As an NGO, we do invaluable work that can be sustained by several revenue streams. Those organizations that do everything they can to balance on one foot in a changing environment (e.g. 1% or grant money, one large corporate income) are more vulnerable to external influences than those that have many smaller feet and rely on their regular donor base alongside other sources.
External forces and events, such as political and economic decisions and events, consumer habits, the interests of various stakeholders, etc., can have an invisible scythe cutting in and out of this leg and that leg. It is always the big companies that feel the scythe first and, as is their 'good habit', when something hurts them financially, they tighten their belts, usually at the expense of HR, PR, communications and CSR. And the bad news is that in Hungary, charitable grants are usually classified in one of these areas. Of course, private individuals also feel the external effects, but on the one hand with a lag compared to large corporations, and on the other, if we look at our own situation, losing 50% of several small legs will still give us a more secure base than losing 1 of 2 chair legs.
Building a large, regular private donor base therefore means building a stable, predictable form of support that is accessed and managed by the organization.
Building a regular donor base is by no means impossible, but it does require a lot of preparation, awareness and coordination of processes.
The first and most important task is to think about each step we take with the goal in mind that at the end of the day, our goal is nothing less than to make sure that a donor (whether new or existing) wants to become and can become a regular donor every month and wants to stay one. (To find out who we consider to be regular donors, read this article).
Targeting
The first step is to decide who suits me. I assess the target group where I am most likely to find a lifelong partner; not just an "occasional partner" who I can thank for a one-off donation.
For each NGO, this may vary in terms of age, residence, interests, marital status, income, etc. In the case of SOS Children's Villages, for example, we know that urban, A/B status, 35+ men and women who have children of at least pre-school age or are much older but have never had children, are the most likely to give to the organization. However, it was an interesting finding when we discovered that men are a little quicker and more confident in their decision to donate regularly than women. In other words, who I can "sell" my organization to and who I can "sell" the monthly regularity to can be somewhat different/narrower target groups, and this can refine my donor recruitment campaign and messages (when SOS realized the above example, they included 168 Hours in their media portfolio alongside the Nők Lapja ads, which is more targeted at men.)
The likelihood of success is increased if I approach those who have already made a one-off or irregular donation to the organization with a regular request for a donation. Of course, I may open up to all prospective donors with this request straight away - and if I am successful, this is what we call a one-step conversion - but this is not the norm. For immediate one-step conversions, face-to-face (street face-to-face, telemarketing) is the most effective method but fewer people are still committing to regular monthly donors online, but we are moving in that direction. Those who have already made a one-off donation, or have given their personal details purely for contact purposes, enter a multi-stage conversion process, which I 'like' (loyalty circle) until I ask them why I don't ask them to do it.
In a multi-step conversion, I select from among the supporters already brought in those who are most likely to say yes to the question after a while. The key to this is to build a database that I can use to group/select my donors.
Who would be a good base for a potential conversion attempt among my donors?
a) A person who is already a priority due to previous donations or their high frequency. If I know that the average monthly regular donor gives a total of about 50.000 HUF over a year, I can see which of my one-time donors have already given that much in total in the last year. These people should be invited to switch to small but sustained regular donations.
b) Anyone who makes a special commitment. For example, calling us to ask how else you can help. My favorite example is when someone wants to offer their battered laptop for free, and during the phone call, we explain what the real help is for us.
c) Someone who has only given once, but is also active in our other campaigns. For example, they come to one of our events, donate 1% of their tax, shop, volunteer, etc.
Attention
If I am confronted with a candidate who seems ideal, i.e. my campaign has been launched towards the desired, ideal target group and they have met my message (an article has been published in the desired media, my targeted ad has been sharpened, my SMS campaign has been launched, etc.), my goal is to somehow get that individual to stop for a moment. A good attention-grabbing message equals a wink. I have gotten a moment's attention.
If I have winked cleverly, I can make the person's eyes linger on me longer, for example by directing them to my website. I can measure the success of this part of the conquest by the number of unique visitors to the website (website unique visitor). If they read the content on the site, it's like a telling look in each other's eyes. I can be relatively sure of this if the time spent on the website is sufficient for the average person to read everything (about 2-3 minutes. The website's bounce rate indicator is the number that shows that the message was good but the content was not, i.e. visitors to the site turned back when they saw what was there). After a while, if you measure your campaigns well, you will be able to tell what kind of wink and what kind of content your target audience is buying.
Tip: Test your campaigns! Take any campaign idea you have and A/B test it. This term simply means changing one element of the campaign (for example, using a different image for the same post or sharing the planned content on social media at a different time) and then seeing if your target audience responds better to version A or B. On our website, I measure the response with the following elements: opening rate=opening rate, click-through rate=click through rate, unique visitor=unique visitor, bounce rate=bouncing rate, time spent on the page and specific sign-up or donation. Launch a campaign with the more successful element to the entire target group. In the case of a newsletter, we can test the two differently titled Subject Fields and whichever has a better open rate will launch the campaign to the entire target group.
How to get availability
Once we've made eye contact, I have to find a way to get the person's phone number or email address, or maybe their home address, otherwise, I won't be able to ask them out, send them a note, build the relationship that I hope will lead to marriage.
On the relationship, also known as the campaign management side, this step is critical. I can't create the campaign of a lifetime, and I can't reach hundreds of thousands of people who go to my website (our eyes are locked together), if the process, the communication messages, and the interface itself are not designed in such a way that the person wants to and can provide their personal data. If this step is not well built-in, it's like swiping everyone on Tinder to the right - indicating that I like them - and then terminating my account and starting a new one the next day. Without a conscious design and ongoing analysis of the database, we should not even start building a regular donor base. To learn more about the criteria to think about the data you need for your organization's purposes, read this article!
Tip: For example, it's worth looking at your organization's website with this in mind: where can I include the contact request and when can I draw attention to the fact that we are focusing on monthly giving? Don't just have a specific sub-page where you can sign up for a newsletter, volunteer, or donate! These features should be built into or linked to on every page where they can have relevance. For example, if I present a volunteer-corporate success story in the newsfeed of the website, the text should include a link directly to the volunteer application page or the images should be downloadable only if an email address is provided. An interesting research or study in full should also only be possible after registering e.g. by entering an email address, etc. If you are interested in more information on what and how to include on your website, read our article on this topic!
4. Be clear about what you are asking for!
Be clear and consistent in your communications with new and existing donors. As much as possible, meet with members of our existing and prospective donor base about the relationship we are looking for, and what would be the most valuable relationship for the organization to count on them for.
Tip: Whenever you can, incorporate the following phrases into your organization's communication style:
"All support is a huge help, but the greatest security for us is monthly, regular giving."
"Small, yet regular monthly donations are what make it possible to...."
5. Strengthening the relationship: the magic of personhood
Every relationship needs constant nurturing, and our donors give their attention and money freely to the organization, which may lose interest and enthusiasm if we fail to maintain this. We should reward the special attention that someone makes a regular donation to our organization: we should make it known that it is their support that enables the organization to bring worthy causes and services to life. Every person likes to feel that what they do is valued and useful, so it is worth building on this in the structure of the appeal.
Tip: consider at every planning stage what emotional payoffs can help strengthen donor engagement! Does our target audience feel them?
I am unique
They notice me, they listen to me
I am important
I am counted
I belong, I'm part of the community
I can count on my community
I am valuable
6. Maintaining the connection
We can only manage to maintain the magic of personality with a database that serves our purpose well. To make individuals feel important to me, I need to know when the birthday of the person I care about is so that I can say hello in time, or perhaps keep track of their anniversary so I can send them a note or a thank you. But I can also use my database to see which of my messages they like, which messages they responded positively to (opened my message and spent time with me, maybe made a successful conversion and donated), and what I'd better not try again. I can tell when he is starting to drift away from me, i.e. when he starts to give less, I can see when he has left me but also when the love has flared up and he is giving more, which leads to the all-important question: do you want to commit to me? Will you be my regular monthly giver? What to look out for and how to build your database to serve these goals are covered in this article.
If I build the database in such a way that it really is the historical memory of each of my donors, I will be able to filter out those who, when we kneel down with the ring, may ask for time to say yes, but they will not run away.
Author: Ágnes Romet-Balla and NIOK