Did you know that the initial cost of acquiring one new donor through traditional methods can cost an organization approximately $100 to $150? What happens if this new donor gives an average of only $75 in the first year? Even if new donors can be found, the cost of acquiring them often outweighs the return on your investment.
Resolving the acquisition dilemma is crucial. Over the past few years, Pursuant has partnered with organizations to help them overcome some of these challenges through creative solutions. Here are a few things we have seen firsthand.
Two Innovative Ways to Fill Your Donor Pipeline
Technology has given nonprofit organizations the opportunity to engage with potential donors in a way that wasn’t possible before. Over the past several years, our partners have seen incredible success by deploying social acquisition campaigns to create viral experiences for their constituents. By leveraging the native strengths of social media and digital communication to engage donors in new ways, several of our partners have doubled the number of donor prospects and exceeded their return on investment within the first 90 to 120 days.
Reactivation is a valuable, but often-overlooked, strategy for filling the donor pipeline. The cardinal sin of fundraisers is to accept lapsed donors as being just a part of life and rushing to replace them through acquisition. Filling the pipeline shouldn’t be a matter of acquisition or retention. It should be a solution of intentional acquisition and retention.
Reactivating lapsed donors makes financial sense because they’re already familiar with the organization. Another benefit is that reactivated donors have repeatedly shown a propensity to give and be retained at higher levels than new donors.
When it comes to reactivating donors as a way to fill your donor pipeline, it’s important to keep the existing relationship in mind. You need to engage them in a way that’s different than how you engage prospective and current donors. If you want to effectively overcome some of the barriers that have caused them to stop giving, you must appeal to them in a way that is genuine and transparent. Sometimes the only thing a lapsed donor needs to hear is that they are missed and needed more than ever before.
To increase acquisition, analyze your prospective donor database and look for ways to leverage technology to engage today’s donors. However, the underlying idea behind each solution is an intentional strategy focused on getting inside the minds of your potential donors and identifying the things that are most important to them. Rather than passively waiting for a donor to make the next move after acquisition, create a strategy that’s ultimately focused on securing that second gift.