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Fundraising Tuesday: Improving Donor Affinity–3 Event Ideas for Nonprofits

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A guest post by Sarah Tedesco, DonorSearch

Donors contribute to your nonprofit because they are passionate about your cause. However, with so many worthy causes out there, you need to nurture each donor’s personal interests in your nonprofit in order to retain their support.

This natural interest in your cause or nonprofit is called donor affinity. Cultivating donor affinity is an effective way for your nonprofit to maintain engagement and ensure donors remain connected to your cause.

So how can you encourage donor affinity? One great way to ensure your donors continue to care about your organization is to host an event that sparks their passion. Here are our top three event ideas for improving donor affinity:

  1. Charity Auction
  2. 5K Run or Walk
  3. Educational Webinar

Each of these events will allow your organization to connect with donors and build a stronger community among your supporters. By growing your community and reminding donors of their impact, you can improve donor affinity and ensure that your supporters remain engaged. Let’s take a closer look at each of these events and how you can plan them successfully.

1. Charity Auction

Auctions are not only a great way to raise money for your nonprofit, but they’re also a very engaging event for your supporters. Auctions provide an opportunity for your donors to support a cause they care about while also purchasing something they truly love. Here are a few tips to keep in mind when planning your auction:

  • Determine what type of auction you’ll host early on. Before you dive into the details of planning your auction, you’ll need to determine what type of auction you’d like to host. Will it be a traditional or silent auction? In-person, virtual, or hybrid? Once you determine the type of auction you’ll host, you can adjust your planning and marketing strategy accordingly.

 

  • Connect with local businesses. Local businesses can have a huge impact on your local community and how involved they become with your work. Consider reaching out to local businesses to see if they’d be interested in donating items to your auction to demonstrate their support for your cause. Local businesses can also connect you with patrons of their establishments who might already have an interest in your cause.

 

  • Emphasize the impact of bids. To cultivate donor affinity, you need to demonstrate how your donors are making an impact. During the auction, be sure to emphasize how donations and bids will help your nonprofit achieve your goals, launch new initiatives, and forward your mission.

While an auction doesn’t explicitly draw on a donor’s natural interest in your nonprofit, there are plenty of opportunities to nurture donor affinity. Because auctions are such engaging events, your donors will likely already be paying close attention to the event, meaning it’s the perfect chance to share important information about your cause.

2. 5K Run or Walk

One reliable way to improve donor affinity is to build community. A strong community of supporters can motivate, inspire, and educate each other, and there’s no better event to build community than a 5K race. These races can gather many of your supporters together and rally everyone around your cause. When planning your 5K run or walk, you should:

  • Encourage teams. Teams are a great way to add some friendly competition while getting more supporters involved! For instance, if you have an active alumni network, encourage them to form their own teams and see which alumni groups can raise the most funds.

 

  • Share content about your nonprofit and mission. In the registration process, follow-up emails, and on the actual day, be sure that you’re reminding participants why they’re there: to support your nonprofit. Consider having beneficiaries of your nonprofit speak at the event and share their story to deepen the personal connection that your donors have to your cause.

 

  • Host a celebration at the end. When the 5K run or walk is over, host a big celebration with food, games, and a ceremony to celebrate your fastest runners and most effective peer-to-peer fundraisers. A celebration will ensure that your participants enjoy their time and associate your nonprofit with happy memories!

To help your event run as smoothly as possible, invest in nonprofit software that allows you to register participants, track their donations, and identify relationships between donors (such as members of the same family who joined the same team). With this information, you can identify opportunities to grow donor affinity even after the event is over.

3. Educational Webinar

In many instances, donor affinity can grow out of newfound awareness or education. Perhaps a potential donor had no idea about the cause that your nonprofit is supporting or they were recently affected by the issue you’re trying to address. They will turn to your nonprofit to provide answers to their questions and knowledge about the issue.

With the right approach, your nonprofit can make supporters care even more about the issue, improving donor affinity across the board. To raise awareness about your cause, host an educational webinar featuring informed speakers and representatives of your nonprofit.

To host a successful webinar, you should:

  • Discuss topics that are interesting to your donors. Each donor’s interest in your nonprofit likely grew out of different circumstances, but they probably want to learn more about similar topics. Design your webinar around certain topics that are the most interesting to your donors. And if you’re unsure which topics your donors might be interested in, don’t be afraid to ask!

 

  • Emphasize how your nonprofit has made a difference. While donors may be interested in your cause, they might not have a full understanding of how your nonprofit is making a difference. During your webinar, emphasize the difference that your nonprofit has made and how donations can help you further your impact.

 

  • Host a Q&A session. A great webinar likely prompts questions from your audience, so give attendees the chance to ask speakers their burning questions. Creating a dynamic and engaging conversation will also help donors feel like an integral part of your nonprofit’s dialogue.

Hosting an exclusive webinar is also a great way to nurture affinity among major donors. According to DonorSearch’s guide on major donor fundraising, creating events specifically targeted towards major donors can effectively deepen their engagement and encourage them to donate more. A webinar is the perfect way to combine education with your long-term fundraising strategy.

Cultivating donor affinity is crucial for any nonprofit. Not only can it help you better tailor your nonprofit’s marketing strategy, events, and programs, but it can also help you deepen each donor’s relationship with your nonprofit. Good luck!

Sarah TedescoSarah Tedesco is the Executive Vice President of DonorSearch, a prospect research and wealth screening company that focuses on proven philanthropy. Sarah is responsible for managing the production and customer support department concerning client contract fulfillment, increasing retention rate and customer satisfaction. She collaborates with other team members on a variety of issues including sales, marketing and product development ideas.

Get to Know Your Donors: 4 Tips

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A guest post from Sarah Tedesco of DonorSearch

donors at the center

Donors at the heart

Each year, you and your fundraising team work hard to raise money for your cause and make a meaningful impact on your mission.

In the center of all your hard work are your donors, the people who genuinely believe in your cause and take the time and action to support your nonprofit.

It’s more cost-effective and beneficial to retain donors than acquire new donors, so focus your efforts on developing those current donor relationships. And the right tools can help.

Even though fundraisers are now equipped with amazing tools, you still have to learn the best ways to use these modern solutions to build truly authentic relationships. The better you know your donors, the stronger your relationships will be.

In this guide, you’ll be learning about the best ways to get to know your donors and the tools you can use to truly understand why donors give to your organization. Consider these top tips:

  1. Ask donors for their preferences.
  2. Record all donor data.
  3. Invest in a prospect research tool.
  4. Incorporate donor data into marketing initiatives.

1. Ask donors for their preferences.

In order to foster relationships with donors who continuously support your cause, it’s good practice to determine their engagement preferences at the start. This can be as simple as asking them to check off a box in your donation forms!

The more personal and targeted your fundraising engagements are, the better your donors will respond to your outreach efforts. For instance, say a donor doesn’t want any direct mail sent to their home address. Once you know this preference, the worst thing that you can do is to continue sending materials and physical letters. They’ll just get annoyed with the barrage of mail and start to ignore your engagements.

Ask your donors’ preferences on your online donation form. This way, you can record these preferences in their donor profiles right off the bat. It’s also a good idea to let them change their preference as your engagement continues. You can include a link in your email signatures for easy access.

Make sure you keep track of these preferences:

  • Do your donors want to receive email communications, direct mail, mobile text messaging, or all?
  • How often do your donors want updates? Do they want to subscribe to your newsletter?
  • What kind of communications do they want to receive? Event invitations, volunteer opportunities, or donation request letters?
  • If they opted to give a recurring donation, what is their preferred payment preference?

Once you actively make an effort to meet your donors’ preferences, it’s more likely that they’ll stick around and your retention rates won’t stagger. The best place to keep track of all these preferences is your donor database.

2. Record all donor data.

To truly reach your donors and build life-long bonds, ensure that you’re recording all the important donor data. This will depend on your constituent relationship management (CRM) system, also known as your donor database. 

Your CRM system should be recording every donor engagement and all key donor metrics in relation to your nonprofit organization. This means every email sent, every donation given, and each fundraising event ticket sold.

Investing in a capable CRM system is crucial in order to get a comprehensive view of your donors. Once you know their current relationship with your nonprofit, you can better ascertain the ways to improve your future engagement strategies. For example, if you notice that a lot of your donors are active on social media, maybe consider investing more time in that engagement channel.

How do you know if your CRM is doing the best it can for your nonprofit fundraising? Consider its integration capabilities. When the tools within your entire fundraising system are integrated with your CRM, you ensure that your donor data is centralized and accurate. Even as actions and engagements are happening in real-time, the information seamlessly flows into your CRM.

Make sure you’re receiving data from these key fundraising tools:

  • Online donation tool. Ensure your CRM captures the donor name, key financial information, donation amount, and any other information that was required in your form.
  • Event registration tool. If your nonprofit often hosts events, ensure that your CRM records data regarding event attendance, registration level, payment preference, and more.
  • Email marketing tool. Make sure you have all the essential information to communicate effectively with your donors. For example, as soon as a donor makes a gift, your CRM should keep track of their email and send them an appreciation email thanking them for their contribution with that donor’s name and donation amount. Additionally, track which emails are opened and which are ignored to know which engagements are working.

3. Invest in a prospect research tool.

Prospect research is a fundraising strategy that involves screening your donor database to identify high-impact donors. 

While it’s possible that prospect research can be done manually and in-house, the efforts and resources your staff will use up might not be worth it. Many modern fundraisers turn to a digital solution to help. With a capable prospect research tool, you can effectively screen your donors against the nation’s largest philanthropic databases.

To determine which of your supporters are likely to be high impact donors, your prospect research tool is looking out for wealth markers and philanthropic indicators:

  • Wealth markers provide a clue about your donors’ capacity to give. Your prospect research tool is looking at your donors’ real estate ownerships, stock ownerships, and business affiliations.
  • Philanthropic indicators help determine how charitable your donors are and their affinity to give. Your prospect research tool is looking at your donors’ past giving, political giving, and other nonprofit involvement.

Your prospect research tool is great at highlighting donor metrics that you can incorporate into targeted and high-impact marketing initiatives. Donors with both wealth markers and philanthropic indicators are likely to want to give and have the means to give. Read on to learn how you can leverage this information to increase fundraising.

4. Incorporate donor data into marketing initiatives.

Major gifts make up a large percentage of your revenue, with 76% of yearly giving coming from only 4% of donors. Because your prospect research tool is screening for both a donor’s affinity to give and capacity to give, this tool can accurately highlight those who might become major donors.

Identifying your major donor prospects doesn’t mean that they’re automatically going to make large gifts. You need to cultivate this relationship and set the stage for future giving. Your best bet is to segment these potential high-impact donors for targeted communications and other meaningful engagements. For instance, segment these donors and:

  • Give them event perks like early-bird registration or a discount code.
  • Consider writing a handwritten letter instead of an email for a more personal touch. Make sure to keep in mind their communication preferences!
  • Other non-ask communications like interesting nonprofit announcements, upcoming events, and volunteer opportunities.

Not only can your prospect research tool identify potential major donors, but it can also supplement other fundraising efforts.

Increase your corporate matching gifts.

Corporate matching gift programs are great opportunities for nonprofits, but are not taken advantage of as often as they should. Eligible donors can double or even triple their donations if they just submit a matching gift request. According to one study, an estimated $4-7 billion in matching gift funds goes unclaimed per year.

Corporate matching gift programs aren’t as well known as other fundraising initiatives, so often donors don’t even know that they can increase their gift without giving any additional funds.

Using your prospect research tool and a corporate philanthropic database, screen each of your donor’s business affiliations. Then, send out specific matching gift letters to let them know of their eligibility! For a list of matching gift letter templates from a wide range of organizations, click here.

Target donor advised funds.

Another way you can leverage your prospect research data in smart ways is to look out for donor advised funds (DAFs). As stated in this DonorSearch flash class webinar, DAFs are the fastest growing form of philanthropy today.

A DAF account is a dedicated savings account for charity where an individual will deposit cash, stock, or other assets. However, the donor doesn’t choose a recipient right away and instead makes this decision later on.

Finding out one of your supporters has a DAF is an exciting opportunity for your nonprofit. The supporter has already dedicated these funds to charity, it’s just up to you to convince them that your organization is the right one.

Use your prospect research tool and highlight donors who might have DAFs by screening their wealth metrics. Segment those donors and start fostering those relationships to increase the likelihood of them choosing your nonprofit as their DAF recipient. Focus on non-ask communications so they know that this relationship isn’t purely based on them giving you money.

Getting to know your donors is one of the most important jobs for your fundraising team. After reading this guide, you now know how to effectively reach them and can genuinely develop those donor relationships for future engagement. Good luck!

Sarah TedescoSarah Tedesco is the Executive Vice President of DonorSearch, a prospect research and wealth screening company that focuses on proven philanthropy. Sarah is responsible for managing the production and customer support department concerning client contract fulfillment, increasing retention rate and customer satisfaction. She collaborates with other team members on a variety of issues including sales, marketing and product development ideas.

DIY Prospect Research: 5 Must-Know Tools For Your Nonprofit

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A guest post by Sarah Tedesco of DonorSearch

If your nonprofit is just starting out or has a tight budget, your fundraising team may be facing some serious pressure to set a promising prospect research or wealth screening game plan in motion.

Never fear however; there are plenty of DIY tools out there for one or more nonprofit team members to successfully put to use, including:

  1. DonorSearch (best for comprehensive prospect research).
  2. Double the Donation (best for matching gifts).
  3. IntellectSpace (best for nonprofit networking).
  4. Government-related search engines (best for public records)
  5. Online social connections (best for individual profiles).

These handy resources will not only single out key major giving prospects, but also help your nonprofit build a diverse prospect research network to rely on for years to come.

 

DonorSearch

1. DonorSearch (Best for Comprehensive Prospect Research)

When it comes to making the most of prospect research, no one has a more refined and easy-to-use collection of services than DonorSearch.

Apart from their blog which delves into every area of prospect research imaginable, DonorSearch also offers two essential resources for budding nonprofits: DS Giving Search and their charitable giving database.  

To begin with, DS Giving Search is a FREE one-of-a-kind tool that provides a condensed version of all of DonorSearch’s philanthropic data — and it’s available to everyone!

Many prospect research professionals use DS Giving Search to identify top donor prospects — individuals and corporations alike — at lightning speed by honing in on major giving identifiers like:

  • Past giving to your organization or other nonprofits
  • Philanthropic history and nonprofit affiliations
  • Political giving or real estate ownership

This exceptional tool works best on mobile devices to help you perform prospect research on-the-go, but is also effective on tablets, laptops, and desktop computers.

DonorSearch’s charitable giving database is another must-know source for print and online philanthropic data — including past giving, annual reports, print references, and more — to construct prospect profiles around.

By gathering this information in your donor profiles, your nonprofit can better target old and new donors’ giving potential in areas like annual giving, major giving, and planned giving. DonorSearch even offers free prospect profile templates to help you get started cultivating donors right away!

Takeaway: DonorSearch provides younger nonprofits FREE expert tools to make growing a substantial prospect research database that much easier.

Double the Donation

 

2. Double the Donation (Best for Matching Gifts)

Another prospect research resource for nonprofits to utilize involves examining matching gift programs and donor profiles.

Matching gifts can encourage donors to reach new levels of giving with your nonprofit by teaming up with their place of work.  

A matching gift search tool can help your nonprofit access a corporate directory of matching gift programs. You can then determine top corporate and individual prospects from this list as well as identify donors who may have already made matching gifts to your nonprofit.

Luckily, Double the Donation’s matching gift search tool is the best in the business for helping your nonprofit coordinate prospect research through matching gifts.

Let’s take a moment to break down how this practical tool works:

  1. Matching gift prospects enter their employer’s name in Double the Donation’s matching gift search tool.
  2. The matching gift search tool then directs the prospect to their employer’s matching gift program (if it has one) and to the necessary forms and guidelines for participating.

The brilliance behind matching gift search tools for prospect research lies in nonprofits using this crucial data to initiate matching-gift related communications with eligible donors.

A matching gift search tool can also be added to donation forms and matching gift pages to provide donors with easy access to their employers’ programs. This allows them to learn more about corporate giving programs during the donation process.

For more top-of-the-line prospect research tools, check out Double the Donation’s exclusive ranking, including favorite features and pricing!

Takeaway: Matching gift search tools and programs are an excellent way for nonprofits to get in on the ground floor of prospect research.

 

IntellectSpace

 

 

3. IntellectSpace (Best for Nonprofit Networking)

This form of DIY prospect research takes a more analytical approach to navigating your best bets for major giving donors.

IntellectSpace specializes in “relationship mapping,” a technique that visually lays out all of your nonprofit connections, including donor prospects.

This service provides you with the most up-to-date information on all of your nonprofit ties, allowing you to develop a reliable database of constituents.

For example, if your nonprofit wanted to launch a fundraising campaign for a medical cause, IntellectSpace could help you draw lines between existing contacts and top prospects with a giving history to grateful patient programs or healthcare facilities.

IntellectSpace also offers a portfolio of tailored networking solutions that make it easy for your nonprofit to reach out to prospects and encourage donation opportunities, such as:

  • LiveAlumni: An online app that hosts current alumni and donor data to help nonprofits identify major giving prospects, find corporate sponsors, and more.
  • ProspectVisual: A relationship mapping tool that helps nonprofits connect the dots between existing supporters and target prospects.
  • SalesVisual: A plug-in app for Salesforce that helps nonprofits visualize internal integrations to reveal new prospect research opportunities.

Once you’ve uncovered these valuable relationships, your nonprofit can then get to know these prospects even better with tailored solicitation strategies.

Takeaway: New and established nonprofits can utilize IntellectSpace to reveal lucrative connections you didn’t even know you had!

 

Government Search Engines

4. Government-Related Search Engines (Best for Public Records)

One of the most important steps of prospect research is to look into financial markers that set donors apart in their giving capacity. That’s why it’s always a good idea to look into government-related search engines for filtering through essential public records.

These resources not only display influential wealth markers, but also reveal personal factors that help you understand the little details that make every prospect unique.

Check out our favorite FREE government-based prospect research tools below that nonprofits can’t go wrong with:

  • SEC.gov (The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission): Discover prospects’ stock ownership and corporate filings.
  • FEC.gov (Federal Election Emission): Research donors who generously supported a political committee or campaign.
  • County Tax Assessor’s Site: Explore prospects’ real estate ventures and property values to determine their financial standing.

On top of researching wealth factors, your nonprofit can really go the extra mile by investigating individual and organization philanthropic data from other public records like:

  • The Foundation Center’s online grant database and site-specific nonprofit libraries.
  • GuideStar’s virtual finance documents for all IRS-registered nonprofits.
  • Biographical, business, and newspaper databases from your library.

As a side note, while your nonprofit is gathering valuable prospect research data, don’t forget to organize it efficiently by investing in the right donor management software.

 

Takeaway: Use government-related search engines to track down notable wealth markers in a prospect’s public records.

Online Social Connections

 

5. Online Social Connections (Best for Individual Profiles)

Last but not least, never underestimate the power of your nonprofit’s virtual community.

By tapping into your online social connections, your nonprofit can not only spread the word about major donation opportunities, but also research personal and professional facts of key donors.

For instance, social media platforms like Facebook allow users to fill out their online profile with all kinds of individual information from hobbies and interests to belief systems and relationships.

On the other hand, your nonprofit can examine someone’s LinkedIn profile to get a better idea of their professional background and network connections.

As noted earlier, social media channels also provide your nonprofit with the perfect opportunity to generate a call-to-action for donations. This can be accomplished simply by connecting with online donors directly through videos, storytelling, pictures, and infographics.

Rest assured, if your nonprofit’s development team isn’t too keen on social media research, you can always take the more simplified route of Googling a top prospect.

These straightforward online search results can uncover just about anything about a potential donor, including but not limited to:

  • If the prospect works for a company with a matching gift program.
  • If the prospect has a history of philanthropic work at similar nonprofits.
  • If the prospect has a record of giving to nonprofits, charities, and community projects.

All in all, a shrewd DIY prospect researcher should take full advantage of these online avenues to discover as much as they can about a potential donor before reaching out with a tailored solicitation strategy. After all, chances are higher that your donors will renew their gifts if your team puts the effort into making a personal impact first.

Takeaway: Online social connections are a foolproof resource for prospect research that not enough nonprofits are following up on.

No one ever said that launching a nonprofit was easy, and unfortunately neither is securing the funds your organization needs to thrive and survive. With these DIY essentials for prospect research though, your nonprofit can lay the groundwork for a trusted community of donors in no time.

Sarah TedescoSarah Tedesco is the Executive Vice President of DonorSearch, a prospect research and wealth screening company that focuses on proven philanthropy. Sarah is responsible for managing the production and customer support department concerning client contract fulfillment, increasing retention rate and customer satisfaction.

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