Donor Retention Matters: Here’s How to Increase It

As a nonprofit, donors play an important role in the success of your organization.

But every year, it costs more to obtain new donors, and in 2017 it was estimated that donor retention was only 45%.

So how do you adjust your strategy to really focus on donor retention?

First, you need to build relationships that inspire them to continue to give and be a part of your organization’s success.

Join us for a free webinar: Create a Successful Email Marketing Plan for Your Nonprofit in 15 Minutes or Less.

Start with communication

Stats show that over half of donors say they stop supporting an organization due to poor communication. Email marketing can be used to entice donors to give as well as continue communication after the donation to further build the relationship.

Donors need to know how their donation is being used and feel good about giving their hard-earned money. That’s why you should send timely, relevant emails that keep them engaged.

As a nonprofit, the task of keeping in touch with donors can seem daunting and time consuming – but it doesn’t have to be.

Save time with email automation

Email automation is a way to automate the process of email marketing to save you time and effort. With Constant Contact’s autoresponder tools, you can trigger a series of automatic multiple emails or even single, yearly emails to your donors. These emails will help you build connections that increase donor retention without taking you away from the other tasks that need your attention throughout the day.

Here are some ways you can use these tools to a communicate with your donors in a timely manner and build relationships:

Autoresponder series

After a donation is the time to show your gratitude. A couple of weeks ago, I shared some information on how you can use autoresponder for your nonprofit. In the article, I shared the formula for an Onboarding Series that can be used to follow-up after someone makes a donation. You can use this type of series to say thanks and provide information that makes them feel great about giving.

Think about including a video and images that show how donations are being used. Ask for a review of your organization or ask about their donor story. Ask them why they chose to give, in turn their response can be used to help you inspire new donors to give to your organization.

Birthday emails

Another valuable tool within automation in Constant Contact is the ability to trigger yearly birthday and anniversary emails. These emails will send in relation to the birthday and anniversary field that’s listed for each of your contacts.

Set-up birthday emails to send to your donors and make them feel extra special. Let them know how important they are to your organization.

Anniversary emails

You can also implement anniversary emails that are triggered to send every year on the date of their first donation. Use this as a reminder to thank them for their past donation and encourage another yearly donation.

This email tactic is also a great opportunity to ask them to spread the word about your organization and cause. Provide easy instructions and ask them to share your organization’s social media page with all of their friends and followers.

Best practices

In order to increase donor retention, it’s important to implement these emails in a way that feels personal. Here are some ways you can make automated emails feel personal:

Use their name – Add a greeting to your email.
Personalize the subject line – Try adding their name or other contact details to the subject line to entice them to open the email.
Add contact details – Where appropriate, add a custom field in the body of the email to show their last donation amount and challenge them to up their donation.
Send targeted emails – For those of you that accept different levels or different types of donations, segment your list of donors so you can send more personalized and relevant automated emails.

Get started today

Now, you’re ready to set-up automation for your nonprofit. Implement these ideas and best practices to improve donor retention for your organization. You’ll save time and communicate in a way that builds great relationships.

Take some time to set-up your automated emails today!