Faith-based nonprofits face increasing challenges in donor retention, engagement, and volunteerism in today’s rapidly shifting fundraising landscape. This blog post recaps insights shared in the recent webinar with Masterworks, “Can Your CRM Do This? How Virtuous Helps Faith-Based Nonprofits Build Lasting Donor Relationships.” Learn how Virtuous uniquely supports faith-driven missions with data-driven, faith-aligned tools for nurturing long-term donor relationships.
Watch the full webinar in the link below.
The Fundraising Slowdown & Donor Retention Challenges
In a climate where general donor retention rates are on the decline due to economic uncertainty and increasing direct mail costs, many faith-based nonprofits are feeling the pressure. Lower cumulative donor engagement has become a widespread issue.
Why Traditional CRMs Fall Short
Most CRMs are ill-equipped to handle nuanced, spiritually-aligned donor engagement strategies. They lack the flexibility and intelligence to track faith-based touchpoints like prayer or mission-aligned generosity.
How Virtuous is Different
Virtuous acknowledges the role of faith in donor behavior. Research from Masterworks shows that:
- Donors who pray about their giving show higher long-term value.
- Supporters who pray for your organization are less likely to lapse.
Virtuous empowers nonprofits to:
- Create donor prayer tracks.
- Send prayer alerts.
- Prioritize relational over transactional engagement.
Personalized Donor Tracks & Communication Challenges
Faith-based nonprofits often manage complex relationships across organizational and individual donor types. Misalignment in communications—or irrelevant outreach—can quickly erode trust.
What Causes Donor Lapse?
According to Masterworks research, the top reasons donors stop giving include:
- Feeling others needed the help more.
- Changes in personal financial circumstances.
- Receiving too many or irrelevant solicitations.
How Virtuous is Different
Virtuous helps you send the right message, from the right person, at the right time. Using powerful automation and intelligent segmentation, teams can:
- Personalize donor tracks by role, behavior, and history.
- Integrate communications across departments for consistency.
- Reduce over-solicitation with smarter outreach triggers.
The Shifting Landscape of Mid & Major Donors
While lower-tier donors have declined, growth in mid and major giving has helped stabilize revenue. But this shift demands a more focused and strategic approach to managing high-capacity donors.
The Challenge
Major donor reps are now tasked with balancing:
- Fewer donor touches.
- Higher personalization expectations.
- A growing caseload.
How Virtuous is Different
Virtuous equips gift officers with tools to:
- Dynamically adjust ask amounts based on donor capacity.
- Track and nurture long-term donor journeys.
- Centralize activity tracking and streamline follow-ups.
The Changing Nature of Volunteerism
Post-pandemic, many nonprofits are struggling to restore volunteer engagement to pre-2020 levels. Meanwhile, a new wave of “informal volunteering” is rising—such as neighborhood acts of kindness and cause-based micro-engagements.
What’s Changing?
- Formal volunteerism is down.
- Millennials are the fastest-growing volunteer segment.
- This generation expects intuitive, digital-first sign-up processes.
How Virtuous is Different
Virtuous makes it easy for faith-based organizations to:
- Launch accessible volunteer tracks.
- Promote involvement in both traditional and informal ways.
- Integrate volunteering data with donor profiles for holistic engagement.
Move Beyond Just a CRM
Virtuous isn’t just a donor database—it’s a Responsive Fundraising Platform designed for faith-based nonprofits. From donor prayer alerts to smart gift forecasting, Virtuous helps you build deeper, more lasting relationships grounded in faith and personalized connection.
Ready to build stronger donor relationships and increase engagement at scale? Schedule your personalized demo today.
Watch the Webinar
If you missed this webinar, you can watch the full on-demand video here.
