Boost Your Donor Retention with These 6 Strategies

Donor retention is a common challenge for nonprofits, especially in uncertain economic times where there’s tremendous competition for every dollar. Organizations must work hard to preserve their existing revenue stream, which means increasing or sustaining donor retention.

Your donor retention rate is how many donors will give to your nonprofit more than once. A high donor retention rate means you maintain your donors over time, and a low donor retention rate reflects many lapsed donors. 

Your organization invests a lot of time into recruiting each donor, so encourage their continued participation and giving. With better retention rates, there’s less need to keep pace by identifying new donors or capturing more significant contributions. These six donor retention strategies can help your nonprofit increase donor retention and raise more money.

How Do you Calculate Your donor Retention Rate?

Road mapping an effective donor retention strategy means knowing your starting point and how to calculate donor retention rates.

Divide the number of year-one donors by the amount of year-two donors, then multiply the total by 100 to determine your retention rate.

1. Segment Your Donors to Create Tailored Content

Segmenting your donors means reaching the right audience with the most relevant information. When you understand what matters to your donors, you can communicate with them in a way that will resonate and prompt action.

Organize your donors in your database based on similar characteristics, such as:

• Engagement history
• Engagement level
• Gift type or frequency
• Demographics like location, gender, and age

Some examples of focused outreach through donor segmentation include:

• Sending a calendar of volunteer opportunities to donors who volunteer frequently.
• Communicating with younger donors through social media and reaching out to older donors through direct mail.
• Encouraging lapsed donors to donate again while building relationships with regular donors.

2. Improve Your Communication

Your organization can’t completely control when, why, and to whom donors contribute. Their actions and motivations may change over time depending on their circumstances and values. Yet, you can control and leverage your messaging to them for better outcomes.

Communicating with donors helps them see the impact of their donations and lets them know what you’re up to. You can use the segmentation mentioned above to create tailored communications, but even giving broader updates is a great way to keep donors engaged. Those who feel an ongoing connection to your mission are more likely to become repeat donors.

3. Give your donors varied giving options

Set up multiple ways for your donors to contribute to your nonprofit to improve your donor retention rate. Several giving methods create more donation opportunities and allow each supporter to give the way they like.

Various giving options also keep your donors engaged. For example, donors who use mobile devices may be more inclined to give if you set up mobile bidding opportunities.

Fundraising management features like peer-to-peer fundraising and silent auctions can help you make more donation options available.

4. Use a fundraising and donor management platform

One of the most effective donor cultivation ideas is taking advantage of donor management software. These programs will help you track donor data automatically, which you can use in your fundraising strategy.

For example, the data may show a trend in the chances a lapsed donor contributes again after you’ve followed up. You can take advantage of this information by adjusting your fundraising and marketing strategies accordingly to improve the outcome.

5. Perfect Your Annual Fund

Your annual fund represents unrestricted monies to support your mission and everyday operations. It’s also vital to helping you optimize donor retention.

When you execute an annual fund strategy, you can position your mission as the focus of your messaging. You can also enhance your communication’s appeal through personalization that reminds donors of their giving history. Tailor the timing of your messages to their previous contribution schedules.

These approaches can help foster an ongoing connection with donors and keep your cause top of mind. They also provide an excellent opportunity for storytelling and demonstrating the impact of previous gifts.

6. Ask for Feedback

One of the most effective ways to bolster donor retention is to understand what motivates your givers and what resonates with them. Fortunately, getting those answers can be as simple as asking for them with a survey.

Ensure you reach out in ways donors have indicated a preference for. Be upfront about what you want to know and why. Allow yourself enough time to interpret the results so you can use them to create exceptional experiences or find opportunities to improve.

Stay on Top of Donor Retention with GiveSmart

GiveSmart’s donor management software helps nonprofits save time, raise more money, and boost donor retention. Our intuitive platform offers robust functionality to generate reports, track pledges, and monitor retention for actionable insights.

Discover the impact our software can make by requesting a tour today.