Key “Secret” to Making Ongoing Good Impressions on Nonprofit Donors

Okay, you’ve sent an immediate thank you that adheres to the 3 P’s — the ‘holy trinity’ of successful donor retention. You’ve further welcomed the donor in with a series of automated emails – the “welcome wagon” that celebrates and deepens the relationship. But, now you enter a critical period. This is where your connection with the donor will either bond, or dissolve.

The honeymoon period is over.

Now is the time to transition to a mature relationship. Let’s build you some strategies for assuring supporter needs are met,  keeping your donors and increasing their lifetime value. You invest time and money in acquiring them, so let’s make that work count.

Small consistent touches throughout the year can pack a punch.

3. Continuing Non-Ask Communications

You may have heard of the marketing Rule of 7.  Essentially, it means folks need to hear about you seven times before they’re ready to make a purchase. Even though your donors have already “purchased,” so to speak, the rule still pretty much applies to your content marketing with first-time donors.

It’s not hard fast; you can choose your own cadence. But, people really do need to be consistently engaged in ways that show you value them for more than their money.

What exactly is the power of continuing non-ask communications?

1. Repeated exposure builds familiarity and credibility.
2. Familiarity fosters trust and influences behavior.
3. Greater engagement improves retention.

SECRETS TO SUCCESS:

(1) Center these messages on impact. You might share a video, photos, newsletter or annual report that connects dollars to outcomes. Give specific examples so donors can visualize the accomplishment and feel part of the solution.

(2) Feature beneficiary stories. Human beings are wired for stories, and will remember them far longer than data.

(3) Feature donor stories. Donors feel good when they see other folks like them joining your cause – and they may be inspired. This acts as “social proof” — one of Robert Cialdini’s principles of influence — and it works like a magic decision-making shortcut.

(4) Send helpful content. You’ve no doubt got lots of beneficial content hanging around that you’re not even using. Maybe it’s buried on your website. Or stuffed into a file cabinet. Dig out your “how-to’s,” recommendations, lists, research studies, papers and whatever else you have, and wrap them up with a bow. If you want gifts, you must give them.

(4) Celebrate donor milestones. Not your own, theirs. For example, recognize the anniversary of their gift or volunteer participation. If they’ve given multiple years, recognize this.

(5) Invite donors to complete a brief donor engagement survey so you can learn what matters to them.

(6) Emphasize community and belonging in your messaging. One of the reasons donors give is to get their needs – for meaning, self-expression and ownership – met. If you’re leading with data and outcomes alone, you may be missing the deeper motivator. It’s not just about solving presented problems, but about reinforcing the kind of person donors believe they are or aspire to become.[1]

In it for the Long Term

When you keep showing donors you genuinely appreciate and want to get to know them, they won’t feel their relationship with you is one where you’ve constantly got your hand out.

Before you do that, it’s imperative you come from a place of giving a helpful hand up. I often say philanthropy facilitators are in the happiness delivery business.

Commit to keeping your donors close.

Don’t worry you’re messaging folks too often.  Absence does not make the heart grow fonder. In fact, when it comes to nonprofit donors it’s more like “out of sight, out of mind.”

If you’re balancing non-asks with asks, you’ve nothing to worry about.

Want More Donor Retention Tips?

Get my Donor Retention and Gratitude Playbook with 6 separate companion guides (purchase individually or at a bundle bargain discount).  Taken together, they include everything you need to raise more money — by keeping more current donors and increasing their average gift! It’s filled with hands-on, practical information garnered from my 30+ years working in the nonprofit trenches. The Attitude of Gratitude Donor Guide alone is 98 full pages, with lots of ready-to-use samples and templates. You’ll save almost a third if you buy them all together in the ‘bargain bundle’.  I promise if you read these Guides, and put the recommended strategies into action, you’ll keep more donors and raise more dollars.

If you’re not happy, all Clairification resources come with a no-questions-asked, 30-day, 100% refund guarantee.

[1] See Meaningful Philanthropy by Jen Shang and Adrian Sargeant

Image courtesy of saeed karimi on unsplash.

Related articles:

• Key “Secret” to Making a Good First Impression on Nonprofit Donors
• Key “Secret” to Making a Good Second Impression on Nonprofit Donors