Keeping your donors engaged in your nonprofit's work, mission, and fundraising efforts requires a thorough strategy. This guide will get you started with proven steps and tips. Learn the ins and outs of the donor engagement cycle and how you can step up your engagement game.
Whether you are a newbie in fundraising or a seasoned expert, you probably know that the key to successful fundraising lies in building relationships with donors.
When a donor is engaged with a nonprofit organization, they are much more likely to donate again and again (and give in other ways too).
A donor cycle refers to the cycle from the time a donor first makes a gift to the time they donate again. Being aware of the donor cycle is crucial for building close-knit relationships that encourage more giving. It involves showing donors how their values align with your mission and how their donations help you complete your valuable work.
The end goal of the donor cycle is to build a personal relationship with the donor that will ultimately lead to continued financial support for your nonprofit organization.
Donor engagement goes beyond simply interacting with donors. It’s an institutional mindset that involves finding ways to personally connect with donors and inspire them to continue their involvement. There’s no beginning or end to donor engagement, and an engagement plan can look different from donor to donor depending on factors like gift size, gift frequency, and donor demographics.
Nonprofits often go wrong here by focusing their engagement on their organization – and not focusing enough on the donor’s personal interests and needs.
Check out this webinar on designing the donor experience with Joy Duling to learn more about how to put the donor first in your engagement strategy.
You don’t simply ask for $5,000 from a prospect with no prior contact. You have to get to know the donor, and the donor has to get to know you and your nonprofit.
The donor cultivation cycle is all about building or growing a relationship with your donor or prospect. During this stage, you usually get to know your donor (prospect) better and start sharing more about the work your organization does. This is when the prospect potentially hears about your organization for the first time.
Donor cultivation can look like:
And more. Each touchpoint during cultivation represents a foundational building block of your donor engagement cycle, providing a broad base of donor interest, engagement, and trust, culminating in a donation to your nonprofit organization.
Solicitation is at the center of the donor acquisition process. It’s the point at which a prospect becomes a donor. Solicitation can take many shapes and forms.
For example, asking for contribution in person is most commonly used for:
Whereas other donors might be asked to give in a letter, email, social media post, or phone call.
Stewardship is the process that occurs once a donor has given to your organization. Specifically, stewardship refers to the relationship-building and communications that take place after a gift has been received.
This stage is as important as the solicitation/asking stage. Donors want to feel appreciated, so you must continue the relationship after they make the gift. This can be done by sending a newsletter, making a phone call, or inviting a donor to an event.
Acquiring new donors takes a lot of time, energy, and money. You put out the right communications, pay for targeted ads, and create compelling fundraising materials…only for someone to give once. To see more of a return on your initial investment, you should focus on the donor engagement cycle to turn those one-time donors into long-term supporters.
When donors feel appreciated and recognized, they are more likely to give again and again. This donor cycle generates more reliable income to fuel your mission.
With modern fundraising and email marketing tools, there’s no reason why your nonprofit should be applying a one-size-fits-all approach to your donor engagement strategy, tactics, and activities.
Consistently collect contact information by, for example, inviting people to sign up for the email list on your website or collecting registration information at events that you host.
Then, use this information to send relevant, personalized communication to each donor segment. Your acknowledgments and solicitations should speak to people in different ways.
Understanding how each major donor segment wants to engage with your organization will help you build stronger relationships that will sustain over time.
During all stages of the donor engagement cycle, be sure to engage your prospect or donor in conversations. A general rule of thumb is that you should be speaking 25% to 50% of the time while your donor talks 50% to 75% of the time. These conversations can happen over email, on the phone, or in person.
Share information with your donor while simultaneously gathering information about your donor’s interests and motivations. Listening and learning from your donors is key! Plus, be sure to share your impact report so they can see how their donation has made a difference.
If you’re not sure what your donors want and don’t want from you, this is especially important. Include in your donor engagement plan one or two annual surveys asking for donor input on the giving experience and your programs. Survey results provide valuable insight for shaping your cultivation and stewardship activities.
Pro tip: Focus on what the donor has accomplished with their donation. The word “you” should appear at least twice as much as “we.”
As you start to create your donor engagement plan, you might realize that you need someone to lead your donor engagement initiatives. That’s where a staff member dedicated to donor engagement might come in handy!
A dedicated donor engagement officer might be able to take your donor engagement strategy to a new level by creating a donor engagement plan, identifying donor segments, nurturing major donors, leading fundraising staff members, and developing a solicitation and stewardship strategy.
You also want to move toward a broader conversation among your whole staff, board, and volunteers. Have quarterly discussions at staff meetings and board retreats to explore the issue of donor engagement. You could also invite a few donors to visit with you during one of those meetings every now and then.
A donor engagement plan should be guided by donor segmentation, mission and vision, and any fundraising campaigns you have planned. You don’t, for instance, want to overlap an ask with another important fundraising campaign scheduled for that time.
Your donor engagement plan can help you create fewer, targeted communications and engagement opportunities that have an impact.
Include the vision and goals for your donor engagement. Plan outreach or communications (such as holiday cards) you’ll send to donors. You’ll want to inform them about the status of your mission and the impact of their support without asking for donations.
As pointed out earlier, the donor engagement cycle is all about going beyond the ask/solicitation to maintain a relationship throughout the whole donor cycle.
To make sure that happens, consider organizing a non-ask event like a donor appreciation party, an introductory meeting, or a tour of your facility/program location. It is a chance for the donor to hear about your important work.
Such initiatives also make your donors feel like they’re more than just their wallets and set a foundation for a successful donor engagement cycle.
Invite prospects who have already gotten to know your nonprofit to get involved beyond making a donation. You could ask them to participate in a volunteer day or even offer their expertise as an in-kind donation.
Most prospects that you call after an introductory meeting or tour will expect you to ask them for money and will be pleasantly surprised to hear you ask for something else.
Social media has rapidly grown from being a millennial pastime to an essential component of any nonprofit’s marketing strategy.
Whichever platform you choose to share content on, it should be relevant to your mission and audience. Think about informative, entertaining content like short videos (many nonprofits have found success on TikTok!) and blog posts.
A key part of any successful social media strategy is a mix of engaging posts and conversation starters (instead of a stream of donation appeals). Dedicate a major chunk of your social media strategy to recognizing donors, fundraisers, and volunteers to boost social proof while showing gratitude at the same time.
Phone calls are as personal as it gets when it comes to donor engagement. If done well, donors will feel valued and respected. Furthermore, phone calls often result in larger gifts.
Personal outreach like this can help increase your current donor base, get lapsed donors back on board, convert one-time donors into monthly donors, and more. If you choose to solicit and/or cultivate donors over the phone, ensure your fundraisers are well-prepared, skilled, enthusiastic about your organization, and willing to make the ask.
Thanking donors not only encourages the existing donors to keep giving but it shows you care about your supporters. Having a system in place will ensure you never miss out on an opportunity to properly recognize donors.
For example, you could schedule donor thank-you phone calls into your team’s calendar every week or organize a thank-a-thon, an office-wide event where you can spend a whole day calling donors to thank them.
You can also incorporate major donors’ names into print publications, such as event brochures or your annual report.
Engaging donors requires comprehensive tools to track donor communications, accept all kinds of donations, and know the right time to reach out.
Donorbox has helped over 80,000 organizations raise more than $2 billion with powerful fundraising and donor management tools. With a checkout that’s 4x faster than the competition, Donorbox donation forms have a whopping 22.6% conversion rate, turning more prospective donors into confirmed donors.
Donorbox’s donor management tools help you segment and sort your donors for a more solid engagement plan. Plus, record communications in each supporter profile so you never forget your donor conversations and can maintain strong relationships.
Learn more about all of our features andsign up to start engaging your donors better!
Start Fundraising with Donorbox
It’s vital that you have a donor database that can capture and visualize your donors along with relevant data – allowing your fundraising team to take appropriate action.
Below are some examples of potential donor engagement signals that fundraisers should be on the lookout for:
And more. Naturally, it’s important to go into measuring donor engagement with a clear goal, knowing exactly what type of engagement you’re looking for. Do you want to improve your newsletter open rate or would like to see more of your followers liking and sharing on social media? Whatever your objectives are, clarity will help you get the results you want.
Pro tip: Be sure to set a SMART goal. Download our free SMART Goal Setting Worksheet to get started!
You’re never finished nurturing a donor. As donors become more engaged with your organization, they continue to be upgraded, whether that’s in their giving, involvement, advocacy, fundraising, or volunteering.
The goal is to create real, robust relationships that will support your nonprofit with resources, donations, and more throughout the life of your donor.
By using these guidelines and tips, you’ll not only better be able to tailor your donor solicitation and engagement to their personal preferences – you’ll also show them you truly want to build a relationship with them. And people give to people.
Choose Donorbox as your donation system and check out our Nonprofit blog for more nonprofit resources and tips. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest resources in your inbox every month.
Raviraj heads the sales and marketing team at Donorbox. His growth-hacking abilities have helped Donorbox boost fundraising efforts for thousands of nonprofit organizations.
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