To raise funds for its mission, your nonprofit must regularly engage donors across generations, geographical locations, life experiences, and more. You’ve probably heard the rule of seven: the idea that it takes at least seven touchpoints to compel a donor to act. But while regular communication is often necessary to spur action, it can also have an unintended consequence: it can lead to donor fatigue. And that’s more true now than ever in today’s 24/7 news cycle, negative clickbait world.
Donor fatigue is a phenomenon in which donors become tired of nonprofit outreach and less willing to respond generously. Once you’ve lost their attention–or worse, overburdened them with too much outreach–disengaged donors can quickly become lapsed donors. The Fundraising Effectiveness Project reports that reactivation rates for lapsed donors are as low as 4 percent.
Donor fatigue is real, and the sooner your nonprofit addresses it, the sooner you can start reaping the benefits of more active and engaged supporters. Implement these fresh strategies to keep donors engaged and loyal over the long term.
1. Identify The Root Cause
Before you can develop donor-facing strategies to recapture lapsed donors’ attention, look inward. Assess your nonprofit’s current fundraising approach and calendar to determine your strengths and weaknesses and ultimately narrow down the root cause of a fatigued donor base.
While asking too often can cause donors to become fatigued, there are other possible explanations for donors to become unresponsive or apathetic, such as:
- Need and doom-based messaging: With so much negativity in the media and the world at large today, does your donor base really need more messages of need, scarcity and doom from your nonprofit? If you’re noticing your donors tuning out, it. might be time to pivot to a strength-based communication approach. As an added bonus, this type of approach is usually more respectful of your beneficiaries, as well.
- Repetitive appeals: Bombarding donors with overly-similar appeals for donations can make them lose interest in your cause.
- Lack of personalization: Generic and impersonal messages can leave donors feeling like just another name on a list.
- Underappreciation: Failing to show genuine appreciation for donors’ efforts can make them feel like their support doesn’t matter.
Identify what causes donor fatigue for your unique community so you can implement tactics that avoid these triggers. Campaign data is the perfect place to start this research since engagement varies depending on the type of appeal you’re making. For example, Snowball Fundraising’s text-to-give guide recommends analyzing key analytics, such as individuals’ text-giving frequency and marketing channel engagement, to understand better what resonates with them.
2. Implement Inclusive Strategic Planning
Most nonprofit professionals already know their fundraising efforts should align with donors’ values and expectations. However, too many organizations plan in a vacuum, without engaging their donors or using A/B testing to see what strategies work best before jumping in.
Instead of planning with staff and board members alone, nonprofits should directly involve supporters in the strategic planning process. Not only does this ensure donors feel their voices and perspectives are heard, but it also provides data-based direction for your organization’s plan to engage supporters. Put into practice, this philosophy may involve:
- Surveying supporters to understand their priorities
- Conducting focus groups to gauge supporters’ reactions to strategic pillars, messaging, or fundraising approaches
- Interviewing donors to get their perspectives on mission-centric issues
- Sharing parts of your strategic plans and fundraising plans before finalizing them for stakeholders’ review and feedback
With insights from activities like these, your nonprofit can feel more confident in its plan to achieve its mission through donor support. After all, the only way to be sure your strategic and fundraising plans are adequately responding to stakeholder preferences is to engage your stakeholders.
Keep in mind that donor feedback can influence everything from your broader program plans to your specific approach when hosting events, such as silent auctions. Consider their input on both the micro and the macro issues.
3. Create a Detailed Stewardship Matrix
With a clear perspective of what your supporters want, develop a plan for communicating in ways that will re-engage them. An easy way to structure this plan is by using a donor stewardship matrix, which Double the Donation defines as “an outline of the method and cadence your nonprofit will use when reaching out to donors.”
Whether you’re creating a stewardship matrix for the first time or refreshing yours to address donor fatigue, it should include these basic elements:
- Donor segments: Group donors according to their current levels of engagement. For example, create a segment for monthly donors and another for first-time donors.
- Communication types: List the methods you’ll use to engage different segments, such as donor recognition or impact reporting.
- Activities: List out specific actions you’ll take to deliver your communication methods. For example, you might host an appreciation event to further your donor recognition efforts.
- Timelines: When will you contact donors, and how will that timing maximize their engagement? For example, you might define that you’ll thank a first-time donor within 24 hours of their gift. Pay special attention to areas where fundraising messages may bump into other communications from your organization and avoid sending too many emails or letters close together, even if they’re on different topics.
4. Diversify Your Recognition Efforts
Donor recognition is at the core of every retention strategy, and there’s an endless list of ideas your organization can try to show its gratitude. The question is not, “Which donor appreciation gift should I buy?” or “What appreciation event should I host?” Rather, your nonprofit must determine how your donors will receive these acknowledgements.
To plan appreciation efforts that donors actually appreciate, evaluate donor recognition elements and determine what your methods should include. Should your appreciation idea be:
- Public or private? Some donors prefer to receive recognition privately from your nonprofit, while others will feel honored when you spotlight their contributions in front of a large audience. Know your donors and their preferences so you can thank them accordingly; your appreciation will fall flat if it makes them uncomfortable.
- Tangible or intangible? Tangible gifts versus intangible expressions of gratitude depend on the donor’s method of involvement. For example, you might send branded merchandise to a participant in your online charity auction, while someone who gave $50 through your online donation form might receive a thank-you email or phone call.
- Personalized or standardized? Of course, your nonprofit should avoid sending generic communications to donors. However, it is important to remain efficient while conveying a meaningful message, and some donors’ involvement might not warrant a highly personalized message. For example, you may show a general appreciation video at a group recognition event rather than call out each donor by name.
When necessary, refer back to your stewardship matrix to align your appreciation efforts with the rest of your outreach. For example, donors may grow tired of hearing from your nonprofit when they receive a thank-you email, your weekly newsletter, and an invitation to an upcoming fundraiser back-to-back. Strategically time your messages to avoid overloading your audience’s inboxes.
The above strategies can be implemented today to prevent donor fatigue tomorrow. However, every nonprofit encounters donor fatigue at some point, so even if it’s not currently a problem, you need a plan for combatting it when it occurs. This plan could include offering unique engagement opportunities, like a tour of your nonprofit’s facilities, or directly mentioning that you’ve noticed a decline in their responsiveness and miss their involvement in your organization, while asking for feedback about what you could do better.
However you choose reactivate disengaged supporters, ensure your methods are aligned with your donors’ preferences and perspectives above all else. Let them tell you how they want to hear from you, and do your best to let their lead guide your strategy. Re-engagement and retention rates are likely to tick up only when you truly listen to what your donors and supporters want and need.
