We know donors give for a lot of reasons: belief in a mission, to feel good, to feel connected to a cause, a tax write-off.
But do you know why your donors give to YOU? What makes you unique in their minds? What are the most attractive features about your organization? What is their primary motivator for choosing your organization to give to?
It’s imperative you can answer this question so that your organization reaches out with the right appeals to the right audience and remains healthy.
How can you find out why your donors give to you? It’s not hard. Try these tips for tapping into your donors’ motivation for giving.
Have an ongoing conversation. Rather than creating a “one-time” inquiry of your donor base, treat this aspect of donor management as an ongoing discovery process. Be in the habit of asking your donors — in print and digital communication, in person, and on social media, “What brought you to us? Why is our mission important to you?”
Create a focus group. A focus group is a gathering of folks for the purpose of targeted and intentional research. Invite several people (usually 7-10 participants) who are comfortable speaking in a group. Ask a third party to serve as facilitator and make sure you have a note-taker (and/or plan to record the discussion). During your meeting, ask specific questions such as, “Why do you support our organization? Which campaigns have you given to in the past? Why?”
Survey your donors. Short surveys can be given and completed either on paper or online (using one of several free tools). These are helpful for gathering quick results and assuring responders of anonymity. Survey questions may include, “What are the strengths of our organization? What drew you to us?”
Conduct an informal poll on social media. It doesn’t get much more real-time than throwing out an informal poll on Facebook or Twitter. These short questions/answers can help you take the pulse of your audience in the moment and provide some quick feedback. These types of polls are especially helpful if you’re testing a graphic, for example. Post a couple of images that you’re considering using and ask your audience, “Which image most compels you to help? Vote for your favorite.”
Monitor campaign responses. You’ve just launched a new campaign and the donations are pouring in! Make sure you take note of what just happened. Gather your team and ask, “Why this campaign? What did we do differently than last time? Who gave and how much? Who didn’t give?” Once you’ve isolated the initial data, you can segment the audience into donors and non-donors and use one of the other strategies above to dig even deeper into their motivation for giving (or not giving).
And, finally …
Make sure you do something with the information you gather! This is where a robust donor management tool comes in handy. Donor.com’s Donor Management software is ideal for categorizing and organizing donor responses, notes, and other data. Using our software, you can sort through all the responses and observations, so you’ll have a greater understanding of why your donors give to you. When you do, you can better tailor your messaging and your asks to the main things that appeal to your supporters, thereby creating campaign success and increasing donation amounts.
Find out more about Donor.com’s Donor Management Software here.
