I don’t know about you, but I love donor data. I’ve gotten absolutely giddy over moves management functions, cross-referencing, and year-over-year comparisons. This is all part of smart donor management.
It is possible I am a big nerd.
You may think about donor data as a necessary evil you have to track so you can get back to the human fun part of fundraising. The prospect of creating a “donor management” strategy may strike you as cold and impersonal, or just something you don’t have time for.
But friends, your database is a land of untold wonder! A magical kingdom that can help you connect with your donors, build relationships, and grow your nonprofit each time you visit it. A secret cache of knowledge that can, on occasion, make you appear to be psychic. A unifying talisman that everyone in your organization can use!
If people are the heart of fundraising, then data is the brain. In order to connect with people, fundraise effectively, and grow your nonprofit, you need a donor management strategy to record, organize, analyze and use donor data.
“Donor management” is simply the process of tracking the details of your donors and your interactions with them, and then using that information appropriately. We don’t call writing your friend’s birthday in your calendar or remembering that they hate olives “friendship management,” but it’s really the same principle. Whether personal or professional, relationships benefit from keeping track of the details.
Appropriate donor management can improve your fundraising. It influences the kind of experience your donors have with your organization and helps you stand out of the crowd.
With a dedicated fundraising CRM (Customer Relationship Management) you can get to know your supporters through personal profiles that centralize and track their donor activities and engagement. You can quickly see the data you need to personalize communication, identify trends and opportunities, and activate and rally your supporters. It’s pretty cool.
Before you can start strategizing, you need some raw data. At a minimum, you should record:
You may not have all of this information from the beginning of time, but continue to add to your donor records as you go, and start recording these things with new donors. If your current donor records are a mishmash of different details and formats, it’s worth it to standardize them.
Tracking donor data is almost meaningless unless you use it. Once you have the data, it’s time to analyze it, or as I like to think of it, looking for unicorns.
Look for trends in giving, patterns of donor behavior over time, and for things your donors have in common. This information can inform your fundraising strategy, allowing you to be more targeted to your actual donors.
For example, I may examine my data, and find that a few of my donors are unicorns who give consistently in the spring, but most of the donors are pegasi (that’s the plural of pegasus, right?) who give consistently in the summer. Knowing this, I may decide to launch my peer-to-peer fundraiser, a flying horse race, in July rather than April.
Use your data to connect with donors via segmentation, targeting, moves management, and personalization.
Segmenting your donors into different groups based on shared characteristics is useful for several reasons:
Key Benefits Of Segmentation: Deeper Engagement, Less Tuning-Out
Tracking a donor’s gifts over time helps you know what to ask them for. If they’ve given you $100 at year-end like clockwork, you know you can probably ask for $125 without alienating them. Conversely, a person who gives $10 every couple of years is probably not a good candidate to ask for $100.
Without well-kept data, it’s hard to implement any kind of moves management. Moves management is a donor cultivation process that moves key donors along a strategic path to things like major gifts, board membership, and other kinds of deep commitments to your organization. Donor management can help you identify prospects, record their progress along the path, and ensure consistency across the organization.
Key Benefits Of Targeting and Moves Management: Organizational Growth, Not Leaving Money On The Table
Fundraising professionals meet a lot of people. It’s easy to get fuzzy on the details, but it is never good for a donor to feel forgotten. When you record your interactions with donors, they become more than just a number. You can make your relationships more human, and less transactional by checking your records to refresh your memory.
Imagine you’re a repeat donor to an organization. Consider how you’d feel if you got a fundraising appeal with, “It was so nice to see you at the Gala, hope your vacation was wonderful!” scribbled in the margin. Now think about how you’d feel if you got an appeal addressed to “Ms. Your Name Spelled Wrong.” Personalization makes a difference in whether or not someone feels valued.
Keeping good records can also help you honor your donors’ preferences. If someone takes the time to tell you that they don’t open emails, only want to give online, or only want to be solicited once a year, your records will ensure their preferences are taken into account by everyone in the organization.
Key Benefits Of Personalization: Retention, Loyalty
You’ve probably heard the dismal donor retention stats. Most first-time donors don’t give again, so it makes sense to spend the majority of your efforts on keeping the donors you already have, rather than continually seeking out new ones. New donors are good, and acquisition should be part of your strategy, but never at the expense of taking care of current donors.
The for-profit world understands this. Brands spend a lot of time, effort, and money to keep their customers coming back. They send targeted coupons based on your purchases. They send you sales emails based on things they know you like. They do this by tracking data. We nonprofit folks can follow their lead by using donor data to make donating a personal, inspiring, positive experience.
When you segment, target, and personalize information, the donor who receives it is more likely to stay engaged with your organization. Donors who know they matter to you, that you remember them from last time and pay attention to the things they tell you, will have a deeper connection to your organization. They’ll feel more positive about their involvement, and more invested in your outcomes. Ultimately, donor management is a big part of ensuring donors stick around.
Whatever system you use to control your data, be it fundraising CRM or lowly Excel spreadsheet, some best practices apply for good donor management.
If your spreadsheets are getting unwieldy, it’s time to consider using a donor management tool. Look for a fundraising CRM that is:
It’s okay if the prospect of recording, organizing, updating, and using all that donor data is a little overwhelming. You can work on it bit by bit, and every improvement you make will make a difference. The benefits of donor management outweigh the tedium of data entry, enabling you to fundraise more effectively by reaching your donors personally, communicating more efficiently, and, ultimately, boosting your donor loyalty.
So tackle your data, and connect with your donors. You might even find some unicorns.
For More On Donor Loyalty And Retention, Check Out:
The Donor Engagement And Retention Playbook
The Power of Trust, Habit, & Loyalty In Donor Relationship Building
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