Segmenting your donors makes it easier to target them with the most relevant, personalized messaging and cultivate lasting relationships. Below, I’ll explain how to segment your donors and share the benefits of this technique, along with seven key segmentation strategies.
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Did you know that personalized emails result in 82% higher open rates compared to generic emails?
Segmenting your donors helps you craft highly relevant, personalized messaging that increases engagement and retention over time.
Below, I’ll explain why you should use donor segmentation and how to segment your donors for the best results.
Below are some of the benefits of segmenting your donor base:
Let’s look at the process of segmenting your donors.
Now, I’ll share seven strategies for segmenting your donors.
One of the most popular ways to segment donors is to group them according to gift amounts. This allows you to tailor your outreach based on how much specific groups of donors have given in the past.
Here are some category suggestions for segmenting by donation amount:
Using a CRM with robust segmentation capabilities enables you to group donors based on set criteria.
For example, see how Donorbox CRM‘s Lists feature lets you create highly relevant dynamic lists based on donors’ giving amounts:
Elevate Your Outreach with Donorbox CRM
Dynamic lists refresh automatically as supporters meet your predefined criteria, so lists stay up to date for future outreach and appeals.
Pro tip: After you finish segmenting, ensure your messaging supports the amount the person gave. If your records show that the most a donor ever gave at once is $75, a $200 ask will almost certainly be off-putting.
Instead of only segmenting by the amount of a donor’s gift, group people based on how often they give using the RFM model for recency, frequency, and monetary.
Create five categories for each group and score each donor numerically:
Recency (of donation):
Frequency (number of donations per last 25 solicitations from the organization):
Monetary value (of total donations across the chosen period):
Keep in mind, the categories used for the monetary value metric will vary depending on your donors’ giving patterns. Once you have these three groups, focus on the highest-scoring donors.
To segment by age, you’ll need your donors’ dates of birth.
Categorizing your donors by age is a great technique if you heavily rely on social media for marketing. For example, 62% of Facebook users belong to Generation Y — also known as Millennials — and Gen Z.
Here are some age-specific categories to consider creating:
Use a donor management tool such as the one offered by Donorbox to segment donors by age, as shown below:
Most nonprofit contact lists feature people with varying associations with the organization.
Here are some examples of broader donor types:
When segmenting, define these groups as accurately as possible, then adjust your messaging accordingly.
Pro tip: Take timing into account when applicable. For example, it probably isn’t wise to ask your annual gala donors for money during the rest of the year. Instead, ramp up your appeals a couple of months before the event.
Knowing which tone to take with donors can be tricky. You want to build meaningful connections without seeming invasive. That’s why relationship length is another type of segmentation.
Your relationship with a donor is a journey, so remember to adapt your content over time.
The segments you create might be:
Pro tip: Be particularly careful with the language and tone you use when creating messaging for each segment. It must be appropriate for the length of time the donor has been associated with you and should feel authentic.
One of the easiest ways to nurture a relationship with your donors is to ask them how they prefer to hear from you. Follow those requests to segment donors based on their communication preferences.
Here are some suggested segments:
When you proceed with this segmentation strategy, keep in mind that some people may change their preferences over time.
Always let donors know how they can change their communication preferences, and update your database accordingly.
Most of the segmentation suggestions covered so far assume you’ll use them to ask for money. However, it’s possible to create segments associated with your donors’ volunteer activities.
Here are some potential segments:
The RFM model can be adapted and applied here by substituting the money contributed element with time offered. This helps you narrow down which volunteers to target by identifying who’d be most likely to pitch in.
Looking for more ways to increase donor retention through powerful segmentation strategies?
Tune into this webinar, where Donorbox’s Education and Communication Engagement Manager, Jena Lynch, joins international fundraising consultant and coach, Morgan Cross, to explore key donor segmentation strategies.
Segmenting your donors is a powerful technique that can strengthen donor retention, increase engagement, and ultimately bring in more mission-fueling support.
Seamlessly integrated into the Donorbox platform, Donorbox CRM helps you cultivate lasting donor relationships, track every donation, segment donors in real time using clean data, and increase engagement with built-in email marketing and automation tools – all from one centralized platform.
For more donor management and fundraising tips, check out the rest of the Nonprofit Blog.
Donor/audience segmentation is the process of grouping donors based on key similarities or characteristics, like demographics. This makes it easier to target each group with the most relevant, personalized messaging to increase engagement, retention, and donations.
While segmentation can be done using various metrics, here are some of the main categories for creating segments:
CRMs like Donorbox CRM offer real-time, automated donor segmentation tools. Features like Dynamic Lists allow you to group donors based on key characteristics, with lists updating automatically as supporters meet predefined criteria to ensure up-to-date list maintenance. Its built-in Email Marketing tool also lets you build custom email and drip campaigns, while automated workflows help you reach donors at just the right moment.
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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