This week on the Nonprofit Jenni Show, it’s time for a round of Nonprofit Trivia about Donor Journeys! Test your knowledge about the best ways to keep donors engaged in your mission after they’ve given their first monetary donation to your nonprofit. Learn how donors want to get involved with your mission and how they prefer to keep in touch.
Question 1: Should nonprofit leaders make ‘thank you’ calls to donors?
When someone makes their first ever gift to your organization, should you call them to say thank you? On the podcast, my sister and I talked about some of the pros and cons of calling each new donor.
If we’re only looking at donor research and statistics, the answer is YES, you should call each donor to thank them! According to a 2019 survey from Bloomerang representing over 3,700 nonprofits, thank you calls help increase both donor retention and the amount of money donors give in their second donation.
However, my sister Michelle brought up a great counterpoint: Leaders of small nonprofits may not feel like they have time to call every donor. You may be able to address this challenge by asking your board and volunteers to help make thank you calls, or by deciding to only make thank you calls following a specific fundraising event.
Question 2: How do donors like to get involved with nonprofits, other than donating money?
When someone donates to your nonprofit for the first time, that’s just the beginning of their donor journey! You want to invite donors to keep engaging with your nonprofit, but you can’t just constantly ask them to give more and more money. Let’s look at some of the other ways donors like to get involved with nonprofits.
According to a 2013 report from Blackbaud, donors report that they like to:
Donate items like clothing or food (58% of donors want to do this)
Volunteer (35% of donors want to do this)
Attend or host events (22% of donors want to do this)
Get involved in advocacy efforts, such as by signing a petition or emailing legislators (20% of donors want to do this)
Use services the nonprofit provides (9% of donors want to do this)
Does your nonprofit offer any of the opportunities listed above? Do you regularly remind your donors about these opportunities to stay engaged with your mission?
Question 3: How do donors like to have nonprofits keep in touch?
If you want donors to continue supporting your nonprofit, you have to keep them updated on the impact of their past donations! Through which communication channels do you think donors like to receive these updates?
According to the aforementioned Blackbaud report, donors prefer:
Receiving email newsletters (28% of donors want to receive information this way)
Receiving direct mail or “snail mail” (23% of donors want to receive information this way)
Following the nonprofit on social media (13% of donors want to receive information this way)
Receiving text messages (3% of donors want to receive information this way)
Listen to the Full Donor Journeys Episode
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Jenni’s Favorite Resources This Week
Little Green Light’s Library: Little Green Light is one of my favorite donor management systems, and they offer a library of free resources to help improve your donor engagement. I would especially recommend their ebook “Guide to Acknowledging Gifts” because it’s so relevant to this podcast episode!
Learn Grant Writing: My friends at Learn Grant Writing help passionate people learn to become grant writers so you can support the causes you love the most. LGW sponsored this podcast episode, and I hope you’ll go watch their free webinar about how to become a grant writer!
Giving Day Campaign Planner: Does your community have a local giving day coming up? My 6-week giving day campaign planner includes a step-by-step planning timeline, with suggested tasks to craft and promote your local giving day fundraiser this spring.