By guest blogger Abby Jarvis
Communications Coordinator, Qgiv

Modern fundraisers are connected to their donors now more than ever. Social media and the internet give you a first-hand look into your supporters’ likes and dislikes while other fundraising tools can automate processes and send messages to your entire donor base within seconds.

However, with an increased dependence on digital solutions, only fundraisers with a comprehensive knowledge of their tools can truly leverage them and engage their donors. What does it take to connect with your donors past just images on a screen and words in a database?

As nonprofits plan their next fundraiser, some turn to consultants and agencies (like Allegiant Direct) for marketing services in order to get their donors excited and connect with them in meaningful ways. When your donors are fully engaged in your fundraiser, they’re more likely not only to give more, but to feel closer to your mission and emotionally invest themselves in your work. These are the donors who are the most effective and passionate advocates for your cause.

Take a look at your current fundraising solution and get a sense of whether you’re taking advantage of every opportunity to further engage your donors. Consider the following top tips and best practices:

• Motivate your supporters.

• Equip donors with a convenient mobile app.

• Encourage social sharing.

• Promote community building.

Donor engagement efforts don't just correlate with the success of your current fundraiser. According to Qgiv, donor retention efforts are much more cost-effective and beneficial than donor acquisition, so engaging your donors now sets you up for future success. Engagement strategies have long-term effects and can provide the foundation for life-long giving. Let’s get started!

Motivate your supporters

Fundraising campaigns, though stressful, are some of the most exciting parts of working for a nonprofit. This is the moment where you and the rest of your team accomplish a goal and make a genuine difference for your cause. It’s also an exciting time for your donors as they’re getting involved in something meaningful.

Get your supporters amped up for your upcoming fundraising initiative! As you’re planning your campaign, consider some general ways to engage them in the fundraising process. The following tips will supplement most fundraising campaigns:

• Send top donors exclusive deals like event ticket discounts. This not only gets them excited for the event but can incentivize them to actually attend.

• Offer public recognition for high-impact donors. Maybe even reference generous gifts in a nonprofit newsletter or give them a shoutout in social media.

• Always send thank-you donation letters as soon as a gift is made. The top way to lose donors forever is to not thank them after they make a gift. For your top donors, consider sending a handwritten letter.
  

Donors like to give to your cause, but they also like to feel appreciated. By giving back in the relationship, you set the stage up for future giving.

Equip donors with convenient mobile solutions

Depending on your organization and the type of fundraiser you’re running, a great way to further engage your donors is to provide solutions and perks that meet them where they already are: Their mobile phones.

Taken from a study done by the PewResearch Center, it’s estimated that over 5 billion people have mobile devices, with over half of them owning smartphones. Offering tools that are accessible from mobile devices empowers your donors to give and engage with your fundraiser from the convenience of wherever they are.

Consider the following situations and how a mobile fundraising solution can elevate the experience:

• Auction fundraising. If your organization often hosts auctions, providing a mobile bidding app can optimize the entire experience for your guests. Within the app, donors can peruse auction items, easily bid on items, and pay for their winnings in a smooth and seamless process.

• Time-sensitive fundraising. There are some campaigns and fundraising efforts that are extremely time-sensitive because they’re responding to an event. This happens often after natural disasters or other large scale incidents. In this situation, it’s a good idea to open up a text-based fundraising channel so that donors can give on the go.

• Faith-based consistent fundraising. If you help run a faith-based organization, there are some giving tools out there that can facilitate collecting smaller, frequent payments. For example, there are church giving tools that help process tithes and other gifts.
  

Offering a mobile app or text fundraising is a convenient solution that almost any donor can use. Engage your donors in your upcoming fundraiser—no matter what it is—and reach them anywhere.

Encourage social sharing

A great way to supplement any type of fundraising effort is through social media! Social media isn’t just good for expanding your outreach! It can also help you engage your donors and get them excited about your work.

Did you know that on average, a person has 7.6 social media accounts? On top of that, the most popular social media platforms are all free and make it easy for your audience to engage with you.

To encourage social media engagement and get your donors to “follow” you, make sure you:

• Get a good sense of which platforms your donors are most active on and begin increasing your activity on those channels.

• Consistently post interesting content. Post a mix of non-ask content, exciting organization updates, upcoming events, and project accomplishments in addition to fundraising asks. All perform well on social networks.

• Include social sharing buttons on your emails, website, and other literature. You can even put a graphic icon on your direct mail!
  

You can also host a social fundraising campaign and recruit your top supporters to fundraise on your behalf. Many nonprofits plan peer-to-peer campaigns with their supporters on various social media platforms. This doesn’t just get donors excited about raising money to support your work; it also helps them feel empowered and connected to your cause.

To motivate your peer-to-peer campaign volunteers, some platforms and tools will let you:

Include a public scoreboard and encourage volunteers to compete! See who can raise the most money and share successes on social media.

Post a fundraising thermometer so people get more and more excited the closer you are to reaching your goal.

Put your volunteers in teams to encourage them to engage with each other and also compete to be a top fundraiser.

This article states that choosing the right peer-to-peer platform is extremely important. Ensure you can customize each volunteer’s fundraising page and effectively track donations from one place. Make sure you invest in the platform that’s best for you.

Promote community building

On top of increasing engagement between your organization and your donors, consider ways you can also provide a space for them to engage with each other. Fostering a community for your donors will not only keep them invested in your mission, but it also builds a sense of camaraderie and loyalty. This is a great recipe for life-long supporters.

Encouraging your donors to engage with each other can be tough, especially if they come from all walks of life and live in different areas. However, there are some tips you can follow, especially if you have a fundraiser coming up in the works:

• Equip your donors with fun shirts. If there’s one thing people always love, it’s merchandise. Whether you’re repping your own school or a tv show you love, there’s a huge sense of camaraderie when you see someone else wearing the same thing. With one glance, you know that you share a passion and a commonality. If you use Bonfire, you can even use your merchandise to fundraise further by selling it to other supporters.

• Build a community on Facebook. Do you have a group of committed donors who would benefit from engaging with each other? Try creating a Facebook group where they can interact with each other and your staff! This is especially useful when you have named groups or clubs for donors who give at a certain level or support specific restrictions or programs.

• Keep donors updated with achievements. To get donors excited and proud of their community’s work, you should send them updates on your campaigns. However, don’t over email your attendees and annoy them! A good idea is to utilize your donor database to create comprehensive reports. This way, you can let donors know how each campaign goes based on actual, concrete numbers.
  

While supporting your cause is enough reason to donate to your nonprofit, being a part of its genuine and passionate community is also a huge motivator for a lot of donors. It not only gives donor’s pride in their actions, but they’ll feel compelled to continue supporting your cause for the foreseeable future. It’s a great feeling knowing you have accomplished something together and made a real difference.

While you and your team work incredibly hard to plan the best fundraiser and reach your goal, you still have to think about your donors. Consider the top ways you can engage them and get them excited about your mission. Good luck!

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Abby Jarvis is a blogger, marketer, and communications coordinator for Qgiv, an online fundraising service provider. Qgiv offers industry-leading online giving and peer to peer fundraising tools for nonprofit, faith-based, and political organizations of all sizes. When she’s not working at Qgiv, Abby can usually be found writing for local magazines, catching up on her favorite blogs, or binge-watching sci-fi shows on Netflix.

By Wayne Gurley
President & Creative Director

As I write this, schools around the country are closing, events are being cancelled and people are self-quarantining due to the coronavirus.

It seems everyone will be affected, including fundraisers.

And yet, the impact on your organization doesn't have to be as severe as it might be, especially if you use direct mail, email, social media or recorded telephone calls.

The important thing is not to completely cancel your fundraising activities. Like a big freight train, a fundraising program is easy to stop, but more difficult to get cranked up again running at full speed.

According to consultant Jeff Brooks, "cancelling is the 100% sure way to seriously damage your fundraising revenue."

You can read his full post here: The way COVID-19 WILL destroy your fundraising -- if you let it

Jeff says, "Fundraising you don't do is guaranteed zero revenue. It's also lost opportunity that you can never get back."

If you are a medical or health organization, you may have an opportunity to raise funds for needed supplies - like masks, gloves, testing kits and protective clothing or treatment protocols.

Think of ways you might use this situation appropriately to let your donors know their help is desperately needed.

Art and culture organizations will experience a drop in income due to cancelled shows and events. You could ask donors to help "keep you going" until things return to normal.

Cash flow for arts and culture groups is always a big challenge anyway. It could make the difference between future existence or non-existence.

Jeff continues: "If you face increased program costs and/or drops in revenue, let your donors be heroes and help you get through it. Do fundraising about it. This is one of those moments where you can help your donors really feel good about making a difference when times are hard."

Here's more info from the Moceanic blog: COVID-19 and Your Cause.

© 2020 Allegiant Direct, Inc.

Guest post By Leigh Kessler – VP, Marketing & Communications
CharityEngine

Donations are key to achieve your nonprofit’s mission. Of course, you also have funding sources such as grants, but donations are what ultimately keep your nonprofit going.

So why wouldn’t you work to maximize these donations?

There are some tried and true fundraising appeal strategies designed to help nonprofits like yours earn more. That’s why we’re writing this article: to communicate some of these strategies and help nonprofits achieve their missions.

The 5 fundraising appeal strategies we’ll cover in this article include:

1. Prominently display your nonprofit’s mission.

2. Segment your donors into relevant groups.

3. Show the impact of your organization.

4. Display impactful visuals on your donation pages.

5. Promote matching gifts.

Ready to learn more? Let’s get started!

1. Prominently display your nonprofit’s mission

When your nonprofit asks for money from your donors, especially using digital resources, it’s important to make sure your donors know exactly what it is their money is going towards.

Displaying your mission in a location where it’s easy for donors to learn the core values of your organization and feel driven to contribute.

Therefore, the steps you should take in order to best communicate your organization’s mission are as follows:

1. Make sure your mission statement is well written. Appeal to the emotions of your supporters while accurately communicating exactly what it is you’re trying to achieve and why that’s important.

2. Consider the platforms where your statement should be written. The first place on which you should make sure your mission is prominently displayed is your website. Then, make sure it’s on your direct mail, newsletter, and other marketing documents.

3. Make a connection to fundraising. In the locations where your mission statement is written, make sure to include a call-to-action so that your supporters know exactly how they can give to help achieve that important mission.

4. Take, for instance, your nonprofit’s website. Write your organization’s mission statement on the home page or the about page so that it’s easy for supporters to find. Then, include a button nearby that leads to your donation page. This button may say “Donate Now!” or “Give Today!”

Making this connection between your nonprofit’s website, mission, and donation page is most effective when you have software that also connects the various aspects of your digital presence. It leads to a smoother transition from your supporters’ sparked interest in your mission to their research to their actual contribution.

To learn more about the advantages of a fully connected, nonprofit-specific software solution, check out CharityEngine’s fundraising platform.

2. Segment your donors into relevant groups.

Segmenting donors is standard practice for an effective nonprofit marketing strategy. It can help you save money on direct mail, send emails to the most relevant audiences, and make sure you’re sending the right message to the most appropriate supporters.

Why would you send a letter to someone who won’t even open it? Or why would you send a message that isn’t relevant to the reader? Not only will these practices waste valuable time and money for your nonprofit, but they’ll also devalue your messages to those people. If they’re not interested in one message, they’re more likely to ignore the next and assume it’s also irrelevant to their interests.

That’s why it’s important to hit the mark every time when it comes to your fundraising appeal outreach. Segmenting your donors into groups based on common features saved in your donor database ensures your nonprofit will appeal to the interests of those donors in your communications. For example, consider dividing up donors based on:

• Preferred giving platform. When you know supporters prefer giving through a certain channel (take, for instance, online giving), you will reach out to them and connect them directly to that channel. It makes their lives easier and it saves your organization time.

• Historic giving campaign type. Check out the types of campaigns donors have given to before. Was it a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign? Crowdfunding? Event? The next time you launch a campaign, reach back out to people who have given to the same type before.

• Donor interests. When you’re writing your fundraising appeal to donors, make sure you consider their interests. What drives them to give? What have they indicated to your team that they enjoy? Leverage this information to ensure they take an interest in your message to them.

Sending messages that target the specific interests of your donors makes them more personal in nature. It makes it something supporters want to pay attention to. However, don’t forget to take an additional step toward personalization when it comes to your appeal outreach.

Choose nonprofit software that will autofill personal information about your donor pulled from the data in the CRM donor profile. For instance, use their preferred name and prefix. If you’re looking for a new solution that will take care of this, consider the top picks listed here.

3. Show the impact of your organization.

Donors want to know that their contributions toward your organization are making a difference for your mission. Showing the impact that your nonprofit makes on the world around you is a great way to entice supporters to give.

Be sure the way you present your impact also lines up with the interests of your donors (remember the donor interest segmentation strategy from the previous section).

For example, if your organization works to find homes for lost or abandoned puppies, you may present your impact in a couple of different lights. For some donors, you may talk about the puppies themselves and how many you’ve rescued; meanwhile, for others, you may discuss the happy families who have adopted puppies from your organization.

Knowing what frame of reference your donors use to determine success for your organization will help keep them engaged.

4. Display impactful visuals on donation pages.

Images are incredibly compelling on donation pages. This is because humans are very visual creatures. We like putting a face to a name or seeing the face of someone who our contribution will impact.

However, images are most effective when they are included in a smart way. Some of the donation page best practices found to be most effective for nonprofits when it comes to visual design include:

• Consistent branding. One of the best ways to establish trust with your donors on your donation page is to make sure your branding is consistent. Using the same logo, fonts, and color scheme from page to page on your site (especially your donation page) show your supporters that they haven’t been redirected to an untrustworthy site by accident.

• Limiting images. Your organization may have many compelling images that are available to use on the donation page. However, too many images can actually be distracting to donors. Instead, use one or two compelling images to draw the eye of supporters, but not to distract them from their real intent (donating).

• White space. One common error people make in the design of their various website pages is that they feel the need to fill all of the space available. In reality, white space is a very pleasing-to-the-eye element for donation pages. This will hold the attention of your supporters on the most important features on the page.

When you create your attractive donation page, make sure to test it on both a computer screen and on a mobile device.

Because so much of web traffic is completed on smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices, making sure your donation page is mobile-responsive and attractive on any device is key to retaining supporters. If it’s too much of a hassle to zoom in and out to see the images on your donation page, they’re more likely to abandon the effort before completing their gift.

5. Promote matching gifts.

If there was a way that your nonprofit could earn more without asking donors to dig deeper in their pockets, would you do it? The answer is probably a resounding, “yes.” Well, great news! You can maximize your nonprofit’s donation amounts with matching gift revenue.

Matching gifts are contributions provided by a supporter’s employer in response to the supporter’s donation. Generally, companies will have parameters around what employee contributions that they will match. These parameters may include a donation minimum and maximum, type of employee (full-time, part-time, retired, etc.), and match ratios.

According to Double the Donation, promoting matching gifts in your nonprofit’s marketing initiatives can boost your donation revenue in a few key ways, including:

• 84% of donors say they’re more likely to give if their gift will be matched, increasing your nonprofit’s number of donors.

• 1 in 3 donors says that they’ll give a larger gift if it will be matched by their company.

• An estimated $4-$7 billion in matching gift revenue is left unclaimed each year, and an estimated $2-$3 billion is claimed. Promoting matching gifts will help you tap into that revenue source.

Make sure you ask for the right amount from donors. Then, when you promote matching gift programs, you may see that “right amount” double or even triple in donation revenue.

After you’ve appealed to your donors in the most effective manner, make sure you thank them. This will help keep them coming back year after year (but only if you keep up the good work!).

These tips should give you the tools you need to maximize your already awesome fundraising strategy.

Now, go and get started!

About the author: Leigh Kessler is VP of Marketing and Communications at donor management software platform CharityEngine and a frequent speaker on branding, fundraising, data and technology.  He is a former nationally touring headline comedian and has appeared on numerous TV shows including VH1's "Best Week Ever", CNN's "Showbiz Tonight", Discovery Channel & Sirius Radio. He has overseen and informed research and branding strategies for some of the most well known brands in America. 

By Wayne Gurley
President & Creative Director

7. Make sure you mail to donors who are really donors and prospects who are really prospects.

In other words, your in-house list may not be very good.

Whenever I ask someone at an organization how many donors they have, they usually give me a number that is the total size of their mailing list, including donors and in-house prospects.

They do this because they’re used to printing that quantity for an entire mailing or for sending out a newsletter. But a mailing list is not a donor file, and what you think are prospects are probably better categorized as “suspects” or simply “people we’ve added to our list” over the years.

A lot of mailing lists have donors on them who may have paid to attend an event. These are not donors. You may also have a lot of people who have made memorial gifts. Technically, these aren’t donors, either. The motivation for making a memorial gift is the death of a person they knew, and they responded because they were told to send a gift to your organization “in lieu of flowers.”

Event and memorial donors usually don’t convert very well to regular donor status. You can try, but the success rate is usually quite low.

For this reason, it’s important to segment your file into groups that are similar so you can track response. You may find that the response from certain groups is not adequate and you may want to eliminate them from future mailings.

© 2020 Allegiant Direct, Inc.

Wayne Gurley
President & Creative Director

6. Ask for an appropriate amount of money

If there is such a thing as a 100% “truism” in direct marketing, it’s this...

The more money you ask for, the lower your response will be.

I’ve tested this many times, and it always ends up the same: If you ask for more than the prospect or donor thinks is appropriate, instead of sending something less than what you’ve asked, they simply do nothing. And you GET nothing.

In many cases, a person will give you a gift that’s a lot smaller than what they’re capable of giving. They do this because they’re not that committed to your organization, at least not yet. And they want to see how they feel about you after they make a gift.

In other words, they’re “auditioning” you with a smaller amount than they can afford just to see how you’re going to treat them. If you pass this test, they may send you a second gift. But if you fail, you may not get another opportunity.

Thanking your donor via a letter and phone call (if at all possible) is an EXTREMELY important first step in the cultivation of a new donor.

© 2020 Allegiant Direct, Inc.

By Wayne Gurley
President & Creative Director

5. Your outside envelope should leave some mystery as to what’s inside

If your outside envelope “telegraphs” what’s inside your package, your donors and prospects may decide to trash it even before they open it. That’s why it’s always best to leave a little mystery about what you’re sending.

Your logo without a picture or teaser on the front is probably the best way to craft an outside envelope. Why? Because if you put a lot of stuff on the envelope that leaves nothing to the imagination, then you’ve made the decision as to whether or not your readers will take a look inside very easy. Into the trash it goes!

If you know how to “tease” with copy and art, then by all means, proceed. But most people aren’t very good at teasing. They usually say too much, and as a result, response can be negatively affected. When they first see your package, you want them to think, “Hmmm...I wonder what this is all about?”Your #1 objective is to get people to OPEN your envelope. That’s half the battle of being successful with direct mail. If you can get a person to open your package, there’s a good chance they’ll read your letter, understand your message AND send a gift. But that will never happen if they trash it first.

© Copyright 2020 Allegiant Direct, Inc.

By Wayne Gurley
President & Creative Director

3. Don’t bore your audience.

You can have what you think is an exciting letter topic. But you can write it in such a way that makes your audience yawn and want to throw it in the trash.

For example...

• You can include a lot of statistics, which are deadly in direct mail.

• You can write using the institutional “we,” which comes across as cold and impersonal.

• You can brag about what your organization does or has done, instead of bragging about what the donor has done to help achieve your goals.

• You can use big words, long sentences and long paragraphs.

• You can write at a college-age reading level, instead of a 5th-grade reading level.

• You can try to change the way your donors think, instead of meeting them where they already are.

© Copyright 2019 Allegiant Direct, Inc.

By Wayne Gurley
President & Creative Director

Part 2: Write about something your audience cares about

Many times an organization will pick a copy theme THEY think is important for the organization to talk about. However, it may not be something donors care much about.To be successful, direct mail appeals must be “donor-centric.” Copy needs to be something that will resonate with donors and motivate them to give.

Remember: It’s all about the donor and what THEY can do to change lives and help achieve your mission - not about your organization or what you might think is important.

© Copyright 2019 Allegiant Direct, Inc.

By Wayne Gurley
President & Creative Director

Part 1: Mail to the right audience

Your audience is the single most important element for success in any direct mail appeal.

At the risk of sounding obvious, the best audience for a direct mail appeal is your Active Donors. Next best is Lapsed Donors (those who haven’t given in at least a year), plus those as far back as five years.

(It is possible to successfully solicit Deep Lapsed Donors (from as far back as 10 years) with something called “Deep Lapsed DonorScores.” For more information on this, contact us at: welcome@allegiantdirect.com

Keep in mind, the further in time you get away from a donor’s last gift you get, the worse your response will be.

Ideally, you’re going to want to acquire new donors while at the same time soliciting current donors. So your prospects should be more than just “suspects.”

A good prospect list will include people who are the correct age for fundraising (average is 62) and have more than a casual relationship with your organization - either that or match up closely with your existing donor base (as in the case of an affinity-oriented rented list).

Hopefully, they also will be philanthropically inclined and direct mail responsive.

© Copyright 2019 Allegiant Direct, Inc.

By Sarah Tedesco, Guest Blogger
Executive Vice President of DonorSearch

4. Manage Your Mission

Perhaps the most important of all your fundraising aspects: determining your mission.

Despite the absolute importance of donors to the success of a fundraising campaign, you cannot properly focus on your donors without understanding the true focus of your organization’s mission.

“What are we all here for?” “What is our mission?” “What are we fighting for?”

If you cannot answer those questions, you cannot produce relevant content for your donors nor can you convince them that your organization is worthy of their support.

A little bit of nonprofit self-love will go a long way.

The foundation of your nonprofit should be your mission, not your donors.

You need a solid, coherent, and powerful mission to garner the support of donors, corporations, and even your fellow colleagues.

Donors and missions are like two peas in a pod—one naturally accompanies the other. Operating a mission-focused fundraising organization attracts mission-hungry donors.

Appealing to donors who are loyal and dedicated to your organization’s mission will reap wonderful benefits in both volunteer hours and financial gifts.

If your mission is not well-defined, you risk annoying your donors and prospects by sending them irrelevant content.

When evaluating your fundraising campaign for effectiveness, consider whether your funds for your mission had the intended impact you promoted.

If not, was it your communication strategy? Was your messaging clear and direct or superfluous and vague?

Was it the donors you targeted? Did you utilize your donor data to the best of your ability?

If yes, how can you best utilize this achievement to reach current and potential donors?

Never neglect the power of storytelling as a fundraising tool.

Stories create an empathetic connection between the donor and the cause by making it personal. They can visualize and quantify the donor’s impact.

Sarah Tedesco is Executive Vice President of DonorSearch, a prospect research and wealth screening company that focuses on proven philanthropy. Sarah is responsible for managing the production and customer support department concerning client contract fulfillment, increasing retention rate and customer satisfaction. She collaborates with other team members on a variety of issues including sales, marketing and product development ideas.