If someone were to ask you about the average donor experience your nonprofit provides, what would you say?
To move away from a transactional relationship and toward a mutually beneficial partnership, your nonprofit must understand and anticipate its donor’s expectations. Let’s explore which questions to ask to get to know your donor base better.
How and When to Ask Questions
Your communication strategy can and should include multiple modes of outreach — phone calls, handwritten thank-you notes, email newsletters, social media posts and more. Make sure that regardless of the method you use to communicate with your donors, you:
- Provide a space for donors to respond. Your donors will be interested in hearing you ask for their opinions and ideas, so give them room to do so in all of your routine communications.
- Ask for feedback as a part of your acknowledgment efforts. A donor who just made a gift to your organization is likely to feel a connection to your organization — cultivate that connection by asking for their input, in addition to thanking them for their donation.
- Ask campaign-specific questions. Each campaign brings the opportunity for you to collect feedback on the campaign’s specific strategy and goals.
By integrating thoughtful questions into your various communication strategies, you not only show your donors that their opinions are valued but also deepen their engagement with your cause.
What Motivates You to Support Our Cause?
Digging up the motivations behind your donor’s support can help understand which specific aspects of your cause motivate them. Then, use these insights to build more experiences that draw out those motivations. For example, you might find that someone supports your cause for one of the following reasons:
- A unique personal experience with your organization changed their perspective. A Charities Aid Foundation survey found that 61% of respondents were motivated to give because they had faced an experience that changed or challenged their beliefs.
- Their values or morals align with your cause. This group likely includes some of your most reliable donors; along with many who will be willing to increase their support if they feel included in a movement.
- Their peers or community nudged them to join. This group is among the most likely to increase their participation and support of your organization through public fundraising events, such as gala auctions and charity golf tournaments.
By getting at the heart of why your donors offer their time, efforts and money to your mission, you’ll be able to better tailor your communications with them. This opens up a dialogue and ensures your donor base’s main interests are reflected in your appeals and marketing decisions.
How Did You First Hear About Us?
Although a common question, this one is essential for understanding the success of your marketing channels.
For instance, if your nonprofit is putting its marketing budget toward email campaigns, but survey responses from donors indicate that a friend or colleague introduced them to your cause, you might revamp your referral strategies. Other channels that may take you by surprise are:
- Social media. Pay attention to donors who say that they looked for you on a particular network, but couldn’t find you — this may represent an overlooked opportunity.
- General search. You should have a healthy number of donors who found you through search engines like Google. If you don’t, then you may wish to supplement your website’s visibility with Google Ad Grants.
- A specific cause campaign. By identifying which campaigns resonate most with your audience, you can allocate resources more efficiently, tailor future campaigns to better engage potential donors and ensure your messaging aligns with what inspires them.
By measuring response rates to each of these channels, you can better allocate your budget and lean into strategies that are performing well.
What Impact Do You Hope Your Donation Will Have?
About 75% of donors are seeking information about your nonprofit’s impact. Beat them to the punch by opening up dialogue quickly and often. This will give you insight into their expectations for each contribution and help you better convey each gift’s impact. By asking this question, you can:
- Personalize your impact reports. Many of your donors will be interested in the same metrics, but major donors may have specific interests in addition to these and should receive customized impact statements and updates regularly.
- Address any knowledge gaps. Donors with misaligned expectations are not likely to remain donors for long. Clear up any confusion with regular and compelling updates about your nonprofit’s impact, illustrating how donor contributions are making a difference.
- Increase engagement through targeted stewardship efforts. Your donors’ expectations change as they become more invested in your mission, and you should understand when and where those evolutions tend to happen.
A donor-centered approach to fundraising begins with focusing on key questions: how your donors found you, why they were moved to support you and how they are going to assess your use of their money. Use this knowledge to cultivate relationships and craft giving opportunities that are meaningful and effective.
The preceding post was provided by an individual unaffiliated with NonProfit PRO. The views expressed within do not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of NonProfit PRO.
