Atlanta Fundraising Lab Recap: Donor Retention

On February 11^th, a group of Qgiv customers and nonprofit fundraisers came together in Atlanta, GA for the Fundraising Lab. During this event, attendees learned and discussed fundraising best practices and networked with their peers. Rachel Muir, CFRE shared valuable insights on donor retention, Abby Jarvis and Jennifer Mansfield explored how to build a multi-channel marketing plan for fundraising campaigns, and we talked about new Qgiv features and customer use cases.

Here’s more detailed information from each session of the event:

Donor Retention: Getting Donors to Stay Longer and Make Bigger Gifts Sooner
Presented by: Rachel Muir, CFRE

At the Fundraising Lab, Rachel discussed why nonprofits can’t afford to let their donors walk away, ideas to make them stay, and how to motivate them to donate long-term. She emphasized the importance of making donors feel like superstars when they give. Here are three lessons learned:

• Be as personal as possible in your communications, regardless of the size of the gift. Every donor is an important part of your cause. Even though they may not contribute a large monetary donation, they could be an irreplaceable volunteer or have a large network of new potential donors to introduce your organization too.
• “Roll out the red carpet” to first-time donors because first impressions are everything, and it’s the best way to increase the likelihood they’ll will give again.
• Donors don’t get tired of being asked for gifts, but they DO get tired of being asked repeatedly without understanding their impact. Make sure you tell them how they’re contributing to your mission.

The more you can thank and report impact, the more you can confidently ask your donors for support because they’re already so excited about working with you. To learn more from Rachel, check out The Art of an Unforgettable Thanks, during which she presents the steps of a stewardship plan and tools to make an amazing impression on donors.

Qgiv Roadmap + Q&A

Presented by: Jennifer Mansfield, Vice President of Customer Experience at Qgiv

During this session, Jennifer shared a variety of new features and functionality launched across the Qgiv fundraising suite this year, as well as what’s on the roadmap for the remainder of 2020. Afterward, she presented three customer case studies and trained the audience on how they can leverage their fundraising tools to raise more money and find greater success. Attendees walked away with new ideas they could implement in their fundraising campaigns as soon as they returned to their offices.

Changing Channels: Multi-Channel Marketing for Your Next Fundraising Campaign

Presented by: Abby Jarvis, Nonprofit Education Manager & Jennifer Mansfield, Vice President of Customer Experience

Abby and Jennifer teamed up to present a crash course on building a multi-channel nonprofit marketing campaign. Their info-packed session explored how nonprofits can think through the different stages of planning a marketing campaign and spreading the message across various channels. Here are some of the key takeaways from their session:

• Know your donors!
  • Understanding your donors’ communication preferences, social media habits, and motivations will help you make sure you ask your donors for support in the right way
    • Get to know what programs donors want to support
    • Research where they spend their time, both online and offline
    • Build stories, appeals, and other communications that appeal to your donors’ patterns and preferences

• Stay consistent!
  • Keep your messaging consistent across all the channels you choose to include in your campaign
    • Use small-scale stories to make your messaging personal and compelling
    • Choose two or three key messages that will drive every communication you send
    • Use consistent language, storytelling, and branding elements across all of your channels
• Quality > Quantity
  • It’s better to have a great presence on one or two channels than it is to have a mediocre presence on more channels
    • Research your donors’ activities and focus your efforts where they’ll see your messaging
    • Don’t feel obligated to use a channel if your donors aren’t there! You don’t have to use X if all your donors are on Facebook, for example.
    • Periodically evaluate what’s working and what isn’t. You don’t have to feel bad about cutting out a channel if it isn’t working for you.
• Use your fundraising tools to level up your efforts whenever possible
  • Make your fundraising platform an asset, not a drawback
    • Extend your campaign’s branding, imagery, and story elements through your donors’ journey with you, including on your donation forms, confirmation pages, and donation receipts.
    • Consider using tools like text messaging, peer-to-peer fundraising, or events to make it easy for donors to give in a way that’s easy for them
    • Use your fundraising platform’s tools to keep in touch with donors, evaluate your successes and opportunities for improvement, and plan for future campaigns

Looking for more fundraising webinars and events? Check out the full calendar!