Recognizing Donor Attrition Before It’s Too Late

Think about this: Your organization has a donor who makes gifts regularly and is very gung ho about your cause. This donor invites friends to your fundraising events, makes a major gift, and promotes your work on social media.

Sounds like a perfect donor, doesn’t it?

One day, though, you suddenly realize you haven’t heard from this individual in months. Moreover, you haven’t received a gift from him or her in almost a year.

Yikes, indeed!

After doing a bit of investigating, you learn that this donor isn’t promoting you on social media anymore. You immediately pick up the phone and call the donor but have to leave a message. Your call, however, is never returned. Your once perfect donor has somehow turned into one who is lapsed.

It’s unfortunate, but true, that even perfect donors can and do stop supporting organizations they once were passionate about. Maybe it’s because the excitement simply isn’t there any longer. .

If you read on, we’ll explain how you can nip this “waning of interest” in the bud before it becomes too late to ever re-engage with them. 

Let’s examine the 4 indicators that signal that donor enthusiasm is dissipating and that there is a real danger of losing them completely. Then, we’ll reveal strategies for re-engaging donors who are at serious risk of lapsing.

Danger Signs of Donor Attrition

1. Donor meetings are less and less frequent

This is a key danger sign that your donor has grown disinterested in your organization. For example:

• Meetings with this donor that used to last for an hour now go on for only fifteen minutes, or so.

• The donor is always in a hurry.

• The donor sounds disinterested over the phone or barely has anything to say during meetings.

The point is, it’s very clear this donor is only still involved out of a sense of obligation. It’s also abundantly clear that their heart is no longer in it.

2. The donor no longer interacts with your content

If a donor normally reposts or likes everything you post on social media suddenly (or gradually) stops doing so or stops replying to updates, that’s a problem. Additionally, if you have a donor who used to frequently send your email newsletters or impact reports to friends and colleagues, but no longer does so, be forewarned—that is not good. Donors who stop interacting with your content are indicating to you that they are bored, disinterested, or disenchanted in your communications, or worse yet, your work.

Don’t despair completely, however, because we’ve helped our clients re-ignite interest by looking at their marketing strategy and personalizing communications where it makes sense to do so.  

3. The donor is a no-show at events

A major clue that a donor has lost interest is when they register for events but don’t attend them. This individual may still be replying “yes,” but when the day of the event rolls around, their motivation to actually be there just isn’t there like it used to be. Soon, this donor will no longer even bother to register or RSVP.

4. The donor no longer makes regular contributions

You may have a donor who has been slowly pulling away from donating to events, appeals, and/or campaigns. Then, they miss making a gift to the year-end appeal, your biggest “ask” of the year. This major warning sign should not be ignored. An immediate response on your part is needed to stave off the very real possibility that you are goibg to lose this donor forever.

Check back next week: We’ll present the 2nd half of this blog—Bringing Lapsed Donors Back