We have been focusing on 20 Days to help folks learn the skills needed to grow and MAINTAIN a larger donor base. As anyone in the development world will tell you, the key is to grow and keep donors, NOT find new prospects every year. Ideally, we build great relationships with donors and learn the skills needed to keep them engaged and contributing through time, treasure, and talents to the organizations they are passionate about.
“Over the last 10 years, donor and gift or dollar retention rates have consistently been weak — averaging below 50 percent. The donor retention rate was 46 percent in 2015. That is, only 46 percent of 2014 donors made repeat gifts to participating nonprofits in 2015.”
(2016 Fundraising Effectiveness Survey, AFP)
I don’t know about you, but when I was a development director I worked way too hard securing new donors and building relationships with them to only keep 46 out of 100 from year-to-year. Do you want to work that hard and keep less than half of them the following year? Of course not and that’s no way to build a larger donor base.
There are some pretty simple strategies you can start implementing right now to keep donors and find new ones.
I’m going to share the first five concepts with you below, and then you can watch the video that accompanies each one for detailed information on implementing them successfully. This is part of our Increase Your Donor Base in 20 Days YouTube series.
Day 3 – Creating Your Ideal Donor Profile
Day 5 – Make Thank You Phone Calls
We’d love for you to subscribe to our YouTube Channel for all the latest updates. I always remind people to check back on our Upcoming Events page in case they see something current and helpful they want to join. You can also schedule a Visioning Call anytime if you would like to discuss one of our services or just book a Consultation with one of our nonprofit experts.
As Always, Keep Growing for Good!
