Winning a new donor is always an exciting feat. Your mission has inspired yet another individual to support your cause, and that’s something to celebrate.
However, once you pull in new donors, it’s time to start strategizing how to keep them around. Too few nonprofits focus on donor retention, and the numbers show it.
In 2023, the one-year donor retention rate was a mere 44%, indicating that less than half of donors made a repeat donation to the organizations they contributed to the year before.
To retain donors’ support, you need to segment them as soon as possible and send them relevant messages that encourage them to continue engaging with your nonprofit. In this guide, we’ll provide several strategies for segmenting new donors to ensure they become longstanding members of your nonprofit’s community.
1. Donation Amount
A classic way to segment your donors is by donation amount. When you keep track of how much each donor typically contributes and store that information in your donor management software, you can send more personalized appeals that encourage donors to contribute again and in larger amounts.
Typical segments in this category include:
- Major donors. More likely than not, new major donors don’t just fall out of thin air. You’ve probably curated relationships with them through careful prospect research and cultivation. Due to the size of their contributions, major donors require more extensive communication and stewardship. Thank them greatly and often, invite them to exclusive opportunities, and make sure they’re content. Bloomerang’s major gift guide recommends creating a dedicated major donor team comprised of your executive director, development director, and major gifts officer to ensure these donors receive adequate attention.
- Mid-level donors. Since they fall in the middle of the pack, it’s easy to overlook mid-level donors. However, these donors are extremely valuable to your organization, with over half of mid-level donors contributing to their organization of choice for more than a decade and 89% saying they’re very likely to give again within the next 12 months. Don’t let these contributors fall by the wayside. Show your appreciation for their generosity, and remember that some of them may have the potential to become major donors. Look for opportunities to up their support, and encourage them to do so.
- Smaller donors. Your largest pool of donors will be those who give in smaller amounts. Remember that every contribution counts, no matter how small. Send these donors automated thank-you messages and regular updates on your cause. To help them increase their support, share matching gift opportunities that allow them to double their contributions without reaching back into their wallets.
Segmenting by donation amount allows you to maximize your fundraising results by catering to each group’s giving capacity and propensity.
2. Donation Frequency
Generally speaking, donation frequency is an effective barometer for how often donors would like to hear from your organization. While a donor’s first contribution might not indicate their eventual donation frequency, you should soon be able to put them in one of the following categories:
- One-time donors. Put energy into converting this segment into repeat donors to increase your donor retention rate. Focus on key times of the year when giving peaks, such as the holiday season. After all, in 2023, 34% of online nonprofit revenue from one-time gifts came in December. Capitalize on year-end fundraising opportunities to turn some of these one-time givers into recurring donors.
- Recurring donors. These supporters have shown a clear interest in and commitment to your cause. Make their support worthwhile, and share updates with them according to how often they contribute. For instance, you may create monthly, quarterly, and annual newsletters for donors who contribute on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis.
Monthly giving in particular is becoming increasingly popular, accounting for 31% of all online nonprofit revenue in 2023. Promote the benefits of monthly giving, such as the convenience of setting up recurring donations, the ability to create a larger impact, and any special incentives or perks monthly donors may receive from your organization.
3. Engagement Level
As you continue to interact with new donors, you’ll get a better sense of how engaged they are or intend to be with your nonprofit. Of course, highly engaged donors bring the most value to your organization. Even if they’re not giving the highest donation amounts, their willingness to interact with your nonprofit’s content and activities makes them a valuable part of your nonprofit’s community and helps raise awareness of your cause.
To move donors up the engagement ladder, separate them into the following groups:
- Highly engaged donors. Ideally, donors will be highly engaged with your nonprofit, which may look like frequently opening your emails, attending events, volunteering, or interacting with your social media posts. Help them keep up this level of engagement and deepen their involvement by introducing exciting opportunities. For instance, you may give them early access to register for your events, ask them to become social media ambassadors for your organization, or invite a select few to become board members.
- Moderately engaged donors. Help these donors realize their potential to be highly engaged supporters. Send them interactive content that makes them excited to engage with your organization, and acknowledge their contributions. See if they’d be interested in a more structured engagement opportunity, such as enrolling in your membership program.
- Low engagement or unengaged donors. Invigorate unengaged donors with personalized engagement opportunities. Send them surveys to learn more about them, how you can cater to their interests, and how to best connect with them. Then, start small by inviting them to follow your social media accounts or explore a new section of your website, and work your way up from there.
Some nonprofit CRMs will even provide an engagement meter to help determine how engaged each donor is. This feature can help you identify donors who may be interested in additional involvement opportunities.
While the goal is to get as many donors as possible into that highly engaged category, it’s also important to respect your supporters’ wishes. Adhere to their communication preferences to avoid bombarding them with unwanted messages and losing their support altogether.
4. Acquisition Channel
How donors found your organization and ultimately landed on your donation page can tell you a lot about how they’d like to engage with your nonprofit. Common touchpoints that ultimately convert donors include:
- Events. The in-person experience of meeting others who are passionate about your cause can turn attendees into donors. Use your event management software to keep track of and acknowledge their past attendance, and invite them to future events to keep them engaged.
- Social media. Social media is one of the easiest ways for potential donors to find your organization and ultimately make a contribution. Continue engaging with these supporters online by sending them digital communications and introducing them to exciting online donation opportunities like text-to-give and peer-to-peer fundraising. Qgiv’s peer-to-peer fundraising guide explains how this strategy helps you find new donors using current donors’ networks and keeps previous donors engaged by giving them a chance to volunteer on behalf of your cause.
- Direct mail. Some potential donors will be receptive to the physical representation of your cause that direct mail provides. Continue communicating with them via direct mail to share important updates, invite them to events, and make additional fundraising asks.
Although donors may have found your organization through a certain channel, confirm they’d still like you to contact them using that strategy. Send them surveys periodically so you can continue to provide them with relevant opportunities.
5. Demographics
While it’s important to ask donors directly how they’d like to engage with your organization, their demographics can be a key indicator of their communication preferences or the messages they’d like to receive. Consider segmenting new donors by demographics like:
- Age. Younger and older donors may have different communication preferences, with younger donors tending to prefer digital tactics like email and SMS and older donors favoring traditional methods like direct mail. Additionally, older donors may have higher giving capacities, but you should back up this assumption with substantial wealth data when making your fundraising asks.
- Location. When you know certain donors are local to your area, you can invite them to events and volunteer opportunities in your community. You can also provide virtual opportunities for those outside your region.
If you don’t already have this information in your database, consider conducting a data append to learn more about your supporters. That way, you can create more in-depth supporter segments and provide them with more targeted opportunities.
New donor segmentation
Segmentation makes clear, effective, personalized communication possible. When you take this step to improve your communications strategy, you’ll build genuine relationships with new donors that ingrain them in your nonprofit’s community for the long haul.
Author: Jay Love
Co-Founder and current Chief Relationship Officer at Bloomerang
Jay has served this sector for 33 years and is considered the most well-known senior statesman whose advice is sought constantly.
Before founding Bloomerang, he was the co-founder and CEO of eTapestry for 11 years, which at the time was the leading SaaS technology company serving the charity sector. Jay and his team grew the company to over 10,000 nonprofit clients, charting a decade of record growth.
He is a graduate of Butler University with a B.S. in Business Administration. Over the years, he has given more than 2,500 speeches around the world for the charity sector and is often the voice of new technology for fundraisers.
Whydonate says
¡Gran post sobre segmentación de nuevos donantes! Tus consejos para personalizar las comunicaciones son increíblemente útiles para construir relaciones sólidas desde el principio. ¡Esto definitivamente ayudará a las organizaciones sin fines de lucro a involucrar a sus nuevos seguidores de manera más efectiva! https://whydonate.com/es/blog/segmentacion-eficaz-de-donantes/