4 Sensible Donor Segmentation Methods for Nonprofits

As a nonprofit skilled, you understand how essential it’s to domesticate deep and significant relationships along with your supporters. It’s much more essential to work towards these relationships throughout tough instances. 

To successfully construct these relationships, instances of social and financial chaos current the proper alternative for rising your communications with donors. 

Rising communication, particularly private communication, will present your donors that you just genuinely care about their connections to your trigger. Ask them how they’re doing. Present them with updates on the way you’re protecting employees, volunteers, and constituents protected. And, above all, don’t cease fundraising. Even with the present financial local weather, donors are astoundingly beneficiant and plenty of will select to provide in case you give them the prospect. 

However how will you take advantage of your communication technique? It’s easy: create sensible donor segments to achieve out to your supporters. 

What’s segmentation and why does it matter?

Chances are high you most likely already leverage donor segmentation. After an occasion (or digital occasion), you most likely e mail your attendees to say thanks. Or, you could have a welcome e mail collection in your latest supporters. However simply to ensure we’re all on the identical web page, let’s begin from the start by defining segmentation.

Donor segmentation is while you separate supporters into significant teams based mostly on commonalities. This lets you attain out to teams of individuals with customized messages which can be focused towards their pursuits. 

It’s an environment friendly technique of personalizing your outreach to your nonprofit’s supporters. With the assistance of your nonprofit’s CRM software program, you’ll use the information you’ve saved to create worthwhile segments that may assist with these communications methods. Total, this helps you develop stronger connections with supporters so as to domesticate lasting relationships. 

On this article, we’ll go over a few of the finest donor segmentation methods your nonprofit can use to construct these relationships. The segments we’ll talk about embody: 

1. Giving Stage
2. Recency and Frequency 
3. Communication Platforms
4. Contribution Sort

Able to dive deeper into these worthwhile donor segments? Let’s get began. 

1. Phase donors by giving stage. 

Chances are high, the subjects you talk about along with your main donors are fairly totally different from these you speak about along with your low-level donors. Due to this fact, sorting donors by giving stage is the place we suggest starting along with your segmentation technique. Understand that while you create these segments, your communications with these audiences will drastically differ from each other.

To completely perceive how your messaging ought to range, let’s discover the segments used for 3 major giving ranges:

• Small-scale donors. This might be your largest phase. As you attain out to this viewers, your purpose will seemingly be to persuade them to contribute once more sooner or later and contemplate giving extra. They’ll be invited to organization-wide occasions and should even be requested to volunteer. That is additionally the place to begin for a lot of mid-tier and main donors, so conduct prospect analysis to find out who could be an excellent candidate for larger giving ranges sooner or later. 
• Mid-tier donors. Many nonprofits have a foul behavior of neglecting their mid-tier donors. Nonetheless, these supporters have the potential to contribute an excellent chunk of your donation income, 40%-50% in response to NonProfit PRO. Plus, they’re those who’re almost definitely to show into main donors sooner or later. You’ll want to phase this group so that you just successfully steward them and categorical the appreciation they deserve.
• Main donors. Your main donors make up the vast majority of your donation income. It’s additionally your smallest group of supporters. Which means that you might have the chance to hyper-personalize outreach to this viewers. You’ll want to phase this viewers and attain out to ask for suggestions in regards to the group and invite them to particular appreciation occasions. 

Every of those teams could also be outlined in another way by each nonprofit, relying on their measurement and capability. However, as you may see, gathering knowledge about your donors and segmenting them by your outlined giving stage will assist your nonprofit make strategic choices that may positively impression your group’s fundraising targets. It’s all about speaking effectively to satisfy every donor’s finest pursuits, saving your advertising and marketing workforce’s time, and successfully reaching out in response to your group’s strategic plan.

2. Phase by recency and frequency of giving. 

One other phase of supporters that your nonprofit might contemplate creating is expounded to their recency and frequency of their donations. This measurement is essential for figuring out the engagement of your donors. 

In case your donors are absolutely engaged in your group’s work, they’re a lot extra seemingly to provide extra typically and extra continuously. That is an indicator of a robust relationship between the donor and your nonprofit. Extra frequent giving results in a better lifetime donor worth in your nonprofit in addition to higher fundraising income. Additional, current giving reveals that the supporter is at peak engagement along with your nonprofit. 

A number of the segments it’s possible you’ll contemplate throughout the class of “recency and frequency” embody: 

• Recurring donors. Donors who join your recurring donation program are extremely worthwhile in your nonprofit as a result of they provide a constant income over time. Phase these supporters so to attain out with different engagement alternatives reminiscent of occasion registrations and volunteer alternatives. 
• Lapsed donors. Donors who’ve lapsed or are in peril of lapsing are those that appear to be dropping their engagement along with your group. You’ll want to reconnect with these supporters, explaining that you just worth their help and invite them to interact or contribute once more. 
• New donors. Throughout the first month {that a} new donor provides to your group for the primary time, it is best to you’ll want to attain out personally to thank them and invite them to turn into concerned additional along with your nonprofit’s actions. Do that whereas the primary present continues to be recent of their minds to catch their consideration early and set up a powerful basis for an enduring relationship.

These segments are particularly essential in your nonprofit’s engagement and stewardship methods. In brief, this supplies an outline of the place your supporters are within the relationship-building course of along with your nonprofit. 

3. Phase supporters by communication platform. 

On your nonprofit to totally have interaction your supporters, you might want to attain out to them utilizing the platforms they’re almost definitely to reply to. This is the reason one efficient segmentation technique is to group supporters by most popular communication platform. 

Understand that this doesn’t imply that it is best to solely attain out utilizing supporters’ most popular platforms. Nonetheless, it does present what the major outreach channel must be for supporters. This method will match nicely into your multi-channel fundraising technique. 

There are two major methods you may resolve what communication platform your supporters choose. First, you may dig in your CRM to resolve what they’ve responded positively to previously. Second, you may merely ask them in a survey. 

When you think about the platforms by which you’re segmenting supporters, you’ll want to contemplate the next:

• E-mail. E-mail is likely one of the most helpful instruments for nonprofit communication and fundraising. In line with DNL OmniMedia’s e mail advertising and marketing information, e mail was chargeable for 28% of on-line fundraising in 2017. Whereas this can be a nice communication software, a few of your supporters might choose you employ extra customized strategies of communication. 
• Cellphone name. Cellphone calls are an extremely private method of speaking along with your supporters. It permits for actual one-on-one dialog that will embody fundraising, group suggestions, and extra. Make sure that while you name supporters, you might have a really particular name to motion and goal for the dialog. For instance, it’s possible you’ll ask your supporters to take part in your upcoming advocacy marketing campaign.
• Textual content message. Textual content messages have an common open price of 98%. This makes it a really efficient platform for supporters preferring its use. Nonetheless, not everybody needs their cellphone to explode with textual content messages from firms and organizations. Due to this, you’ll need to make sure that you know what supporters choose this platform earlier than utilizing it closely in your outreach technique. 
• Social media. A lot of your supporters, particularly youthful supporters, seemingly discover the vast majority of your group’s information by way of social media platforms. Those that reply positively to this communication platform will seemingly be those who you need to acknowledge on these platforms for numerous causes (peer-to-peer campaigns, notable donations, and extra). They’ll be particularly flattered by the reference. 
• Junk mail. Junk mail isn’t lifeless! A lot of your supporters might choose utilizing this platform for group updates and for fundraising. Nonetheless, unsolicited mail might get costly resulting from printing prices and stamps. By segmenting the supporters preferring this platform, it can save you cash by limiting the unsolicited mail you ship.

As we talked about earlier than, be certain to not solely talk with supporters by way of their favourite communication platform. Maintain it in thoughts as part of your nonprofit’s multi-channel fundraising technique. CharityEngine’s multi-channel fundraising information explains that this technique is used to “attain numerous segments of supporters, ideally, at a number of contact factors.” 

4. Phase supporters by contribution sort. 

Particularly within the age of COVID-19, donors could also be on the lookout for other ways to get entangled along with your group. The financial downturn has made it tough for a lot of supporters to provide philanthropically. Nonetheless, they could nonetheless need to help your group in different methods. 

Protecting monitor of the opposite methods your supporters choose to contribute to your group can assist you attain out to the very best audiences to maintain them engaged throughout this tough time. It may information the interactions you might have with supporters and, particularly, the decision to motion you embody in your advertising and marketing supplies. 

Take into account creating the next segments based mostly on the kind of contributions supporters have interaction with: 

• Occasion attendees. Attendees out of your previous occasions usually tend to be those to take part in future ones. Throughout these powerful instances, supporters might miss attending your occasions. Due to this fact, it’s an incredible alternative to ask previous attendees to a digital occasion! This information supplies superior digital occasion concepts in case you’re caught within the starting stage. Phase your occasion attendees in order that who to achieve out to with particular invites to your digital occasions this yr. 
• Advocates. Advocates contribute to your mission by reaching out to their representatives to make them conscious of your nonprofit’s mission and ask them to help your trigger in laws. Create a phase of advocates in your donor database so to attain out to them throughout your subsequent advocacy occasion or to thank them for his or her previous help as new laws is handed.
• Volunteers. Volunteers contribute time moderately than cash. Whereas lots of your volunteering alternatives could also be restricted resulting from social distancing pointers, you might have a chance to get inventive and provide you with digital volunteer alternatives reminiscent of workplace transcriptions or social media advertising and marketing. Attain out to this phase of supporters to ask them to interact with this new program.

Whereas many supporters could also be restricted of their monetary functionality of contributing to your nonprofit, keep in mind that cash isn’t the one method that they will present their help! By segmenting donors by their different most popular contribution varieties, you may present a spread of alternatives for them to get entangled so to proceed nurturing relationships.

Plus, by creating these segments, your nonprofit has the chance to point out supporters that any and all contributions are essential and valued by your nonprofit. Thank them for contributing their time and vitality simply as you’ll thank them for donations.

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Donor segmentation is a key facet of constructing relationships along with your nonprofit’s supporters. By incorporating sensible segmentation methods, your group can higher have interaction supporters and develop these relationships additional.

Visitor submit courtesy of Leigh Kessler, CharityEngine

Leigh Kessler is VP of Advertising and marketing and Communications at donor administration software program platform CharityEngine and a frequent speaker on branding, fundraising, knowledge and expertise.  He’s a former nationally touring headline comic and has appeared on quite a few TV reveals together with VH1’s “Greatest Week Ever”, CNN’s “Showbiz Tonight”, Discovery Channel & Sirius Radio.​ He has overseen and knowledgeable analysis and branding methods for a few of the most well-known manufacturers in America.