Your Donor Went Missing!
You lost a donor today. In a large nonprofit, say 100,000 donors, you actually lost something like 123 donors today. In a really big organization, say 500,000 donors, you lost 615 donors … TODAY!
Did you even notice? Did you see them go? Did you wave good-bye. Do you know why they left? Did they leave clues? Could you have saved them? Do you feel guilty?
Most fundraisers probably just look at aggregate stats … maybe every quarter at best, or more likely annually, when it’s time to prepare next year’s projections. Then finally someone does the calculation and discovers, “Holy s**t, we lost 45% of our donors in the past year!”
Of course by then it’s too late to do much about those donors. Maybe you’ll toss them into a ‘lapsed donor’ pile and struggle to regain them.
Maybe we’d do better at retention if we focused on the ‘micro’ instead of the ‘macro’. Just like when successful copywriters advise us to focus on the individual beneficiary of our program — e.g., one child for whom we can make a difference — rather than the millions who are similarly at risk or deprived.
So here’s a suggestion.
Rather than angst out after you’ve lost a year’s worth of donors, put a big number on the wall next to your desk, or on a sticky note on the corner of your computer screen.
That number should be the number of donor’s you’ve lost that day — whether it’s 6, 12, 123, 615, whatever. It will/should say to you, “You lost 615 donors today hotshot, and you’ll lose another 615 tomorrow, and the next day, unless you get off your butt and do something about it!”
Stare at that number each day and I suspect you’ll be more likely to think about what you should be doing to improve your retention rate, including how you could have noticed and prevented the impending loss.
Tom
P.S. My suggestion is inspired by a great post — Donor Asks, ‘Do You Miss Me? — by Richard Perry on Nonprofit Pro.
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3 responses to “Your Donor Went Missing!”
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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In the spirit of asking cage-rattling questions…because asking CRQs generates conversation that produces learning, and learning is what causes change.
CRQ: Why would your most beloved donor leave you? What would cause that?
Superb post Tom (ditto Richard Perry):
Simon Scriver and I had a convo around this on Twitter yesterday. It was sparked by a LinkedIn post I wrote that effectively said, “let’s stop screwing around with surveys and start doing the things we know will keep donors first. Then you can get to surveys when your blood-and-guts donor service basics are working properly.”
As an addition, Simon rightly put it that there are only two reasons donors leave anyway: 1.) they are dead or 2.) they’ve chosen to do something else with their money.
Then @RogareFTT shared this evergreen gem of a list we should all have eternally burned into our brains by now: Dr. Adrian Sargeant’s mothership list of “14 Reasons Donors Leave You.” https://twitter.com/RogareFTT/status/780749517029335040/photo/1 Take a look. You’ll see almost all fall squarely into Simon’s two buckets (death/crappy donor service), distilled from Dr. S’s landmark list.
Look. You can’t do anything about dead donors (although baby, that should ring bequest bells in your brain).
But you can absolutely fix crappy donor service. You must.
So let’s unsuck your retention by examining Adrian Sargeant’s list of 14 reasons why donors leave you. Then watch how many can be cured with what I covered on LinkedIn: a four-step cycle of ask, thank, report back, and repeat***:
1.) Donors feel somewhere else is more deserving: no thank. no report back (regularly published print donor newsletter). maybe you don’t even provide human contact info for questions.
2.) Death: did you get that legacy? start drip-feeding bequest language.
3.) I can no longer afford to support XYZ: you are on a merciless upgrade quest. you don’t offer them a chance to downgrade or suspend if times are tough for them.
4.) No memory of ever supporting org: no report back (i.e. no newsletter that reminds them, “hey we see you. and you’re still a hero making heroic work happen”). you send one appeal every year and call it done and dusted. you don’t thank.
5.) Still supporting by other means: you don’t notice when donors shift their giving (as in Richard Perry’s monthly donor story)…your database hasn’t been deduped or even visited in years, like an Indiana Jones relic.
6.) I found the communications inappropriate: you ask before you thank. you ask before you report back. you ask for too much. you ask more than donor wants and don’t offer them a way to receive less. (also possibly, a disgruntled donor for some completely different reason: it’s customer service, after all)
7.) Not reminded to give again: do we even have to dissect this one? it’s that single annual campaign appeal thing again. Donor fatigue is sometimes that they are just plain tired from trying to remember who you are because no one ever communicates back.
8.) The organization asked for inappropriate sums: merciless upgrading and over-reliance on HPG multipliers (Highest Previous Gift).
9.) The org did not inform me how my money had been used: no report back. no thank. infrequent comms.
10.) The org no longer needs my support: single annual ask. no report back. no thank. not noticing when donors go silent. (are you seeing a pattern yet?)
11.) The org did not acknowledge my support: no thank. Absurdly late thanking (and don’t even tell me this doesn’t happen: 2 of my last 3 mystery shopping gifts returned no thank you for 8 weeks. #3 has yet to arrive — although I did an acquisition appeal from them). Crappy desolate boilerplate thanking. thanking with a big old hard direct ask in the middle of it.
12.) The quality of service provided by org was poor: no thank. no report back. too much institutional chestpounding/We-speak/not enough you-driven language. Lackluster stories.
13.) The org did not take account of my wishes: still getting mail when they ask for a break. no options to receive a bit less. contact info not fixed when they ask.
14.) Staff at the org were unhelpful: no one answers the phone (true story). Silos, poor culture (set team fundraising goals). Poor staff morale (give your people skin in the game, dammit: send them to conferences and training, up their professional game).
***Notes:
1. The Donor Retention Four-Step of ask/thank/report back/repeat is not my original idea: enlightened brains in the sector have written about it for years. We just put it to active use — later a case history on this will go up for The Commission on the Donor Experience and we presented a variation of same at AFP Boston; conf handouts still live online.
2. If you want the original LinkedIn post it’s here http://bit.ly/2d3GIr0
3. Bloomerang has an epic of an infographic on donor loyalty that you must not miss, chalking up at least 53% of donor attrition to nonprofit communications (or lack thereof): https://bloomerang.co/blog/charities-that-focus-on-retention-will-change-the-world/
Great post, Tom, and wonderful response/comment, Lisa.
One of the most important aspects of stewardship is that a donor doesn’t FEEL thanked, which is very different from being thanked. How are you ensuring your donors feel thanked? Are you asking them how they want to be thanked/communicated with? Are you calling, writing, emailing, and thanking in other ways. Are your board members involved in the thank you process.
Of course, as Lisa (and Adrian Sargeant) mentioned, the next step is to let your donor know how their gift was used. Again, are you communicating in ways that donors hear and understand you?