Editors’ Note: The following is an excerpt from Roger’s
Retention Fundraising: the new art and science of keeping your donors for life.
Available here in paper or e-book versions.

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All donors are not equal. At least not when it comes to building retention and lifetime value.

The sooner you identify your best donors and where they come from, the sooner you’ll be on the road to higher retention and increased lifetime value. That’s because you’ll be able to invest more time and money in the donors who have demonstrated their loyalty and commitment and less in those who haven’t.

1. Identifying and engaging the best current donors

There are a variety of ways to measure who among your donors are the most committed and the most deserving of additional time and effort. The most accurate and predictive way is to score them using the donor commitment scoring system outlined in chapter 12 of Retention Fundraising.

In lieu of employing an empirical scoring approach there are some signs of commitment and loyalty you should look for:

• Length of time as an active donor with your organization;

• Size of gifts, including whether the gifts have been trending upward; and

• Involvement or engagement. Donors who both give and volunteer are generally more committed than those who just give.

2. Spotting signs they care

While not proof positive of high commitment or loyalty, there are some additional signals that may be helpful in identifying your better donors:

• If a donor has taken the time to complain;

• If a donor has reached out to change his/her address;

• If a donor has gone to the effort of having his or her gift matched by his or her employer;

• If the donor has attended a conference call briefing or actual meeting.

A word of caution on these signs, however.

Be aware of what statisticians call the ‘confounding variable’. In the example of the donor who calls you with a change of address, there could be a third variable that confounds the relationship. Perhaps she took the time to call because you thanked her in a timely manner, or told a moving story about someone you helped, or otherwise reinforced the notion that your organization is on top of its mission. The question at the forefront of your mind should always be “What did we do that created the donor’s positive attitude?”

3. Additional proof they care

I also recommend you take the time to calculate the lifetime value of this special, more caring group of donors. When you do, you’ll quickly see why it’s worth spending more time and money on them.

Signs That Donors May Soon Leave You

Just as you’ll see indications of a donor’s high level of commitment, there are also telltale signs that a donor is preparing to abandon ship.

Some signals to watch for:

• Downgrading of giving levels;

• Unsubscribing from your various e-mail and e-newsletter lists;

• Missing a recurring gift like a monthly sustainer;

• Negative comments in social media;

• Canceling an event reservation.

You should be able to use your organization’s database, CRM, or other software to filter your donors to spot many of these signs.

Some software developers, alert to the issue of retention, have built-in or pre-programmed reports for this purpose. For example, Bloomerang has engaged loyalty expert Adrian Sargent and built into its software an engagement meter that alerts organizations to slips or improvements in their donors’ engagement levels.

Once you know who’s most likely to defect, you can decide what steps to take to hold onto these donors and whether the time and money are perhaps better spent on bonding the most committed donors even closer.

Roger

P.S. You’ll find the Table of Contents for Retention Fundraising here.