Donor fatigue and attrition are two of the biggest challenges for any fundraising campaign. They can reduce your impact, waste your resources, and damage your reputation. But how can you prevent them from happening and keep your donors engaged and loyal? Here are some tips to help you avoid donor fatigue and attrition and increase your donor retention rate.
The first step to avoid donor fatigue and attrition is to know your donors well. You need to understand their motivations, preferences, needs, and expectations. You can use surveys, interviews, feedback forms, or donor management software to collect and analyze data about your donors. This will help you segment your donors into different groups based on their characteristics and behavior. You can then tailor your communication, recognition, and stewardship strategies to each group and make them feel valued and appreciated.
We have to rethink donor engagement; donors are allowed to get fatigued and they may have life and career circumstances that warrant disengaging. Rather than focusing on donor attrition, focus on meaningful ways to maintain and measure long-term sentiment for the organization & its cause. Very rarely are people fatigued by the cause, they get exhausted by how and how often they are asked to donate. Ensure that, even if donors are unable or unwilling to give monetary gifts, that their sentiment stays positive and grows. Creating a philanthropic strategy that is inclusive of non-donors means shifting more resources to the bottom of the pyramid and ultimately rewarding all engagement as much as you reward philanthropy.
Contact reports are a great way to capture more personal insights you gain about your donors after a significant touch point (i.e. a phone call or one-on-one meeting). Your donor management software should have the ability to record these insights.
I encourage fundraisers to listen and learn for milestones happening in their donors' lives (positive or negative). As Emily suggests, put these in your contact report and donor management software. Listen for milestones that have happened in the last 12 months or that are coming up in the next 18 months (death in the family, sale of a business, graduation of first grandchild, new babies, etc.).
The second step to avoid donor fatigue and attrition is to communicate effectively with your donors. You need to balance the frequency, quality, and content of your messages. You don't want to overwhelm your donors with too many or too irrelevant messages, but you also don't want to neglect them or make them feel forgotten. You need to find the right timing, channel, and tone for your communication. You also need to vary the content of your messages and include stories, updates, impact reports, gratitude, and invitations. You want to inform, inspire, thank, and engage your donors.
In my experience, the most effective message to communicate to prospective donors is your *vision*. Many organizations fret that what they have in terms of impact is small and probably not going to be of interest to donors. Make that weakness the selling point! Focus on your vision to expand your impact and ask if your prospective donor wants to help bring it to life. We used this approach with a media client of ours that was looking for donors to support and donate to their news operation - not their current news operation but the news operation they envisioned to tell the stories that were not being told. It worked!
Keep a ready list of non-asking ways that you can communicate. Handwritten notes, copy of an article that you know is of interest (along with a handwritten note), text on an important day where a milestone is happening, etc. And - do some research and learning on the use of video messaging! Marcus Sheridan is a great resource - take his principles and nonprofitize them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76eQ3bmje24
The third step to avoid donor fatigue and attrition is to offer choices and opportunities to your donors. You need to respect your donors' preferences and boundaries and give them options to customize their giving experience. You can let them choose how much, how often, and how they want to give. You can also let them choose how they want to receive information, recognition, and feedback from you. You can also offer them opportunities to get involved in other ways, such as volunteering, advocating, or joining a community. You want to empower, respect, and involve your donors.
It's a great idea, particularly with major donors, to ask them how they prefer to interact - even regarding how they prefer to be invited to give.
Offering different ways to give, such as bequests, securities, life insurances and other types of planned gifts can also help donors feel less fatigued by the more common cash gift solicitations. Often they are unaware that these types of gifts are even an option. Get to know the donor well enough to have these conversations with them and let them guide you through their preferences and wants.
The fourth step to avoid donor fatigue and attrition is to provide value and impact to your donors. You need to show your donors that their support is making a difference and that they are part of something bigger and meaningful. You can use stories, testimonials, photos, videos, or data to demonstrate the outcomes and benefits of your work. You can also use metrics, indicators, or benchmarks to measure and report your progress and achievements. You can also use feedback loops, surveys, or polls to solicit and incorporate your donors' opinions and suggestions. You want to prove, share, and improve your impact.
Consider helping them connect to other causes they are excited about. Help them network. Invite the involvement of their children and other members of the family.
The fifth step to avoid donor fatigue and attrition is to build relationships and trust with your donors. You need to treat your donors as partners and friends, not as sources of money. You need to show genuine interest, care, and appreciation for your donors. You can use personalization, segmentation, or segmentation to address your donors by name, acknowledge their preferences, or highlight their contributions. You can also use recognition, rewards, or incentives to thank your donors, celebrate their milestones, or motivate their actions. You can also use transparency, accountability, or honesty to disclose your goals, challenges, or mistakes. You want to connect, appreciate, and trust your donors.
Dial up your emotional intelligence. Take a masterclass in personality profiles and cultivate a skillset for identifying types and then gearing your cultivation plan to align with those.
The sixth step to avoid donor fatigue and attrition is to nurture loyalty and commitment among your donors. You need to cultivate a long-term and mutually beneficial relationship with your donors. You need to encourage repeat giving, increase giving levels, or upgrade giving types. You can use reminders, prompts, or appeals to stimulate your donors' memory, urgency, or emotion. You can also use loyalty programs, membership schemes, or legacy plans to reward your donors' consistency, generosity, or legacy. You can also use referrals, testimonials, or endorsements to leverage your donors' networks, reputation, or influence. You want to retain, grow, and multiply your donors.
You don't want your donors to flinch when they see you coming! A great way to mitigate this is to join them in play activities from time to time (and when appropriate, of course). Be ready to say yes when they invite you to that fishing trip, to go skiing for a day, to be present at the opening of a new museum they love, etc. Play is a great way to both enjoy your job and cultivate stronger relationships.
Most of the charities established adjust income against their admin and salaries costs. Look for those really charities to spend their time and money to serve the humanity. If I do any charitable work I spend my time and money and leave my reward to the Almighty.
Set a goal of never asking. Sounds weird, huh? But wait……if you want to raise funds funds without asking what must you do? Think about it…… at our college we strategically decided six years ago that we were not going to ask for donations again. In the last six years we have raised more funds each year. The last two years alone we have had our two highest fundraising years ever. What must you do to raise funds if you are not going to ask……stay tuned for more
I would add that most organizations do not realize the immense value of their email lists beyond simply sending emails - which can create donor fatigue if you send them too often. You are better off reaching your donors and prospective donors in different ways, where each approach complements the other. Videos can be an extremely effective complement to email. Imagine being able to target prospective donors on your email list with TV ads - on real TVs, not ipads or iphones -that shares your organization's story. And imagine being able to attribute the impact of that TV ad to actual donations made on your organization's website. This sort of attribution and one to one targeting, using email addresses, on real TVs is possible and effective.