Legacy donations are the long-term aim of any individual giving programme. But getting there is not easy. From the first donation to the last, you are taking your donors on a journey. It is easy to lose people along the way – especially when you are working with hundreds, if not thousands of individual donors. No excel spreadsheet can keep on top of this situation. If you want to manage your donors effectively, you need a good charity CRM (like, say, Access thankQ CRM). Seriously. Whether you are a customer or not, we want to help you make the most of yours. So here are 10 ways a charity CRM can improve your donor retention strategies.
How many are in your playbook?
Integrate your data and delve deep into the donor mindset:
If you do not know who you are talking to, it will be impossible to design a donor journey that fits. Not only will a good charity CRM have space for details, it will also integrate website, online and social data – bringing each layer together into one easily accessible system (always within the bounds of GDPR of course). The result? More information than you could ever dream of, and a 360O view of your donors. Do not leave it there to collect dust. Use dashboard and reporting tools to turn this data into meaningful audience insights. You might be surprised by what you learn.
Segment, segment, segment:
Your analysis is bound to uncover trends, and segmentation is about getting to grips with these different groups of donors. Who are they? What makes them tick? How do they interact with your charity? This knowledge will help you divide you audience into different groups so that you can personalise your communications and work with each in the most effective way. Whether it’s geo-demographical, behavioural or attitudinal, a charity CRM is the best tool you have to slice the pie.
Keep track of donor relationships:
A good charity CRM will make it easy to keep tabs on your relationships. It doesn’t matter who is doing the talking. With email, website, social and office integration, Access thankQ can record digital communications automatically. It also makes it easy for users to log individual actions, set reminders and assign tasks. It might look busy behind the scenes. But all your donor will see is a well-organised team that is up to speed with their needs.
Never forget another anniversary:
Donors are not ATMs. A good donor journey will create touch-points that go beyond the ‘ask’ and celebrate the milestones in your relationship. Think birthdays, donorversaries and giving levels. The beauty of a charity CRM is that you can mark those important dates, and set reminders well in advance.
Make the most of LIVE campaigns:
Running a Christmas campaign? Our live campaign monitoring tool uses data to help you make real-time decisions and adjust your activity accordingly. Find out what works, and use it to give your donors a campaign experience that delivers!
Turn downfalls into donations:
We can’t guarantee a 100% response rate. No-one can. What a charity CRM can do is help you find the barriers and pitfalls that turn your donors off. It all comes back to data. How many people ignore your emails, or move on after just a few seconds? Is your website converting leads? Where in the donation process are people dropping off? Once you have used your charity CRM to find the barriers you can hatch a plan to overcome them.
Re-engage lapsed donors:
You will be surprised how many organisations do not have a grip on the ins and outs of their individual giving programme. With a good charity CRM in your toolkit, you can see exactly how many donors you gain each month, and how many you are losing. You can also use it to see how many of your current donors have lapsed. Take some time to get to know these inactive prospects and use your data to create a reactivation campaign that rekindles that spark.
Test and optimise donor engagement ideas:
Trying a new approach? No-one gets it right straight away. Donor engagement and retention is a process. And that means being prepared to test your communications, learn from – and act on – the results. You might do this by testing a series of messages in an e-newsletter, with carefully chosen links to different areas of your work. A separate mailer might then offer a range of events to attend or opportunities to volunteer. Look at the response rates for each. Use your charity CRM to find out what works and start optimising your donor journey.
Learn and evolve:
About more than just relationship management, a charity CRM is there to help your organisation grow. Regular deep dives into your data will shine a light on your fundraising mechanisms – good and bad. Think donor acquisition, attrition, engagement, response rates, giving levels and ROI. Happy with your reports? It is easy to set-up and run automated insights with Access thankQ. Use this information to understand supporter behaviour and build better donor retention strategies.
Create time and space for that little something ‘extra’:
It sounds like there is a lot of work to do, but charity CRMs are all about efficiency. Gone are the days of Excel spreadsheets or clunky sales-based tools. With a fundraising CRM on your team you can process the information you need in minutes not hours. That means there is more time for you and your team to deliver that little something ‘extra’. Whether it’s a phone call, handwritten ‘thank you’ or time spent innovating your next digital move, those hours will soon start to add up!
Of course, a charity CRM will only give out what you put in. That is why we have channelled 25+ years of experience into a database that has been specifically designed with YOUR needs in mind. Access thankQ is intuitive and easy to use. If you do get stuck, our technical support team, free training webinars, learning hub and online community mean your team will get the support they need when they need it.
What are you waiting for? Dive into your data and start designing a donor journey that lasts!