Professionals working at small nonprofits are often immensely focused on new and exciting opportunities for growth. This is because these organizations are generally still working very hard to get off the ground running. 

They’re looking for the next opportunity to spread the name of their organization far and wide, attracting as many new supporters as possible to get excited about the mission. These new supporters are invited to get involved in fundraising campaigns, the next event, and ever-present volunteer opportunities. 

While the acquisition of new supporters is absolutely necessary to obtain growth, small organizations too often forget about the other important metric necessary for efficient growth: donor retention. 

It’s often up to ten times more expensive to acquire new supporters than it is to retain your existing ones. Therefore, instead of constantly replenishing your supporters who lapse after the first donation, retaining the supporters you’ve already worked so hard to acquire offers a faster road to growth. 

Here at Bloomerang, we understand the value of donor retention. In fact, we built our entire software system with retention in mind to empower nonprofits like yours with the necessary tools to increase retention rates and grow fundraising. We’ve pulled some insights from Bloomerang’s comprehensive retention guide to share with you here, focusing specifically on how small nonprofits can leverage retention to improve fundraising and grow impact. We’ll cover: 

• Calculating Donor Retention
• Common Reasons Donors Lapse
• The Golden Donation
• Additional Donor Retention Strategies

Ready to take a deep dive into the power of donor retention? Let’s get started.

Calculating Donor Retention

Donor retention is immensely valuable for nonprofits of all shapes and sizes. Not only does it allow you to spend less on acquisition costs, but supporters also often give more to organizations the longer they’re involved with the mission. 

But how can you unlock this powerful tool for growth? The first step is to start tracking your own donor retention rate. This will give you a starting point from which your organization can start building your strategy. It’s how you’ll calculate and track progress. 

The image below shows the basic calculation that you’ll need to know to determine your initial retention rate: 

Returning donors in year #2 divided by all donors in year #1 equals your retention rate. 

The best nonprofit CRM software will actually calculate this retention rate for you, providing information about the trends in your donor retention, allowing you to track your progress. This database is the perfect place to track your retention rate because it houses all of your donor data and engagement histories. 

If your database enables you to track this metric, add it to your dashboard so that it’s front and center, encouraging your team to keep retention front of mind at all times. 

Common Reasons Donors Lapse

Once you’ve calculated your donor retention rate, you can start considering how you’ll make improvements. The first step is to consider why donors don’t stay with your organization. Why are they lapsing? 

Every nonprofit has a certain amount of natural lapse that occurs for reasons outside of their control, but many reasons for lapsing are entirely within your organization’s control. This guide provides the helpful image below with the various reasons supporters stop giving to nonprofits, based on Adrian Sargeant’s study on the matter: 

• 5% thought the charity did not need them
• 8% got no information about how the monies were used
• 9% had no memory of supporting the organization
• 13% never got thanked for donating
• 16% passed away
• 18% thought the charity had poor service or communication
• 36% thought other charities were more deserving
• 54% could no longer afford to give

Of course, when supporters pass away or fall on hard times and can’t afford to give, that’s outside the control of your organization. However, the other reasons for donor lapse are within the control of your nonprofit. By building out your organization’s marketing strategy, you’ll be able to address some of the most common reasons people stop donating. 

For instance, let’s consider the first four ideas listed above: donors who think the charity doesn’t need them, didn’t get information about how the funds were used, had no memory of supporting, and never got thanked for donating. All of these reasons for lapsing can be addressed with a simple letter of appreciation, usually with a message that reads something like this: 

Dear Mark, 

Thank you for your contribution to the Feed a Dolphin campaign. Your donation of $100 allowed us to feed Tommy the dolphin for a week. Tommy appreciates your contribution too. We’ve enclosed a picture of him for you! 

By communicating the impact that supporters’ donations had on the organization, your supporters recognize that their gifts were necessary and know what the funds were used for. Plus, by opening up the line of communication and thanking them, it’s unlikely that the supporter will forget their contribution or feel unappreciated. 

The Golden Donation

The “golden donation” is the second gift that supporters give to an organization. This is called the golden donation because supporters are much more likely to continue giving after they’ve given this second gift. 

The Fundraising Effectiveness Project cites a couple of statistics to illustrate this point. The average new donor retention rate (those who give again after their first contribution) is only around 20%. Meanwhile, after a second donation is given, the repeat donor retention rate jumps to over 60%. 

When you capture the second donation from a supporter, you dramatically increase the chances that they’ll continue giving again in the future. This means you’ll need more than an impressive fundraising form to retain your supporters—you’ll need a specific strategy. 

We recommend creating a specific strategy and timeline that you can use to recapture the attention of your first-time supporters and encourage them to maintain involvement. The ideal strategy to do this isn’t riddled with asks. Instead, it emphasizes appreciation and information. Your new donor engagement strategy might include items such as: 

• Sending an immediate appreciation email. Draft a confirmation email to send immediately after a supporter gives to your organization. If you include all of the elements in a proper appreciation letter, you can use this as an opportunity to both confirm the contribution was received and say thank you to supporters. Fundraising Letters offers templates that you can use to include all necessary appreciation elements in this automated email.
• Calling donors to say thank you. Don’t only use an email to lead your appreciation strategy. Go the extra mile to call your supporters and say thank you for their support. This is an opportunity to create a personal connection with them and invite them to get involved with other aspects of your organization, such as reading mission literature. 
• Inviting them to read your newsletter. Send new supporters your latest newsletter so they can get caught up on the latest activities and programs of your organization. This also provides insight into your program initiatives and priorities, offering even more opportunities for new supporters to get involved. 
• Sending another thank you note from leadership. Send a follow-up thank you note after your supporter gives. This should be a more in-depth and personalized thank you for the contribution that the supporter gave. It’s even better if this letter is hand-written or signed by a leader at the organization. 
• Collecting feedback through a survey. Show your new supporters that you care about and value their insights and opinions. Send a survey so that they can share their experience, explain why they contributed to your organization, and otherwise provide feedback. 

As you can see, none of the above suggestions require you to ask for another donation from your supporter. The second ask shouldn’t come until after you’ve completed at least some of these stewardship activities.

Additional Donor Retention Strategies

In general, at the heart of donor retention is relationships. When you develop relationships with your supporters, they’ll come back and continue giving to your organization for the long haul. Therefore, when you’re determining how you’ll retain your supporters, consider what you’ll need to do to initiate a relationship. 

Relationships are always a two-way street, so you need to play your part. The following retention strategies are commonly used to help nonprofits develop these relationships: 

• Communicate impact. Supporters want to know and understand where their funds are going. Communicating the impact that they’ve had on your mission is a great way for you to show your supporters just how much you’ve accomplished with their help. 
• Show appreciation. Appreciation is more than just a polite gesture. Have you ever given a gift to a friend and they didn’t say thank you? You probably felt a bit bitter afterwards. The same is true for supporters. It starts relationships off on a good foot if you send a genuine thank you. 
• Personalize communications. Segment your supporters in your donor database and include personal details in your communications with them. This shows supporters that they’re not just a part of the crowd—they’re special and important teammates for your organization. 
• Invite supporters to events. Events (whether in-person, virtual, or hybrid) include activities and opportunities for one-on-one communication and mingling. Invite supporters personally and encourage them to attend to make these important relationship-building activities possible. 
• Encourage volunteering. Volunteering is a great way to give supporters’ wallets a break while still encouraging them to get involved with your mission. Plus, you might still be able to make some money! Encourage your volunteers to look up their eligibility for grants associated with volunteer hours. Some companies offer grant funds in exchange for their employees giving a certain number of hours volunteering to eligible nonprofits. 

Consider your own audience and the types of stewardship strategies that they might prefer when it comes to developing relationships. Relationship-building is an important and effective strategy for every type of supporter, helping organizations retain their new supporters or cultivate major gifts. Prioritizing relationships will help you raise more at every level. 

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While many small nonprofits focus on the acquisition of new supporters as their pathway to growth and success, it’s important to strike a balance between that and donor retention. You should acquire new supporters, but you should do so with a retention strategy in place so that your organization achieves sustainable growth rather than temporary new support.

Author: Jay Love

Co-Founder and current Chief Relationship Officer at Bloomerang

He has served this sector for 33 years and is considered the most well-known senior statesman whose advice is sought constantly.

Prior to Bloomerang, he was the CEO and Co-Founder of eTapestry for 11 years, which at the time was the leading SaaS technology company serving the charity sector. Jay and his team grew the company to more than 10,000 nonprofit clients, charting a decade of record growth.

He is a graduate of Butler University with a B.S. in Business Administration. Over the years, he has given more than 2,500 speeches around the world for the charity sector and is often the voice of new technology for fundraisers.

As everyone is weighing the available public health guidance in decision-making at the moment, Joshua Meyer, Director of Marketing for OneCause, leans on his 14 years of experience in the nonprofit sector to offer the following article with recommendations and considerations for nonprofits thinking about how to continue to engage with supporters in this time.

The broad shift to virtual engagement has been dramatic and challenging for the nonprofit sector. Now, over a year after the pandemic’s start, we can see that the pivot has been successful for many organizations. They’ve been able to regain their fundraising momentum while also adding valuable new strategies to reach their supporters.

Keeping the lessons of 2020 in mind, it’s time to look ahead. As the pandemic and restrictions begin easing up in parts of the country, it may be time to finally consider hosting some form of in-person events again.

This is a big decision—considerations around safety and public perception deserve plenty of thought. Because events often represent a significant investment of your nonprofit’s time, attention, and resources, you have to get the timing and the approach right. 

We recommend considering a hybrid fundraising event. But how do you know when it’s the right time to plan and launch one?

At OneCause, we’ve helped organizations of all sizes navigate the pandemic-era fundraising landscape, so we’ve seen a wide variety of circumstances and strategies in action. We’re already supporting many nonprofits as they begin the pivot back to in-person engagement, so we wanted to share a few thoughts. Here’s what we’ll cover:

• What are Hybrid Events?
• Pros and Cons of Hybrid Events
• 5 Key Considerations to Keep in Mind

Hybrid events may become a regular fixture on nonprofits’ calendars for the foreseeable future. Understanding this type of event will be invaluable for helping your organization decide whether hybrid fundraising is the right format for your donors. Let’s dive in.

What are Hybrid Events?

Hybrid events combine in-person and virtual elements to create a dual experience for supporters. The in-person audience engages onsite with your fundraising, while the remote audience tunes-in online to watch the program and interact virtually.

Hybrid events give you the best of both worlds—in-person engagement plus the extended virtual reach for audiences who cannot be there onsite.

They’re also extremely flexible and can be adapted for all kinds of budgets and contexts, from galas and auctions down to luncheons and other types of special events. A hybrid model allows supporters to choose how they’d like to engage with your event. 

For example, for a hybrid signature event, you could create tiered ticket packages. With a gala and auction that combines in-person and virtual experiences, you might offer attendees tiers like:

• A VIP experience for in-person attendees, giving them a meal, entertainment, a live emcee, and the ability to physically browse your auction item displays.
• A mid-tier virtual package, giving them early access to your item catalog and goodies shipped directly to their homes.
• A free virtual package, including a ticket to the main virtual event and access to your mobile bidding tools.

This structure allows you to engage wider audiences remotely while also opening up opportunities to drive more engagement (and revenue) with supporters who are interested in the higher tiers. However, as with any big decisions about allocating your time and resources towards campaigns and events, you’ll need to carefully weigh the pros and cons before committing to a plan.

Pros and Cons of Hybrid Events

Hybrid events offer a wide range of benefits for nonprofits, but they also bring along extra considerations that you’ll need to keep in mind. These may influence your decision as to whether hybrid is right for your nonprofit and supporters.

Here’s how we think about the benefits and drawbacks of hybrid events:

Pros of Hybrid Events

• They expand your event’s reach and accessibility. The ability to engage supporters from anywhere is a major plus.
• They give you a high degree of flexibility. Hybrid events are extremely adaptable, making it easy to incorporate a wide variety of virtual ideas (check out some of the OneCause team’s favorite ideas to learn more).
• They offer safety, convenience, and choice for supporters. While the pandemic is still a public health concern, safety should be a priority. Not to mention, many supporters appreciate the choice to conveniently join in from the comfort of home.
• They still generate direct, in-person engagement. Nothing can quite replace the value of engaging face-to-face with attendees. Hybrid events allow you to celebrate with supporters in person and connect them to your mission on a more personal level.
• They generate more valuable engagement data. Online engagement directly generates valuable data that you can use to measure your performance and continually refine your strategies over time.

Cons of Hybrid Events

• Hybrid events can involve complex planning. They essentially require planning for  two supporter experiences. Careful attention must be paid to both the in-person and virtual aspects to ensure a positive, enjoyable experience for attendees.
• They can generate production expenses. If you’ve already hosted virtual events, you may have virtual-friendly tools in your tech stack to use for a hybrid event. If not, you’ll almost certainly need to invest in some new software and likely production resources to smoothly facilitate a seamless hybrid guest experience.
• It can be harder to drive engagement with remote attendees. Your virtual supporters won’t get quite the same experience as those in-person. You’ll need to spend effort and intentionality to help boost engagement and create an exciting experience for those participating online.

As you weigh your options, keep these pros and cons in mind. Going hybrid is an excellent choice for many nonprofits right now, but every nonprofit has different needs, different goals, and different donor bases. In some cases, sticking with a fully virtual fundraising event may be the most effective solution for your event.

Here’s a pro tip to remember: The virtual components of hybrid events won’t be perfect one-to-one translations of their in-person counterparts.

Some activities will overlap between your in-person and virtual elements, like the main program, auction, and donation appeals. Other activities, like live entertainment, food, cocktail hours, and mingling between guests, won’t carry over easily to the virtual realm, and that’s fine! Just ensure that both audiences have engaging, intuitive experiences, even if they involve slightly different offerings and activities.

5 Key Considerations to Keep in Mind

When making the decision about whether or not to go hybrid, you’ll need to consider a few key aspects:

1. Audience

Will your audience be receptive to a hybrid event?

Study your engagement metrics from the past year, like attendance at virtual events and the types of donors who were the most (or least) engaged (attendance, donations, social media shares). This can point you in the right direction when deciding on whether or not a hybrid event will work for your base of support. 

If you want more direct feedback from supporters and their thoughts about potentially joining an in-person event, just ask! Send a survey to get a feel for their interest in a hybrid event. If you choose to go with a tiered ticket structure for a signature event, reach out directly to your major and mid-level donors to gauge their opinions.

2. Safety

Can you host an event with in-person elements safely?

The pandemic is still an ongoing concern, so safety should continue to be a top priority. Review relevant guidelines or current restrictions in your jurisdiction, and take your supporters’ opinions into account. If many of them won’t feel comfortable at a live event, virtual may be your best option for now. 

If your event planning skills have gotten rusty over the past year, remember to comply with all other relevant legal requirements. These are particularly important for events involving auctions, games of chance, and alcohol.

3. Time

Do you have the time to effectively plan a hybrid event?

Planning a hybrid event is complex. You’re essentially planning two separate events that will overlap in some ways but also require specific attention to the different live and virtual elements. Simply livestreaming your in-person program won’t be enough to truly engage remote audiences.
We recommend giving your team at least 120 days (4 months) to plan a hybrid event from start to finish. If it’s springtime and you want to host a hybrid year-end gala, go for it! If you’re short on time but want to host an event soon, staying virtual might be the best choice as they can be executed with a shorter prep-time.

4. Budget

Can you afford to make any new investments for a hybrid event?

Hybrid events can naturally involve a broader range of overhead costs than fully virtual or in-person events. Common expenses to consider include:

• In-person logistics, like venue, food, entertainment, and hiring an emcee
• Virtual logistics, like virtual event software and technical support
• Production-related costs, like livestream, AV/sound equipment, and often outside production partners
• Additional costs related to marketing, goodies for guests, or auction item procurement

The expanded reach of hybrid events makes them a cost-effective choice for many organizations, but you’ll ultimately need to compare your event budget with your event and attendance goals. Digging into your data from past, similar virtual or in-person events will be helpful during this step.

5. Technology

Do you have the right tools to host a hybrid event?

If you’ve hosted virtual events over the past year, you’ve likely already invested in one or more tools for planning and facilitating them. Begin identifying any gaps in your fundraising technology toolkit that need to be addressed if you choose to move ahead with a hybrid event. Tools that nonprofits commonly need to invest in include:

• Virtual event software
• Livestreaming tools
• Mobile bidding software

Your virtual fundraising software will be the central location for your hybrid event’s remote attendees and directly impacts their experience, so choose wisely. Tools that help you create seamless experiences (with breakout rooms, donation forms, and bidding capabilities built right into the main virtual event center) will be your best choice.

Also, consider how applicable any new software will be for both of your audiences. Mobile bidding tools are the perfect example since they streamline the bidding process regardless of location. Remember that new software can and should deliver value over the long run, improving all of your future events—approach them as careful long-term investments, not one-off expenses.

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Hybrid events are here to stay, but the current challenge for many nonprofits is determining the exact right time to make the pivot. By understanding hybrid events and the key considerations outlined above, you’ll be in a good spot to make the right decision for your organization. Happy fundraising!

Today’s article covers raising awareness for nonprofit funding campaigns from the inception of the drive to after the donations have been received. As Head of Marketing and Analytics at GivingMail, a direct mail platform for nonprofits, Grant Cobb weighs in with advice to help nonprofits make the most of their funding efforts.

Fundraisers keep your nonprofit running and require meticulous planning and forethought to ensure they find success. However, no matter how well designed and optimized the fundraiser itself is, you’ll only get results if you’re able to get the word out effectively. 

While there is a plethora of useful fundraising advice for finding the perfect idea and tools to help run your event, nonprofits are often left in the dark regarding how to market their fundraiser. You may be able to easily identify common communication channels, but how to use them to create a full-fledged marketing campaign is a more challenging task. 

Our team of professionals at GivingMail has helped nonprofits craft strategic fundraising appeals for over 70 years, meaning we’ve seen and overcome nearly every hurdle nonprofit marketing has to offer. Marketing and outreach have evolved over the years, and our tactics have adapted to find new processes for overcoming each challenge. To help launch your next fundraising campaign, here are five steps every nonprofit should take when marketing their fundraisers:

1. Assemble a Team
2. Craft Your Message
3. Set Marketing Goals 
4. Spread the Word 
5. Follow-up After the Fundraiser

Each of these steps aims to encourage your marketing team to think deeper about who your supporters are and how your nonprofit can reach them on a personal level. Nonprofits of every size can take these steps, whether you have a dedicated marketing department or a team of one. No matter your cause or your size, the principles of marketing remain the same; it’s just a matter of incorporating them into your next fundraiser to suit your unique needs.

1. Assemble a Team

As mentioned, marketing teams vary in size and are often one of the first things to be cut for small nonprofits. Assembling a team also requires knowledge you might not have of how effective marketing campaigns are run, especially if your nonprofit has limited resources for finding the right candidates. 

However, instead of asking who you need on your marketing team, determine what responsibilities you need to complete and how many people it will take to meet those commitments. Doing so can help you boil down your marketing campaign as a whole into a few essential tasks rather than nebulous roles that might not fit with your nonprofit’s operating budget. 

To help your nonprofit then put a name to your list of responsibilities, here are a few common marketing team members and the tasks they usually complete:

• Project manager. Project managers oversee your marketing team by making schedules to keep everyone on track, coordinating launches of outreach material, and providing direction for the entire team. Project managers not only determine the direction of your marketing campaign, but they are also able to step back and look at each step in the marketing process as a whole. This lets them identify problems and opportunities that team members who are focused on individual tasks might not see. 

• Content creators. Writers and graphic designers create your marketing materials. While your nonprofit’s leadership likely has great ideas about your mission, they are not necessarily writers or artists. Provide your content creators with your fundraiser’s purpose, theme, and other necessary details to give them direction for creating materials that capture your nonprofit’s unique voice. 

• Outreach experts. Regular outreach and marketing through social media, email, and direct mail is a full-time job. Your outreach team is responsible for taking the materials created by your content team and adapting them for each platform. By doing so, they spread the word about your fundraiser and interact with supporters who want to connect with your nonprofit. 

• Analysts. Throughout your entire marketing campaign, someone should be assessing the data coming in. Give your analysts access to your donor database or CRM software and mailing services to let them determine the success of each social media post, email blast, and direct mail campaign. 

Based on your nonprofit’s resources, you may need to combine some of these roles with other positions. For example, you might assign a writer to oversee your project or have your outreach team analyze incoming data. However, remember that each of these roles can also be a full-time job, so plan your schedule accordingly so as not to overwhelm your team, no matter their size.

2. Craft Your Message

Your fundraiser supports a good cause, but your message needs to do more than just relay your nonprofit’s mission. For example, your marketing team may want to try and attract a corporate sponsor for your fundraiser. Doing so can give your team more funds to build out your fundraiser, create a more comprehensive marketing strategy, or even host kick off events to generate excitement.

The benefits your organization receives from corporate partnerships are clear, but now you need to consider why your corporate sponsor would want to work with your nonprofit. To do so, answer the following questions:

• Who is your audience? In this case, your audience is a corporate sponsor, and you wouldn’t address them the same way you would your supporters on social media. Research previous fundraisers they’ve supported, their mission statement, and their services. Sponsors whose goals and products align with your nonprofit and your fundraiser are more likely to support you, but it’s always a good idea to create a list of potential sponsors in the event you receive a no.

• Why would they support you? Craft your message to answer this question for your sponsors. Use the research you conducted on your sponsors to explain why their support is mutually beneficial. For example, some sponsors might want to receive a shoutout during your fundraiser for an advertising boost or the positive publicity that comes with supporting a nonprofit. 

• How can you reach them? This can take a bit of research, especially for corporations where you don’t already have a point of contact. Some may have formal applications for corporate sponsorships while others such as small businesses might respond better to cold outreach through a phone call, email, or mailed invitation.  

Your message should be based on your audience, but remember to also maintain consistent brand identity and voice across all marketing materials. Doing so helps create a clear image for all supporters about your nonprofit’s values and can improve brand recognition in the long run. 

3. Set Marketing Goals

Begin your marketing campaign with a set purpose in mind. Obviously, your goal is to attract support to your fundraiser, but how much support and from who? Establishing initial goals for these questions can help shape your campaign, and after your fundraiser, your nonprofit can use these metrics to determine whether your marketing was successful. 

Many nonprofit marketing guides like this one suggest making data-driven decisions. However, you’ll need to know what data is useful to collect and examine before making decisions based on it. A few helpful metrics for fundraisers to measure are:

• Supporter retention. While your fundraisers should always attract some new supporters, how many people who contributed to a previous campaign donate during the following fundraiser? It’s almost always more cost effective to retain the supporters you do have than attract new ones. If you see a dip in retention, take the time to investigate it by identifying supporter engagement trends or asking directly by sending supporter feedback surveys.

• Response rates. Which of your outreach methods receives the most responses? For example, you might compare your direct mail outreach with your social media campaign. You might find that one has a higher response rate overall or captures the attention of a specific audience, such as attracting a demographic the other has trouble engaging with.

• Average donation amount. How much does each supporter, on average, contribute to your fundraiser? Sometimes this data can tell you the average giving potential of your supporters in general, whereas other times it might reveal that your suggested giving amounts are too low or too high for your base.  

Of course, your data only matters if you do something with it. Use one of these or any other pertinent metrics to create a measurable, attainable goal for your campaign. For instance, you might set a goal of increasing your marketing emails’ clickthrough rate by 20% or raise your average donation amount by $10. For some nonprofits, these are modest proposals, but remember that setting an unattainable goal does not contribute to future growth.

4. Spread the Word

Online fundraisers and nonprofit digital campaigns have risen in popularity due to their relatively low start up costs. However, taking a multi-channel approach to reach supporters on several platforms has the potential to widen your audience more than a dedicated campaign on one platform can. 

In addition to social media and email, consider using the following methods to reach supporters: 

• Direct mail. The rise of digital marketing has caused traditional mail, especially invitations to attend fundraisers, to feel more personal. High quality materials such as thank you cards, postcards, and calendars can also encourage supporters to hold on to them, serving as a physical reminder to attend your fundraiser. 

• Text. Text messages are one of the fastest ways to get in touch with supporters. With improvements in text-to-give platforms, you can send texts during your fundraiser to drive additional donations without interruption. 

• Your website. Your nonprofit’s website is one of your most effective marketing tools. Digital outreach is often restricted by character limits or third-party platform rules, but you can tell your story and market your fundraiser to your nonprofit’s exact specifications on your website. 

A comprehensive outreach campaign through one channel is a big job for one person, and diversifying your marketing can cause your team to prioritize quantity over quality. To combat this, consider reaching out for help from a web consultant, text-to-donate platform provider, or even a direct mail service provider. 

5. Follow-up After the Fundraiser

Your marketing campaign isn’t finished until you’ve completed your follow-up. As mentioned, effective follow-up can improve key metrics such as supporter retention between fundraisers while helping to build long-term relationships.

Thank everyone who participated in your fundraiser, whether they donated or not. While you should be sure to show special appreciation to your donors, forming relationships with attendees at your fundraising events who didn’t contribute can still help your nonprofit in the long run. These supporters may contribute the next time they attend a fundraiser, and your thank you can sometimes serve as a reminder to donate to your nonprofit if they didn’t during your event. 

You can also improve donor relationships by thanking different supporters in different ways. For example, you wouldn’t send your corporate sponsors the same thank you letter your would to new supporters. Online resources like Fundraising Letters’ donor thank letter templates can give your marketing team a starting point. If you do use templates, before sure to customize them to reflect your nonprofit’s unique voice and mention key details relevant to your fundraiser to avoid sounding generic. 

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By taking these steps, your nonprofit can examine how and why your fundraisers are successful, making sure your marketing campaign and your fundraiser accompany one another rather than being separate endeavors. If you find yourself in need of extra help, don’t be afraid to consult marketing and outreach services for everything from setting initial goals to designing effective direct mail campaigns.

Today’s article dives into the digital landscape of nonprofit websites. As websites are often a potential donor’s first impression of a nonprofit, it’s important to optimize for user experience, engagement and security. Murad Bushnaq shares the expertise he’s gained as the Founder and CEO of Morweb, a CMS platform dedicated to helping nonprofits manage and grow their websites.

Modern nonprofits are becoming increasingly tech-literate. This means that nonprofit websites are better designed, have increased usability, and engage donors more effectively than ever before. The digital space is highly competitive and nonprofit organizations need to do more to stand out online. 

Modern nonprofits have to make a deliberate effort to keep up with new forms of online giving and find the most intuitive website features to support a stronger digital presence. If your nonprofit has a smaller fundraising team, constantly researching and adding new upgrades can quickly become a full-time job. While there are many useful web design features out there, there are also a lot of useless and scam solutions, and sorting through them takes time that you could devote to other fundraising activities. 

To help your nonprofit find the features that will take your website to the next level, Morweb’s team of nonprofit and association website design experts have put together this article explaining four key features you can add to your website, including: 

1. Blog and Social Media Integration 
2. Up-to-Date Security Measures 
3. Matching Gift Features
4. Web Analytics Tools

Each of these features improves a specific part of your website or can provide vital insight into how you can improve your site as a whole. To implement these web design elements easily, make sure you’re first backed by a robust website builder that offers the right tools and provides access to a team of web design experts to provide additional support when needed. As a result, you’ll be able to stay on par with your tech-savvy competitors and stand out online. 

1. Blog and Social Media Integration

Your website is the centerpiece of your online fundraising strategy, but that doesn’t mean it’s the only component. Think about your presence in other virtual spaces, such as social media, and how you can leverage the valuable content on your website on those platforms. 

This ties into optimizing your website for search engines such as Google. It doesn’t matter how well-designed your website is if no one ever sees it. Fortunately, you can improve your chances of appearing in qualified prospects’ search results by continually updating your website to maintain a healthy level of activity. 

You can stay active without overwhelming your content creation team by: 

• Adding a blog. Most nonprofit blogs contain articles explaining key concepts and developments in their field as well as their personal work to promote their cause. Doing so provides valuable information and builds authority with supporters. These articles can also be shared across social media, driving further traffic to your website (and potentially leading to more donations).

• Integrating social media pages. Maintaining a news page alongside multiple social media profiles can be a tall order for your marketing team. In addition to posting articles on your social media profiles, you can embed your Twitter or Facebook feed into your website. 

Maintaining a blog and active social media presence is also a best practice for membership websites and programs. If you have a membership or subscription program, your members will expect regular new content to make their monthly contributions worth it. Posting new articles, videos, and other content shows members what they’re supporting and gives them a reason to continually check your website, increasing traffic. 

2. Up-to-Date Security Measures

Security is often something that’s only considered once a serious issue occurs. Protecting your supporters’ data should be one of your highest priorities when designing your website, so you’ll need to pay extra attention to your security practices when adding new features from third-party creators. 

As you add features to your website, you can enforce stringent security measures by:

• Researching new features’ credibility. When you add a plugin or other third-party feature to your website, thoroughly research it to ensure that it has an active programmer creating updates, contains features that will improve your website, and—above all—is legitimate. 
• Installing updates. When using an open-source CMS, it’s tempting to put off installing the next security update for your web builder and other integrated software features. However, many updates are created specifically to counter vulnerabilities, and leaving your website outdated can put your data at risk. As a quick solution, select a CMS that takes care of the security and maintenance for you.
• Purchasing software solutions with strong security protocols. Integratable features such as your payment processor come with their own security measures. Thoroughly research what protections are in place, and ask potential software providers any security questions you might have before investing in their software.

Knowing what to look for regarding security measures requires some technical knowledge. If you’re unsure how to assess the safety of new website features and software, reach out to a nonprofit website development consultant for advice. They have years of experience dealing with similar problems, and it’s always best to be safe rather than sorry when it comes to protecting your supporters’ data. 

3. Matching Gift Features

Your donation page is one of your website’s key features, and chances are it can be further optimized to make the most out of every donation received. Many corporations have philanthropic programs that your nonprofit can tap into, earning more dollars for every donation made through matching gifts. 

Matching gifts are donations that businesses make when their employees give to a nonprofit, often at a dollar-for-dollar rate. You can improve your website’s donation page by adding a matching gifts search tool feature, allowing donors to check their matching gift eligibility and request a donation from their employer. 

Unfortunately, it’s not enough to simply add a matching gift tool to your donation page and leave it at that. According to 360MatchPro’s guide to matching gift databases, an estimated $4-$7 billion in matching gift funds goes unclaimed every year, usually because many donors don’t know what matching gifts are, let alone if they are eligible. 

You can help educate your donors by featuring informational content about matching gifts on your donation page or other informational pages about giving to your organization. For example, if you have a page dedicated to explaining the impact of donating, you can add a section to teach visitors about corporate matching gift programs and encourage them to look into their employers’ CSR initiatives.

If you’re ever unsure about using a matching gift platform, online resources like this one can be helpful for answering common questions and providing insight into what you should look for in a matching gifts tool. Different corporations have different rules for their matching gift programs, so don’t panic if you find yourself confused about how to proceed with a specific employer.  

4. Web Analytics Tools

How do you know if you’ve positioned your website to maximize your fundraising? If you’re not monitoring how users interact with your website, you’ll never know what’s working and what needs improvement. 

Web analytics tools are backend tracking and data collection tools that monitor, measure, and report how your visitors are using your website. Additionally, these tools can tell you how users are finding your website, allowing you to make smarter, data-driven decisions for your online marketing campaigns. 

While different web analytics tools provide different information, you can expect your provider to create reports on: 

• Traffic over a set period of time. How many people visit your website? You can additionally check how many are first time or repeat visitors. 
• Click-through rates. You likely send out many links to your website through your marketing emails. Monitoring your click-through rate will let you know what percentage of those links are clicked on. 
• Bounce rate. Users “bounce” when they view only a single page on your website before exiting out. You can improve pages with a high bounce rate by adding other useful links, encouraging visitors to continue exploring your website. 
• Session duration. How long are visitors on your website? Sometimes users will only view one page but keep it open for a long period of time, which means that page likely still has value even if the user doesn’t navigate to any other pages. 
• Conversion rate. How many visitors complete the task you want them to perform on your website? For nonprofits, this is usually donating, but it can be filling out a volunteer form, subscribing, sharing an article, purchasing merchandise, or anything else. Set a goal in your analytics tool and monitor where users drop off in their conversion, so you can make targeted improvements to the process. 
• Landing pages. What pages do users navigate to when they first reach your website? Monitoring landing pages can let you know if you have content such that’s being widely shared. 

Even the best nonprofit websites can benefit from monitoring user activity and targeting pages that their analytics tool indicates need improvement. You can test your website yourself by navigating through it as if you were a visitor, but that still will only be one perspective. Understanding the bigger picture of how hundreds or thousands of people view your website allows you to make changes based on how supporters interact with your content. 

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The Gist

Maintaining an effective nonprofit website is an ongoing responsibility, and you’ll need to regularly research and add new features to keep your website up-to-date. Fortunately, there are tools you can implement to help measure your website’s effectiveness, maintain security, and make the most of each donor interaction while you search how to make your next visitor’s experience better than the last’s.

Picture this: a supporter encounters a post from their favorite nonprofit while scrolling through their social media feed. They head to the organization’s website to look for a donation page, and the search takes a full minute (practically a lifetime when it comes to internet browsing!). Once they find the form, it’s poorly designed and unclear how to submit a donation. The supporter grows frustrated and ultimately gives up their quest to contribute a gift. 

Don’t let this happen to your nonprofit! Your online donation form is a vital piece of your digital fundraising strategy because it is one of the most visible points of connection your organization has with supporters. Optimizing your approach to your online giving page is key to facilitate a better virtual fundraising outcome. 

At Donately, more than 2,000 organizations have turned to our online fundraising platform to implement simple changes to their giving pages that make a big difference. You don’t need to be a coding expert to create a strategy that drives better results for your organization. Here are a few of our top donation page tips for greater fundraising success: 

1. Embed your form on a central page of your nonprofit’s website. 
2. Include pre-filled donation amounts.  
3. Promote matching gift opportunities. 
4. Use your form to gather donor data. 
5. Encourage continuous involvement.

These strategies will aid in all aspects of your donation form process, from creating the form to marketing your giving opportunities to supporters. Keep in mind that investing in a dedicated online donation platform will help your organization start off on the right foot and simplify the process for your fundraising team and donors. Let’s get started!

1. Embed your form on a central page of your nonprofit’s website.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic forced nonprofits to conduct most fundraising efforts remotely, you probably engage supporters on virtual platforms now more than ever before. One of the most effective ways to stay in touch with your supporters right now is through your nonprofit’s website. 

Your website is the hub for all your digital fundraising efforts, and your online giving form is the tool you can use to solicit donations through your site. As described above, you don’t want supporters to have to go on a journey just to figure out how they can give to your cause. Be sure to embed your donation form into an easily-accessible, central page on your website to make it as easy as possible for donors to give. Embedding your donation page into your website will:

• Eliminate donation barriers. When you prominently feature your donation page on your site, supporters can easily access the form and give whenever it’s most convenient for them. Additionally, when your form is responsive to all screens, donors will be able to view and fill out the form whether they’re using a phone, tablet, or computer. Check the formatting of your page on each screen size to ensure it’s optimized for all devices. 

• Establish trust. When your donation form is embedded directly into your organization’s website, donors will feel more comfortable submitting their gifts. If donors click on a link to your donation form and are rerouted to a third-party platform, they might feel uneasy and unsure if their donations are going to the right place. 

• Build brand recognition. Design your online donation form with your nonprofit’s designated font styles and two to three of your organization’s colors. Then, prominently feature your logo in a corner of the form. By branding your donation form with these elements, you promote cohesion across your digital presence and will effectively enhance brand recognition. 

Your ultimate goal is to simplify the path donors take from initial awareness of your nonprofit to deciding to contribute. Use your website to kickstart this process and act as the central information hub for supporters.

2. Include pre-filled donation amounts.

Another strategy to streamline your donation forms is to include suggested donation amounts on your form. For example, you can include several gift amounts for supporters to choose from, such as $100, $250, or $500. Check out this example of a donation form from an environmental justice organization:

Adding pre-filled donation suggestions to your online donation page makes the giving experience much more straightforward for donors. All donors have to do is click their desired option and fill in the rest of their payment information. 

These suggestions also help donors figure out how much they should contribute, providing reassurance. When they see a predetermined range of donation options to choose from, they won’t stress about their decision or try to guess how much other supporters give. You can even play around with these numbers by increasing or decreasing your suggestions to see if you can boost your fundraising revenue.

Be sure to look into your options for investing in an online donation platform that can automatically implement these adjustments. According to Donately’s online fundraising guide, your digital fundraising platform should offer customizable form fields. This feature allows you to tailor your fundraising requests to include suggested amounts that your audience will be most receptive to. 

3. Promote matching gift opportunities.

What’s better than one donor gift? Two, of course! With matching gift programs, donors can multiply the impact of their contributions. When a company offers this type of program, they’ll match the donations their employees make to eligible nonprofits. 

You can use your donation form to connect supporters with information about how to get their donations matched. For example, Double the Donation offers a matching gift search tool you can embed into your donation page, too. Donors can immediately check their eligibility, see the match ratio offered by their company, and access any available matching gift forms. 

Although matching gifts are a major fundraising opportunity for your organization, there’s often a lack of knowledge about these programs. Donors may not know that the opportunity even exists, or they may not understand how to complete the necessary forms. 

To account for this, be sure to include some information about the basics of these programs and how to cash in on matching opportunities in a pop-up or side-bar section on your form. This page offers a quick rundown on how to use matching gift forms, including the differences between paper and electronic forms. Reference this information as you build out your giving form.

By sharing these resources and tips, your nonprofit can help supporters see how their donations can have an outsized impact on your mission. This will directly boost engagement with your forms. 

4. Use your form to gather donor data.

A well-designed donation form can act as more than a channel to collect donations. You can use your donation page to collect comprehensive information about your donors to inform your strategy moving forward. 

With your donor dashboard, analyze a few different aspects of your digital fundraising strategy, including:

• Giving trends. Your dashboard can store information about donation trends such as common donation amounts and the most popular days for donations. Perhaps you’ll discover that most people give between $20 – $50 per donation and that Thursday is the top day for giving. With this data, you’ll know you should add suggested gift amounts of $20, $30, and $50 to your form and heavily promote your page on Thursdays.

• Major donors. By storing donor data after every transaction, you can identify your major donors who’ve contributed one or more large gifts. Then, you can focus stewardship efforts on these major donors and craft personalized appreciation messages thanking them for the support. Recognizing donors in this way leads to better donor retention because supporters know how much your organization appreciates their generosity. 

• Overall campaign effectiveness. After an intense marketing push or promotional campaign, you can assess donor data to gauge the effectiveness of your strategies and adjust your plans accordingly. For example, perhaps your organization launches an awareness campaign on social media for your Giving Tuesday fundraising event this year. You’ll be able to collect data from this campaign to analyze your results and change up your strategy for the next year for even greater success. 

Your donor data can also assist with your prospect research efforts by helping you identify frequent donors who may be interested in strengthening their relationship with your organization. This key fundraising resource allows your organization to maximize its data management efforts to glean new insights that can be used in future campaigns. 

5. Encourage continuous involvement.

Lastly, the most effective donation forms don’t just accept one-time donations from supporters. They encourage continuous engagement and connect supporters with additional ways to get involved.

First, offer an opportunity for supporters to turn their single donation into a recurring gift. Check out this example: 

As you can see, you can add a multiple choice option for supporters to choose their donation frequency. This way, supporters will be automatically billed monthly, quarterly, annually, or any other regularity. This boosts the convenience of your forms — donors upload their payment information just once, and they can contribute again and again to your cause.

Other ways to use your donation forms to encourage future engagement include:

• Share your social media handles on your thank-you page so donors can stay connected and receive updates on how your organization is using their contributions. 
• Ask supporters to sign up for your newsletter to get updates on everything from upcoming volunteer opportunities to virtual events on your calendar. 

By offering ways for donors to stay involved with your nonprofit’s activities, you can secure long-term support that helps you exceed your fundraising goals. After all, it’s more cost-effective to maintain the support of recurring donors than to constantly spend time and money to acquire new donors. 

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With these simple changes, you can give your donation form strategy a comprehensive makeover and help drive better fundraising campaigns. Remember to embed your form into a well-trafficked section of your website, offer multiple ways for supporters to stay involved, and use data to adjust your donation form strategy. You’ll be able to take full advantage of these new giving outlets powered by advanced fundraising technology. Happy fundraising!

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Author: Andrew Berry

Andrew is the head of marketing and customer success for Donately. After getting involved with nonprofits at a young age, he discovered a passion for helping the organizations that are making the world a better place. Knowing how vital online fundraising has become, his goal is to help nonprofits raise more money online each year! In his spare time, you will find him cooking up dinner, playing with his dog or cheering on Boston sports teams.

As a fundraising professional, you know your nonprofit has a sizable amount of donor data stored in your constituent relationship management (CRM) database. From demographic information to donors’ giving histories, you’ve been keeping track of your donors and diligently logging their information throughout past fundraising efforts. 

But to improve your organization’s current fundraising campaigns, you have to do more than just stash away donor data. By assessing and analyzing archived donor data, you reveal opportunities to improve your fundraising strategy moving forward. 

Chances are, with the disruptions brought on by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic or more urgent daily tasks on your plate, you’ve let your data management strategies fall by the wayside. We’ve compiled four top tips to revamp your strategy, make the most of your donor data, and improve your fundraising efforts. We’ll explore how to: 

• Foster donor relationships more effectively using segmentation
• Strengthen donor stewardship to improve retention
• Identify prospective major donors
• Use accurate information to make the right ask

Here at DNL Omnimedia, we work with nonprofits every day to help streamline and improve their data management practices for more effective fundraising. By taking a refreshed approach to data management and prioritizing donor relationships, we’ve seen organizations successfully turn their fundraising efforts around and raise more for their missions. Let’s take a closer look at each tip!

Foster donor relationships more effectively using segmentation

If you’ve ever attempted to look at your donor data as a whole and pick out trends or insights, you probably realized that doesn’t get you very far. Spending hours parsing through a massive database is a frustrating, inefficient experience that probably just left you with a headache, rather than the actionable steps you desired. 

Therefore, it’s important to practice donor segmentation. Donor segmentation is the process of grouping donors based on shared characteristics to adjust your fundraising strategy to appeal to their preferences. 

To get started, there are a few different ways you can choose to segment your donor data. DNL OmniMedia’s donor segmentation guide offers the following segment ideas to make sense of your data:

• Engagement type: Your donors don’t all engage with your organization in the same way. Perhaps one group gives to peer-to-peer or crowdfunding campaigns, another group prefers annual giving events, and a third group contributes to your monthly giving program. Segmenting donors by engagement type unveils the best avenues to engage each set going forward. For instance, you can focus event promotion efforts on a segment of donors who have previously given at annual giving events.

• Demographics: There’s likely some variety in your donor demographics, such as donor ages, locations, and genders. Creating donor groups based on shared demographics allows you to appeal to each group with communications that match their interests. For instance, younger donors may prefer communicating with your nonprofit via social media, while older donors may prefer phone or email messages.

• Social and business relationships: Your nonprofit CRM can track donors’ social relationships as well as employment status. You may have several donors from the same family, and creating these segments helps you identify other family members or their friends to reach out to who may also be interested in giving to your mission. Additionally, by gathering donors’ employment information, you can identify their eligibility for corporate matching gift programs. Match-eligible donors can begin the matching gift process and maximize the impact of their singular donations.

Reflect on your goals to decide how you’d like to segment your donors. Ask yourself, what groups will be most effective for your current campaigns? 

Perhaps your current campaign involves online fundraising efforts, and you want to use your data to identify the best virtual channels to connect with donors. Or, you may want to reengage lapsed donors to boost current campaigns and use your data to reference their giving history in your communications with them. 

For whatever type of campaign you’re presently involved in, align your donor segments to your fundraising goals to make the most of the data you already have at your fingertips.

Strengthen donor stewardship to improve retention

Your donor data can be used for more than fundraising purposes. By staying in touch with donors year-round, you strengthen relationships with those donors. This process is called donor stewardship, and it can improve the effectiveness of current and future campaigns alike.

Qgiv’s guide to donor stewardship defines the concept as “the relationship-building and communications that take place after [a] gift has been received.” When you clearly demonstrate the impact of donor contributions and frequently express your gratitude, donors are more likely to stick with your nonprofit because they’re more deeply invested in your organization’s success. This process leads to longer-lasting support from donors when compared to if you were to only contact them when seeking donations.

You can use your donor database to improve your stewardship efforts in a few different ways. For example, be sure to:

• Use donors’ preferred names in all communications. Ensure this information is updated in your CRM to use in all current and future communications. The more you get to know your donors, the stronger your relationship will be and the more willing donors will be to stay involved in your fundraising campaigns. 

• Express gratitude to donors. Each time a donor makes a contribution, they must receive a thank-you message from your organization. This guide has templates for all types of organizations to use to thank their donors. But beyond thank-you letters, use your donor data to go above and beyond with appreciation efforts. For example, segment your data to identify major donors and create special outreach initiatives for these donors, such as a virtual appreciation event or a personal phone or video call. 

• Focus communications on impact. Once donors give to a campaign, they want and deserve to know how their contributions made a difference in helping to reach your goal. Use your donor database to identify different donor groups to send specific project updates. For instance, let’s say your nonprofit is focused on bringing clean water to underserved populations. Create a segment for communications to your monthly donors and share with them how their recurring donations allow your nonprofit to provide clean water to a different town or village each month. 

With specific stewardship efforts for each of your donor segments, you foster better relationships with donors and help your nonprofit improve its retention rates for current and future campaigns. Think of opportunities to connect with your donors year-round to improve your long-term strategy.

Identify prospective major donors

Another way to maximize your donor data is to identify past donors with characteristics that signify potential willingness and ability to donate a major gift. By pinpointing prospective major donors with these characteristics, you can reach out to secure support for your current fundraising goals. 

Parse through your donor data to identify:

• Wealth indicators: These indicators include information about real estate holdings, business affiliations, and other wealth-related markers that provide clues about a donor’s capacity to give a more substantial gift. 

• Philanthropic affiliations: Identify prospective donors’ past giving history to see if your mission or cause is aligned with their values. If donors have made several contributions to nonprofits like yours in the past, it’s a good indicator of their affinity for your cause. 

Major donors play a vital role in helping you meet and even exceed your current fundraising goals. Create a segment for prospective major donors to start the process of asking for a substantial gift, which we’ll discuss in the next section.

Use accurate information to make the right ask

As a fundraising professional, you know that asking for gifts is a delicate process that requires a deliberate and strategic approach. You don’t want to confuse donors who make regular $100 gifts to your organization by asking them for $10,000. On the other hand, you don’t want to insult a donor who just contributed $10,000 to your organization by asking for a $100 donation immediately after they gave this sizable gift to your organization. 

When it comes to major gifts especially, it’s important to be strategic in communications with prospective donors. Their gifts make up the bulk of your organization’s fundraising, and without a strategy in place, you’ll miss out on critical funding opportunities. 

Your donor database can help by refining your approach to moves management. The moves management process involves tracking every touchpoint with a major gift prospect, from the time you first make contact with them to when your organization eventually receives a gift from them, for strategic relationship-building.

Your donor database assists in this process by letting you:

• Keep track of where each prospective donor is in the donor lifecycle. Organize your communications with major donors in your database to thoughtfully introduce them to your cause and gently guide them toward your eventual ask. It would be a major faux-pas to lose track of where a donor is in the process and accidentally send your gift request before they’ve expressed adequate interest.

• Identify the right gift amount to request from each donor. Use wealth indicators and past giving history to pin down specific donation requests for each prospective major donor. For example, let’s say you have a donor who’s given frequently to your organization over the years. This donor has major real estate holdings in the area and you know they’re the CEO of a very successful corporation. Additionally, they’ve given to similar organizations in the past. This donor is a key candidate to become a major donor at your nonprofit, so be sure to look into their past giving history to identify the right amount to request. Ensure your ask isn’t outrageously higher than their previous donations but reflects their greater capacity to give. 

The information stashed away in your donor database can identify these new opportunities and allow you to approach your current campaigns with renewed vigor. Your donor database allows you to be prepared while crafting communications with major donors, giving you a greater chance for fundraising success. 

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Your database of valuable donor information is one of your most effective tools available to reach your fundraising goals for current and future campaigns. 

These tips are a great place to start, but if your organization has a messy backlog of data or your fundraising team is swamped with other tasks, you may want to consider bringing a nonprofit tech consultant on board. These experts have the background and skills needed to help refine your data management process and train your team on best practices. Good luck!

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About the Author: Carl Diesing, Managing Director at DNL OmniMedia

Carl co-founded DNL OmniMedia in 2006 and has grown the team to accommodate clients with on-going web development projects. Together DNL OmniMedia has worked with over 100 organizations to assist them with accomplishing their online goals. As Managing Director of DNL OmniMedia, Carl works with nonprofits and their technology to foster fundraising, create awareness, cure disease, and solve social issues. Carl lives in the Hudson Valley with his wife Sarah and their two children Charlie and Evelyn.

When it comes to assessing performance, it’s important to have objective indicators. After all, a 100-meter dash isn’t judged by who seems the fastest; the event is strictly timed to keep track of who crosses the finish line first. Similarly, your nonprofit shouldn’t make decisions based on what seems right or like it should work.

Instead, nonprofits will have the best results if they rely on objective metrics generated from concrete data about their donors, past campaigns, and marketing strategies. 

At SalsaLabs, we provide tools for nonprofits to store and analyze this data so they can make the best decisions possible about strategy, allocation of resources, and future campaigns. Paying close attention to key metrics can also lead to better communication with donors, more effective fundraising, and a greater impact on your nonprofit’s mission. 

There are countless metrics a nonprofit could choose to track depending on your goals and mission, but we won’t cover all of them here. Instead, we’ve taken five metrics from our Salsa guide to key performance indicators that cover a range of nonprofits’ priorities. Here are the KPIs we’ll discuss: 

1. Matching gift rate 
2. Recurring gift percentage 
3. Email click-through rate 
4. Landing page conversion rate 
5. Donor retention rate

These KPIs are all useful for nonprofits focusing on improving their strategies for donor engagement, fundraising, and marketing. Tracking these metrics is essential to assessing your nonprofit’s progress and improving your strategies for the future. Let’s get started.

1. Matching gift rate

Matching gift rate describes the percentage of gifts donated to your organization that are matched by corporate philanthropy programs, doubling the amount of the original donation. 

Matching gifts are a hugely valuable aspect of many companies’ corporate philanthropy programs. For companies that pledge to match their employees’ gifts to eligible nonprofits, employees are usually required to fill out a specific form to claim the matched gift. But many of these employees aren’t even aware that their employers offer this giving opportunity, and that shows in the numbers. 

According to Double the Donation’s matching gift statistics, an estimated $4-$7 billion in matching gifts for nonprofits goes unclaimed every year. 

Keeping up with your nonprofit’s matching gift rate can clue you in to how well your organization is getting the word out about the opportunity and collecting matching gifts. If you’re leaving a substantial amount of money on the table, it may be wise to invest in a matching gift tool or implement a matching gift drive. 

To calculate matching gift rate, use the following formula: 

MGR = (# of matched gifts / # of total gifts) x 100 

The result is expressed as a percentage of gifts that were matched in whatever time period from which you drew the donation data. (Be careful not to include the companies’ matching gifts as part of the “total” gifts figure—this will skew your results.) 

2. Recurring gift percentage

Recurring gift percentage, also known as sustaining gift percentage, reflects the portion of donations contributed to your organization in a given time period that were made as part of a recurring gift schedule. This metric can give you an idea of the number of donors who participate in your sustained giving program. 

Recurring gift programs provide donors with the opportunity to opt in to automatically contributing on a regular schedule (monthly, annually, weekly, etc.) and are usually provided as an option on the nonprofit’s donation form.

For example, there might be a button on a nonprofit’s donation page that says “How often would you like to make your donation?” or a checkbox offering donors the opportunity to immediately opt into a monthly giving program. Once donors are signed up for the recurring gift program, the donation amount is automatically processed every month so the donor doesn’t have to return to the nonprofit’s website or do any additional work. 

Participation in a recurring gift program greatly increases the donor’s lifetime value, or the total amount they’re likely to contribute over the course of their involvement with your organization. 

The stability provided by recurring gifts can be hugely beneficial to organizations of all types and sizes. When more of your supporters opt into these programs, you’ll have more predictable income, which enables more accurate budgeting. Knowing how much of your revenue that comes from recurring donation programs is the first step to ensuring this increased financial stability. .  

As we outline on this page, a comprehensive donor management software solution should be able to automatically identify and track the types of donations your nonprofit receives. This makes it easier to determine how many gifts are obtained as a result of a recurring giving program. To determine recurring gift percentage, follow these steps:  

1. For a given time period (say, one calendar year) determine the total number of gifts secured. Let’s say the total number of gifts secured by a nonprofit is 900. 

2. Determine how many of those gifts were obtained as part of a recurring gift program. Let’s say the same nonprofit received 245 of their 900 gifts as part of monthly giving programs. 

3. Plug the values into the following formula: 

RGP = (# of recurring gifts / # of total gifts) x 100 

In this example, the nonprofit would make the following calculation: 

RGP = (245/900) x 100 = 27.2% 

This percentage indicates that 27.2% of this nonprofit’s annual gifts were obtained through a regular giving program. This metric can provide a solid baseline of information for a recurring gift drive or provide a status update for your ongoing recurring gift promotion efforts. 

3. Email click-through rate

Marketing metrics like email click-through rate are important indicators that show how effective  your outreach materials are at reaching your target audience. 

Email click-through rate describes the percentage of email recipients that engage further after opening one of your nonprofit’s emails. The way you gauge further engagement is whether or not the recipient clicked on a link provided in your email, hence the name “click-through.” 

In every email communication with your donors—whether it’s a thank-you email, a newsletter, or an appeal in a major fundraising campaign—your organization should provide ways for the audience to engage further with your organization. For a fundraising appeal, you’ll likely have calls-to-action inviting the viewer to donate. But for a thank-you email or a newsletter, you should still provide links through to your nonprofit’s website or for additional opportunities that drive increased engagement. 

Consider including links to your volunteer sign-up page, your website’s homepage, a recent impressive case study, a blog post, or your organization’s social media accounts to invite recent donors to get more involved. 

Providing additional channels for the audience to interact with your organization will increase the likelihood of their becoming interested in your cause and more involved in your nonprofit’s mission and programming. 

To calculate email click-through rate, use the following formula: 

CTR = (# of clicks through / # of emails delivered) x 100 

The result is a percentage of the audience that clicked on something in the email or campaign under consideration. It’s especially useful to evaluate click-through rate when conducting A/B testing on email fundraising appeals and assessing the effectiveness of your appeals in general.

4. Landing page conversion rate

A landing page describes the first page a user “lands” on after clicking a link. Usually, though, when we say “landing page,” we are referring to a page that asks the audience to do something. For example, after clicking on a “Get Involved” call-to-action (CTA), the user may be taken to a volunteer sign-up form that is the landing page for the “Get Involved” CTA. 

The landing page for a “Donate Now” button will likely be a donation form. Landing pages provide opportunities for users to convert, or to complete a desired action. 

Landing page conversion rate reports the users who complete the desired action as a percentage of the users who accessed the landing page. For example, say 300 people clicked through on your last email appeal and landed on your donation form for the campaign. Of those 300 people, only 125 actually ended up donating. Your landing page conversion rate would be calculated using the following formula: 

LPCR = (# of conversions / # of landing page visits) x 100 

Plugging in the numbers from this example yields this calculation: 

LPCR = (125 / 300) x 100 = 41.7% 

Expressed in words, 41.7% of users who accessed the nonprofit’s landing page actually ended up donating. A high LPCR indicates a strong landing page, while a low LPCR suggests there is room for improvement. Nonprofits’ landing pages should prioritize: 

• Brevity 
• Intuitive, clear design
• Smooth user experience
• Branding
• Mobile optimization 

The design of your landing page can have a surprisingly significant impact on the total number of donations your organization receives, and consequently, your ability to accomplish your goals and broader mission. Don’t let something as seemingly trivial as one page impede your ability to succeed—instead, carefully track your LPCR and work to improve this metric to maximize donations. 

5. Donor retention rate

Finally, an essential donor engagement metric for all nonprofits: donor retention rate. 

Donor retention rate is vital to track to provide benchmarks for stewardship campaigns, donor recognition programs, and other engagement strategies. Retention rate is often calculated as a year-over-year metric, but you could use shorter or longer time frames depending on your nonprofit’s interests and goals. 

A comprehensive donor management system is essential to effectively tracking past and current donors, making it possible to easily discover donor retention metrics. With donor retention rate in particular, you’ll need software assistance to generate one of the values necessary for the formula: repeat donors. Repeat donors are donors who donated last year and this year. To calculate this quickly, you’ll need software to run a comparative analysis and tell you how many donors from last year appear on this year’s list as well. 

Once you have the number of repeat donors, you can plug the value into this formula to determine donor retention rate: 

DRR = (# of people who donated this year who also donated last year / total # of last year’s donors) x 100 

A low donor retention rate suggests your nonprofit may need to step up your donor recognition efforts. Keep in mind that donor retention is not just valuable for maintaining current levels of support, but retained donors are candidates for stewardship to become mid-level donors and eventually, maybe even major givers. 

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Becoming a data-driven organization not only ensures your nonprofit is working with the most accurate, useful information, but can greatly increase your ability to build relationships with donors. Metrics from a range of departments like fundraising, engagement, and marketing can provide your nonprofit with a full picture of your organization’s strongest attributes, as well as where there is room for improvement. Best of luck!

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About the Author: Gerard Tonti

Gerard Tonti is the Senior Creative Developer at Salsa Labs, the premier fundraising software company for growth-focused nonprofits. 

Gerard’s marketing focus on content creation, conversion optimization and modern marketing technology helps him coach nonprofit development teams on digital fundraising best practices.