Most fundraisers understand that staying in touch with donors all year long is crucial to keep supporters connected to the mission, ensure that no one is overlooked, and lay the groundwork for strong year-end giving. But it can be hard to know how — and find time — to build a 12-month outreach calendar, especially in a year that promises to be quite complicated.
The main thing is to have a plan in place, says Lori Woehrle, editorial director of Leapfrog Group, a firm that helps nonprofits with fundraising and marketing, but make it flexible so you can adapt if the landscape shifts. “No plan, more or less, equals no map going forward,” she says. “So, if you want to end up somewhere, you need a map.”
When creating an annual donor-engagement plan, start with the end in mind, Woehrle suggests, including what you want to achieve and by when, which audiences you need to reach, and what milestones you should hit along the way. Plan at least 12 months ahead, she suggests, but you might look as far as 18 to 24 months out if you have the capacity.
The Chronicle spoke with a variety of experts who outlined key steps to take and things to consider when crafting a donor-engagement strategy for 2024. Here’s what they suggest to get the best results.
First, define your goals and tie them to your nonprofit’s strategic priorities.
Identify your top three priorities for donor engagement so you can build tactics and messages that feed into them, says Chrissey Nguyen Klockner, chief of staff at Carlos Rosario International Public Charter School in Washington, D.C. For example, these might include increasing awareness and understanding of your mission, deepening key donor relationships and expanding your pool of support, or raising a specific sum.
Your donor-engagement goals should be aligned with your nonprofit’s strategic priorities, she adds, to ensure that donors get consistent messages throughout the year.
Build the foundation.
Identify the campaigns or moments when you already know you’ll be reaching out to donors this year, Woehlre suggests, such as on GivingTuesday, through a monthly newsletter, or with a quarterly magazine. You might think of these touchpoints as the “building blocks” of your plan.
Also consider the cadence of your communications. It’s OK to get in touch with donors often, such as monthly, as long as you’re not always asking for money, she says.
Once you have a big-picture view of your calendar, look for gaps between campaigns or months, where you can plug in creative engagement and stewardship activities, suggests Jen Newmeyer, director of digital fundraising strategy at PBS. Involve other departments, she adds, so you can complement each other’s efforts and avoid competing or oversaturating donors.
Plan consistent messages and stick to your theme(s).
Unless something extremely dramatic happens, you shouldn’t need to change your message very much in a year, Woehrle says. You might think of it as having a platform for your overall message, which should be tied to your work and objectives. “It’s really about the goals of the organization,” she says. “What they’re trying to do, how they’re doing it, and why it’s important and urgent — while being sensitive to the world around us.”
Don’t be afraid of sounding repetitive. People need to hear something seven times before they remember it, Woehrle says, and your nonprofit isn’t the only one they’re hearing from. So, it’s critical to develop consistent messages and build on each one over 12 months to advance your goals.
Plan to share plenty of good news and updates on your impact, Nguyen Klockner says. Positive messages can be especially powerful at a time when many donors may be feeling bombarded with bad news, she adds. Reminding them that your organization continues to deliver results can help keep your nonprofit on donors’ minds and inspire giving.
Ask your donors what they want.
Check in regularly to see how they want to hear from you, what kind of information they would value, and how they would like to be involved, says Misty McLaughlin, founder of Cause Craft Consulting, which helps nonprofits strengthen fundraising and communications. An easy and inexpensive way to do this is to send an online survey, perhaps once or twice a year.
To get more detailed feedback, send a longer survey to a small group of donors who are very likely to respond, McLaughlin says, such as 50 of your longest-term supporters at all giving levels. Ask for 10 to 20 minutes of their time, she suggests, so you can try to better understand what’s driving their giving right now and how best to engage them.
Create useful content.
Use incentives like giveaways to fill gaps in your calendar or expand campaigns in a way that donors value, Newmeyer suggests. For example, she encourages PBS member stations to create an email series leading up to GivingTuesday to prime their audiences for year-end giving. The emails might be focused on recipes or meal ideas and include related trivia and online games. Everyone who participates enters a contest to win a box with cooking essentials or something similar.
You could replicate this tactic at different times of the year, Newmeyer says, by, for example, providing travel tips or games for kids, like bingo or scavenger hunts, in the summer. But make sure the content relates to your mission. An animal shelter might offer incentives or summer ideas related to pets, and a health organization might talk about healthy eating in the summer or exercising in the winter.
Use email automation to stay in touch more easily.
Create an email series with useful content related to specific dates or topics, Newmeyer says, such as reading lists with books by local authors or information about local history. These series could consist of three to four emails that people can sign up to receive at different times of the year.
You could also set up automatic emails for donors on their birthdays or on the anniversary of their first gift to your nonprofit.
Simplify, simplify, simplify, because it’s better for you to have a really high-quality channel than to be on many channels.
Prioritize engaged audiences and communication channels where supporters are active.
Avoid the temptation to be on every communication channel because you think everyone else is, Woehrle says. Instead, go where the bulk of your donors are and focus on deepening engagement there. “Simplify, simplify, simplify, because it’s better for you to have a really high-quality channel than to be on many channels,” she says.
Once you’ve identified your key audiences, design outreach tactics based on what you know or think will work with each, says Farra Trompeter, co-director of Big Duck, a communications agency for nonprofits. To figure that out, look at your communications data and interview or survey your donors to find out what they need. For example, you might learn that a quarterly newsletter is enough for some, while others would like a monthly webinar.
Trompeter also suggests making a donation to peer organizations to see how they’re communicating with supporters, where they’re spending their time, and what seems to be working.
Offer opportunities to gather and learn in person.
Many donors are craving hands-on ways to get involved after the pandemic, Nguyen Klockner says, so inviting them to see your work in action or learn more about it through educational activities can help set your nonprofit apart. For example, you could plan a “lunch and learn” event or series focused on issues related to your cause to help donors understand your organization’s strategic priorities, pressing needs, and the potential impact of giving, she says. This doesn’t have to be a huge undertaking — even gathering just 10 to 15 key donors can be worth the effort.
Make a donation to peer organizations to see how they’re communicating with donors, where they’re spending their time, and what seems to be working.
Have leaders or staffers at your nonprofit speak, she suggests, and consider inviting peer organizations to expand awareness of your cause and foster community-building. Encourage donors to share their perceptions and questions, too, as a way to engage them while getting valuable qualitative data that can inform your outreach.
Some groups are creating “moments of learning” with donors by hosting book clubs or honest conversations about issues and challenges, not just highlighting success stories, Trompeter says. “[They are] really being real about what’s going on and challenging their donors’ preconceived notions or misperceptions in ways that can be scary but ultimately lead to benefit.”
Allow time for testing and evaluation.
Include in your plan a regular pause — perhaps once a month or quarter — to assess your efforts and consider what you should start, stop, and test, Trompeter says. This involves looking at what you did versus what you’d planned, what you learned, and what you might want to change, she says. Give yourself permission to stop something if it isn’t working, even if you’ve always done it. And if you’re not sure if you should do something new, try it for a test period before locking it in, whether three months, six months, or a year.
Also plan to do A/B testing of tactics and appeals, Nguyen Klockner says. If you want to try a new approach, such as using QR codes to link to a video, it’s smart to test that early in the year, she says, so at year’s end you can focus on things you know will work.
Include in your plan a regular pause — perhaps once a month or quarter — to assess your efforts and consider what you should start, stop, and test.
Be creative and experiment.
With overall giving down, now is a good time to experiment, McLaughlin says. This can take a lot of work, so she advises picking one new thing to try and seeing how it goes. For example, you could think about diversifying contributions — maybe asking for nonmonetary gifts such as in-kind contributions or very small, very regular gifts, like just $2 a day.
Or see if there are opportunities to engage a new pool of potential donors, McLaughlin suggests, such as people who receive your services or diaspora donors abroad who have a connection to your mission.
Prepare for the unexpected.
You don’t have to create a full emergency contingency plan if you don’t have the capacity, Nguyen Klockner says, but you should outline key questions to consider and steps to take if something significant happens in the world or at your organization. That might mean simply saying that leaders will meet for a 30-minute huddle to talk about how the organization, donors, and clients are being affected and how your nonprofit should respond.
It’s also a good idea to discuss what solidarity statements mean for your organization, she adds, and decide in what situations you’ll craft one and how.
Build up to the year’s end.
Consider your year-end campaign as part of your annual strategy, Nguyen Klockner says, and think through the messages you’ll use, resources you’ll need, and the timeline for it well ahead of time.
Gather those resources early, she suggests, so you don’t have to scramble during that critical crunch time. This might include language for your appeal, stories from donors or clients, photos or videos, and social-media posts. You could also develop a social-media tool kit with sample posts that you can share with your community to amplify your campaign.
And think about creative ways to make your appeal stand out from the rest, Nguyen Klockner says, and what you’ll need to do so. For example, one organization she worked with enclosed an ornament in its direct-mail appeal and asked donors to sign and mail it back to be included in a “donor tree.” The group then shared photos of clients with the decorated tree to attract supporters’ attention and make them feel good.