Donor Retention Strategies: 4 Ways to Get Donors to Give Again
For non-profits and charities, finding new donors is a crucial part of the money-raising process - but so is retaining donors once they’ve donated.
Retaining donors - and creating a donor-retention strategy - is something that many non-profits neglect once they’ve successfully raised money through an event or a donation run.
But turning those one-time donors into lifetime supporters is vital for the long-term success of any organization, and a donor-retention strategy is something that every non-profit should dedicate time to.
Below we take a look at a number of different methods that you can use to successfully retain donors for your next event.
Give a personal thank you
Thanking donors for their generosity should already be a given following a successful silent auction or fund-raising event. But just sending out an auto-receipt won’t cut it. Adding a personalized message to any and all thank yous you sent out will make donors feel seen and appreciated.
This will also make donors instantly feel more connected to your organization. It’s a small touch, but personalizing your communications will help donors feel like they’re a valuable and integral part of your mission.
Demonstrate your impact with a post-event blog post or video
One of the main reasons for donor hesitancy is the fear that they aren’t sure where their money is going or how it’s being spent. You can assuage these fears to a large degree by demonstrating exactly how and where their money is being used.
Publish a newsletter that details exactly how and where the money is being used, and send an account of the impact directly to a donor’s mailbox.
You can also use social media to document live impact stories and allow your donors to follow along as the project unfolds.
Stay on top of communication
According to Double the Donation, 53% of donors said that poor communication was the reason that they no longer supported an organization or cause.
That’s huge - and preventable.
We already identified two effective methods (personal thank yous and post-event content) of communicating with your donors, but there are plenty of other ways to stay in touch.
If you haven’t already started building a robust social media presence, then now is the time to start. Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and more provide excellent ways of connecting directly with the people who support you. This isn’t groundbreaking advice, but it can’t be overstated - social media is incredibly important for staying in touch with donors.
Another effective method of communication is through newsletters. If donors are giving money to your organization it means they care about your mission, and it also means that they love to get updates on what you have been doing. A monthly, quarterly, or bi-yearly newsletter is a great way of updating donors on the progress you’ve made and what your plans are for the future.
You can’t control everything, but you can control the number of great interactions you have with your donors.
Host more live events
While hosting silent auctions is an incredibly flexible way to raise money, you might also consider hosting live events. Events provide a tremendous opportunity for you and your supporters to interact on an intimate level and give donors a more personal sense of your organization, increasing the likelihood that they will donate again in the future.
This isn’t just wishful thinking - the data backs it up. According to the 2022 Fundraising Event Experience Report, 91% of event attendees said they would be more likely to engage more with a nonprofit following a positive event experience.
You can also use events as a staging ground to promote future events in order to lock in repeat attendance and encourage donors to donate further.
Never underestimate the value of events - one incredible event experience could result in a lifetime of recurring donations.
