We’re delighted to welcome Maureen Wallbeoff to the Virtuous blog. As a nonprofit technologist and strategy coach, Maureen brings expertise in helping nonprofits navigate technology decisions to engage donors and successfully run the organization. Here, she discusses how to strengthen donor relationships by leveraging technology.
I had a good old-fashioned phone call with a former colleague last week. Terry has a new role as the Development Director at a mid-sized cause and cure organization, and they came to the call completely stressed out. Once they shared their concerns, I understood why they were so amped up.
Here’s what was happening:
- Donor retention was at 22% year over year
- The recurring donor program had decreased by 5% over the past 24 months
- Their average gift amount had dropped from $101 in 2022 to $84 in 2024
Yikes! As the new Development Director, Terry was frantically trying to figure out why the fundraising programs were performing so poorly and find ways to get them into growth mode.
Here’s the reality—nonprofit organizations around the country continue to see a decline in donor retention rates and total dollars raised. According to data from Fundraising Report Card benchmarks, the average gift amount has decreased more than 8% over the past 12 months, and the average donor retention rate is below 35%. While it was comforting for Terry to know that this is an industry-wide phenomenon, that’s not going to help them turn things around in their organization.
Nonprofit Technology to the Rescue
As Terry and I did some brainstorming, it became very clear to me that this is a very people-powered development department. With a lean team and lots of spreadsheets, many hours were spent on manual tasks, leaving no time for engagement work or relationship-building. I asked Terry what technology they were using.
They had tools for:
- CRM/database/reporting
- Marketing automation with email and text
- Online fundraising with AI features
- AI-powered content creation
Yes, they had a sweet tech stack, but they only used about 15% of its capabilities. There was so much more they could do with the software they already had! I was excited to share some ideas to help Terry’s team build stronger donor relationships and streamline their operations at the same time.
How to Strengthen Donor Relationships with Technology
I advised Terry to focus on the first gift experience. That’s such a critical moment in the donor’s relationship with you—and your follow-up shouldn’t feel transactional. How should you treat this new and important person? You can use technology to keep your donors feeling recognized and appreciated.
Here’s how:
- Data-Driven Donor Insights: Today’s donor management systems and CRMs can easily track and analyze donor behaviors. By understanding your new donor’s giving patterns, engagement, and communication preferences, your team can use data to create more personalized experiences that continue to build loyalty over time.
- Segmentation and Personalization: Personalized messaging will build a sense of one-to-one connection between you and your supporters (high touch at scale). Most nonprofit CRM systems let you add tags to supporter records, allowing organizations to send messages based on things like supporter type, interests, and other ways they’ve interacted with you.
- Automated Journeys: Many email marketing tools and CRM software make it easy to set up and run drip campaigns with email and/or text messages. Would you like to send a special thank you text one year after a supporter’s last gift? Or maybe you need to convert one-time donors to sustainers—automated journeys can help you build the relationship and make the ask over multiple email messages.
Using Technology to Communicate Effectively
Terry was really interested in improving their donor communications, which were feeling a little stale.
I get it—hitting the right mix of content and message timing can be tough. Luckily, this is an area where technology can really help you test new ways of communicating with your community:
- Adopt a Multichannel Approach: Just like us, different supporters prefer different communication channels. Test a mix of email, social media, text messaging, and phone calls to keep donors engaged. By tracking which channels receive the most engagement, you can focus your energy on the ones most people prefer and maintain a lighter presence on the others. Plan your content across each channel and use scheduling tools to automatically post to social.
- Level Up Your Email: Yes, email remains one of the most effective ways to communicate with donors, and nonprofit email marketing software makes it easy. Use AI to help you create compelling content, images, and video that keeps your audience interested. Try different subject lines, sender names, formats, and calls-to-action to see how donors respond.
- Start Texting: This is something that many nonprofits are hesitant about—make this the year that you give it a try! Text messages can be a powerful way to reach supporters with timely updates, event reminders, or even fundraising calls-to-action. You can start by collecting mobile phone numbers on your donation forms and automating a thank you text to people right after their first gift.
Technology is Key to Sustainer Growth
As Terry had shared, the bottom was falling out of their monthly donor program. We all know how important recurring giving is to overall giving performance, revenue projections, and financial stability. Terry should use their CRM to spot patterns in sustainer drop-off and identify how long after the initial monthly gift most people stop their recurring support. Terry’s team can improve their communication and engagement tactics and prevent this in the future. I also gave Terry this advice about using their tech to convert one-time donors into sustainers and how to keep them actively giving:
- Make It Easy: Your donor management platform must let you set up an online donation experience that’s secure, quick to complete, and is easy to use on a phone. Your donation levels need to be dynamic (one-time donation suggested giving levels are larger than monthly giving levels). Offer as many payment methods as possible. Donor self-serve portals can be helpful for making address changes, printing tax receipts, and updating payment information.
- Report on Impact: Donors want to know that their money is making an impact on your mission, and sustainers expect to get updates about the ways their support is making a difference. Use AI-powered technology to generate personalized impact reports or share videos that show how donations are being used. Many modern CRMs let you create donor-specific messaging that provides insights into the impact of their gifts. Develop and follow a regular schedule for communicating the impact to your recurring donors.
- Set Up A Donor Recognition Program: Showing appreciation goes a long way in maintaining strong relationships, and your donors know that you’re collecting data about everything they do on your behalf. Show them that you’re paying attention! Automate thank-you notes when a recurring donor hits a giving milestone, recognize sustainers on your website or on social media (with permission, of course). Pick 10 new recurring donors every month and send them a quick message of appreciation.
Is Your Nonprofit Technology Up to Speed?
Terry felt much better after we talked. They were enthusiastic about using the modern, powerful technology they already had to improve their donor communication and engagement programs and significantly reduce manual work. They promised to keep me updated on how things were going.
How about you? Does your technology make things easier for you and your team—or have you been feeling like you’re missing some important features and functionality? Your CRM and online engagement software should help you hit your fundraising goals easily and provide a great experience for your supporters. If not, it might be time for you to look around (after end-of-year fundraising is over!).
