As the years go by, donors’ expectations evolve. For nonprofits looking to connect with their audiences in 2025, this means tailoring your outreach experience to their expectations and centering them in your marketing strategy.
But how can your nonprofit speak to every individual donor? Nonprofits use individualized strategies for forging relationships with major donors. But it’s all too common for mid-level supporters to fall by the wayside. However, with the right strategies and tools, they don’t have to.
In this guide, we’ll explore five ways you can connect with donors by making them the focus of your marketing efforts.
1. Create audience personas.
Marketing to a large, nameless crowd of people is hard. That’s why organizations create audience personas.
An audience persona is a hypothetical representation of a segment of your audience. Nonprofits can create personas by analyzing their data and taking note of commonalities between various supporters. They then use this data to create an imaginary individual who stands in for that group of supporters.
The key information to include in an audience persona is:
- Demographic information. Assign each persona identifiable traits. Give them a name, gender, race, age, marital status, career, geographic location, and any other details that make them feel like a realized individual.
- Goals. What does your persona want to accomplish? This should be more complex than “to donate.” Consider their motivations. Do they want to make a difference in their local community? Do they want a personal connection to your issue? Or are they interested in earning tax benefits?
- Challenges. What prevents the persona from achieving their goals? Commonly, this is a lack of knowledge, resources, or ability.
Persona profiles often have even finer details than this, listing pain points, hobbies and interests, behavioral habits, and more. The idea is to make an individual you can build a nonprofit marketing plan tailored to, which subsequently is tailored to the audience they represent.
2. Incorporate personal data.
Mass messages with an address like “Dear valued supporter” are no longer the standard. This method is ineffective today. Instead, today’s donors want content that’s tailored to them, specifically. You can accomplish this by referencing donors’ personal data in your communications.
For each donor, create a profile that stores key information. Then your messaging tools can pull it into templates with ease. For instance, you might design a fundraising appeal template that fills in a donor’s name, their last gift amount, and a new suggested giving amount that’s 20% higher than their previous donation.
Additionally, you can use personal data to craft a highly targeted omni-channel marketing strategy. The marketing experts at Allegiance Group + Pursuant provide this definition of omni-channel marketing: “Omni-channel marketing is a communication strategy that integrates various communication channels to create a unified, consistent experience for your audience of supporters… This approach focuses primarily on the user experience, addressing your supporters’ preferences and past behaviors.”
In other words, omni-channel marketing considers each supporter’s past interactions with your nonprofit to push them toward their next conversion point. For instance, a prospective supporter might comment on a social media post. You might then send an email inviting them to subscribe to your newsletter. If they do, you could follow that up with a text asking them to donate, followed by a mailed invitation to your latest event.
This level of personalization can be difficult to maintain without the communication and donor tracking tools. But by doing so, you can demonstrate your knowledge and commitment to retaining each specific donor’s support.
3. Make donors the hero.
Storytelling deeply engages people, earning far more donations than facts alone. But when you tell your donors a story, what’s the focus? The language you use in your stories will color how donors see your nonprofit, your mission, and their role in it.
Ultimately, when you tell your supporters a story—unless you plan to do something radical—you have three choices of protagonist, each creating a different impact on your audience. These are:
- Your nonprofit. When your nonprofit is the hero of your story, you’re telling your supporters how important, trustworthy, and good your organization is.
- Your beneficiaries. If your beneficiaries are the heroes, your story provides insight into how specific individuals have been impacted by your target issue.
- Your donors. Stories that make your donors the heroes emphasize the difference individual supporters make. It casts them as the driving force behind your ability to make an impact.
There are times to make your beneficiaries or nonprofit the hero of your story. But donor-centric stories are best to inspire action. Use donor-centric language to explain the role your donors play in your mission, so there’s a strong sense of urgency when you make your fundraising ask.
4. Forge relationships.
New automation tools have changed nonprofits’ ability to reach out to donors. But gifts ultimately depend on supporters feeling a genuine, human connection with your cause. Create a marketing strategy that doesn’t just focus on getting your nonprofit’s message across but on forming lasting relationships that keep supporters invested for multiple years.
Stewarding donors is an ongoing process that starts after donors make their first gift. The goal is to continue engaging donors through messages, involvement opportunities, and invitations to eventually push them toward making their next gift.
Avoid thinking of the relationship-building process as a stop-gap between gifts, and instead think of it as community development. By forging these connections, you build a community of individuals who care about and will advocate for your cause. That leads to real change and increased support as they spread the word.
To steward your donors, you’ll need to keep up-to-date donor profiles and continually use the information you gather there to create targeted, personalized messages and engagement strategies.
5. Say “thank you” in a variety of ways.
Donors want to feel like their gifts matter. You can show them their contributions make a difference by demonstrating your appreciation. While a simple thank-you message can be meaningful, nonprofits can stand out and form connections with supporters by showing their gratitude in new and engaging ways.
eCardWidget’s guide to donor recognition recommends a few strategies you can use to build relationships with your supporters:
- eCards. eCards are digital greeting cards that add an extra spark to the typical thank you email. Rather than just reading plain text, you can pair your heartfelt thank you messages with fun photographs, cute animations, or memorable graphic designs.
- Videos. Record a member of your nonprofit’s team thanking supporters. These videos don’t need to be fancy—a phone-recorded video in a place with good lighting and clear audio should work fine. If possible, include beneficiaries or something that represents your mission in your video. For instance, a nonprofit dedicated to building a community garden might record its video with the garden as the background.
- Appreciation events. Bring your supporters together to build connections with your staff and each other. These events can be virtual get-togethers, casual lunches, formal galas, or any other type of event that fits the occasion. You might even send out eCard invitations to let supporters know about your event!
Alt text: An example appreciation event eCard invitation
Donor recognition strategies are an opportunity to solidify your relationship with supporters who have already invested in your cause. Show them how their support is meaningful. And create opportunities for them to deepen their connection and feel like an integral part of your nonprofit.
Donors want to give to nonprofits they feel a connection to. By centering donors in your marketing, you can ensure they stay interested in and feel appreciated by your nonprofit’s content and communication. To start centering donors, analyze your audience and refine your messaging strategy to put donors’ needs and interests center stage.
Liz Murphy
Liz Murphy is an EVP at Allegiance+Pursuant Group, a direct response fundraising agency and technology company. She has more than 30 years of experience growing digital and integrated fundraising and communications programs for social justice, health, and international relief nonprofit organizations.
Liz is an award-winning copywriter and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences, including ANA, DMAW, Bridge, and NTC. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Direct Marketing Association of Washington Educational Foundation.
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