Thursday May 7- Prioritizing donors

Hi !

The Weeping Woman: What’s cookin this week 

In this week’s enews…

• This week’s poll: Pick up the phone

• The data that’s killing our sector

• Solutions to raising more from more donors

• Phone it in for a good cause

• Great post: Write better appeals

• I won’t be injecting this

• P.S. Dinner

The solution to last week’s Triple E (enews easter egg): Nicknames of famous hockey players.

In last week’s enews I ranted about the latest donor data from our sector. It’s 🐂 💩 .

This week I’m offering solutions to buck the trend. Let’s dive in.

The Old Guitarist: Dealing with the issue

Since 2021, the number of donors giving has declined each year. Bigger gifts are given, more money is being donated but fewer people are experiencing the joy of philanthropy.

And it helps explain why so many nonprofits- including I’m sure a decent percentage of those of you reading this- are in scramble mode. They have no idea if they’ll meet their yearly targets or who will step up to help.

Here’s the thing: This is not limited to the last five years. It’s been this way forever.

We are a sector where many of our members live in a perpetual poverty and scarcity mindset. Why? 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

Actually, I do know why. There a number of reasons for this mindset (afraid to spend a buck to make three, save on salary by making people work 7 jobs at once causing them to burnout and leave which means having to hire someone else again and again which ultimately costs more, lack of strategy and planning, lack of collaboration etc.).

At the same time, we know the reasons for the drop in donors year over year. None of this is new to anyone who’s been in the nonprofit sector for more than two minutes.

What matters most is how to deal with the issue. How to INCREASE the number of donors and how to RETAIN more of those already giving.

It’s not as difficult as it seems but it means making some changes, improving some systems and getting everyone onboard the donor train.

So how do you buck the trend and increase the number of donors giving year after year? How do you help your organization grow and thrive?

Lemme share some solutions.

Girl Before a Mirror: How to keep more people giving

Just as a reminder: Everything I write below comes from experience. I have been the CEO of a growing nonprofit. I have been a fundraiser, grant writer, event planner, comms and marketing director for growing nonprofits.

I understand the pressures you’re facing. (If it helps, I was a CEO during the worldwide financial crash in 2007-2009.) But I’m telling you it IS possible to grow and thrive during tough times.

You’re dealing with inflation, rising prices, more people needing your services. Which is why the data showing that number of donors giving keeps going down is… well…not great.

But it’s worse than that: It’s a self inflicted wound.

Here are a few ways to get MORE donors giving year over year.

1) Priorities: When I work with organizations to help them build and boost their fundraising, this is probably the biggest barrier we run into. Your team has a million priorities:

• Keeping major donors happy

• Managing an upcoming event

• Providing numerous services and programs

• Keeping board members happy

• Endless paperwork

• Making sure the database is updated

• Trying to find and keep volunteers

And on and on.

But here’s the thing: Besides your biggest givers (probably about 20% of your donors), is anyone paying attention to all your other donors? How big a priority is retention at your organization?

We know acquisition costs 5-10 times more than retention. So it would make sense- from a financial and time perspective- to prioritize retention of as many donors as possible.

I am well aware that some leaders and/or Board members will tell you not to waste your time with anyone who gives below X dollars. And that’s why you’re struggling.

There’s only so many major givers out there. There are way way way more smaller and midsize donors. And yet…

Change your priorities. Make ALL donors- no matter how much they give- a priority. You’ll see a major boost in retention and dollars donated. Win win.

2) Gratitude: Studies show that when gratitude is memorable, it leads to both higher retention AND higher amounts given the next time you ask. Win win!

How are you saying thanks to donors? Just an email or a businesslike letter mailed to them weeks after they’ve given? Or are you putting thought into it and delivering heartfelt, warm, authentic, genuine, personal thank yous?

When I do trainings around gratitude, we not only review why gratitude is important. I share with attendees more than a dozen different ways to say thank you to a donor (includes the one in the point below).

You need to prioritize (there’s that word again!) how you’re saying thank you to givers. Making them feel all the love? Making sure they feel good about the impact they’re having in their community? Your next campaign will do just fine.

And you’ll see more donors return to give instead of abandoning the cause.

3) Phone calls: I get a LOT of pushback on this one but I can tell you from experience it works. Really really well.

“But we don’t have time to start calling donors” I’m told. So instead of me trying to tell you how well a phone call works, I’ll let the data do the talking:

• Calling a first time donor once or more within 90 days of their gift increases the retention rate up to 58% and nearly doubles the amount of the second gift (Bloomerang)

• A thank you call from a Board member within 24 hours of a donation increases the likelihood of the second gift being 39% larger (Penelope Burk)

• Calling to thank donors generated a 56% increase in first year retention and a 72% increase in revenues (Roger Craver)

I’ve had clients who took my advice and instead of asking for money on Giving Tuesday turned it into Gratitude Tuesday. Staff, Board members, volunteers spent the day calling as many donors as possible. The result? In all cases their year-end campaign surpassed the goal!

Pick three donors every day. Call them to say thank you and share the impact of their gift. That’s it. It won’t take more than a few minutes of your time.

But those daily minutes will translate into more donors giving at higher amounts. Win win.

4) Monthly giving: I have written before how I’ll never understand why so many organizations don’t have a monthly giving strategy and program.

Recurring givers have a retention rate up to 90%!

Number of donors is going down year over year? Be proactive! Build a monthly giving strategy, start to implement, get people signed up, have revenue coming in that you can rely on.

And yes, I have been told by leaders and/or Board members that they don’t believe in “investing” in someone who gives $10 a month. It’s not worth our time they say.

Time for some math.

Initial investment: $10,000 to hire someone to craft a recurring giving strategy. (I don’t charge that much but we’ll use a big round number.)

Year 1️⃣ : You create a campaign and you sign up 100 people to give $10 per month.

Year one 💰️ : $12,000. (You quickly covered your expenses and now everything is “profit.”) But you keep putting it out there and encouraging more people to sign up.

Year 2️⃣ : You boost the program and now have 200 monthly givers. From the first 100 you retain 80 and of those 80, 20 bump their donation to $15 a month.

Year two 💲 : $22,800. And you invest time in those donors to retain them, mobilize them to increase their monthly gift and you work to bring onboard new monthly donors every year.

Would you say no to $25,000 or more every year almost guaranteed? Pretty sure you wouldn’t.

I treat a $10 donor like a $10,000 donor because I know that someday some of those $10 donors will donate a lot more and they are excellent prospects for gifts in wills. Win win.

5) Constant and consistent communications: This is my theme for 2026 and I’ll beat on this drum again.

Your donors don’t hear from you often enough!

Fundraising is a two-way street. You have to provide value for your audience so they stick around. That value isn’t just created by sharing impact of a gift. It’s done by telling stories, sharing relevant data, posting articles and content that will educate people and provide them with the value they seek.

That takes a lot of touchpoints on a bunch of different platforms. But when done right, your audience will stay engaged. Your emails will get noticed in overflowing inboxes. They’ll check your Instagram Stories more often. They’ll open more of your direct mail letters.

Nonprofits are bleeding donors. But that’s not the donor’s fault- that’s ours! We’re not doing what we have to in order to keep more donors and raise more.

Nonprofit growth happens when your donors feel like they’re being treated as special. They’ll keep giving. They’ll keep attending events. They’ll keep reading, commenting and sharing.

The data sucks. But it doesn’t have to be that way for your nonprofit. It can be different. I promise you.

Take some time over the next few days to look at your retention data and then figure out how to boost it. It can be done!

Three Musicians: Phone it in

In this section I’ll share with you something good being done out there that you can learn from. This is from last year but I love the idea behind it.

Anyone out there remember payphones? 🙋‍♂️  As a kid I used them to call home, friends and keep in touch with people.

Last year Wildly Kind ran an amazing project using payphones. They invited people to come into the booth and leave a kind anonymous message for someone who may be suffering in silence.

The person leaving the message and the person receiving it won’t know each other. But that’s the whole point: Sometimes a person needs a “pick me up” and even a total stranger can help light a spark.

Simple idea to remind people they are not alone.

And if we’re talking about payphones…

That’s me in a payphone booth in Times Square in July 2017.

Wait- they still had payphone booths back in 2017?! Nope. Except this one. And it was used for a brilliant campaign.

You stepped into the booth, closed the door and picked up the receiver like you were going to make a call. But instead of a dial tone you heard a recorded 30-second message from a nonprofit working to stop sex trafficking. The message ended with a CTA to visit their website and learn more.

Simple, smart, effective. Great way to raise awareness!

The Kiss: A little of this and that

In this section I’m going to share with you great content I’ve picked out that you can learn from.

1. Tips for writing a better fundraising appeal. MUST READ!!! (Hands On Fundraising)

2. How to create frictionless donation pages (4 A Good Cause)

3. Storytelling: Data vs. faces (Nonprofit Pro)

4. How to find auction donations for your next event (Garecht Fundraising)

5. 28 free nonprofit webinars in May to attend and learn from (Wild Apricot)

Woman with Flower: Ewwwwwwww

People inject themselves with all kinds of crap to make their bodies look “better.” The latest trend to improve pecs, butts and more? Injecting fat from… well, why don’t you go ahead and read. I’m just disgusted.

SOTW (Song of the week): I listened to Boy Meets Girl’s Waiting for a star to fall on an endless loop while composing the enews. It’s one of the more underrated hits of the 80s.

I’ll be back in your inbox next Thursday. Have a great weekend!

P.S. I’m Ephraim and I endorse this tweet. (I LOVE General Tso’s!)