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Sep 2, 2024
Enhance Your Donor Acquisition Plan With This Nonprofit Checklist
A successful fundraising strategy starts with nonprofit donor acquisition. By understanding your audience, embracing technology, and crafting compelling messaging, you can acquire more donors and further your cause. Read this step-by-step donor acquisition plan to support your efforts in identifying potential donors and cultivating loyal supporters.
1. Segment Your Donors
For a more targeted outreach, it's important to segment your donors. If you're using email, you might label prospects based on the following characteristics:
- Age
- Physical location
- Specific social media platforms
- The best way to reach them
- Their communication style
- Wealth and philanthropic screening indicators such as:
- Donations to other nonprofits
- Real estate ownership
- Nonprofit involvement history
For existing donors, you can segment them using these categories:
- How you initially acquired their information
- The size of their donation
- How frequently they engage with you
- How frequently they donate
- How they like to be addressed
- Their preferred method of donating
- Which events or fundraising campaigns they engage with
- Wealth and philanthropic screening indicators
You can create email lists with specific guidelines and add the names and email addresses of donors and prospects to them. When you better understand your donors and what is most important to them, you can connect with them in a more meaningful way.
2. Set Goals
To successfully secure new donors, your organization needs to establish clear goals. While the exact objectives will vary from nonprofit to nonprofit, a good first step is to pull and compile data from the last five years, paying special attention to your donor acquisition and retention numbers. You might also develop goals for your organization in the next year, as well as mission and vision statements.
Identify the number of donors you hope to acquire and how much money you'll need to raise to progress toward your goal, and then balance that with results from the past. For example, your goal might be improving acquisition conversion rates by 10% and retention rates by 15%. Set a timeline for these goals and focus on achieving them.
Goal setting can be even more advanced, where you target the quality of donors as well as quantity. For example, a more complex goal might be acquiring a smaller number of recurring donors rather than a larger number of one-time donors to help grow your nonprofit in the long run.
3. Craft a Compelling message
The most successful nonprofits use stories everywhere and all the time, whether it's on their websites, in newsletters, or on social media. A compelling storytelling strategy will emotionally engage potential donors and acquire new ones. To do so, think about your donors and what's most important to them.
Humans are hardwired to listen to and be captivated by stories, so incorporate powerful visuals and testimonials you think your target audience would most identify with. Familiarize yourself with the basic structures of stories and character-building to inspire readers to donate:
- Connection: This is where you orient and engage the audience, whether you connect through values or emotions. You'll also introduce the character your story is about. For example, a pet shelter might write about a specific dog.
- Conflict: The conflict is where you show the current situation, how it differs from the desired outcome, and get donors interested in funding your organization. In our example, the shelter might explain its mission of finding new homes for abandoned pets.
- Resolution: Here, you'll demonstrate how your organization and its donors can resolve the main conflict together. The shelter might explain that it can keep finding homes for pets with donor support.
- Call to action: Finally, you'll ask donors to join the story, participate, and make a donation.
A story should work through one character's perspective and experience, focusing on their desires and challenges and exploring the things that prompt them to take action. The character's journey should inspire potential donors to also take action.
Use a multi-channel approach for consistent messaging across your platforms. Just remember to be as genuine, clear, and succinct as possible while staying true to your message. That way, you can acquire more donors by effectively spreading the mission you hope to convey.
4. Measure and Improve
It's vital to measure the success of your nonprofit donor acquisition strategies to help you continuously improve. Create metrics related to your goals or key indicators of goal achievement that are quantitative, qualitative, or both. These metrics will show you whether you've achieved your goals or not. For example, you might measure the following:
- Annual revenue
- Number of donations
- Total people reached
- New donors acquired
- Donor retention rate
- Fundraising return on investment (ROI)
Based on the timeline you set when creating goals, consistently measure and evaluate your progress in real time. Doing this will let you know whether your methods are the right ones for the goals you hope to achieve. If not, make it your goal to continuously improve. Implementing changes based on your measurements will help you acquire donors and reach your fundraising goals.
5. Build Relationships and Retention
While acquiring donors, think about implementing a donor stewardship plan to cultivate long-term relationships with them. You can build on your relationships by expressing gratitude and providing regular updates on how donations are making an impact. You might also create exclusive opportunities for donor engagement and recognition.
You can express gratitude and build better relationships in the following ways:
- Host fun events in attractive venues to draw in new supporters
- Foster networking between staff members and attendees at fundraising events
- Gift attendees with free branded swag or perks
- Send thank you notes following events
- Call or text your donors, depending on the demographic
- Create a special thank you video
When a supporter donates, it's important that your nonprofit acknowledges it. By sending thank you letters, hosting fun events, and regularly reaching out, you show acquired donors that you appreciate their act of giving. When donors feel appreciated, they are more likely to donate again and let others know about your nonprofit as well.
6. Embrace Technology
Nonprofits can acquire donors by leveraging digital tools and platforms. Discover several benefits when you embrace the following technologies:
- Online fundraising platforms: Choose an online fundraising platform like GiveSmart, which features peer-to-peer fundraising, customizable donation forms and buttons, and social sharing options to enhance donor engagement.
- Email marketing campaigns: Email is a great way to segment donors. Segment your email list by donor preferences and behaviors so you can send personalized, targeted messages that resonate most with recipients.
- Donor management CRM software: Donor management software helps make the donor process seamless, encouraging donors to support your organization right from their phones.
- Data analytics tools: GiveSmart's robust reporting tools give you real-time views and a better understanding of your donors, allowing you to gain insight into all your fundraising campaigns from one central pwlace. Our data analytics tools help analyze donor behavior, identify trends, and personalize your outreach efforts to acquire and retain more donors.
- Events: When you host events, you can engage with donors in real time with mobile bidding, text-to-donate, and other tech features. Use these digital tools to showcase your organization's impact.
By embracing technology, you can enhance your nonprofit donor acquisition efforts, reach a broader audience, and develop meaningful relationships with supporters in the digital age.
Partner with GiveSmart to Enhance Donor Acquisition
By following this checklist, you can understand your audience a little better, acquire donors, and work toward retaining them for your nonprofit's success. When you need help compiling data, measuring the effectiveness of your efforts, and furthering your cause, GiveSmart can help.
From easy-to-use retention rate tracking to AI-powered search to donor scoring insights, we are your partner in donor management. Our experts can help you implement your goals and acquire new donors for the success of your organization. To get started, request a demo today.
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