Breaking Down Donor Loyalty in 9 Tweets
1. Typically a 10 percent improvement in the level of loyalty increases the lifetime value of your database by 50 percent.
This first tweet is basically what it’s all about. If you can improve your loyalty only a small bit, the long-term effect is much and much greater. Sargeant explains: “This happens because the effect compounds over time. If you have 10 percent more donors still giving at the end of the current year, you have 10 percent more people giving to the organization through year two. In the second year you’ll lose 10 percent fewer of these and lose fewer of the balance in each subsequent year. Over time the effect mounts up.”
2. Charities need to think about remunerating their fundraisers for the loyalty improvements they deliver.
Long-term performance-based remuneration is perhaps the solution. What if we would increase salaries from fundraisers with 10 percent if they improved donor loyalty with 10 percent? That sounds like something you might want to invest in.
3. Donors have little way to assess your charity’s work; they use the service you provide to them as a surrogate.
This one is among my personal favorites. Think about it. A large part of your donors often have no clue what you’re really doing, how you’re doing it and what challenges you need to overcome to reach your goals. So, there is no way the majority of donors can truly assess the great things your nonprofit is doing. Apart from trying to explain your work much better to these great people, it makes sense to at least provide them the best service, which they fully understand. Donors will use the service that you provide to them as a surrogate to assess your campaign work. It might sound strange that they will form an opinion on the valuable humanitarian life-saving work you do based on how you answer the phone, or how swift you send out your thank-you letters, or whether you give supporters genuine personal attention when you communicate with them, but apparently it works like this, so you better have an impeccable donor service.
