Navigating Donor Communications with Ease: Best Practices
Donor relationships are the heart of your nonprofit. Learn the basics of creating an effective donor communications strategy.
Open communication is the bedrock of any healthy relationship—and that includes the relationships between donors and your nonprofit. To feel like they’re true partners in your work, donors must receive consistent communication from your nonprofit and feel empowered to respond with questions, concerns, and feedback of their own.
But what exactly does donor communications entail, and how can you ensure you engage donors as effectively as possible? In this guide, we’ll provide tips surrounding these topics:
Every nonprofit is unique, so adjust them to meet the needs of your unique organization, goals, donors, and community. For more tailored communications advice, pair our recommendations with professional support from a consultant.
What is Donor Communication?
Donor communications encompasses all the ways your nonprofit interacts with donors, from fundraising appeals to social media posts to in-person conversations.
Any time you reach out to a current or prospective supporter, it’s part of your donor communications strategy. Ideally, you should develop a detailed plan that outlines the different ways you’ll communicate with donors to guide your relationship-building efforts. We’ll dive deeper into what a communication plan might entail below.
Common Types of Donor Communications
Donor communications can include a wide range of in-person, online, and asynchronous interactions. Instead of dividing the types of donor communications by contact method or channel, think about them based on your goals.
With this approach, most donor communications can fit into one or more of these core categories:
Engagement: Campaign update emails, event invitations, informational posts about your cause, and much more fall into this category. Any message designed to boost donors’ involvement beyond donating is considered engagement.
Appeals: Whether you make appeals in person, via direct mail, or email, these communications directly ask supporters for donations or other types of support.
Acknowledgment: Thanking donors and recognizing their contributions is essential to retaining their long-term support. This includes individual thank-you messages, donor appreciation videos, and gift receipts.
Stewardship: Donor stewardship includes intentional efforts to strengthen relationships and usher donors to higher giving levels over time. Many of these communications may overlap with other categories, but their ultimate purpose is to inspire larger donations.
Feedback requests: Prompting donors to share their own thoughts and opinions is critical to effective donor communications. You might send open-ended surveys, encourage comments on social media, or ask donors for their feedback in person.
Not every touchpoint with donors is about marketing your organization or asking for more money. By incorporating a healthy balance of communications from each category, you’ll boost your chances of retaining support.
Components of an Effective Donor Communications Strategy
To strike the right balance with your nonprofit’s messaging, you need a well-defined communications strategy. Outline a plan for how you’ll approach donor interactions, then stick to it to ensure your messages stay consistent, relevant, and purposeful.
A thorough donor communications plan includes the following fundamental elements:
Donor Segments
Before drafting any communications, use the information in your donor database to create several distinct groups. Segmenting donors based on shared characteristics (such as giving level, involvement history, preferred contact method, etc.) helps you develop more tailored, relevant messages that donors are primed to engage with.
If you don’t yet have any donor segments, start by creating a basic donor pyramid. This fundraising tool divides your donors based on giving level and frequency, providing an easy starting point for segmentation. The main groups in your donor pyramid might include:
Lead donors
Planned gift donors
Annual major donors
First-time major donors
Major giving prospects
Recurring mid-level donors
First-time mid-level donors
Recurring minor donors
First-time minor donors
Prospective donors
From here, you can divide each group further to make your communications hyper-relevant to each donor. You might create new segments for those who gave to specific campaigns, frequent event attendees, monthly donors, past peer-to-peer fundraising volunteers, and more. Then, send messages that speak to each group’s unique interests and relationship with your nonprofit.
Multiple Communication Channels
With a multichannel communications strategy, you’ll reach a wider audience and increase the number of touchpoints with donors, keeping your nonprofit top-of-mind.
Instead of relying on a single communication method, establish your nonprofit across several offline and online channels that align with your audience’s preferences. At a minimum, this should include:
Your website
Email
Social media
Phone calls
Depending on your target audience, you might also branch out with channels like text messages, print or digital advertisements, eCards, video sharing platforms, and blog content.
Note which channels receive the most engagement from donors (overall and by segment), and tweak your communications to align with each channel's strengths. For instance, you should condense written content for social media and expand it for longer direct mail appeals.
Marketing Content and Collateral
Consider both your target audience and chosen communication channels as you brainstorm ideas for reusable marketing content. Define a central message for each of your campaigns that you can communicate consistently across channels. Then, start creating and perfecting collateral you can tweak for different donor segments.
To see effective content in action, take a look at this batch of marketing collateral the Meyer Partners consultants created for MAP International:
This campaign is grounded by a single, compelling story (a young Rwandan girl named Chantal in need of life-saving medicine), making it easier to incorporate consistent messaging into various marketing materials. Our consultants paired Chantal’s story with powerful, cohesive visuals and information about each donation’s impact. We also made sure to promote the organization’s other marketing channels by encouraging donors to follow their social accounts.
As a result of this campaign, MAP International acquired almost 9,000 new donors and increased its number of active donors by 85%. Read the complete case study to learn more.
Donor Stewardship Plans
Don’t forget to prepare to engage donors after your campaigns, too. Develop comprehensive plans for thanking donors, updating them on your fundraising progress, communicating impact, and inviting them to engage further. To avoid bombarding them with too many messages, use communication calendars and stagger follow-up appropriately.
Different donors require different approaches to stewardship, so we recommend using a stewardship matrix that accounts for various giving levels and those donors’ needs.
Additionally, if you identify individual donors you want to steward to higher levels of giving (such as a mid-level donor with the potential to make a major gift), develop personalized stewardship plans that account for their unique interests and history with your nonprofit.
Metrics to Track
No donor communications strategy is complete without defined methods for tracking, reporting, and analyzing data. Determine several metrics to calculate for each campaign, and plan to discuss the results with your team and make improvements for the future.
Common key performance indicators (KPIs) to track for communication strategies include:
Direct mail response rates
Email and social media click-through rates
Conversion rates
Per-campaign ROI
Donor retention rates
Donor lifetime value (LTV)
If you’re unsure how to efficiently track these metrics, remember that you can always turn to a marketing agency for help. Communications professionals with specialized nonprofit experience can support your entire strategy, from goal setting to campaign creation to monitoring and analyzing communications data.
How to Communicate with Donors Successfully: 7 Tips
Now that you understand the big picture, let’s discuss how to make each one of your donor communications stand out and achieve its goals.
1. Analyze your Donor Data
Your nonprofit’s database holds a wealth of helpful information you can use to better understand and communicate with your audience—both as a whole and individually. Take the time to comb through your data and draw actionable conclusions to improve each message.
For instance, you might explore the following audience data:
Preferred channels: One group of donors might respond best to one-on-one phone calls, while another segment prefers direct mail or emails.
Motivations: Every donor has a different reason for giving. If you discover a donor’s motivations from a survey or conversation, record them in your database for future use.
Charitable interests: The ways donors interact with your fundraisers, communications, and involvement opportunities can indicate which aspects of your cause they most align with.
Giving histories: How much does each group of donors typically give, and what are their giving habits? Consider giving frequencies, when they donate, and which campaigns they give to.
Engagement habits: Past volunteering, event attendance, board service, and social media interactions can indicate the ways donors want to engage with your organization.
Analyze this data (with the help of a professional if needed) and act on the most helpful insights.
For example, say you’re drafting a campaign update for everyone who donated or volunteered their time to a food drive. You might discover that 67% of those donors stated their reason for giving as “to help food-insecure community members,” while another 15% said they “wanted to feel more involved in local issues.” In your update, you might focus on both impact and community engagement, sharing the number of meals delivered, donors who contributed, and families supported.
2. Personalize All Donor Communications
We’ve already established that personalization and relevance are crucial, but what does that look like in practice? How personal should you get? And how do you individualize messages on such a large scale?
Beyond using your donor segments to tailor message content to each group’s needs and interests, there are several ways you can add unique personal touches. In each communication with donors, you should:
Address the donor by their preferred name.
Mention the details of their last gift or involvement activity.
Share information about campaigns, programs, and cause areas relevant to their interests.
Adhere to their personal communication preferences.
To incorporate accurate details on a large scale, keep your donor database updated and leverage the automation features within your nonprofit’s fundraising and marketing technology. Depending on your tech stack, this might require configuring integrations between your database and marketing platforms. You might also append your data regularly and/or send out periodic surveys that donors can use to update their contact information.
Additionally, prioritize communication methods that naturally feel more personal than others. For instance, direct mail feels much more personal than email, giving donors a tangible reminder of your organization they can hold in their hands.
3. Leverage a Donor Stewardship Matrix
Donor stewardship can get complicated if you don’t have a clear plan for how and when you’ll interact with different groups. A stewardship matrix provides this needed structure and guidance by outlining exactly who to contact, for what purpose, and how often.
Here’s what a thorough stewardship matrix might look like:
This example includes several types of messages, such as acknowledgment emails, impact reports, and event invitations, that support different goals. It also defines which donors should receive those communications and what the timeline looks like for each one.
To create your own donor stewardship matrix, start by choosing the donor segments you want to include. Our example uses new, recurring, mid-level, major, and planned giving donors, but yours can include additional segments as needed. Then, list several activities and communications you can send to one or more groups and set a timeframe. Finally, mark who should and should not receive each message.
Make this resource readily available to your team members, and emphasize the importance of sticking to these regular communication cadences to maintain consistency.
4. Use Storytelling Strategies
According to a QGiv study, 61% of nonprofit donors want to read real stories from real people your organization interacts with. By including more genuine stories in your donor communications, you’ll more easily connect with supporters and boost engagement with your messages.
Brush up on the best storytelling strategies and incorporate them throughout your communications. Remember to ground your narratives in the three R’s of nonprofit storytelling: resonance, relevance, and respect. All stories should clearly relate to your nonprofit’s work and the donor’s interests while maintaining a respectful, authentic tone. Before you use a constituent story in a message or marketing campaign, get their permission and explain exactly how and why you want to use their story.
To create more cohesive campaigns, don’t hesitate to use the same story across multiple messages and channels. You might introduce the story in a direct mail appeal, post photos on social media, and then direct donors to a blog post with more information and direct quotes.
5. Clearly Demonstrate Impact
The second most common type of content donors in the QGiv study said they want to see (59.9%) was clear results.
Your communications should give donors an accurate picture of where donations go, what impact they create on your community, and how your nonprofit’s programs and services achieve their goals. Communications that demonstrate impact range from detailed annual reports to brief campaign updates to fundraising appeals that pair gift amounts with clear outcomes.
Get creative to explain your organization’s impact in compelling, easy-to-understand ways. For example, you might take inspiration from this appeal we created for Meals on Wheels:
In this appeal, we provided several suggested donation amounts and told donors exactly how many meals each gift provides. We included standout visuals and formatted each donation as a “coupon” recipients can cut out and send in with their gift. To further demonstrate the organization’s impact, we added a photo of Ruthie, one of the many beneficiaries helped by the Meals on Wheels Foundation of Northern Illinois.
6. Express Gratitude Often
Every donor communication should express your organization’s gratitude, even if the donor has yet to contribute. Emphasize that just by being a supporter in your nonprofit’s network, they’re making a vital difference to your cause.
Along with incorporating small notes of thanks into each message, plan additional ways to appreciate donors throughout their journeys with your nonprofit. For example, you might:
Send a thank-you video featuring staff or volunteers.
Offer small gifts of branded stickers or other merchandise.
Invite select donors to a dedicated appreciation event.
Highlight individuals in your newsletter or on social media.
Add donors’ names to a physical or virtual donor appreciation wall.
Consider adjusting these ideas for different donor segments, then incorporate them into your donor stewardship matrix. You might send small gifts to all recurring and mid-level donors annually, for instance, while you only add major and planned giving donors’ names to your wall.
7. Ask for Feedback
Show donors that they have a voice you want to listen to by regularly asking for their feedback. Empower them to engage in powerful two-way conversations with your nonprofit by sending out surveys, responding to social media comments, and inviting donors to share their ideas for improvements.
Not only do feedback requests increase trust and prove to donors that you value their input—they can also provide vital, qualitative insights into your supporters’ preferences and experiences with your organization.
Store all the feedback you receive in your donor database or CRM, then analyze the responses and identify ways to improve communications. Address shortcomings, iterate on what works well, and let donors know what changes you plan to implement. Thank everyone who provides their feedback and emphasize how much you value it.
Wrapping Up
Donor communications may feel like a nebulous concept, but you can ground your efforts with these tips and strategic plans. For more information about developing and improving your strategy, check out these additional resources from our team of marketing and communication experts:
Nonprofit Communications Guide: How to Create Your Strategy. Donors aren’t the only people your nonprofit engages with. Get a more holistic look at nonprofit communications and developing a strategy in this guide.
Complete Nonprofit Marketing Guide: What to Know. Marketing is an important part of your organization’s messaging strategy. Explore tips for attracting more donors with your marketing here.
Partner with Expert Nonprofit Communications Consultants. Looking for individualized support? Learn about the consultants at Meyer Partners and how we can help you meet your long-term communication goals.
