You’ve read through the best practices and even jotted down notes in the document about how to apply them to your organization’s fundraising strategy – now what?
It’s time to look at what you’re currently doing – or not doing – to connect with your donors and see what you can add, keep, or improve. The best way to do this is by conducting an internal audit of all of your communications channels, from social media and email to stewardship and appeals. How are they performing? What’s working? And what isn’t?
Be sure to look at the numbers, and don’t just go by your gut feelings. Have you been meeting your key performance indicators? Look at the analytics available on your social media platforms to see how many people engage with your posts and if your audience has grown over time. Review your open and clickthrough rates for your email campaigns. And take a look at how many donations have come in during specific fundraising campaigns or appeals. You could also conduct an informal phone survey with your most trusted donors, board members, or volunteers and ask their opinion about your outreach efforts.
In addition, you should conduct a competitor analysis of similar organizations in the area, or even nonprofits around the world that you admire, to see what they are doing. Read through their recent social media posts, sign up for their email or mailing lists, or ask friends and family if they have had experience with these other organizations. Again, look at what seems to be working for them, and what doesn’t.
Next, combine this internal and external research with the best practices and tips presented in this free resource to develop a donor communications plan for your organization. Set goals and measurable objectives – plus those KPIs – as well as list out tactics you plan to implement, and how. Don’t forget to include a timeline as well as who will be responsible for putting each task into action!
Finally, implement your new communications plan across all of your outreach efforts and channels. Check back in on the best practices document above whenever you need it, and be prepared to take your donor communications to the next level.
Plus, don’t forget to use Donorbox’s donor profile – including the Moments feature – to track your donor communications and ensure you are implementing all of your new strategies with every supporter.
Next, it will be time to repeat the entire process over again! Audit your current plan and tactics, check in on your competitors, review the best practices, and continue to plan for the future. You’ll be building better donor relationships in no time!
