How to Analyze SMS Marketing Results: 3 Metrics to Track

Every nonprofit professional understands how important analytics are. Whether you’re tracking donor behavior, fundraising campaign success, or the effectiveness of your marketing, analyzing your nonprofit’s data is the best way to learn how well your strategies are performing and how you can improve them.

The same is true for SMS marketing. If you’re new to this marketing channel, however, you may not know what data to track or how to interpret your metrics. To help you get started, we’ve pulled three key metrics from Mogli’s SMS marketing guide to explore in this article:

  1. Click-Through Rate (CTR)
  2. Opt-Out Rate
  3. Conversion Rate

We’ll cover each of these metrics in detail and walk you through various ways your organization can leverage them. But first, let’s make sure you have the right systems in place to track this important data.

How do you track SMS marketing data?

To track performance data for your SMS marketing campaigns, you’ll need technology that can automatically record your texts’ engagement metrics and create reports that help you visualize and understand your data.

There are a few different systems you can use to track text marketing data:

  • An SMS marketing app: If you use a specialized text marketing app to send and receive messages, explore its reporting capabilities to see how easy it is to track engagement data. The best apps will integrate with your database to seamlessly track, analyze, and report on custom key performance indicators (KPIs).
  • Your constituent relationship management (CRM) software: CRMs with robust reporting capabilities can also help you track text marketing data. However, this may require purchasing an add-on product or creating a complex custom solution to meet your needs.
  • Fundraising software with marketing automation tools: Some full-suite fundraising tools include text-to-give and other text marketing features. If you use one of these tools, check to see what kind of reports it allows you to create and how simple the process is.

Whichever tool you use, make sure you can access intuitive dashboards and easily create custom reports. This way, you can choose the SMS marketing metrics you want to report on and monitor your progress at any point in time.

1. Click-Through Rate (CTR)

Once you have the infrastructure in place to track key metrics, start by evaluating your messages’ click-through rate (CTR). CTR measures the percentage of people who click through a link in a message out of everyone who receives it.

You can track the CTR of specific messages or campaigns to learn which types of messages resonate most with certain groups of supporters. To calculate a message’s CTR, use the following formula:

([Number of people who clicked a link] / [Number of people who received your text]) x 100 = CTR

For example, say that you sent a text asking supporters to learn more about a proposed immigration law as part of your nonprofit’s awareness campaign. In the message, you included a link to a blog post on your website that explains what the law is and how supporters can take action to make their voices heard by lawmakers. If you sent the text to 900 recipients and 267 of them clicked on the link, your CTR would be 29.7%.

Since the average CTR for text marketing messages is 19%, you can conclude that your message was effective in this scenario and emulate the strategies used during the rest of your campaign.

2. Opt-Out Rate

Text marketing should help you cultivate relationships and retain donors, not lose them. However, you’re bound to have some supporters that sign up for text messages only to opt out of them later. This can happen for a variety of reasons, such as:

  • A supporter received too many or too frequent messages.
  • Some donors found your message content irrelevant.
  • They prefer another communication method over text messages.
  • Your contact information was outdated and you sent a message to the wrong number.

You can determine if specific aspects of your strategy are causing recipients to opt out by calculating your opt-out rate, which is the percentage of text message recipients who opt out of receiving future messages.

Monitor your opt-out rates and investigate further if you see any spikes in the number of contacts who opt out. Was there a specific message that may have caused it? Are contacts in a certain segment opting out at higher rates?

For instance, Double the Donation’s recurring giving guide explains that different demographic segments often prefer different communication methods. If you see that the opt-out rate for your segment of Gen X monthly donors is higher than normal, you might determine that you need to shift your monthly giving text strategy to focus on younger donors.

3. Conversion Rate

Finally, the most important metric to analyze, especially when it comes to SMS fundraising campaigns, is your message conversion rate. Conversion rate measures the percentage of text recipients who take a desired action out of everyone who received the message.

What your nonprofit classifies as a conversion will vary depending on the goal of the message and what you explicitly ask recipients to do. Commonly, nonprofits might consider conversions to be actions such as:

  • Making a donation.
  • Taking a text survey.
  • Registering for an in-person or virtual event.
  • Signing up to volunteer.
  • Sharing a post on social media.
  • Signing a petition.

To calculate the conversion rate for a particular text message or SMS campaign, you first need to determine what qualifies as a conversion. Then, use this formula:

([Number of conversions] / [Total number of text messages sent]) x 100 = Conversion Rate

Use your text marketing app or your CRM’s SMS features to set up and track conversion actions. Then, determine which messages and campaigns generate the most conversions, and explore the content of those messages to find out why they were so effective. You might find that more personalized messages lead to more conversions, for instance, or that texts about a specific aspect of your cause inspire more donations than others.

With the insights you gain from these metrics, you can refine your SMS marketing strategy based on the tactics that work best for your unique support base. It won’t be a one-and-done endeavor, though—make sure to monitor your KPIs consistently and revisit them often to keep improving your approach.

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3 Marketing Moves to Strengthen Your Membership Recruitment

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Your membership-based organization likely leverages tools like email and social media to market your initiatives and promote your mission. While effective, these marketing strategies are standard and your supporters probably expect them.

Diversifying your marketing strategies can help you reach new audiences, track helpful metrics, and engage your current membership community. Consider elevating your marketing approach past traditional strategies like membership mailers with these savvy strategies:

Before we dive into these tactics, let’s review what sets membership marketing apart from other types of campaigns. Consider your membership-based organization’s current marketing strategies and if any of these would particularly resonate with your target audience.

Membership Marketing Nuances

As a membership-based organization, you have many unique assets that can enhance your marketing efforts compared to other types of nonprofits, including your:

  • Existing membership networks. Your loyal members are committed to the organization and provide access to a valuable network of potential marketers on your behalf. With the right training and materials, you can equip them to become examples of social proof for your membership program.
  • Value proposition. From the enormous networking potential your organization offers to the specialized educational enrichment resources, you have plenty of appealing membership benefits to share in your marketing messages.
  • Core message of belonging. Your membership program is more than a ticket to conferences and industry events — it’s a tight-knit community that can lead to friendships outside of the workplace as well. Offering a built-in community aspect to your potential members offers them a place where they can make friends for life.

Ultimately, the most valuable asset your organization should leverage is your distinct achievements and values. For instance, if your union wanted to attract new members, you could demonstrate your impressive community track record using a member-facing tech-stack to highlight how your member dues fuel your mission.

3 Marketing Moves for Membership-Based Organizations

 

1. Google Ad Grants

As the host of billions of searches each day, Google’s results page is a valuable marketing channel for your membership program. However, it can be challenging to occupy the most visible spots at the top of the results page without paying for expensive ad promotion.

However, for nonprofits with a recognized charitable status, you can apply for the Google Ad Grant, which gives you $10,000 worth of free advertising space at the top of the search engine results page.

Plus, it’s easy for qualified nonprofits to apply. First, check Google’s eligibility requirements to ensure that your organization qualifies.

Getting Attention’s guide to Google Ad Grants’ flowchart explains the next steps to take:

A flowchart that explains the Google Ad Grant application process (as explained below).

  • Do you have a Google for Nonprofits account? If not, sign up for the program.
  • Next, ensure that Google Analytics is installed on your website.

After this process, you can start planning and executing your Google Ad Grants campaigns. If you need help making the most of your grant, consider working with a Google Ad Grants agency to research, launch, and monitor winning campaigns.

2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Even without the Google Ad Grant, you can boost traffic to your membership organization’s website for free by aligning your website with Google’s algorithmic preferences. These practices, also known as SEO, are easy to implement if you use a configurable content management system (CMS) to manage your website content. Here are some easy SEO fixes to start with:

  • Identify relevant keywords. Keywords are terms that users type into the search bar to answer their query. Integrate relevant keywords into your website content so interested audiences can find your organization easily. For instance, a nurse’s union might use keywords like “nurses union,” “union for nurses,” or location-based phrases to attract local audiences.
  • Conduct a user experience and accessibility audit. User experience gauges how easy your website is for visitors to access and navigate. Audit your website to ensure your navigation, content layout, and links all function correctly. Also, make sure your site’s elements are accessible to everyone by adding alt text to images, adjusting color contrast, and screen reader compatibility.
  • Create quality content. If your organization has a blog, you can leverage it as an SEO tool. Search engines prioritize human-first content, and you can satisfy this requirement by writing high-quality, keyword-optimized, educational blog content. Plus, blog posts give you something to link out to in your social media posts.

As you scale your SEO efforts over time, track important performance metrics like bounce rate and site traffic to gauge your performance. Also, monitor your main keywords to see if your membership landing pages move up the results page ranks.

3. Member Referral Programs

As previously mentioned, one of your organization’s greatest assets is your existing member community. You can leverage your community’s connections to market your membership offerings by running member referral programs. Here’s how to launch a program: work:

  • Define the program’s guidelines. In this stage, decide what your organization’s referral program will look like. You should determine elements like how members will track referrals, which incentives you’ll offer, and how you’ll gauge success.
  • Market the program. Spread the word to your membership community by sending emails, hosting information sessions, and mentioning it in membership meetings. Wait a few weeks for word to spread and questions to be answered before officially starting the program.
  • Train your members. Once you’ve collected contact information from interested participants, host training sessions with advice and resources so your members can become experts in your organization’s offerings. For instance, a union member referral program’s training sessions might include training on how to use union membership management tools.
  • Track referrals. Provide a digital space where members can track their successful referrals so no information slips through the cracks. Also, add a question to your membership onboarding survey that asks if they got a referral from a current member, and if so, what their name is.
  • Disperse rewards. Regularly check your tracking mechanism to disperse rewards promptly once your members qualify. For instance, one of your rewards might be a free month of membership dues for five new members signed up.

Evaluate the program’s performance by calculating how many new members were recruited through the program over time. Also, show your appreciation to participating members and collect their feedback so they’re encouraged to continue recruiting.

As you get comfortable managing your new marketing programs, consider how you can implement multichannel strategies to make your marketing messages visible, appealing, and member-centric.

Ultimately, as long as you put your membership organization’s value proposition at the center of your marketing efforts, you’ll attract a crowd that cares about your mission and can benefit from your offerings.

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3 Tips to Make Interactive Experiences with Nonprofit Cloud

Interactive experiences help nonprofits engage with supporters on a deeper level. These experiences encourage supporters to interact with your nonprofit actively rather than passively. For example, social media posts facilitate two-way communication between nonprofits and donors by allowing users to like or comment on posts.

With its robust capabilities and the ability to access tools housed in other Industry Clouds, Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud helps nonprofits build interactive experiences that appeal to each supporter’s preferences. Over time, this improves donor engagement, retention, and fundraising results.

In this guide, we’ll cover some ways nonprofits can use Nonprofit Cloud to craft engaging experiences and tips for getting started. Let’s begin.

How can nonprofits create interactive experiences?

As Fíonta’s guide to Nonprofit Cloud explains, “Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud is a comprehensive solution built on the Salesforce platform and designed to support nonprofit use cases.” The solution offers customizable applications for various nonprofit activities, such as case management and fundraising.

Nonprofit Cloud includes solutions unique to its data model and access to tools outside of the data model, such as Experience Cloud for Nonprofits. Users also have access to Salesforce Common Components like OmniStudio and Action Plans. Here are some ways to set up interactive experiences using these features:

  • Salesforce Experience Cloud: Experience Cloud is a set of functionalities built on the Salesforce CRM that allows nonprofits to create online experiences. Set up community self-service forums that encourage users to interact and answer questions. If your organization has a membership program, create account portals where members can log in and complete self-service tasks like adjusting giving levels. Experience Cloud flows all supporter data into your CRM, allowing you to use insights to further engagement and personalization.
  • OmniStudio: OmniStudio is a digital engagement suite and automation tool. It makes it easy for nonprofits to create guided experiences for supporters and beneficiaries through drag-and-drop configuration capabilities, eliminating the need for custom code. For example, create an OmniScript to guide supporters through complex processes like volunteer onboarding. This makes interacting with the organization more straightforward and user-friendly, resulting in more positive donor experiences.
  • Actionable Relationship Center (ARC): This tool is similar to the Relationship Viewer in the Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) and helps organizations understand relationships between supporters, partners, and other contacts. However, ARC offers more opportunities to customize the interface and allows you to display relationships graphically to gain insights at a glance. Leverage this supporter data to identify engagement opportunities, track the success of engagement tactics, and continuously improve your efforts.

Nonprofit Cloud empowers organizations to leverage other Salesforce tools with personalization features, such as Marketing Cloud Account Engagement. For example, your nonprofit can use the dynamic content tool to deliver targeted content to supporters. Populate emails and webpages with dynamic content based on criteria like the user’s preferences and past interactions with content.

What are some tips for creating interactive experiences?

Track data insights.

Before setting up any dynamic content blocks or creating an online community forum, it’s essential to understand your audience. Collect data and analyze insights about your donors to uncover which messages and experiences resonate with them. Your analysis may include referencing their engagement history, interests, and giving behaviors.

With this information, your nonprofit can create guided experiences with which supporters want to interact. Track and analyze supporter data in Salesforce by:

  • Integrating your technology. Unify your nonprofit’s technology toolkit to engage and interact with supporters with your CRM. Start with your website by setting up a Salesforce website integration using integration tools or getting help from a developer or technology consultant. Next, ensure any other tools you use are integrated with the CRM using pre-built integrations, middleware platforms, or custom configurations to connect these systems.
  • Leveraging the life events and milestone trackers. These tools allow nonprofits to visualize their supporters’ journeys with the organization,  including life events, interactions with your staff, event attendance, and engagement with marketing messages. View this journey in an easy-to-understand visual format.
  • Using AI tools. Einstein for Nonprofits is a Salesforce app that generates predictive insights and metrics by modeling actual data from your organization. The app trains the system based on your supporters’ past behaviors, using this information to predict donor behavior (e.g., the likelihood of a supporter becoming a recurring donor). Depending on predicted donor behaviors, these insights can help your nonprofit prioritize specific engagement opportunities over others.

These practices and capabilities help give your nonprofit a holistic view of its constituents, opening the door for increased personalization. This way, donors will enjoy and engage with your carefully crafted interactive experiences.

Prioritize personalization in every area.

Nonprofit interactive experiences with donors must be personalized to be effective. One way to convince donors to interact with your nonprofit is to appeal to their personal interests and motivations.

These examples show how personalization can impact donor experiences:

  • Send targeted marketing messages, such as invitations to interactive events related to the donor’s interests.
  • Customize appeals and calls to action. If a donor is already subscribed to your newsletter, ask them to deepen their engagement by taking a different action (e.g., becoming a volunteer).
  • If your website has a membership portal, serve members customized landing pages to create immersive experiences that encourage members to explore and interact with the website.

Appealing to donors’ interests and motivations can help them feel personally invested in your organization’s community. Carry this approach to your donor recognition efforts to further steward your supporters.

Solicit feedback.

In addition to tracking data insights, hearing directly from your supporters can help you make your interactive experiences more engaging and effective. Accepting and implementing feedback from supporters will deepen your relationships and boost retention rates over time.

Consider sharing surveys with your supporters that ask them to provide feedback about their experiences with your nonprofit. Pose questions such as:

  • How would you rate your experiences with our nonprofit?
  • Which interactions did you find most engaging and memorable?
  • Did these interactions meet your expectations for usability and functionality?
  • Did these interactions inspire you to take action on behalf of our nonprofit (e.g., donating, volunteering, etc.)?
  • Do you have any suggestions for improving these experiences?

To gather more specific insights from various segments of your audience, consider creating a dynamic assessment in Nonprofit Cloud. This tool allows you to create a guided questionnaire that tailors questions to the user’s answers. For example, suppose a donor indicates they have only interacted with your nonprofit once. In that case, this user will be served a different set of questions than if that individual has interacted with your organization several times.

Use Nonprofit Cloud to facilitate two-way interactions between your nonprofit and its supporters. This engages supporters more deeply with your communications and mission by encouraging them to get involved. These experiences connect donors to your cause, inspire more donations, and improve retention.

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Wealth Screening in Higher Education Fundraising: 6 Tips

Donor outreach can be expensive for nonprofits and higher education institutions. Consider the process of collecting ten gifts of $100 each versus one gift of $1,000. While you’ll end up with the same amount in the end, it ultimately takes more time, energy, and funds to successfully solicit smaller gifts from ten individual donors as opposed to just one larger gift.

This scenario illustrates the power of major gifts. When your school has a dedicated approach to finding and engaging major donors, you can earn more for your cause and maximize the use of your limited resources. As a result, you’ll be better equipped to fulfill your mission and provide an enriching college experience for your students.

AlumniFinder explains that wealth screening identifies prospective donors’ capacity to give so you can target potential major donors with your outreach. Wealth screening providers assess prospects’ business affiliations, stock ownership, and home value to help organizations narrow in on the most promising prospective major donors. In this article, we’ll provide six tips so you can take full advantage of this information, pushing your wealth screening approach to the next level.Six tips for wealth screening in higher education fundraising, as discussed throughout the article.

1. Define your goals.

It’s helpful to define your goals from the start to provide focus to your wealth screening and major donor fundraising efforts. When you go to your wealth screening partner with clear objectives, you can expedite the process and determine which data points to prioritize.

For instance, you may use the data from your wealth screening to:

  • Identify new major gift prospects
  • Retain current major donors
  • Engage churned major donors
  • Enhance your major donor stewardship efforts

While all of these objectives relate to major donors, their differences will impact how you collect and leverage prospect data. For example, if you’re trying to retain current major donors, you may look for any changes in stock ownership that could indicate an increase in giving capacity. On the other hand, new prospect identification may focus on finding out background information about donors’ careers and employers.

2. Prepare your data.

Before you get started with wealth screening, make sure the data you currently have about your supporters is organized and complete. When you go into your wealth screening with the most accurate, precise data possible, you’ll get better, more actionable results.

Follow these steps to prepare your data for wealth screening:

  • Audit your data. Comb through your database or constituent relationship management platform (CRM). Identify any problem areas or missing information.
  • Resolve inaccuracies. After you’ve reviewed your data, resolve any inaccuracies you’ve found. This step may include merging duplicate data, deleting records for deceased supporters, or removing incorrect information.
  • Develop data hygiene procedures. To assist with future wealth screenings, create rules that keep your data clean and organized. For instance, you may instruct your team to enter phone numbers using parentheses like (123) 456-7890 to ensure consistent and accurate future records.

By prioritizing data hygiene, which is defined as the process of keeping your data clean and error-free, you’ll not only improve the results of your wealth screening but also make it easier for your team to effectively leverage data for additional fundraising and marketing efforts.

3. Conduct a data append.

Through your data preparation, you may notice you’re missing key information that would help you reach and engage major donors. A data append can enhance your donor records with information from third-party sources and round out your database.

The types of data you may append include:

  • Demographics
  • Email addresses
  • Phone numbers
  • Mailing addresses

Once your wealth screening is complete, your institution can use this information to reach out to prospects with donation requests through a variety of channels. For instance, you may use prospect email addresses to conduct an email marketing campaign that asks supporters to help fund a new building on campus. Alternatively, you may leverage mailing addresses to reengage lapsed major donors with a personalized direct mail campaign.

4. Segment your supporters.

Another step you can take toward streamlining the wealth screening process is segmenting your supporters ahead of time using any existing wealth or giving capacity information. This data can offer more context for your wealth screening partner and allow you to prioritize researching donors with the highest major gift potential.

You can also segment your supporters by other factors that will personalize your future outreach. For example, if some alumni are interested in funding the university’s sports teams while other supporters would rather provide scholarships to students in need, you can provide tailored donation opportunities and communications based on these preferences.

5. Offer multiple ways to give.

Once you’ve thoroughly researched your prospects, it’s time to start making donation requests. While you may be tempted to simply lead supporters to your donation page, there are so many different ways donors can contribute to your cause.

For example, Double the Donation explains that donor-advised funds (DAFs) are becoming increasingly popular, with donors contributing $52.16 billion through DAF grants last year. This fundraising method enables donors to make grants to their favorite causes over time through specialized financial accounts. DAF fundraising represents just one unique opportunity for major donors to lend their support.

Other major donor giving methods may include:

  • Endowment contributions
  • Planned giving
  • Pledges
  • Matching gifts
  • In-kind donations

When you offer a variety of giving options, you increase the chances prospects will contribute. Additionally, experimenting with different donation avenues allows you to determine which are most popular amongst your supporters and focus on growing them further.

6. Thank donors for their support.

The major donor process doesn’t end when you successfully convert a prospect and receive their contribution. Use the data from your database and wealth screening to properly thank donors for their support:

  • Be specific. Personalize your donor appreciation by addressing donors by name and referencing their specific donation amount. Let them know which projects or initiatives you’re using their funds for to increase accountability and demonstrate their individual impact.
  • Invite them to engage in other ways. Some of your major donors may already have ties to your school or indicate that they’d like to become more involved. Invite them to engage with your organization in ways that extend beyond monetary contributions. For instance, you may recognize alumni donors with a special appreciation event or invite major donors to join your board.
  • Keep their communication preferences in mind. Respect your supporters’ communication preferences and use the channels they’re most likely to respond to. For example, your wealth screening partner may find that some of your prospects are on “Do Not Call” lists. While some major donors may be touched by a phone call thanking them for their contributions, make sure to avoid making phone calls to those on “Do Not Call” lists.

Thanking your donors is a necessary step in the donor stewardship process. Showing genuine appreciation will demonstrate to your major donors that their contributions have a real impact on your institution and help you build lasting relationships with them.

Major gifts have the power to propel large projects and initiatives forward and help your students have the best college experience possible. With these tips, you can maximize the data you obtain from your wealth screening, increase your donation revenue, and give back to your campus community.

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Harnessing Email Marketing for Nonprofit Fundraising Success

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Email is a powerful tool for nonprofits of all types and sizes. Whether you’re promoting a fundraising event, trying to boost traffic to your online donation page, or sharing information about your cause, email marketing is a great way to spread your message. There’s a tangible ROI for fundraising via email—
according to Double the Donation, for every 1,000 fundraising emails sent, nonprofits raised an average of $90.

If you’re not effectively harnessing the power of email marketing or are looking for ways to improve your email campaigns, this post will help you hone your email marketing plan with five fundamentals: audience targeting, subject line optimization, personalization, and storytelling.

Audience Targeting

Segmenting your audience is key to reaching the right people with messaging that resonates and compels them to take action. Segmentation is the process of grouping your audience based on shared characteristics. There are several ways to approach segmentation, but some common segments include basic demographics (age, location, gender), plus individual donors’ giving history, participation in events, volunteer engagement, or favorite outreach campaigns.

While it might sound tricky, segmenting your audience for targeted email marketing is a crucial part of database management. Here are some ways to improve your audience segmentation:

  • Collect donor information. Don’t stress if you don’t have this information readily available. Now’s the time to start and you’ll be better prepared for future campaigns. Survey your audience to collect basic demographics and dive into your database to pull data points that relate to their history with your nonprofit.
  • Leverage digital marketing tools. There are a ton of choices available for nonprofit marketing tools. For instance, you might use an event management tool specific to a fundraising event. Use this to collect pertinent information for integration into your CRM. Nonprofits can often utilize these tools and no or reduced cost.
  • Review previous segments. If you’ve done segmentation in the past, it’s a good idea to periodically review your processes and individual segments to ensure you’re getting the information you need and that it’s accurate. You might also dive into past campaigns for each segment to see what’s worked and where you can improve.
  • Monitor engagement metrics. After you send an email campaign to specific segments, keep an eye on metrics such as open and click-through rates to see how folks are responding. Your email marketing tool might also be able to help you identify promising new segments within your broader audience.
  • Use A/B testing. Try different messaging within your audience segments. For example, split your past gala participants into two groups and use different calls-to-action in each email to see what resonates.

Once you’ve identified your core audience segments, document them in your nonprofit’s overall marketing plan so they can be effectively leveraged down the road in future campaigns.

Subject Line Optimization

How often have marketing emails landed in your inbox, only for you to ignore them because the subject line wasn’t compelling or interesting enough? Engaging subject lines have a major impact on open rates, and subsequently, engagement with your nonprofit. Subject lines are the first opportunity you have to make an impression on the reader, so it’s important to get them right.

Try these strategies to make your subject lines irresistible:

  • Use relevant and appropriate emojis. Sending an email about a dog adoption event? Drop the dog emoji in the subject line. Inviting people to your annual golf fundraiser? Use the golfer emoji. Emojis are fun and engaging and often prompt people to click.
  • Use active language and verbs. You want the reader to act, so your subject line should compel them to do so. Words like help, act, and give are great to include, as well as verbs that relate to your cause, like feed, clothe, protect, and rescue.
  • Create a sense of urgency. Like with active language, your subject line should encourage folks to do something
    right now. Words or phrases that imply a time limitation or that people are missing out on something are good examples, such as donate now, feed 10 kids today, don’t wait, and time is running out.
  • Make it personal. Use merge tags to pull personal information into subject lines to draw readers in, like “[First Name], we need your help” or “A special offer for you, [First Name].
  • Mention impact data. Numbers are attention-grabbing. Drop some data in your subject lines and watch your open rates climb. For example, you could mention the number of constituents you’ve served, data from a survey, or how much you need to reach your fundraising goal.

Above all, subject lines should accurately reflect the purpose of the email and entice them to participate. For example, let’s say you’re adding a new fundraising idea, like a hole-in-one contest, to your annual charity golf tournament. Use the real estate in your subject line to mention the contest’s prize to grab your audience’s attention.

Personalization

We’ve talked about how segmentation is the driver for you to be able to personalize messaging, but how you use that personalization in the email’s content is also important. Once you have your segments in place, it’s time to incorporate details about those segments into the email copy. Some information you can integrate could include:

  • Previous amount giving to a past or similar campaign
  • The outcomes of their donation
  • How they can grow their impact in a new campaign that’s targeted to their interests

For example, let’s say you’re hosting a charity golf tournament to raise money for your organization’s mission to build homes for underprivileged families. Your audience’s occupation segments might include homebuilders or realtors, so your personalized content could focus on the need for affordable housing in your community.

Storytelling

Everyone loves stories. It’s how nonprofits can authentically connect with donors and supporters. And while it might seem challenging to tell a nonprofit story through a medium such as email, there are many strategies you can employ to make it impactful, such as:

  • Using photos and videos that feature beneficiaries
  • Focusing on a single beneficiary and telling their story in detail
  • Highlighting your nonprofit’s impact and transformation with tangible facts and data
  • Give your email a narrative structure that has a beginning, middle, and end
  • Includes clickable call to action buttons and banners

The most important thing to keep in mind is to let the human aspect of your cause shine in your email. Don’t focus on hitting your fundraising goals in a vacuum—instead, contextualize your fundraising asks with the emotions of your beneficiaries to show that your cause and their donations impact real people.

Suppose you’re collaborating with a business as a sponsor for a specific fundraising event, campaign, or matching donation. GolfStatus suggests including them in promotional materials to maximize exposure to their target audience. You might consider sending a specific email that tells the story of the impact the sponsor has had on your mission or specific beneficiaries.

Wrapping Up

Email is one of the most heavily used digital marketing tools for a reason—it’s effective. These marketing strategies will help give dimension to your cause and solicit emotional responses from your audience—all through a screen.

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How to Write An Attention-Grabbing Job Posting: 10 Tips

Attracting top talent to your organization requires more than publishing a job description on a job board. A job description is used as an internal document outlining the specific duties, requirements, and qualifications for a role, while a job posting is a marketing tool.

A job posting serves as your first point of contact with potential candidates, making it crucial to grab their attention from the outset. To achieve this, it’s essential that your job posting aligns with your internal job description but also presents your organization in a way that is candid and compelling.

Let’s take a look at 10 tips you can use to create winning job postings.

10 Tips to Help Your Job Postings Stand Out

List of tips to help your organization’s job postings stand out (detailed in the text below)

  1. Start with a captivating headline. The headline is the first thing potential candidates see, so make it count. Instead of a generic title like “Website Developer Wanted,” opt for something more engaging and descriptive like “Innovative Website Developer Wanted to Revolutionize Web Page User Experience.”
  2. Highlight your organization’s unique selling points. Begin your job posting with a brief overview of your organization’s mission, culture, and values. This helps candidates understand what sets your organization apart and why they should be excited about the opportunity to work with you.
  3. Focus on the candidate’s needs and benefits. While it’s essential to outline the responsibilities of the role, don’t forget to emphasize what’s in it for the candidate. Highlight perks, incentives, benefits, growth opportunities, and any unique selling points that make your organization an attractive place to work.
  4. Use clear and concise language. Avoid jargon and overly complex language that might alienate potential candidates. Keep your writing clear, concise, and easy to understand, ensuring that every word serves a purpose.
  5. Inject personality and authenticity. Your job posting should reflect your organization’s personality and culture. Use a conversational tone in your writing to make it more engaging and authentic and don’t be afraid to showcase your organization’s unique voice.
  6. Provide specific details. Be specific about the qualifications, skills, and experience required for the role. Avoid vague language like “strong communication skills” and instead provide examples of what this entails, such as “experience creating tailored donor outreach cadences that boost retention.”
  7. Highlight opportunities for growth and development. Talented candidates are often looking for opportunities to grow and advance in their careers. Highlight any training programs, mentorship opportunities, or potential career paths within your organization to attract ambitious individuals.
  8. Optimize for search engines. Make sure your job posting is optimized for search engines by including relevant keywords related to the role and industry. This will increase the visibility of your posting and attract more qualified candidates.
  9. Include a call-to-action. Encourage interested candidates to respond by including a clear call-to-action at the end of your job posting, similar to a call-to-action you might issue to your supporters to donate. Whether it’s inviting them to apply online, attend a recruitment event, or contact you directly, it makes it easy for them to take the next step.
  10. Proofread and edit carefully. Before publishing your job posting, take the time to proofread and edit it carefully. Typos and grammatical errors can detract from your credibility and professionalism, so ensure your writing is polished and error-free.

Wrapping Up

Writing attention-grabbing job postings is a crucial part of the recruitment process. By treating your job posting as a marketing tool and aligning it with your internal job description, you can attract top talent to your organization and stand out from the competition. Follow these 10 tips to craft job postings that engage, excite, and ultimately attract the best candidates for your team.

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4 Donor Retention Strategies to Build Deeper Connections

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A regular flow of revenue can help your organization deepen its impact and advance its mission. However, between donor acquisition and retention, your nonprofit has multiple options to bring in more donations for your mission. So, how do you know what to focus on? 

While acquiring new donors is an important part of any fundraising strategy, investing the bulk of your time, energy, and resources into retention can make a huge difference. A strong donor stewardship strategy can help you turn casual supporters into loyal donors, eager to give larger and more frequent gifts over time.

If you’re like most nonprofits, your organization’s retention rate likely sits at around 40%. To grow your retention rate and boost your donors’ connection to your nonprofit, use these tried and true best practices:

With a high donor retention rate, your nonprofit won’t have to stress about constantly finding new donors whenever you launch a new campaign. Let’s dive into how you can experience financial stability and secure a bright future for your mission.

Leverage sustainer tools

To grow your donor retention rate, you need to successfully prompt donors to give again. However, simply communicating a vague “Please donate again!” message is ineffective and likely to be skipped as donors scan their dozens of daily emails or texts. Instead, you need to craft highly personalized solicitations and reach donors at the right time with the right messaging.

Jackson River recommends leveraging a fundraising platform with automated sustainer tools to deliver personalized messages that resonate with donors and inspire action. Let’s take a closer look at the sustainer features you should add to your fundraising toolkit:

  • Sustainer upsells: Convert one-time donors to monthly donors as part of the donation process, increasing their involvement in your mission and earning your organization more revenue over time.
  • Sustainer upgrades: Suggest a predefined upgrade amount for existing sustainers that they can accept with one click.
  • Native integration with a top CRM like Salesforce: Reduce your administrative burden and use donor data insights to automatically power highly relevant donation appeals that prompt increases in giving amount and frequency. A fundraising solution with Salesforce donation processing empowers your nonprofit to spend less time chasing after donors to give and more time to focus on what matters: setting the building blocks for strong relationships.

Individually reaching out to all of your supporters to give can be taxing, inefficient, and, depending on your nonprofit’s size, nearly impossible. The right technology will empower your nonprofit to send tailored solicitations when your donors are most likely to act on them, making it simple to grow your recurring giving program over time.

Create donor stewardship activities

Aly Sterling Philanthropy defines donor stewardship as strategic efforts designed to deepen relationships with supporters over time through systematic outreach. To successfully steward donors to the next giving level, you need a variety of donor engagement tactics that connect supporters emotionally to your mission.

Some donor stewardship activities include offering:

  • A tour of your facilities
  • A one-on-one meeting with leadership
  • An exclusive donor club, with accompanying events
  • An invite to an educational luncheon or dinner
  • A day-in-the-life experience shadowing a staff or volunteer
  • Surveys to voice suggestions for improvements

As you get to know your donors, you can create donor stewardship activities that align with their interests and are likely to excite them. For example, let’s say you’re a marine conservation organization and a first-time donor has expressed interest in your sea turtle rehabilitation program. Invite that donor to watch your next release of rehabilitated turtles back into the wild. This way, they can see how their donation is truly making an impact!

Plan peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns

Peer-to-peer fundraising motivates supporters to take on a more involved role in your mission, empowering them to raise funds for your cause. As a result, they’ll feel more connected to your organization. Once you’ve recruited peer-to-peer fundraisers, equip them with all the tools and best practices they’ll need to hit the ground running.

To smoothly manage your peer-to-peer fundraising and make it simple for supporters to get involved, look for a fundraising platform that offers these key capabilities:

  • Website builder: Easily create a visually appealing and user-friendly campaign page that inspires donations.
  • Personalized peer-to-peer fundraising pages: Allow supporters to generate their individual fundraising pages and add personal touches like pictures and the story behind why they’re supporting your mission.
  • Embedded donation forms: Rather than directing donors to another giving page and potentially losing them in the process, embed a donation form right into your campaign page and your supporters’ fundraising pages.
  • Automated emails: Send off highly engaging emails that motivate your peer-to-peer volunteers and prompt giving among your supporters. Acknowledge important milestones, like hitting the halfway point on their personal goals, to support your recognition efforts.
  • Text engagement: Reach your team of volunteers more directly and create segments so you can send donation requests to all types of donors.
  • Social media integrations: Share your fundraising pages widely on social media to amplify your reach.
  • Digital advocacy tools: Spread petitions, raise awareness of the problem your nonprofit seeks to address, and effectively boost revenue with built-in advocacy features.

A fundraising application with a seamless CRM integration like Salesforce will also enable you to track supporters’ peer-to-peer activity. For instance, if supporters haven’t had any activity on their peer-to-peer campaigns in a month, your nonprofit should be able to send an automated email series to reengage peer-to-peer fundraisers in the action.

Backed by a Salesforce donation application, you’ll be in great shape to inspire deeper relationships, grow your donor networks, and set up a predictable donation pipeline.

Express donor appreciation

Donor appreciation helps supporters feel valued and recognized by your organization. As soon as supporters give, send them an automated thank-you note that explains the impact of their gift. Be sure to include a personalized greeting and offer opportunities for your donors to engage more deeply with your mission, such as volunteering at your next event.

Along with sending a thank-you note, you should practice donor appreciation in a variety of ways to strengthen your supporter relationships. For example, you might:

 

This chart depicts six ways that you can show appreciation to your donors, repeated below.

  • Create a donor recognition wall
  • Spotlight supporters in your email newsletter
  • Offer branded gifts
  • Shout-out supporters on social media
  • Send customized eCards on birthdays
  • Host a donor appreciation event, such as a luncheon

Donors might like to be thanked in different ways, so consider surveying your supporters to learn their preferences. For instance, some supporters might prefer a public shoutout, while others would rather be thanked in private. A strong donor retention strategy is rooted in consistent and meaningful donor appreciation, so be sure to constantly highlight your gratitude for donors’ support.

Wrapping Up

With a high donor retention rate, your nonprofit will have a reliable pipeline of donors who are eager to champion your cause and push forward your goals year-round. To achieve this, leverage a fundraising solution with powerful tools to automate donation requests, streamline the peer-to-peer fundraising process, and support your overarching strategic plan.

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Nonprofit Landing Pages: How to Turn Visitors into Donors

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Picture this: you’re a frequent nonprofit supporter who found a new organization that aligns with your values and you want to donate. You visit its website, only to be met by a barrage of poorly organized information and landing page links crammed onto one page. You get frustrated trying to find what you’re looking for, so you click off the website and find another nonprofit to support instead.

Fortunately, your nonprofit can easily avoid this outcome and secure support by prioritizing web design best practices when creating landing pages. Use these tips to optimize your landing pages for online fundraising and user experience:

As we explore these essentials, consider your nonprofit’s current web design approach and digital strategy, as well as your bandwidth for implementing these improvements. Let’s dive in! 

1. Tell a dynamic story

Telling your organization’s story compellingly and emotionally can seem difficult through a screen. However, by leveraging online tools, you can actually tell your story more vividly than you can from just a face-to-face interaction. 

Evaluate how you’re currently telling your story on your “About Us” page, then try these strategies to add dimension:

  • Incorporate photos and videos. A picture really is worth a thousand words if you use branded multimedia elements to tell your nonprofit’s story. For example, let’s say you represent a food kitchen. Instead of writing a long paragraph explaining your mission of providing meals to hungry families, include a video of one of your beneficiaries describing what life is like in a food desert. 
  • Use interactive graphics. Clarify and highlight key events in your history with interactive graphics, such as timelines and maps. Continuing with the food kitchen example, you could highlight the different communities you’ve been able to serve and how your influence has grown over time.
  • Embed a real-time impact tracker and calendar. Remember that your story is still unfolding, and you can convince potential donors to be a part of it by keeping them updated on your mission’s progress. For instance, you could showcase the number of meals your food kitchen is currently serving and have the tracker automatically update every day or week. Or, you could embed your event calendar into the page so audience members can see that you’re ramping up volunteer opportunities, for example, which is a sign of growth. 

Whichever strategies you choose to tell your story on your website, ensure that your nonprofit’s branding stays consistent so your audience can form a unique connection with you. This includes visual elements, like your logo, and abstract elements, like your tone of voice. Use this sample brand guide for a fictional nonprofit from Fifty & Fifty’s guide to nonprofit branding to inspire your own branding journey:

A sample brand guide that includes these sections: color palette, logos, mission statement, typography, and tone of voice

2. Use a CMS made for nonprofits

As a nonprofit professional, you’re likely more focused on your mission than on learning the ins and outs of web design. That’s why it’s so important to find a content management system (CMS) or web builder that’s custom-built for nonprofits like yours. 

There are several options available, but Nonprofits Source’s guide to web design suggests looking for a solution with these top features:

  • Intuitive interface. Your landing page builder should be accessible to everyone on your team, even those with limited technical expertise. Some user-friendly features to look for include drag-and-drop editors and customizable templates that simplify the page design and layout experience.
  • Integration with other digital tools. Whether it’s a payment processor, a digital marketing plugin, or an event registration system, your CMS should be able to integrate with your other software solutions to provide a streamlined experience for both admins and site visitors. 
  • Brand customization. As previously mentioned, your brand is everything when cultivating a community of supporters. Ensure that your CMS can implement your nonprofit’s logo, color scheme, and other visual assets so you can claim your landing pages as your own. 
  • Accessibility tools. Make your landing pages accessible to anyone who comes across your nonprofit’s website for maximum exposure. Your CMS should be able to add alt text to images, offer keyboard navigation, and support screen readers. This ensures that people of all backgrounds and abilities can navigate and make use of your website pages.
  • Search engine optimization (SEO) features. Publishing your landing pages is just the first step to securing supporters online. SEO can help you reach people who are more likely to convert (your target audience) by incorporating keywords that are relevant to your cause. Then, search engines will serve your landing pages to users looking for similar information. Web builders that come with SEO tools built-in are ideal for accessing your target audience.  


Choosing a CMS is an important decision, so ensure that you lay out your needs ahead of time, research your options carefully, and leverage free trials and consultations with providers so you find the best fit. 

3. Establish trust with the audience 

Just as with other forms of nonprofit marketing, it’s crucial to leverage your landing pages to build trust with potential supporters. To bolster your brand’s credibility with your landing pages, you might:

  • Include impact metrics. Ultimately, your donors need to know that your nonprofit will use their gifts to make a real difference. Convince them of your skills by highlighting impressive impact metrics. For example, you could embed calls-to-action that prompt site visitors to read your annual report with eye-catching statistics. Emphasizing your impact metrics across all landing pages establishes a trusting and transparent relationship with site visitors.
  • Use social proof. Your site’s visitors will be more likely to trust your organization if people they care about or even relate to endorse you. You can leverage this phenomenon (known as social proof) by integrating positive testimonials from donors, beneficiaries, and other stakeholders. You could also shout out inspiring supporters on social media and integrate the post into your landing pages with plugins.

As you design your landing pages, leverage any opportunity to establish your positive reputation. After all, landing pages are highly visible, making them a great addition to your nonprofit marketing plan. 

Your nonprofit’s landing pages (especially your donation page) are critical parts of your fundraising and donor cultivation strategies. By carefully designing and leveraging their unique qualities, you can transform casual site visitors into passionate supporters. 

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Following Up With Donors After a Product Fundraiser: 5 Tips

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Picture this: you’ve just hosted a successful cookie dough fundraiser. Throughout the campaign, you sold delicious treats and watched families come together to bake cookies in support of your cause.

When the campaign ends, you wonder how you can keep the momentum and magic of your product fundraiser alive once the campaign is over. With proper follow-up and donor stewardship, however, you can sustain the relationships you’ve created and encourage long-lasting support.

Whether you’ve hosted tons of fundraisers or just wrapped up your first-ever campaign, these five tips will help you conclude your product fundraiser on a high note and leverage the campaign end as an opportunity to grow your donor relationships.

This image shows five tips for following up with donors after a product fundraiser, as outlined in the text below.

1. Thank donors for their generosity.

The best place to start with fundraiser follow-up is by sending a simple thank-you. Show donors that you recognize their contributions and appreciate their participation in the campaign.

To ensure your thank-you note is complete, eCardWidget recommends including the following elements:

  • A personalized greeting
  • A statement of your appreciation
  • Your nonprofit’s plans for using the donation
  • A short testimonial or story
  • Additional engagement opportunities
  • A closing and final thank-you
  • Signature and contact information

Get creative with your thank-you notes by adding images or sending eCards. That way, your appreciation efforts will be more interactive and exciting for recipients. Just make sure to send your thank-you notes as soon as possible after the campaign ends—preferably within 48 hours—while your nonprofit is still fresh in donors’ minds.

2. Personalize your outreach.

Add a personal touch to your fundraiser follow-up by acknowledging donors’ individuality. Address donors by name and reach out using their preferred communication method.

You can also personalize your outreach to your organization’s mission and goals to make your communications stand out. For instance, let’s say your cheerleading team hosted a product fundraiser to raise money for new uniforms and competition fees.

Instead of sending a generic follow-up email, you can include pictures of team members dressed in their new uniforms at your latest competition to show donors what their funds went toward. Additionally, you might interview one of your team members about what donors’ support means to them and include that testimonial in your follow-up to show donors how much their contributions make a difference to individual team members.

3. Invite donors to get more involved.

Donors have more to offer beyond their monetary contributions. Welcome them to your nonprofit’s community by encouraging them to get involved in other ways.

For example, you may invite donors to your nonprofit’s annual gala. Give them the option of attending the event, helping to secure sponsors, or volunteering to set up beforehand and clean up afterward. That way, they can expand their involvement in your organization in the way that most appeals to them.

4. Update your donor database.

Throughout your fundraiser, you likely collected lots of important information about your donors, especially those who are brand new to your nonprofit. To stay in touch with these supporters, you’ll need to store their contact information in your constituent relationship management platform (CRM).

As you create new donor profiles, consider adding the following data points to steward these new donor relationships:

  • Names
  • Mailing addresses
  • Email addresses
  • Phone numbers
  • Preferred communication channels

For existing records, add information about donors’ product fundraiser involvement and anything else you learn about them. Perhaps one donor engaged with your social media post about the fundraiser and participated shortly after. This piece of information would be useful to note because you can target this supporter using social media during future campaigns for the best results.

5. Collect feedback.

Hearing your donors’ thoughts about your product fundraiser can improve your approach in the future. For example, you may ask for feedback on the products you sell. ABC Fundraising recommends hosting a popcorn fundraiser since it has high earning potential and caters to a wide audience. You may check to see if donors would be interested in this type of fundraiser or inquire about which popcorn flavors they like best.

In addition to asking about the products themselves, you can also collect feedback on the logistics of your fundraiser by asking questions such as:

  • How did you hear about our product fundraiser?
  • What did you enjoy about the fundraiser?
  • Is there anything we could improve for next time?
  • How does this fundraiser compare to others we’ve hosted in the past?
  • Would you be interested in participating in this type of fundraiser again?

These types of open-ended questions allow donors to elaborate on their answers and provide you with rich, detailed feedback. Make sure to set aside time for your team to comb through the responses and note any helpful insights.

While the main purpose of your product fundraiser is to raise funds for your cause, it’s also a great opportunity to build upon your connections with donors. When you continue communicating with donors after the final transaction has been made, you show that you care about your donors beyond their monetary contributions and want to create mutually beneficial relationships with them.

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4 Tips for Using Your CRM to Foster Supporter Engagement

Engaged supporters are key to your nonprofit’s success. For your organization to retain a strong base of support, you need a consistent strategy for communicating with donors and cultivating relationships throughout the year. However, managing all of these crucial relationships can be a challenge.

That’s where your nonprofit’s CRM, or constituent relationship management software, comes in. This platform houses all of your supporter data and comes equipped with other valuable features you can leverage to boost supporter engagement. But to access these benefits, you have to know how to use your CRM effectively. We’ll explore the following best practices that can help you leverage yours:

  1. Analyze CRM Data to Learn About Your Supporters
  2. Create Segments to Personalize Outreach
  3. Leverage Automation Features
  4. Build Out Your Technology Stack

Whether your nonprofit uses a highly customizable platform like Salesforce for Nonprofits or a more basic donor database, you can use these tips to maximize your CRM’s unique potential to engage supporters. Let’s dive in!

1. Analyze CRM Data to Learn About Your Supporters

By housing all your supporter data in one place, you can more easily see overarching trends and patterns in your donor base. Through analysis, you can then unlock key insights to help you determine the best engagement strategy for your audience.

Specifically, your CRM helps you learn about your supporters’:

  • Giving habits and preferences. Knowing how individual donors prefer to give helps you tailor fundraising appeals, increasing the chance they’ll engage with your requests. For instance, a donor who gives $15 a month is far more likely to respond to a tailored increase request asking for $20 than a standardized message that asks for $50. Plus, you may discover wider giving trends—such as peak donation periods—that can inform the structure and timing of future fundraising campaigns. 
  • Charitable interests. Each of your donors has their own reasons for supporting your nonprofit. By analyzing giving data and looking into supporters’ involvement history, you can find out which aspects of your mission each donors engage with most. For example, you might find that one supporter volunteers to help with local food pantries. To better engage this supporter, you would send them information about an upcoming food insecurity campaign.
  • Preferred type of involvement. Learning which supporters prefer to attend events, volunteer, or participate in advocacy helps you determine the most relevant types of involvement to promote to them. Of course, supporters can get involved with multiple parts of your nonprofit—volunteers often make great donors. However, be conscious of how supporters first choose to interact with your nonprofit and send them materials that align with their expressed interests. 
  • Employment information. Ask supporters to share the name of their employer and potentially even their job title. With this information, you can find donors whose employers participate in corporate philanthropy. Then, encourage these supporters to engage with your nonprofit through their employer’s CSR portal to earn extra support for your organization, like matching gifts. 
  • Communication preferences. There is a wide range of ways to stay in touch with your donors, and chances are that many of them have a specific way they’d prefer for your nonprofit to reach out. Allow supporters to share whether they’d like you to contact them via email, text message, social media, direct mail, or some other platform. 

With this data, you can create tailored stewardship strategies that are designed to engage your most important supporters. As you learn more about each individual, make sure to record the information in your CRM to tailor your strategies even further in the future.

2. Create Segments to Personalize Outreach

Personalizing your communications with supporters is vital for maintaining a high donor retention rate. To convince supporters to stick around and continue engaging with your organization, show your donors that you’re paying attention to their specific contributions and value them as individuals.

Fortunately, your CRM doesn’t just store supporter data but also allows you to arrange it to divide donors into segments based on shared characteristics. Group your supporters based on an attribute that might impact how you would communicate with them, like: 

  • Giving preferences. Consider how you would reach out to a donor who prefers to give by check over one who always makes online donations. 
  • Involvement methods. Use the data you’ve collected on donor engagement and continue promoting ways to get involved that align with their interests. 
  • Length of time as a donor. New donors need an introduction to your organization and an extra initial push to persuade them to stick around long-term. In contrast, long-term donors still require routine communication, but there’s no need to continually go over the basics with them. 

Use grouping strategies like these to enhance the personalization of your messages. For example, one of your involvement method segments might consist of all past volunteers. From there, you could narrow it down further into a group of those who volunteered at least 10 hours this year and those who volunteered over 20 hours together. To engage the volunteers in both of these segments, craft two different volunteer thank-you messages that recognize each individual’s contributions.

3. Leverage Automation Features

Your CRM likely comes equipped with a variety of automation features to make your staff’s lives easier. These tools save your staff time, cut down on manual data entry, and mitigate data loss—but you can also leverage them to engage supporters. Often, these features allow you to:

  • Auto-fill donor profiles with information from your online giving page when a supporter donates.
  • Automatically send donation receipts, thank-you emails, or reminder texts when supporters take specific actions.
  • Fill in email templates with personal details from your donor profiles, such as supporter names and gift sizes.

Marketing automation tools within your CRM can be especially useful for fostering supporter relationships. According to Redpath Consulting Group, these tools seamlessly pull data from your CRM into automatically tailored donor communications, handling personalization and other baseline stewardship strategies for you. Some tools even allow you to create complex automations that use branched logic to increase personalization.

For instance, you might create an automated email stream that sends supporters a feedback survey after they attend an event. After the initial email, the email stream might branch in two directions: supporters who fill out the survey receive a personalized thank-you email, while those who don’t fill out the survey receive a few reminder emails spaced out over a week.

4. Build Out Your Technology Stack

Finally, don’t limit yourself to the features that come with your base CRM. Many CRMs have add-ons available to expand your technology’s capabilities and meet any additional needs you may have.

For example, if you use Salesforce, you can browse hundreds of native and third-party apps for nonprofits and choose the ones that best fit your technology needs. Double the Donation’s list of the best Salesforce apps includes several types of apps that are designed to help you engage supporters, such as:

  • Matching gift software. Integrating a matching gift tool with your CRM helps you find out which of your donors are eligible for a corporate match and automatically lets them know, greatly increasing your fundraising potential while adding another layer of supporter engagement. 
  • Event management apps. If your nonprofit hosts a lot of fundraising events, you can simplify event planning and management by integrating virtual event tools with your CRM. These tools can help you create events that resonate with your audience and yield a better turnout.
  • Nonprofit marketing tools. Need to refresh your donor communication strategies? Expand your marketing automation capabilities, manage complex promotional campaigns, or tap into a new marketing channel with these apps.

If you’re not sure where to start, a nonprofit technology consultant can help you find the best solutions and even implement them for you. Look for qualified experts with nonprofit experience who will evaluate your existing technology and work by your side to determine the best path forward. Be sure to let potential consultants know that your goal is to better engage supporters with your CRM’s help.

As you try out these strategies, keep track of your results and don’t be afraid to pivot your approach when necessary. With your CRM as your organization’s technological foundation, you’ll be on your way to creating a stronger community of supporters who feel personally connected to your nonprofit.

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