Nonprofit Donor Retention: Problems and Solutions

Everyone involved with you deserves your gratitude.

After all, without them you’d have no purpose.

The key to showing meaningful gratitude is to think specifically about what you’re grateful for.

How Real Life Gratitude Sins Translate to Nonprofit Donor Retention ‘No-No’s

A lot of what I learned about saying thank you I learned from my mother and Miss Manners. If you’re sloppy about gratitude, you’re apt to lose donors hand over fist.

You wouldn’t send the exact same pre-printed thank you note to everyone who attended and/or gave you a wedding gift.

• PROBLEM: If you send the same ‘form’ thank you letter or email to every donor, regardless of the amount of their gift, whether they’ve given before, whether they participate in other activities, or whether they earmarked their gift for a specific purpose, then you’re committing this gratitude “no-no.”

• SOLUTION: Personalize your thank you’s. Write different thank you’s for different types of donors.

You wouldn’t send the exact same thank you for a shower gift as for a wedding present.

• PROBLEM: If a donor sends you monthly gifts and you send them the exact same thank you letter every time, that’s a big yawn.

• SOLUTION: Every gift deserves a different thank you.

You wouldn’t send a Hallmark card to which you’d added nothing but your name.

• PROBLEM: If you send a greeting card blast to everyone on your list, without the addition of a personal note, you don’t make the donor feel special.

• SOLUTION: Don’t make thank you’s ‘checklist’ activities that end up backfiring because they seem impersonal.

You wouldn’t suddenly send a holiday card out of the blue to folks who’d never heard from you all year long.

• PROBLEM: If the only time you communicate with a donor is annually you’re unlikely to build and sustain an ongoing relationship.

• SOLUTION: Develop a written ‘Donor Love & Loyalty Plan.’

Guess What the Big Donor Retention ‘No-No’s Are?

‘Canned’ thank you letters and once-a-year demonstrations of gratitude.

These won’t keep donors loyal. Did you know that a 10% increase in retention annually can increase the lifetime value of your current donor base by 200%?

Taking donors for granted.

Gratitude that gives people a warm glow must be thoughtful. Your constituents are like your family, and deserve to be treated as such.

To get started – RIGHT NOW — with a good, simple plan, grab this free e-Book: How to Build a Donor-Centered Gift Acknowledgement Program.