The easiest way to start a dialogue with your donors.
This is part 2 of our series on what to do instead of #DonorLove this February. Catch the intro and part 1 right here!
Did you calculate your donor retention rate last week? If so, what was it? Were you happy with it?
No matter what you are feeling about your retention, there is a very quick, easy thing you can implement to start a dialogue with your donors as soon as they give.
Why is dialogue the goal?
Before we dive in, why is dialogue with donors the goal?
As nonprofits, we have monologuing on lock. We can monologue all day long. “In 2023, we accomplished X, Y, Z. We served ### of students and created ### opportunities for job placement.” “I want to tell you about little Johnny, who came to us in Kindergarten…” “We are proud to announce…”
We want to have deep relationships with our donors. We want them to understand our mission. We want to buy into it, and feel they are a part of our impact. We want them to come back, year-after-year, through thick-and-thin to keep donating.
We want our donors to have the kind of “stick-around” potential as our true friends and chosen family. And you only come through for your friends in the way we want our donors to come through for us if you talk WITH them, not AT them.
Think about it this way…if you had a friend that kept inviting you out for lunch, coffee, drinks (pick your fav), and then all they did for an hour and a half was talk about themselves; and then when you tried to share anything about you, they walked away.
Yikes…nobody wants to be that person’s friend.
Unfortunately, that’s how we treat our donors. We tell them everything we have going on in our lives, but we don’t create chances for them to talk back.
When I see high-performing fundraising programs, though, they create myriad opportunities for donors to engage and be in relationship with the nonprofit’s work. When donors feel they are a part of the work, they give more consistently. When donors truly understand the value and impact of the work, they give more. And when donors feel like they are valued for not only their financial input, but for their care and commitment, they give more, more consistently, for a long time.
That’s why dialogue matters. To keep donors around, they need to feel valued. And nobody feels valued in a relationship where the other party only talks about themselves.
Start the Dialogue Now
No matter what system you’re using to take donations, it should have a way to send an auto-responder to the donor. If it doesn’t, you’re on the wrong platform! (If you’re looking for a great, free fundraising platform with this feature, I recommend GiveButter or CauseVox. But most of your standard fundraising CRMs have this feature.)
First of all, make sure your auto-responder is engaging and says something meaningful about your nonprofit. Write something that will get the donor excited that they gave. (And I’m telling you right now “Dear Kelly, This email serves as your official receipt for your donation of $ on DATE” doesn’t really get me excited…)
When you go to the settings for the auto-responder, you should see the ability to blind-copy (BCC) someone on the auto-responder. Set that up to BCC the email of someone on your team whose job it is to reply to every auto-responder.
Then, create a template (here’s how to do it on Gmail) that you have at the ready. It should say something like:
Dear DONOR NAME,
I just saw your donation come through, and it made my day. We’re so grateful to have you on our team.
Do you mind if I ask: what inspired you to donate today?
Thanks again!
Kelly
Next time a donation comes in, it will BCC you (or your staff member). Reply to the auto-responder (most CRMs set up these auto-responders so that replies on them go to the donor), and use your Gmail template. Change the donor’s name, and hit send.
You’ll be AMAZED by how many donors will reply and tell you wonderful stories, heart-breaking experiences, and other incredible details about themselves that help you better understand their connection to your mission.
What do I do with that?
Once you start getting these replies, you want to do a couple of things with them.
First, store them in the donor’s account on your donor database so that if you somehow lose access to the email account, you’ve got them somewhere else.
Second, reply back! You started a dialogue, if the donor responded, they are saying they want dialogue. Thank them for their stories, ask more questions, get to know them!
Third, this information helps you better cultivate each individual donor, but as you get more responses, you may see more common threads that help you build a better fundraising program. For example, one client of mine did this and started noticing that a lot of Air Force veterans gave to his organization in memory of Air Force friends that passed away (they are an organization that trains high school students in aviation). Many of these donors felt their gift was a way of passing their friend’s love of flying on to the next generation. This deeper knowledge of their donor base has inspired them to think about ways to more intentionally cultivate Air Force veterans, rather than relying on word of mouth for these well-aligned donor prospects to find them.
