According to the M+R Benchmarks 2024 report, the retention rate for one-time donors in 2023 was 44%. That means almost half of all one-time donors in 2022 gave again in 2023. However, the retention rate for new donors—those who made their first online gift in 2022—was only 23%.
What explains the gap between retention rates? Many nonprofits struggle to effectively engage new donors, leading to a lack of interest. BWF’s donor experience report even found that some new donors forget that they ever gave in the first place—11% of donors in the U.S. said they stopped giving because they have no memory of supporting the organization.
This guide is designed to help you better engage with your donors to boost annual giving and increase retention rates for all donor groups. We’ll cover:
- What is donor engagement?
- Why is donor engagement important?
- Donor engagement strategies to foster reliable giving
- Work with BWF to optimize your donor engagement strategy
Effectively engaging donors requires building trust with your donor community. The tips in this guide will help you foster genuine, lasting donor relationships to provide mutual benefits to your supporters and your nonprofit.
What is donor engagement?
Donor engagement measures how invested donors are in your nonprofit’s activities. To understand your nonprofit’s current level of donor engagement, you’ll investigate how effectively you capture and maintain donors’ attention and interest.
Donor engagement is also a vital step of the donor cultivation cycle.
What is the donor cultivation cycle?
The donor cultivation cycle, or the donor journey, is the roadmap your nonprofit offers prospective donors to introduce them to your cause, secure their support, and grow their involvement over time.
Donor engagement takes place after you’ve successfully gotten your giving opportunities on prospects’ radars, but before you’ve secured and retained their support. This process applies to both prospective donors and current donors. Ideally, current donors should also go through a cycle of ongoing engagement, donation requests, and stewardship.
Here are the full steps of the donor cultivation cycle:
- Awareness: New prospective donors first become aware of your nonprofit and its fundraising opportunities through marketing channels like email, direct mail, or social media.
- Consideration: Potential new donors learn more about your cause by exploring your website and other communications channels.
- Engagement: Your nonprofit deliberately engages with these prospects by sending personalized outreach in the form of emails or direct mail.
- Donation: Prospects decide whether they want to give to your cause. The ultimate decision of whether or not to donate relies on many factors, but common ones include a belief in your organization’s mission and trust in your nonprofit. A simple, convenient donation process never hurts, either!
- Loyalty: Your nonprofit works on continuously building positive donor relationships so that supporters feel inclined to continue giving to your mission. In this stage, your nonprofit can also strategically upgrade donors who have a higher giving capacity and strong affinity for your mission.
The donor cultivation cycle is about creating a meaningful experience for prospective donors and showing them how their gifts will make a positive difference in your mission.
Measuring donor engagement
How can you measure donor engagement to understand how well your organization is performing in this crucial step of the donor journey? These metrics will help you understand the current state of your donor engagement strategy. Keep in mind that these are just a few ideas, not a definitive list—depending on your organization’s goals, you may choose other data points to track.
- Number of donors at every giving level (small, mid-level, major)
- Number of first-time donors
- Donor retention rate
- Number of leads generated
- Number of referrals
- Number of leads resulting in completed gifts
Measure these key performance indicators before you refresh your donor engagement approach to get a benchmark for your starting point. Then, check in on them regularly, such as once a month, to assess progress toward your goals.
Why is donor engagement important?
As mentioned above, donor engagement is a key component of the donor journey. Without donor engagement, supporters won’t have the crucial context they need to understand how their contributions fit into the larger mission of your organization.
Prioritizing donor engagement offers the following specific benefits:
- Build trust with donors to foster retention. The most recent Give.org Donor Trust Report found that nearly 70% of donors think it is essential to trust a charity before giving. The donor engagement process provides the framework for building trust and providing transparency for donors.
- Boost annual giving. Long-term donors provide reliable support for your nonprofit. The Recurring Giving Report found that the average donor lifetime value for recurring givers is $7,604.17, compared to only $3,620.67 for one-time donors. This demonstrates the value of prioritizing recurring donations instead of just focusing on one-time gifts.
- Turn donors into lifelong advocates. Engaging donors helps create a much more meaningful and fulfilling experience for them. Highly engaged donors can be compelling advocates for your mission, promoting your organization to a wider audience and helping bring in additional new donors.
Ultimately, a robust donor engagement approach helps donors feel a strong sense of fulfillment while providing a reliable revenue source for your nonprofit.
Donor engagement strategies to foster reliable giving
As you build or refresh your donor engagement approach, you’ll need to develop a holistic strategy that prioritizes relationship building. Use these best practices to provide a better donor experience:
1. Develop a compelling case for support
A case for support is the compelling reason you give donors for why they should donate to your cause. You’ve probably created a case for support in the past if you’ve launched a major campaign, such as a capital or comprehensive campaign. Having a clear case for support can also bolster your annual giving efforts by giving your fundraising team a central message to promote to your audience.
According to the Donor Trust Report, these are the top five signals to donors that a charity is trustworthy, along with strategies for incorporating them into your case for support:
- Accomplishments shared by the organization: Share stories and data that demonstrate your organization’s success in working toward your mission. For example, tell donors the number of new homes you’ve built in your community since your organization’s founding to support your mission of providing affordable housing for everyone.
- Third-party evaluation by an independent organization: Highlight credibility markers like your nonprofit’s Charity Navigator rating or your GuideStar Seal of Transparency. These show your audience that your organization has been vetted and approved by a credible, unbiased authority.
- Name recognition: Boost your nonprofit’s name recognition with a consistent branding strategy. Incorporate your unique logo, colors, and typography into all donor communications.
- Financial ratios: Share pie charts that show donors how a high percentage of your nonprofit’s funds go directly toward the projects and programs that power your mission. Publish your financials in an annual report and add it to your website for enhanced transparency.
- Passionate and sincere appeals: Let your zeal for your mission shine through your donor outreach efforts and donation requests. Encourage staff members and volunteers to reach out to prospective donors to share their personal stories and explain their deep connection to your cause.
Store marketing materials related to your case for support, such as charts, graphs, images, videos, and other multimedia elements, in a shared drive or folder. This will make it easier for your engagement team to access these materials and adapt them to different campaigns and audiences.
2. Segment donors to create donor personas
Donor personas are profiles that represent different groups within your target audience. You can create donor personas through segmentation—the process of grouping donors based on shared characteristics.
In the segmentation process, you’ll use your nonprofit’s CRM to filter your audience based on specific traits. Here are examples of criteria you can use to segment your audience:
- Level of engagement: Highly engaged, somewhat engaged, disengaged
- Length of involvement: Long-time and new donors
- Donation amount: Major, mid-level, and small donors
- Donation frequency: Monthly, annually, occasionally, and one-time
- Communication preferences: Email, social media, direct mail, texts, phone calls, or in-person meetings
Segmentation makes it easier to create tailored content for overarching groups, rather than reaching out with generic messaging to all donors. This can help you save time while still providing the personalized experience many donors are looking for.
3. Individualize your outreach
Personalization is key to effective donor engagement, as 72% of consumers report that they’ll only engage with personalized messages. In addition to personalizing content for each donor persona, you should take steps to personalize outreach to each individual.
Communicate with donors and prospects as unique individuals by taking these steps:
- Address donors by name. Messages personally addressed to donors are much more likely to catch their attention and stand out in their inboxes. In addition, sign your communications, whether emails or letters, with a real person’s name. This could be your nonprofit’s executive director, a volunteer, your development director, or anyone else involved in the fundraising process.
- Reference donors’ past involvement, whether through giving, volunteering, or other forms of support. Show donors you’ve been paying attention to their contributions by referencing them in your outreach and providing updates on the impact of their support. For example, you might say “Thanks for your tireless volunteer support for our annual fundraising 5K! With your help, we raised $60,000 to support local families experiencing homelessness.”
- Reach out using donors’ preferred communications platform. You can get this information from your nonprofit’s CRM. See which platforms donors interact with the most. For example, if a donor answers all your phone calls but rarely opens your emails, you can prioritize phone outreach to them.
Donors will respect the time and attention you put into treating them as individuals, strengthening their bond with your organization.
4. Create an annual giving society
An annual giving society is a way to recognize dedicated donors who contribute to your organization every year. You can offer these donors special perks for joining the community, such as:
- An exclusive email newsletter
- A yearly calendar
- A lapel pin or magnet
- Exclusive event invites
You can also distinguish different levels of giving within your society. For example, the University of Georgia’s Presidents Club has bronze, silver, gold, and platinum levels:
5. Invite donors to events
Engaging with donors and prospects in person is critical for an effective donor engagement strategy. Giving donors additional ways to engage with your mission can strengthen their connection to your organization.
Invite donors to attend events like:
- Auction or gala
- Webinar
- Fundraising 5K
- Meet and greet with your organization’s leaders
- Annual giving society events
In addition, prioritize face-to-face donation requests as much as possible—research has found that in-person requests are 34 times more effective than email. Events can be a great opportunity to share in-person donation requests with a larger group. You can also use events to speak with major donors in person and set one-on-one follow-up meetings for a later date to make personalized asks.
6. Encourage donors to volunteer
Like events, providing volunteer opportunities for donors can make their involvement with your organization much more fulfilling and meaningful. Volunteers see the real work your nonprofit does and can engage with your mission hands-on. Plus, according to the Global Trends in Giving Report, 85% of volunteers donate to the nonprofits they volunteer with.
You can also personalize your invitations to volunteer using the information you’ve stored about your donors. For example, you could highlight weekend volunteer opportunities to donors who work full-time. Or, you could spotlight opportunities to volunteer with your mentorship program to donors who were mentees in the past.
Engaging donors in opportunities that speak to their passions will encourage them to continue supporting your organization long-term.
7. Optimize your online content to show impact
High-value web content is increasingly essential to a successful donor engagement strategy. Content marketing is the process of creating comprehensive educational content for your organization’s website to attract your audience and drive leads. This is contrasted with traditional direct marketing methods like direct mail and online ads that your organization pushes directly to audience members.
One study found that content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and can generate approximately three times as many leads.
With this in mind, it’s important to ensure your nonprofit’s website content is optimized for engaging donors, providing them with valuable information, and ultimately, driving greater online fundraising results. In particular, you should optimize elements such as your:
- Blog posts: Ensure blog content is SEO-optimized, robust, original, and user-friendly. Use your blog posts to demonstrate donors’ impact via storytelling and data visualizations, including pie charts, maps, and graphs.
- Online donation page: Facilitate a streamlined online giving experience with a mobile-optimized online donation page that only asks for necessary information, like donation amounts, contact information, and payment details. Include suggested donation amounts and details about what donations will go toward. For example, you could tell donors that a $150 donation helps provide gas for a month for a family in need, while $400 can provide a family with a month of groceries.
- Beneficiary testimonials: Your website should prominently feature the people you serve, with direct quotes, images, and videos showcasing their journeys.
The Nature Conservancy’s website and blog are effective examples of a nonprofit that does content marketing right. The organization uses credible research and stunning photography to help audience members further their understanding of different scientific and environmental topics.
Although the primary purpose of much of this content isn’t to directly drive fundraising, it still helps build the organization’s brand authority and image. As a result, audience members are more inclined to view the organization as credible and reliable, and potentially choose to give because of that.
8. Recruit donors to become brand ambassadors
Recruiting donors to join your brand ambassador program offers mutual benefits. Donors will be able to engage with your mission and your community on a deeper level. Meanwhile, your organization can expand its reach to a wider audience and boost fundraising.
Brand ambassadors can take on roles where they:
- Share your organization’s content on social media.
- Participate in peer-to-peer fundraisers.
- Speak about your organization at events to prospective donors.
Offer a thorough training session so brand ambassadors know exactly what to expect from the program. Provide talking points for ambassadors and branded marketing materials they can use when promoting your organization, such as flyers or links to videos and infographics.
9. Ask for donors’ feedback
Requesting donors’ input shows them that your organization values their opinions. Plus, it can encourage them to think about what drove them to give to your organization in the first place, bringing up positive feelings that can encourage them to continue donating.
Periodically send donors surveys with questions like:
- What inspires you to donate to our organization?
- What programs or projects are you most interested in?
- How convenient is the donation process?
- Do you have a clear idea of how our organization uses donations?
- What is your preferred communication method?
- How often would you like to hear from our organization?
Save each donor’s responses to their donor profiles in your CRM so you can reference them in future engagement efforts.
10. Show your gratitude in personalized ways
As we noted in our donor experience whitepaper, lack of acknowledgment is the second most common reason donors stop giving. However, effective donor appreciation requires not just saying thank you to donors but also personalizing your gratitude messages.
For example, some donors appreciate public recognition, while others prefer to remain anonymous. Here are ways to respect each preference:
- Conduct private recognition via email or phone calls.
- Offer public recognition via social media posts, email newsletter shoutouts, and donor recognition walls.
Your gratitude messages should include the donor’s specific gift amount and information about how their donation will be used.
Looking for an even deeper dive into donor engagement strategies to boost annual giving and strengthen your donor pipeline? Check out our webinar on the topic!
Work with BWF to optimize your donor engagement strategy
If you need support while revamping or building your donor engagement strategy for the first time, BWF can help. Our annual giving and digital marketing services are designed to help your organization stay on the cutting edge of current donor engagement best practices.
We offer a holistic fundraising approach to meet your nonprofit’s needs and help you create a resilient, flexible strategy that can adapt to any challenges or opportunities. Our services include:
- Full-service omnichannel annual giving support
- Annual giving assessments
- Digital fundraising assessments
- Donor segmentation analysis and support
- Donor persona development
- Donor journey mapping
- Donor acquisition and retention support
- Engagement video creation
See how these offerings work in action by checking out our work with a leading children’s hospital. The hospital wanted to increase year-end giving and develop a donor pipeline to support future campaigns. We supported their efforts with donor persona and campaign theme development, a comprehensive digital marketing strategy, and compelling storytelling content.
The result? Year-end giving revenue increased by 51% and the total number of gifts increased by 22%. The team also saw a 25% boost in first-time donors.
Interested in learning more about how BWF can support your organization’s fundraising goals? Complete the form below to chat with our team.
Looking for more resources to support your donor engagement and annual giving efforts? Start here:
- Donor Experience: How to Create Unforgettable Moments. Explore donor experience trends and opportunities to improve the donor experience in this guide.
- 8 Steps to Create a Powerful Annual Giving Campaign. Use this resource to build a powerhouse annual giving strategy for your organization.
- What is Predictive AI? How to Produce Data-Driven Insights. Learn how AI solutions can help produce data-driven intel that enhances your donor relationships.
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