The Art of Donor Retention

By Beth Isikoff, Blackbaud’s director of national account development

When you reach out to your donors, what kind of picture are you painting? Constituent retention increasingly is, and will continue to be, a high priority for all nonprofits. The art of retention has always challenged fundraisers, who strive to stay on top of the latest and greatest strategies for keeping donors active.

Ninety-four percent of respondents to Blackbaud’s recent State of the Nonprofit Industry (SONI) survey said that retention is important, with 74% rating their performance in this area as “very good” or “good.”  As retention stays top-of-mind for fundraisers, we must ask ourselves how we can continue to maintain relationships with our constituents and keep them involved with our missions. With acquisition costs on the rise, it is vital to find ways to keep the constituents you have worked so hard to get. The amount of time and money that goes into acquisition planning, production, and list management is monumental for many. It is indeed painful to watch acquisition investments dwindle because constituents do not renew or fail to engage further with you after their first gift.    

One of the most important elements in helping to begin a new relationship with a constituent is delivered through your acknowledgement program. This does not simply mean making sure your acknowledgements are mailed out weekly but it involves a thank you note worth saving. How many thank you notes have been posted to a constituent’s refrigerator door? Do you ever imagine a thank you note being placed in someone’s desk for safe keeping? As fundraiser’s, our thank you notes need to acknowledge the amount of the gift, the date of the gift, the impact the gift will have on our mission, and kind words that help a constituent feel like their gift — no matter what amount — will help make a difference. Your constituent wants to be recognized and needs to feel valued by you.

Nonprofits become passionate about the people they serve, the research they help support for cures to devastating diseases, and the causes they support to help heal the world and make the planet a better place to live. How can we take this same passion and direct it towards the people that support our organizations? Where are the strategies for the care and feeding of our existing constituent base?  Sending monthly renewals should not be your only form of communication to your constituents.  Retention efforts can be improved by understanding what your constituent wants from you and using that information to begin an active dialogue with them.

One way to begin this dialogue is to use the acknowledgement letter as an opportunity to learn more about your constituent and what makes them feel drawn to you — what was the impulse that made them give in the first place? The thank you letter is a perfect time to ask for more information about how they want to be involved.  Include a brief message on an insert, “please share with us what you are most interested in” and then allow the donor to check-off a box for each area of interest and include a return envelope to make it easy for them to respond. For those constituents who return their interest card, immediately indicate on the database that this constituent has reached out to you and confirmed their commitment in a huge way! For those who do not respond, take the time to send another card in your next communication asking them to share their thoughts with you acknowledging that you didn’t hear from them the first time. So many of us will spend money on acquiring new constituents but are shy about investing in our existing ones. Keep in mind that constituents are real people who have voluntarily given to you and will give again if someone listens to them and they feel they have been heard.

In today’s environment, we are finding that even the low dollar supporters want to be treated well and respond to packages that we may have used for our high dollar supporters in the past. Regardless of how you design your acknowledgement mail, fundraisers should embrace all constituents and remember that the first impression goes a long way to making good friends. The best impression is made when the acknowledgement is timely and the constituent doesn’t have to wonder whether their donation made it to the organization. The time between writing the check and receiving notice that the donation has been received can be a critical window for the acceptance of a trusted relationship.

A trusted relationship is one where each party feels that the other has their best interest at heart. Key to establishing these types of relationships is the ability for your organization to recognize how your constituent interacts with you and identify those that may give in ways other than monetarily. A good retention program looks at the entire relationship the donor has with the nonprofit and acknowledges all the ways the individual interacts with the organization. It is worthwhile to look at your database and identify those pockets of data that on the surface look like inactive donors, but if you look deeper you may find clusters of people that are actually engaged with you. Are they inactive constituents or constituents that recently called your information center for a brochure or attended an event? If so, your messages of renewal should mention their latest involvement and persuade them to continue the relationship through donations. A donor who feels like you don’t know who they are will not respond well to a standard appeal that doesn’t recognize the existing relationship.

Consider the following 10 ideas to help build your retention program:

 1.    Use your committee members and boards to call donors. You would be surprised how many of your key volunteers enjoy talking to donors. The problem is that you just haven’t asked them to participate! Select the names of those donors who have been with you for many years but for some reason have not renewed. Divide the names up among your board members (make sure the list isn’t too long — a group of 10 names is manageable) and ask them to call these donors and ask them to consider renewing their support. You can schedule a special “phone-a-thon” at your offices after work to make it an event. Once the donor has agreed to renew, be sure to have the volunteer write a hand-written note on the renewal notice before it goes in the mail. The special contact will make your donors feel good and help the volunteer feel a part of the organization.

2.        Create a newsletter to fill donors in on the latest research or project that you’re involved in and how it is making a difference in your community. If you haven’t already tested a newsletter in your communication program, you should consider how it impacts donor renewal. Even a one-page newsletter that doesn’t ask for a donation is a wonderful way to keep donors in contact with your organization.

3.        Write a hand-written thank-you note. Test this idea before you completely throw it out the door. This is especially important to your high-dollar donors. So often, we take our donors for granted. Consider reaching out to those supporters in a novel way. Sometimes the personal touch can go a long way to helping renewal and spreading word-of-mouth goodwill about your organization.

4.        Ask for the second gift ASAP. Studies have shown time and again that those individuals who make a second gift will, in fact, stay with you longer and continue to give. The key question is how to get that second gift. A timely acknowledgement that recognizes the donor’s contribution along with an opportunity to make a second gift can help cement your donor’s commitment to the organization. Many times decisions are made not to put “another request” in a thank-you note because someone at your organization feels it is offensive. This is old-school thinking! Many organizations get the second gift through the thank-you letter.

5.        Collect information that will enable you to create a relationship with your donor. We all know that acquisition is expensive. Therefore, when you acquire someone new, it makes sense to learn one thing about him or her that will help you communicate in the future. Are you interested in learning more about research? Do you have a pet? Whatever the question — ask it. Make sure that the answer is something you can key into your database and then use it in your next appeal. “Thank you for sharing with us that you are interested in our research programs,” etc.

6.        Create a special club. Many donors want to feel as though they belong to the organization they are supporting. Set up a special club for those who give over a certain dollar amount and reinforce this membership with a certificate of appreciation. Committed donors will want to “renew” their memberships in the club and may appreciate feeling a part of a group of supporters dedicated to making a difference.

7.        Write back to your angry supporters. We have all received calls from donors who are angry because they receive too much mail. Turn these calls around by explaining to the donor that the mail program gives you an opportunity to keep the donor informed about your mission and the progress you are making. Listen to your donor and then suggest that you mark them on the file as “only receiving one mail piece per year.” The donor will most likely accept this arrangement because you have spent time on the phone and listened. Afterwards, write a personal note and explain how important he or she is to your cause. Then make sure the record is flagged correctly in your database.

8.        Keep your database clean. Have you ever looked at the number of donors you lose because they’ve moved and you haven’t updated your donor records? Evaluate how often you perform a NCOA (National Change of Address) and determine if you need to do it more often. Once you receive address changes, be sure to keep your file updated and load the information! Send a note card to all your donors with your return address and ask them to use this card to alert you when and if they move. The donor who sends a new address is a donor worth keeping!

9.        Make sure your entire team understands the importance of customer service. This retention effort cannot be said enough. I once heard a story that I will never forget about an organization that wanted to make sure its staff (who answered the phone calls at the customer service center) understood how to work with aging donors. They had a training session where they made everyone wear glasses with Vaseline® smeared on the lenses. They told the individuals to role play talking to donors with the glasses on! They also had them tape two of their fingers together and write down information with that hand. The operators quickly got the picture of what it may be like for a donor on the phone who may have difficulty seeing and/or had arthritis. The tone of the operators changed within a day. And the donors received a level of service and appreciation that wasn’t there before. Be kind to your donors!

10.    Know your donors.  Direct marketing gives us an opportunity to speak to masses of people in a very personal way. Work with your marketing team to learn more about what makes your donor special. Certain types of data points, collected and used in the right way, can enhance your donor retention:

•    What offers are they most responsive to? Do some donors prefer to give in the spring instead of the fall? Does research information or a plea from a person with a disease generate better direct mail results?
•    Why are they giving to you? What generated the gift? Understanding the affinity to your organization can help you relate better to the donor.
•    Does your donor prefer to receive information from you via email or direct mail? If he or she has stated a preference, take it into account when communicating.
•    What is the donor’s age and gender? This information can help you create direct mail communications related to each individual’s special needs and/or wants.

As you work toward improving your retention program, think of your best customer experience as a consumer. You can immediately bring to mind the feeling you had when you got what you wanted, felt good about the transaction, enjoyed the experience, and were ready and willing to buy and/or participate again. Take those thoughts and build them into your retention efforts. Use your own experiences to dictate what you intuitively know helps establish solid, ongoing relationships with your constituents. With every donor you keep involved in your program, your database of supporters will continue to multiply and grow organically. Your retention program will build momentum and become a stabilizing factor in keeping your file strong, year after year.  
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