Donor Levels – Why and How to Treat Your 3 Tiers of Donors Differently

When you look at your donor base, what do you see? Do you see a plain filled with stick figures who all look the same? Or do you see a diverse set of people who come from different backgrounds, have different motives driving them to give, and who each want something meaningful from their donation experiences?

If you’re like most fundraisers and nonprofits, it’s probably closer to the second option. And if so, that’s good, because donors are not all the same, and you can try treating them as if they are at your own peril.

The problem is, most nonprofits are not doing a good job treating their donor levels differently in meaningful ways – even though they often want to. This isn’t our opinion or best guess either. It comes from a survey of nonprofit executives and employees in a recent study called A Better Way – a national study of nonprofit leadership and fundraising in a rapidly changing world.

Nonprofit Statistics on Treating Donor Levels Differently

One part of the study asked nonprofits to report on how well they were doing at developing and implementing strategies unique to each level of donors. While we can come up with a variety of donor categories, the study focused on what they termed mass market, mid-level, and major donors.

Here’s what the study found:

Just 6% of nonprofit staff and leadership think their organizations are highly effective at building relationships with mass market donors, and only 11% have a strategy for getting regular feedback from them.

Only 16% say they have a specific strategy for getting feedback from mid-level donors, and only 19% strongly agree they have a strategy for treating mid-level donors differently.

As for major donors – the ones who provide the great majority of fundraising dollars for most large and mid-size nonprofits – 58% of leadership and staff say their nonprofits lack a solid strategy for treating major donors uniquely.

From these stats it’s pretty clear that most organizations are struggling to communicate with all three types of donors in ways that would be most effective and targeted for each group.

Why Is It Important to Treat Each Donor Level Differently?

Imagine a wealthy person who sees a TV ad for your nonprofit on December 30th and decides to make a $100 one-time donation. You don’t know they’re wealthy. You also don’t know if they are open to giving again, or if they intend this to be their only gift for your nonprofit.

How are you going to find out any of this?

You have to ask them.

This is why the study asked about getting feedback from donors at the various levels. Without feedback, you know almost nothing about each donor, other than what their actions indicate. And while that does give you a good place to start depending on the situation, it’s not enough on its own.

You need to develop strategies for treating donor levels differently because the donors at each of these levels are different.

Donors who give $20 think and act very differently about money than donors who give $200, or $2000, or $20,000. These tend to be different types of people in all sorts of ways.

What motivates each one to give at those amounts?

What does someone at each of these levels expect to happen as a result of their giving? What do they hope to hear back from the organization, and when? How often?

The trick here is, just because someone gives more money doesn’t mean they care more about your mission. The only way to determine a donor’s commitment and interest in giving again, increasing their giving, or participating in other ways, is to initiate and sustain ongoing communication with them.

You have to talk to them. And how you talk to each level needs to be different.

How to Communicate with Donors at Each Level

A good starting place comes from an unexpected source – great literature. Those who have studied great storytelling – whether books, films, or other mediums – have identified 12 character archetypes that tend to show up over and over again, particularly in protagonists and other key characters.

The interesting observation about this, made by award-winning fundraising researcher Dr. Russell James and others, is that donors tend to exhibit the same 12 archetypes.

Your donors will tend to pattern themselves after one of these 12 character types:

• Jester
• Lover
• Caregiver
• Everyman
• Innocent
• Ruler
• Sage
• Magician
• Hero
• Creator
• Explorer
• Outlaw

How these donor archetypes affect the way you reach out and communicate with them is worthy of your attention. You can begin with this article on the subject.

Though these archetypes are most powerfully engaged when interacting one-on-one, which means for major donors in most cases, you can still use the traits of each archetype in your communications with other donors. As those donors respond to different types of offers and language, you will be learning very valuable information about what drives these people to give and participate.

Let’s look at some ways to differentiate your communication with the three levels of donors.

Mass Market Donors

Mass market donors could be one-time low-dollar donors or perhaps low-dollar monthly donors. They might show up as a result of fundraising marketing. Or they might give at an event or on something like Giving Tuesday.

What should you do with donors who give at this level?

Target by impact

First, try to determine what motivated their gift. If you use giving levels on your donation pages and printed mailings, it is smart to attach an impact of each gift amount. So, rather than just suggesting fixed amounts of $10, $25, $50, and $100, it’s better to suggest odd amounts like $17.50, $48, and $134, and attaching those to particular impacts.

But even if you use rounded amounts, state what each amount pays for. State the impact. Donors who give according to those amounts may be telling you what they are most interested in affecting through their gift.

A similar situation as this comes up when people give to campaigns that focus on certain needs. The people who respond to that offer have told you they care about those needs enough to give.

This sort of information gives you a place to begin your communication. Send something to each group of donors that gives to particular giving outcomes, certain programs, or specific causes within your overall mission, and speak to that specific aspect of your mission. See if you get another gift.

Target by repeat gifts

Next, are these first-time donors or repeat donors?

Repeat donors clearly care about your mission enough to give again, so they need to hear from you more substantially than just a thank you note. Yes, speak to them about the impact of their ongoing support. This is very, very important. Show them what they make possible.

But also, you can begin offering them other opportunities such as:

• Volunteer opportunities
• Activism opportunities
• Becoming a monthly donor
• Helping raise money via peer-to-peer fundraising or crowdfunding
• Inviting people to events

Thank and Show Impact

Third, yes, you should also be sending thank you notes to all your donors. Send an email to thank them separately from the giving receipt. If you have their phone number, send a thank you text too. And if you can make it happen, send a written thank you note as well.

The gratitude should then be followed by at least one update about the longer-term impact of their gift. As your repeat donors arise from the larger group of one-time donors, you continue doing this to nurture their commitment to your cause.

Mid-Level Donors

Mid-level donors give higher amounts as one-time gifts, or they give monthly. Or both. Few people will send in a $500 donation without giving it some thought. Amounts like this, ranging up to several thousand dollars, are given because this person is touched deeply in some way by your cause.

To communicate with mid-level donors in distinct ways, first develop ways to deliver personalized, thoughtful gratitude.

Phone Calls

The best way to do this is with a phone call, in addition to using email and written thank you notes. The phone call can come from a board member, a fundraiser, a staff member, a volunteer, another mid-level donor, or even the CEO. Board members are great for a task like this, especially board members who don’t like talking to people about giving gifts. These people already gave, and they just need to be thanked.

The conversation delivers great value and demonstrates a high level of appreciation from your organization. And it is commensurate with the amount of the gift.

Printed Newsletter

Your mid-level donors have shown they care a great deal about your mission. These people are thus worthy of a greater investment in outreach. This could be the beginning of a partnership. If you have a printed newsletter, your mid-level donors should be added to the mailing list.

They should receive regular updates about what your organization is achieving and the difference it is making in the lives of people touched by your mission.

Clubs and Societies

The next thing to consider is to create a mid-level donor club or society. Give it a name that echoes some aspect of your mission. If you can make this happen, you might consider making the printed newsletter exclusive to this group, so it becomes a major source of value for giving at this level.

Survey Them

This is the most important item of all. As mid-level donors, they will appreciate being asked their thoughts and opinions about your mission and how much they may want to be involved in it.

You should also survey them about their communication preferences, including but not limited to:

• Preferred channel
• Frequency
• Subject matter

And, you should survey them about their finances. Use surveys to get accurate wealth capacity data. Find out what they’re willing to share about financial assets they own, not just money in the bank. Ask about legacy giving openness.

You don’t want to do all this in just one survey either.

With the fundraising marketing automation from MarketSmart, you can automate much of your email outreach to your mid-level (and major) donors, including surveys.

This is very, very powerful, and it saves your staff tons of time as they try to stay in touch with so many people on a personal basis. This is how you nurture mid-level donors to become major donors – at scale.

Major Donors

Using the survey and fundraising automation approach, how you communicate with major donors – and potential major donors – will arise naturally out of how you communicate with your mid-level donors.

Now, you’ll know how they want to hear from you, and how often. And you’ll find out other extremely valuable information over time, including:

• If and when they’re open to meeting with someone in person
• The parts of your mission they care most about
• What motivates them to give
• Who introduced them to your organization
• Who influenced them to become philanthropic in the first place
• Other ways they want to get involved
• Programs and updates they want to hear about

The best major donor communication is personalized. You want to create individual outreach plans, with customized strategies for each major donor, based on what you know about them.

And the more you let the fundraising automation collect information about each donor, the more effective – and more timely – your outreach will be.

To find out more about how MarketSmart helps you maximize your effective with major donors while minimizing the time your team has to devote to it, see how MarketSmart helps major gift officers.