Prospective donors are more likely to be persuaded to give when not-for-profit organizations employ personalized messaging. Addressing donors more directly can pay off, particularly when a not-for-profit uses software that makes it easier to use constituents’ preferred names and contact methods, bring up relevant information or refer to their ongoing support. Whether you use the Salesforce donor management system or Raiser’s Edge NXT, you can draw on contact data and other relevant information to craft personalized appeals.
Message Donors Based Upon Their Interaction With Your Organization
Personalizing messages starts by contacting donors by their preferred names and modes of communication. Organizations that offer customizable options for contact methods tend to maintain more email and mailing list subscriptions. This approach to personalization makes it more likely that any communication a nonprofit has with donors will be well received. Messages that contain content relevant to donors’ specific interests or reference past support are also more likely to resonate.
Personalization extends beyond these measures based on the amount of information available for each supporter. The data pool often depends on the level of connection between the constituent relationship management software and other applications in use at organization. Organizations weighing the pros and cons of Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud vs Raiser’s Edge NXT should factor in the flexibility of the former and the all-in-one capabilities of the latter as well as the wider potential possible through integration.
Send Tailored Messages at the Right Time
The messages nonprofit staff send should be customized for recipients and dispatched on a schedule informed by available data in nonprofit data software. If fundraisers get their timing right, personalized messaging can prove the difference between closed or recurring donations and ongoing cultivation.
Donor communication through conventional methods such as phone calls or direct mail should refer to relevant data. Newer modes of outreach and fundraising offer even more opportunities for personalization. Segmenting groups of constituents and finding ways to add even more personal touches to every message can have significant results.
Acknowledge Donor Participation and Preferences
When supporters engage with or donate to an organization, it can be meaningful and effective to acknowledge these measures in future communications. In addition to making suggested asks or pursuing other data-driven appeals, a not-for-profit association may demonstrate the positive outcomes of past engagement or gifts.
Constituents of nonprofit organizations may be primarily interested in one or a select number of aspects of a mission. A survey or poll upon signing up for an email list, making a donation or any other form of lead conversion can identify topics on which to focus fundraising.
The more relevant information stakeholders can gather about donors, the more options for personalized communication become available. For this reason, nonprofit staff might send out surveys to determine preferences in terms of communication modes and frequency, topics of interest or other data that can be useful for making personalized appeals. It is also important to properly store and integrate donor data so that the most complete and accurate information is available across every system in use at an organization.
