No Such Thing as a Free Donor

And finally, the kicker: Online donors are twice as likely to become monthly givers!

Whatever you do, hit up your brand-new online donors with a monthly giving offer. They’re ripe for it. If you have their phone number, use it. Otherwise, send them a monthly giving invitation in the mail. But get that offer in front of them pronto.

When they opt to make their monthly pledges by electronic funds transfer or credit card, offer them the opportunity to receive giving statements by e-mail. And when you send those e-mails, be sure to include a donation link so they can easily make an extra contribution when your monthly message moves them to do so.

For the majority of online donors who will decline a monthly giving offer, get them into the mail stream and include them in your telemarketing campaigns … utilize every media you use with direct mail-acquired donors.

All in all, a much larger proportion of online donors migrate to giving by mail than direct mail donors migrate to the Web. So to retain your online donors, you’ll want to spend a good part of your budget on direct mail.

Lastly, if you don’t already have one, institute a retention strategy to cultivate and bond online donors to your organization.

If you want to keep them, hit ‘em with everything you’ve got!

Kimberly Seville is the creative director at Craver, Mathews, Smith and Co., where she manages the company’s Dedicated Donor™ Task Force. She can be reached at kimberly@cms1.com.