, it won't have the feel of a panhandler on a street corner.

Far less expensive and certainly more personal than traditional media campaigns, targeted blogs and newsletters are a great tool to keep those donors you worked so hard to get, firmly in your corner.

©2014 Rebecca L. Baisch

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Need help designing or maintaining a donor connection campaign?  I can help you. For more information, drop me a line at granthelp@ida.net