Retaining Your 'Life-Blood' Donors

You depend on your faithful donors, don't you? I know you're always looking for new donors, but it's those supporters who are your loyalists that keep you operating. 

My question for you: do you even know when one of your best donors has fallen through the cracks and failed to give? 

Donors, after all, rarely keep track of how long it's been since their last gift to your organization. Most of them rely on you to remind them when they last gave. Hopefully, you're in touch with them more often than once every twelve months. 

Also hopefully, you're offering them opportunities to interact with your nonprofit and help financially more than once a year. 

It takes regular communication to maintain your place in their hearts and their wallets.

Are you doing a good job keeping track of who these individuals are? If your response to me is that you do two mailings a year, one for your big event and one for your annual appeal, I'd suggest it's time you take a look at your lapsed donors. Whether they decided not to give or just forgot, if you're not checking on the status of your current donors regularly, you take the very real chance that they've neglected to responded to your last two (or more) mailing solicitations.

Suggestions:

You can make a phone call and mention that you haven't heard from them in a while and tell them about a special project they might be interested in. Ask for a specific amount, but not an amount higher than their last gift.

When you send your annual solicitation, write a separate letter to those who didn't give the previous year. Make a soft reference to their lapse by saying something like, "We want to welcome you back to our family of active supporters."  That will make them realize that they lapsed and maybe make them more attentive to their giving in the future.

If the donor fails to respond to the second solicitation, send another note saying, "we miss you" and enclose a survey asking, "Can you tell us why you stopped giving?" Offer a choice of responses:

• Too much mail

• Lost your address

• Change in giving priorities

• I didn't realize I had lapsed

  
  

Our experience at Rescigno's is that you'll be surprised to see the number checking "didn't realize" and who will send you a check immediately.

Our strong advice to you is not to give up on those who don't respond to the "miss you" approach. The cost of obtaining a new donor is still more than you've invested so far. After another six months, approach them with another mailing or call with a specific offer and a request slightly lower than their last gift. 

Then, occasionally, send your appeal with the "we mis you" letter, and include them in planned giving offers if they are of the appropriate age. 

Remember, when someone has responded to your appeal in the past, it's likely that they still have an interest in your mission. Don't give up.

Have you had success getting lapsed donors to give again. Please share your secret sauce with us.