Who Better To Talk To?
If you are seriously interested in arresting your nonprofit’s declining retention rate, there are several approaches you can take — tactical improvements to your cultivation and renewal streams, improving ‘customer service’ aspects of your operations, telling a more compelling story (delivering both emotion and results).
Of course these are not mutually exclusive approaches … probably all are needed.
But where’s the best place to go to figure out why donors are losing their commitment to your organization, or why your communications and interactions are failing to get the job done?
It seems to me two bits of research might be useful, directed at the two different ends of your donor spectrum.
On the one hand, you should talk to your lapsed donors. Why did they not fall in love with your work? Why did they fall out of love? This is inquiring into your failure … your failure, not theirs.
On the other hand, you should talk to your most committed active donors as well (perhaps a sampling of your best multi-year donors). Why have they stayed in love? What are you doing right by them? What do they still see in you that isn’t getting through to those lapsed donors? This is inquiring into your success.
Between these two ‘conversations’ you should be able to glean all you need to know about how to better relate to your donors and retain their commitment.
Tom
P.S. This post is triggered by this study from EngageSciences reported on Technorati, which finds that less than 5% of a brand’s fan base generate 100% of its referrals. Says EngagedSciences: “The problem is most brands don’t know who those 4.7 percent are and don’t have programs in place to work with this elite group of advocates … Do the math, brands! It’s time brands focused on building the brand army. Not all fans are equal. Its time to start focusing some budget on working better with the organic influencers you have within your own social media following.”
EngagedSciences is talking about social media fans. Personally, I’d still talk first to my best givers … at some point I’d look into my best fans.
2 responses to “Who Better To Talk To?”
Behavioral Science Q & A
Integrating an individual giving appeal with other communications from a charity can have both positive and negative effects, and the outcome largely depends on how it’s executed. Advantages of Integration Brand Consistency: Maintaining a consistent appearance and messaging across all communications can reinforce the org’s brand identity and strengthen brand recognition and trust among your […]
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I’m not aware of any in-market tests specifically comparing recurring vs. gift frequency language. I suspect the answer might not be the same with all gift frequencies, nor with all people. It sounds like a great opportunity for you to test and find out what works for your audience. Based on the literature, here’s a couple […]
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Based on what we know from existing data, those renewal notices can actually be pretty effective in getting people to donate. They tap into our psychology – creating a sense of urgency, reminding us of past support, and using personalization to make the message hit home. They’re playing on our natural tendencies to feel obligated […]
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Interesting question. I had a quick look at the testing done on this topic. On the positive side, in all cases, over half of donors decide to cover the fee. In some cases, it goes as high as 65%. Not a negligible percentage at all. Here’s another test from iRaiser showing consistent results (see point […]
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There’s just one thing to consider when designing a supporter journey: the supporter. More specifically, you need to take into account: Who the supporter is i.e. their identity, which is the reason they support this cause, and their personality, which describes the way they “see” and process the world. These will determine the kind of […]
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I’m not an expert in this but a quick search surfaced this article on the effect of tax reforms on 2019’s charitable giving. The researchers didn’t find a reduction. Actually, they observed an “increase in charitable contributions in 2019, even with the lower tax rates and the dramatically smaller number of taxpayers who itemize their […]
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Tom, I could not agree with you more but then the old adage that not all your donors – regardless of which end of the spectrum they fall in, are cut from the same cloth – hence not deserving of the same message. The research has been done on which groups respond to which values – and matching the research based message to the right group does work. So again, you’re right!
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