The Non-profit Donor Engagement Guide

Donor engagement measures how attentive and involved donors are with your organisation.

Donor engagement is the key to donor retention, as engaged donors tend to be happy donors who are actively choosing to stay in touch with your organisation. In order to measure donor engagement, it’s important to keep track of which donors are engaged and which aren’t.

Here’s a list of donor engagement KPIs to keep track of:

• Number of events attended.
• Number of hours spent volunteering.
• Survey responses.
• Social media followers, likes and comments.
• Reposts and shares on articles.
• Years spent as a donor.
• Website visits.
• Email opens and clicks.
• Past patterns of giving.

As you can see, there are many ways to track donor engagement that go beyond monetary support. Donors show they’re engaged by reading your emails, attending your volunteer opportunities, promoting your mission on social media and many other ways.

Keeping track of these donor engagement KPIs gives you valuable insight into the mindset of your donors. For instance, donors who are no longer attending events, ignoring your emails or not interacting on social media may be at risk of abandoning your organisation altogether. Meanwhile, donors who are attending events and engaging online may be ready to increase their involvement.

In order to target donors effectively, you’ll also need to understand where they are in the donor cycle.

The donor cycle includes the acquisition phase when you’re trying to acquire a new donor, the retention phase when you’ve received a gift and are trying to maintain the relationship and the upgrade phase when you’re trying to encourage recurring donors to repeat or raise their donations. Knowing the status of your donors will help you tailor your communications to suit their individual needs.

Avoid generic, cookie-cutter messaging when engaging with your donors. Instead, always opt for personalisation when possible.

In order to send messages that are relevant and personalised to your audience, use segmentation. You can create donor segments based on their demographics, level of engagement, amount donated and more.

Once you’ve established these segments, you can craft personalised, cross-platform content and messaging that would appeal to donors in those groups. Make sure that you use donor names and donation amounts in your communication to further personalise your messages and help donors feel appreciated.

Use segmentation in your email campaigns to target the right audience. For instance, once an event passes, you can send emails to a segmented list of guests who attended to thank them for their time.

Conducting research on your donors will help you to understand why they chose your organisation to donate to — and what keeps them coming back.

Donor research involves gathering donor opinions in their own words. You can gather this research by conducting one-on-one interviews, sending out surveys, sifting through your social media channels and reading online reviews for your organisation.

Gathering donor research is incredibly valuable because understanding why your current donors give in their own words can shape future messaging aimed at attracting new donors.

Donor research through surveys also gives you insight into ways your organisation could improve its events, communication with donors and overall donor engagement plan.

Building trust is vital for donor engagement. Donors need to trust you and your organisation in order to feel comfortable donating.

One component of being trustworthy is being transparent. Share openly about what your organisation is working on and how you’re spending donor money. Keep spending reports updated and make them available on your website to increase transparency. Ensure all the links work on your website so donors are able to find information easily.

Another way to build trust is by creating a solid brand for your organisation. Having a consistent brand image and communicating with a steady brand voice will help donors become familiar with and feel more connected to your organisation.

One of the worst things you can do is contact donors only when you’re seeking money. Donor engagement goes further than simply asking donors to open their wallets. Instead, go beyond the ask by offering value when you contact them.

For instance, keep in touch to donors and invite them to tour your facility or attend a welcome event. Make these events fun and welcoming without asking for more money.

Provide value to your donors when you contact them by sharing industry news, organisational updates or fun community events. It’s also a good idea to send holiday cards and friendly greeting messages throughout the year. When you start to provide value and keep in touch for more than donations, you can build and strengthen genuine relationships with your donors.

To improve donor engagement, make sure that you take the time to thank and recognise all that your donors do for your organisation.

The first step in recognising donors is thanking them immediately after receiving their gift. You can thank them by phone, email or even a handwritten note. You can also show appreciation by featuring donors on your social media channels. Dedicate posts to showcasing donors — with their permission — by sharing short bios about them and why they choose to donate to your organisation.

Listing donor names in your organisation’s newsletter or magazine and creating a donor wall in your office to display their names are other good ways to highlight their generosity and make them feel valued.

Creating a membership programme is a great way to incentivise recurring donations. Your membership programme would be open to select donors who have been contributing for a certain number of years or a certain amount of money.

Once in the membership programme, offer donors member-exclusive benefits to keep them engaged. Examples include members-only newsletters or publications, early-bird event registration, free event tickets and special events or parties throughout the year.

Consider asking what kinds of events and perks your members are looking for through biannual or quarterly surveys. This will make sure your members are happy in the programme and are gaining value from it.

Social media is a fantastic tool for showcasing your organisation’s mission. Use social media to provide updates on important projects, share testimonials and highlight your donors and supporters.

Build a social media strategy that includes a regular cadence of posting high-quality, shareable content such as donor spotlights and event recaps. Mix up your content between photos, videos and infographics.

Social media is also a way to engage with your audience through giveaways. Host a giveaway on your page where followers have the opportunity to win items in exchange for tagging their friends. This raises awareness for your organisation and can bring in new donors while also giving back to your current social media following.

Your website is the primary place where donors will seek out information about your organisation and send in their donations. This means it’s very important to ensure your website is user-friendly.

Follow these tips to optimise your website for users:

• Make sure all buttons on your website work and that they direct visitors to the correct pages.
• Test your site speed and update any slow-loading pages.
• Ensure that your website is mobile-friendly.
• Add a prominent search bar for users to find what they’re looking for.
• Streamline content to avoid decision fatigue.

When it comes to your donation page, offer multiple ways for donors to send payments and set up the page to process the donation in as few steps as possible.

Make donor engagement easier than ever with Salesforce’s Non-profit Marketing solution. This non-profit marketing software gives you a single view of your community so you can create personalised donor experiences, measure engagement and communicate across channels on one convenient platform.