4 New Ways to Motivate – and Keep – Your Donors Today

Alert! Did you know that donors – those wonderful, fickle folks we study, dissect, analyze and love – are shifting their giving patterns yet again?

If you knew what today’s donors are really looking for, and what would prompt them to give – just think of the impact on your fundraising.

How much more could you raise? Check these out so you can weave these points into your communications and marketing.  You’ll see a marked uptick in your fundraising results.

Thanks to researcher Penelope Burk for pointing out these new trends in her latest profile of 2010 donors, just released this week by her consulting firm Cygnus. She studied American and Canadian donors to 42 different nonprofits, and she found that donors are definitely cutting back on the number of charities they support.

If you want to be on donors’ short list of favorite charities, be sure you give them what they are looking for today:

1. Donors are increasingly favoring nonprofits that provide measurable results.

We’ve been seeing this trend for a while but now it’s unavoidable. The question is, are you providing this information to your donors? How are you offering it? And are you making it transparently accessible and easy to find?

Sharing this data builds trust. The more donors trust you the more they are likely to stay with you.

What to do:

• Create a “Your Gifts at Work” web page and make it easy to find.
• Present specifics and numbers about how you impacted the world. Use pictures, charts, graphs to illustrate.
• Celebrate your results in all your communications.
• Be sure your staff and board members know the numbers so they can spread the word.

2. When donors feel oversolicited, they are more likely to stop giving.

Donors have been warning us about this but now we have the hard data. When donors think a charity is asking too often, they are turned off. And they drop away.

What to do:

• Send a monthly stream of news to your donors about your good work.
• Be sure your communication in between solicitations is appealing.
• Don’t ever re-solicit until you first thank your donors and share your results with them.
• You can solicit several times a year, only if you do these other two things first.

3. Donors are now more influenced by lower fundraising costs.

No doubt about it: donors look at the percentage of fundraising and administrative costs as an indicator of efficiency. You want to come across as a well-run organization. Donors want to give to charities that are a good investment; that get a lot out of each dollar. AND donors want to be assured that their gift is not going to get frittered away in overhead or administrative expenses.

What to do:

• Pay attention to your overhead and fundraising numbers before your fiscal year closes and it’s too late.
• Discuss with your CPA or auditor the correct way to classify fundraising expenses.
• Sometimes there are gray areas in how a cost can be tracked. (one thing I learned in B-school years ago – when there is a gray area – take it in your favor.)
• Make it easy for donors to find this information.
• Explain what overhead covers and why investments in fundraising are so important.

4. Donors are increasingly favoring local projects instead of regional or national causes.

I didn’t see this one coming, with all the international disasters that get so much publicity. But it’s true – you are better off if you are serving your local community.

What to do:

• If you are a national organization, emphasize your work at the community level. Send donors information about what you are doing in their own community if you can. Send Ohio donors specific information about the number of people you help in Ohio.
• If you are local, play it up!

Thanks for leaving a comment and sharing your perspective. How have your donors changed? Are you seeing these trends?

Tagged as: case for support, donor communication, donor-centered fundraising, transparency