5 ways technology can help retain donors
Howard Lake | 28 April 2015 | Blogs
Many fundraisers focus the majority of their time on donor acquisition. However, given the increased cost of gaining new donors, attention would be better directed to those who are already ambassadors to the cause. Not only does it cost less to retain your current donors, the return on your effort, time and ultimately funds is far greater.
Here are five steps outlining how technology can help you keep your donors and building stronger relationships with them.
1. Measurement leads to understanding
The old adage ‘you can’t manage what you can’t measure’ holds a great deal of truth. Tracking donors who have given to the cause over time, including when and how often they’ve given, is difficult or next to impossible without the right reporting tools in place. CRM systems with customisable dashboards provide your key metrics without the need to search out this information. Being able to analyse what works and what doesn’t is critical to ensuring your efforts are better directed.
2. Personalise your communications
This remains a big trend, not only for commercial organisations but also for the not-for-profit sector. And with good reason; a timely ‘thank you’ goes a long way especially if you’re able to reference previous donations and how the monies have been utilised. When all of this information is kept in a single, centralised CRM, it is effectively creating an ‘audit trail’ of interactions all in one place which can later be used to tailor communications and ensure relevancy.
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3. Choose your medium and timing carefully
All mediums are not equal. Knowing how donors want to connect with you whether it’s by direct mail, email or social media increases the likelihood that they will respond favourably. If they haven’t already specified their preferred mechanism, use your CRM reporting tools to look closely at the conversions by medium and then drill down into the specifics to help inform your reasoning. Along with other data from your system it can help you better target your campaigns – and do more of what works.
4. Engage thoughtfully
Engagement is about genuine interaction with others in a way that makes them feel emotionally connected and a part of your cause. However this can be really difficult to achieve if you don’t have the right information to hand and are not alerted to key insights and opportunities to engage. Think about how you want to connect with your donors; and then look at how your systems can support you in managing this process much more effortlessly.
Connecting with people at the right moment with the right message, encouraging two-way communication brings the whole process to life, helping to create trust between the organisation and donor.
5. Act on feedback
Feedback is critical to fundraising activity. An agile, mobile friendly CRM will enable organisations to be more responsive. Being mobile friendly means your staff can respond instantly, even if they’re “on the go”. Even better, if social media comments can be tracked through your CRM, it means you can respond in real time to people who are talking about you, understanding what they’re sharing and so on.
Rewarding fundraising advocates with personalised communications such as e-shots, direct mail or re-tweets helps to ensure organisations focus on building relationship and retain donors for the long-term.
Rob Barr is Divisional Director for NFP, Access Group.
Image: velcro by Discovod on Shutterstock.com
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.