Your nonprofit’s ability to continuously upgrade, refine, and fine tune its donor acquisition strategy is what will ensure that you don’t have to constantly worry about generating revenue for your organization. It also means that you are able to live up to your charity’s mission and vision and maximize your support towards the communities that depend on your assistance. Your ‘contacts’ i.e. people who are in your contact list but haven’t donated, offer an untapped opportunity to maximize donations.
A contact is a person who is somehow connected with your nonprofit. This group includes people on your social media, email list, contacts you made at networking events, etc. As someone who is already familiar with your charity and its work, they are more likely to convert into donors. Can your current donor acquisition strategy help them transition from being an observer to becoming a benefactor? In this article, we will talk about how your charity or nonprofit can encourage your contacts to turn into active donors.
How to turn contacts into donors
1. Identify leads that are more likely to convert
The first step is to identify which of your contacts are more likely to become donors. Look for people who regularly interact with your organization via emails, social media, or by attending your charitable events.
You can also identify these leads by taking into account elements such as people who consistently interact with your social media posts and speak highly of your efforts on public platforms (such as social media), respond to your emails, or have reached out and requested more info about a specific fundraiser in the past etc. These leads can also include people who have donated sporadically and have the potential to be more consistent.
2. Nurture relationships by building trust and engagement
Your nonprofit’s ability to build trust and engage with leads is an important factor in nurturing relationships. It is an important element in your nonprofit or charity’s long term fundraising strategy.
Multiple small encounters can shape the whole experience for your potential donors. As a charitable organization interested in capturing your contacts’ attention, you should regularly respond and interact with contacts on social media. Be sure to engage with them without necessarily asking for a donation and get a deeper understanding of why they support your organization. Show them how much you value their support. This will in turn allow you to have better insight into the kind of interaction that will most appeal to them in the future.
When running online raffles like 50/50 or Catch the Ace, one way to build engagement is to provide early bird access to raffle tickets to those in your database. This will make your leads feel special and help you get a headstart on ticket sales.
3. Make your donation process seamless
Making it easy for your donors to make a donation to your cause is by far the most important thing that you can do as you embark on converting leads into active donors. Start by putting a seamless process in place so potential donors don’t have to work hard to make a donation.
This includes adding a prominent ‘donation’ button on your website’s header and all the other pages on your website and social media accounts and ensuring it takes a minimum number of clicks for the donor to give. You should also make sure to include a user-friendly donation button that is placed above the fold within your fundraising email campaigns. Additionally, all touchpoints such as web pages making the ‘ask’ should be easy to navigate.
4. Introduce non-monetary ways to support
As a charity when you provide your contacts with multiple ways to support you, it increases your chances of acquiring donations and turning contacts into donors. People aren’t always in a position to donate financially but may still want to show their support in other ways.
You can encourage them to support you with their time (by volunteering), by asking them to share your latest campaign with their audience on social media, requesting them to spread the word about your charity’s efforts, and/or seeking donations: clothes or other items that are no longer of use to them. All of these are also great ways to keep your charity top of the mind for your supporters once they are ready to make a financial commitment.
5. Segment your contacts and use drip campaigns for warm leads
The dynamics of marketing have changed drastically over the last few years. Your recipients’ expectation of your ability to understand their needs has also evolved. Email communication that is tailored to the specific needs of your potential donors is far more important today than it was ever before and forms an important part of your fundraising and donor acquisition strategy.
Broadly speaking, email lists should be segmented based on end-user interests, demographics, income levels, etc. Craft dedicated email workflows (drip campaigns) to nurture warm contacts based on their profile and donor stage.
6. Use marketing automation and tracking pixels to maximize impact
Automating a large portion of your marketing through tools and CRM software such as Mailchimp, Salesforce or HubSpot can open up more time and resources to take on other initiatives within your charity or nonprofit, thereby making full use of the resources at your disposal. These softwares allow charities to connect authentically at scale and help create tailored communication experiences for all segments within your contacts for maximum impact.
On the other hand, pixel tracking is a tool that tracks user behavior after they open an email. It offers valuable insights into what a user is doing as they browse through your correspondence. These technologies allow nonprofits to create more personalized, relevant, and meaningful email campaigns that can raise larger funds and build more authentic connections with their contacts.
Your contacts provide an untapped opportunity to connect with people who already know about your work but need just a more push to make a financial commitment. The tips shared here tips will help you convert them into lifelong donors.
