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Segmenting Your Donor Base: How to Personalize Appeals

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A guest post by Missy Singh of Fundly

Imagine you’re trying to catch a friend’s attention in a crowded square. They have promised to treat you to a bowl of ice cream, but they can’t seem to find you. To flag them down, you wouldn’t just yell, “Hey, you!” You could be talking to anyone, which means you will likely be ignored. Instead, you would probably say something like, “Hey, Luis! The ice cream shop is this way!”

Connecting with your nonprofit’s donors requires the same approach. Your donors are scattered across the noisy internet, and you must find ways to speak to them personally and directly. With the right CRM and marketing tools, you can segment your donor base to ensure you send relevant messages that resonate with each recipient.

According to Double the Donation, segmenting your digital campaigns produces revenue growth of up to 760% compared to non-segmented campaigns. Let’s explore practical ways to segment your donors and tailor your appeals to their preferences and interests.

Common Ways to Segment Your Donors

Segmentation allows your nonprofit to engage in more personal, meaningful donor communications without spending the time and energy to message each person individually.

Many nonprofits segment their donors based on the following characteristics:

Donor Type

Not every donor contributes to your nonprofit in the same way. To maintain their support and provide them with the recognition they deserve, create segments based on donor type, such as:

  • New donor. Follow up promptly after their first gift. Then, send a welcome email or email series that provides them with more information about your nonprofit and shares additional ways to get involved.
  • Crowdfunding donor. Provide frequent updates about the donor’s impact and your progress toward completing the project they supported. After each campaign, keep in touch by sharing additional projects or events they might be interested in.
  • Monthly donor. Share regular, exclusive updates and stories about the donor’s impact on your mission. Invite monthly donors to join a community, such as a social media group, where they can connect with other passionate individuals like them.
  • Major donor. Use phone calls and handwritten cards to engage and appreciate these high-level contributors. Send exclusive invitations for behind-the-scenes tours and meet-and-greets that allow them to see your work firsthand.
  • Legacy donor. Create a legacy society that brings your legacy donors together and makes them feel like part of a special group. Share resources, including stories of other legacy donors, and recognize these individuals on your website and other marketing materials.

Every donor counts. Sending communications that are appropriate based on their level of commitment and the impact of their contributions allows you to build consistent, lasting relationships with them.

Giving and Involvement History

By understanding each donor’s giving and involvement history, you can determine how much follow-up (and what kind) is necessary to keep them invested in your cause for the long term. For example, you might create segments for:

  • Lapsed donors. Re-engage donors who haven’t given to your nonprofit within the past year by referencing their past impact, sharing various ways they can support your mission, and sending a survey to learn more about why they stopped giving.
  • Volunteers. Engage those who prefer to contribute more time than money by recommending volunteer opportunities based on their skills and interests. Invite volunteers to help you raise funds from their personal networks as peer-to-peer fundraising participants.
  • Event attendees. If your nonprofit hosts an annual fundraising event, such as a gala, reach out to past attendees to thank them for their support last year and remind them of some of the top experiences they had.

The longer the individual’s giving and involvement history with your nonprofit, the more personalized and meaningful thanks they deserve.

Demographics

Many nonprofits also segment their donors based on demographic characteristics to craft messages that better appeal to each person’s social and economic circumstances. Consider creating segments based on:

  • Age. Every generation has its own values, perspectives, and preferences. For example, Baby Boomers tend to favor in-person meetings and phone calls, while Millennials prefer the speed and convenience of text messaging. Use these generational tendencies to inform the channels and frequency with which you reach out to each group of donors.
  • Location. Invite donors who live in your local area to in-person fundraising events where they can connect with people who share their passion and values. If your nonprofit has many donors scattered across the country or world, consider planning more hybrid and virtual events they can attend.
  • Occupation. A donor’s occupation can reveal more about their financial capacity and help you uncover corporate philanthropy opportunities. For example, if you notice that many donors work for the same company, consider reaching out to their employer to see if they would be interested in sponsoring an event or organizing team-wide volunteer days.

If you are missing demographic information about your donors, use your donation page and surveys to collect the details you need.

5 Tips for Tailoring Your Appeals to Donors

Use these tips to create personalized, relevant, and genuine appeals:

  1. Choose donor segments that directly align with your overarching goals.
  2. When collecting data, build donor trust by being transparent about how you plan to use it.
  3. Maintain consistent branding and voice across all of your content.
  4. Conduct A/B testing to learn what types of messaging are most effective for each segment.
  5. Track each segment’s average gift size, retention rate, and engagement to assess your performance over time.

Additionally, maintain strong nonprofit data hygiene to keep your donor profiles accurate and up to date. Conduct regular database audits to merge duplicate entries, verify contact information, and standardize formatting.

Whether you’re trying to boost engagement for an upcoming fundraising campaign—such as Giving Tuesday—or following up to thank donors for their support, Fundly recommends incorporating visuals and stories that bring people closer to your cause. Use donor interests and preferences to guide your communications, but remember to vary the types of content you send to keep it fresh and engaging for your audience over time.

missy singh head shotMissy Singh is the Director of Operations, Client Services & Sales at Fundly. She has been working there since 2011 when she started as a Customer Experience and Implementation Manager. As an integrated platform for social impact, Fundly serves as an industry leader in crowdfunding and peer-to-peer fundraising. In 2015 Fundly combined with NonProfitEasy to offer enterprise-level technology that addresses nonprofit needs with features such as a CRM, volunteer management, membership management, and event registration.

Fundraising Tuesday: Crowdfunding vs. Traditional Fundraising, A Quick Guide

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A guest post by Lomesh Shah, Fundly

Traditional fundraising activities like nonprofit events are well-known to many of us, but other forms of fundraising, like crowdfunding, may be less familiar.

Regardless of what kind of fundraising you’re used to, this quick guide will explain the benefits and drawbacks of traditional fundraising and crowdfunding campaigns. Thoroughly understanding both of these types of fundraising activities will ensure that you engage in the most effective strategies for your organization, whether you use only one type or a combination of both. Let’s dive in!

What Is Crowdfunding?

Crowdfunding is a typically online fundraising activity that relies on social sharing and many individual donations to meet fundraising goals. These campaigns usually consist of

  1. A main online campaign page that describes the fundraiser’s purpose,
  2. A donation button for donors
  3. A fundraising thermometer or a similar feature to visually track the fundraiser’s progress.

Individual donors can share the link to the page with their friends, primarily on social media, to spread the word. On the campaign page, donors make a one-time donation with their credit card. Usually, these donations can be anonymous or choose to have their name attached, and their information will not be added to your donor database.

According to Fundly’s crowdfunding statistics, most crowdfunding campaign donors are aged 24-35, so this is a great way to reach new and younger donors.

What are the benefits?

Crowdfunding is a great digital-first form of fundraising that any nonprofit can engage in. If you’re considering trying crowdfunding, consider some of these benefits: 

  • You can reach more first-time donors. Because this is entirely online and your supporters will be sharing it on their own personal social media pages, your exposure to new donors is much higher.
  • It has a very low cost. Many crowdfunding platforms, like Fundly, have very low platform fees that make it easy and affordable to start your crowdfunding campaign in just a few minutes.
  • It requires less planning than an event. In order to be successful, some planning will still be required. However, not having to plan an entire event to raise money can save you a lot of time.

What are the limitations?

Despite the many benefits, it’s also important to consider the potential limitations of crowdfunding: 

  • Individual donations are often small. The average individual donation is $66, which simply means you need to ensure you receive more individual donations than you might in a traditional fundraiser.
  • The platform you use is important. Picking the right crowdfunding website that is affordable, mobile-friendly, and has all the features you need can make or break your campaign. Do your research and offer a great user experience to your donors.
  • You will need your community’s help to spread the word. While you will do some marketing of your own, in order to be successful, your community members must spread your campaign far and wide on their own social media channels. After all, 12% of Facebook shares convert to donations!

What Is Traditional Fundraising?

Traditional fundraising involves many of the activities we associate with fundraising, such as silent auctions, bake sales, galas, and other fundraising events. These fundraisers used to be exclusively in-person, but now also take place in hybrid and even fully virtual formats.

While first-time attendees and donors are always welcomed and encouraged at these events, you are likely to see many more familiar faces of dedicated supporters. However, other types of traditional fundraising activities, like pledge fundraisers, can garner donations from many different people, while the actual participants are often still your existing supporters.

Traditional fundraising is a great way to engage your supporters and secure larger gifts or recurring donations while hosting an exciting fundraising event.

What are the benefits?

You’re likely more familiar with traditional fundraising, but you may not have considered all of the benefits that it brings, such as: 

  • Traditional events can reinforce donor loyalty. Seeing your donors in-person or even connecting during a hybrid or virtual event is a great way to grow their sense of community and dedication to your specific organization.
  • You can use prospect research to secure larger donations. When it comes to finding major donors, prospect research is the “perfect tool” according to Double the Donation. This can help you reach your fundraising goals, even with a smaller donor pool for a specific campaign.
  • You have more control over the marketing efforts. Unlike crowdfunding, you won’t have to rely on your supporters sharing your campaign for success. You’ll be able to use email marketing, direct mail, social media marketing, and more to reach all of your existing supporters and potential new donors.

What are the limitations?

While traditional fundraising has a longer track record, it still does come with some limitations that are important to consider: 

  • Events take much more planning. While events can be very impactful, they do take a lot more planning to be successful and ensure a great experience for everyone who attends. There are many more moving pieces to consider when planning an event.
  • The cost of an event is higher. In addition to more planning, you’ll also have to spend more to host an exciting event. Depending on how much you raise, the cost can be more than worth it, but this is a factor to consider when deciding on what kind of fundraiser to host.
  • You will likely reach fewer new donors. This does not mean that you won’t reach any new donors. It simply means that with traditional fundraising, your established supporters are often much more likely to participate.

Both types of fundraising can be very successful for your organization with the proper planning and preparation. Take your budget, staff, goals, and current donor base into consideration when deciding which fundraising activity will be best for you.

 

Lomesh Shah head shot for crowdfunding

Lomesh Shah has over 25 years of experience in international corporate leadership with a strong emphasis on marketing technology and data management systems. Lomesh has worked with small to mid-size businesses, privately-held companies and Fortune 500 corporations in various capacities; from sales and marketing to overseeing automation and re-engineering of processes and operations.

As CEO of Fundly, Lomesh spends much of his time immersed in the nonprofit industry both as an industry leader, speaker, and in service to several organizations as a board member and volunteer. Outside of the industry, Lomesh is a technology junkie and will give anyone willing to listen an assessment of the latest trends in anything from espresso makers and mobile gadgets to electric cars and wind power.

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