Boost Online Donor Retention

How do you boost online donor retention? It’s a big question. Currently, 40.5% of nonprofits surveyed said that less than 10% of their fundraising came from online donations.

So we know there’s quite a swath of exempt organizations out there who aren’t utilizing online donations.

But for those who are, how do you make sure you are following best practices? How do you retain those awesome, web-savvy donors?

Communication

When it comes to communicating with your online donors, you are pretty much tied to both email and social media.

Before you get to those steps, you should probably have a solid online presence. Start by creating a website and a blog! Your blog can range from personal stories about your nonprofit to tips and tricks. Anything goes, as long as you communicate organization updates too!

After that, you simply need to design an email campaign. Let this take form as newsletters, donation emails, or even deals.

Your social media presence is crucial now. With online donation movements like #GivingTuesday, there are just too many opportunities out there. Get social now! It’s low hanging fruit.

There are some special skills you can tap into for your nonprofit marketing, including using video to boost donations.

Every communication channel you open is there for you to retain a relationship with your donors. That should be your top goal.

Appreciation

The most important thing you can do for your retention is to thank your donors. By showing appreciation, your people will feel a swell of gratification that will ask them to keep on.

And don’t just issue blanket thank yous, personalize them to your givers! If you have a database of names and email addresses, this could be easily automated within an email service.

Use your communication channels to feature the philanthropic work people have done for and with your organization.

Connection

Donors aren’t ATMs, they’re people. Don’t bombard them with constant requests for money.

Your best strategy will be to get their voices involved, so that you can establish a connection.

So we suggest using your social media to really spark up discourse. Polls, open ended questions, and contests will involve your followers in a way that gives you insights about them.

And form an emotional connection! If your exempt organization cares deeply, show it. If there’s a funny and comical way to get your message across that matches your tone, do it!

With the exempt organization tax filing deadline soon approaching, it’s a good idea to get those donor records in order.

Head over to ExpressTaxExempt and start your free account today! With multi-user account access, bulk data uploading, and a simplified format, ETE is the premier choice for nonprofit 990 filing.

Have any questions? Give us a call at 704.839.2321.

What are you doing to boost online donor retention?