Pragmatic tactics within a donor-focused framework to help grassroots fundraisers raise more money, communicate results more effectively, and meaningfully engage donors on the channels they prefer.

1. Meaningful communications that lead to
generous and happy donors.
Developing a Donor Focused
Communication Strategy
Brian Barela
Donor Experience Advocate
@brianbarela

2. The more donor-centric my communications became, the
more money I raised.

3. Sending more communications, even if it’s “social”
media, will not significantly impact your ministry partner
development efforts.

4. From Separate to Connected
From Somewhere to Anywhere
From Channel Specific to Channel Agnostic
From I to You
From Scarcity to Abundance
A donor-focused
communication strategy

5. Every communication sent to donors, whether
it’s on email, social media, direct mail, phone,
or SMS must work together to create a
meaningful experience. Break down the silos
and align your content to tell a powerful story.
From Separate to
Connected

6. It’s critical to create digital content that allows
current and potential donors to find out more
about you and your organization as
smartphones and tablet adoption fuels
continuous content consumption.
From Somewhere to
Anywhere

7. One communication on one channel, or one
message forced into a variety of channels
without optimizing for context will limit donor
engagement and ultimately donations.
From Channel Specific to
Channel Agnostic

8. Your donors receive personalized experiences
when they shop, eat, and play. They crave the
same when they give. Shifting the focus from
you or your organization to them is the place
to start getting personal.
From I to You

9. Talk about opportunities and outcomes more
than needs and problems. Your donors want a
for good return on their investment.
From Scarcity to Abundance

10. The tools and preferences of your
donors have changed ...

11. The way they send and receive information has
changed...

12. The tools they use to connect with
people have evolved too...

13. SOCIAL media makes people happy.
“Sincere, Open, Collaborative, Interested, Authentic, Likable”
“SOCIAL” created by Vala Afshar
It’s critical to think about the emotions we want to elicit and the context in which our
donors interact with our communications. Social media provides fundraisers
unprecedented opportunities to demonstrate an interest in their donors lives.

14. Developing an donor-focused communication
strategy will allow you to multiply the time you spend
on MPD.
A survey of 15 full-time fundraisers revealed a deep care for their donors, but communicate with them on average
1x a month, usually through email and/or direct mail. Over 90% of respondents did not segment their donors into
groups. They shared they were uncomfortable with social media as a primary communication channel and do not
understand how it can improve their fundraising efforts.
“Lack of time” “Desire to call ministry
partners more
frequently”

15. Donors can perceive redundant communications from
fundraisers as impersonal.
“Only 16% of donors gave more money
the following year.”--Fundraising Effectiveness
Project

16. The number of or % of new partners per
year.
Average length a ministry partner
donates.
% increases in amount of special gifts or
end-of-year donations.
You can measure whether your fundraising efforts
are working by looking at the following key
performance indicators:
Average gift size

17. More Tailoring, Not More Time
Spending more time refining a communication strategy without thinking through first how well it’s tailored to the
preferences of your donors will not significantly improve your fundraising efforts.

18. Your current and future ministry partners have
limited attention, scan more than they read,
receive more requests for donations, and use
more devices than ever to communicate

19. They should enjoy reading your communications.
Have a friend over read over the last two or three communications you sent to a donor. Ask them to share with
what they are thinking about and feeling about it to understand whether they are accomplishing what you want.

20. Your current and future ministry partners have a
limited amount of attention.
infographic courtesy of ExactTarget
It’s critical to improve the engagement your donors have with your communications, as both devices and
applications dramatically increase.

21. Your current and future ministry partners have more
options when choosing to make a donation than
ever before.
The number of nonprofits has increased
from 1,259,764 million to 1,574,674 million
today. The growth rate of the nonprofit
sector has surpassed the rate of both the
business and government sectors. --source
The number of
nonprofits has
increased by
25% in the last
10 years.

22. Your current and future ministry partners use more
devices to communicate and consume information.
infographic courtesy of ExactTarget

23. Unifying your communications across direct mail,
email, and social will increase the amount of time
and attention your partners give you.
Casual
Connected
Cordial
Each channel (email, direct
mail, social) of
communication can be used
to accomplish a variety of
goals.
Your ministry partners have
a variety of channel
preferences and may
interpret communications
differently than you.

24. Optimize Email

25. Email is still the most frequently used digital
channel by the majority of your donors.

26. “Sorry for the late delay in getting back with
you. Work has been crazy with year-end
stuff and your email kept getting buried in
the other 300+ emails!”
--Donor
“For the first time ever, more emails
are opened on mobile phones than
on desktops/laptops.”
--The Importance of Email in a Cross-Channel
World, ExactTarget
Mobile optimized email communications can
dramatically increase donor engagement.

27. Email services such as Mailchimp provide the
following benefits:
Customize the design and format for smartphones, tablets, and traditional
desktops/laptops.
Track how many people open your emails, and if they click on a link.
Rate your subscribers based on interaction.
Receive a notification when an email is no longer valid or when someone
unsubscribes.
Create segments (groups) of people.
Visit mailchimp.com/features for more information

28. How to increase the number of people who open,
read, and respond to your email.
Compose email for the size of a smartphone screen; increase the font to at
least 16pt, remove header images, keep text to no more than 3 sentences.
Eliminate PDFs as attachments to decrease the amount of time it takes for
donors to open and read your updates.
Segment your emails into groups. The first segment to create would be your
top 10-20 donors. Other segments could include geography (by state or
region), demography (age), or interests (college students).
Using open and click rates to determine future content, especially email titles.
Remember most people use the title to decide whether or not to open an
email. Take an extra 1-2 minutes to make your email title as engaging and
“openable” as possible.
Say “thank you” more. Consider ways to make the donor the subject of the
communication, rather than you or your organization.

29. From $60 a year to $600:
Mailchimp’s tracking and ratings features led to a
significant increase in giving.
In order to raise a significant amount of new financial support, one fundraiser
ran an increase campaign among his existing donors. In the past, the people
targeted in the campaign would be prioritized by current gift size.
Using Mailchimp’s user rating feature allowed a new way to measure donor
interest beyond their average annual donation amount.
A donor that gave just $60 a year but rated extremely high by Mailchimp
decided to increase to $600 a year when asked. Without this additional metric
the fundraiser may have passed over this person in favor of those who gave
larger amounts.

30. Additional Email Tips
Email communications should provide content that complements your direct
mail efforts. If your direct mail letter focuses on a ministry success story, use
an email to share a personal story. Be sure to stagger the distribution of your
direct mail, email updates, and any social media posts to signal to your donor
an awareness that you are interested in them throughout the month, rather
than on a specific day or week.
Use links to blog posts, videos, or websites to create opportunities for deeper
engagement. While most people scan email throughout the week or during
work hours, many have long periods of free time (think parents at a soccer
game). Providing links inside an email keep the length brief but allow the
donor to engage beyond the email if they have time and interest.
Capture the email of both husband and wife. The husband and wife may share
a personal email account, but both may have separate and even multiple work
email accounts. Be sure to spend time throughout the year seeking to update
and acquire the most used email address for both the husband and wife.

31. Optimize Facebook

32. Facebook offers the ability to regularly interact with
your partners around their interests while they are
using their smartphone.
“Facebook revealed a new design for News Feed that includes larger
visuals, more opportunities to drill down to specific types of content
and a user interface that is more consistent with Facebook’s mobile
design.” --Inside Facebook

33. On average Fans see 1/500
updates, or 0.016%, from a
page they have liked.
90% of fans who like a page,
never visit the page again,
interacting only with content on their
newsfeed.
Beware of using Pages as the primary means of
communicating with your partners on Facebook.

34. Many of your ministry partners use Facebook pages
to transact with brands, not interact with people. By
using a Facebook page instead of a profile you risk
coming across as impersonal.
Infographic courtesy of Subscribers, Fans and Followers,
ExactTarget

35. 1. Go to Facebook.com/bookmarks/lists
2. Select “Create List”
3. Name the List
4. Add ministry partners to the List
Create a list of your ministry partners to understand
and interact around their interests.

36. The updates your ministry partners share can help you
build meaningful relationships with them.
Liking, commenting, or sharing a donor’s update provides a high-touch interaction with minimum effort. If you are
using a CRM or database to manage donor information you can enrich the basic contact or giving history data
with information about their interests.

37. The updates that gain the most likes, comments
and shares combine an interesting photo with text
that invites activity.
“102M People Accessed Solely From Mobile
In June, Up 23% Since March.”--Facebook
Better Get Mobile Quick.
Posts that include an image take up 4x as
much space than a post that only uses text.
Optimize the text and images for small
screens (tablets + smartphones).

38. Optimize Your Online Presence

39. 49% of mid-level and major donors will always visit a
nonprofit’s website before making a first-time gift or
donation.
Google calls this the ZMOT (Zero Moment of
Truth), the moment when a person makes a
significant decision based on information
they access online.
“79% of consumers now say they use a
smartphone to help with shopping.”
Your website and social media accounts provide information that current and potential donors may use to
evaluate whether or not to start or continue giving. They may also compare you to other charitable giving options
using online research.

40. Traditional Decision Making Process
By the time a donor meets with you in person the chances are high that have
researched you online and through word of mouth, and have already made their
decision. Realize that the in-person meeting is no longer the “first” moment of truth in
the decision making process.

41. The ZMOT introduces a new step in the decision making
process.
Google’s ZMOT reveals a new critical step in the decision making process that
fundraisers must understand and optimize. Consider an informal interview with 1-2
donors to ask them about the ways they use mobile devices, social media, and the web
to research and give to nonprofits.

42. The number of sources people use to make a decision
are dramatically increasing.
Many donors are looking at websites and asking a variety of people about you or the
nonprofit you represent. Consider all the possible online sources of information and be
prepared to answer questions or respond to questions that may come from your
nonprofit’s website, or online news sources.

43. Charity: Water understands the importance of
winning the ZMOT with potential donors.
charity: water’s website provides a highly visual, easy to understand experience that
focuses on the donor, rather than the organization.

44. Websites that use multimedia (video, photos and text),
have plenty of whitespace and automatically change to
format a smartphones, tablets and traditional screens
will ensure a positive experience for current and
potential ministry partners.
1. Visit google.com
2. Type in “free tumblr style
Wordpress themes”
http://bit.ly/freemobilethemes
Visit the link below to
explore 18 Free Wordpress
themes:

45. Donor Engagement

46. Cru conducted over 62 hours of interviews with
ministry partners who donated to a variety of
ministries. 3 core themes emerged:
3. Supporting an individual brings to life the
organization’s mission and personalizes the impact that
donors are making in a way that giving to a faceless
organization does not. This can only be done when it’s
relational.
1. Donors ultimately give to people, not to organizations.
2. While donors need to be personally aligned with the
organizations they back, ultimately and whenever
possible, donors give to people.

47. Donors ultimately give to people, not
organizations.

48. While donors need to be personally aligned with the
organizations they back, ultimately and whenever
possible, donors give to people.
“A free party game for horrible
people.”
Raised $15,570 from 758
people, $11,000+ over their
goal
Sold over 100,000 copies
Kickstarter campaigns demonstrate the power
of people giving to people.

49. Crowdfunding campaigns work best for short-term
trips and projects and acquiring a first gift.
Crowdfunding campaigns work best for short-term projects, and are least effective for
monthly sustainer campaigns. Gaining the first gift, regardless of the amount, should be
the goal in a campaign of this nature. After cultivating the first gift, it’s then best to come
up with a plan for gaining a larger donation or converting them to a monthly amount.

50. Supporting an individual brings to life the organization’s
mission and personalizes the impact that donors are
making in a way that giving to a faceless organization does
not. This can only be done when it’s relational.
“Donors are more passionate than we expected.”
“Many donors want to be valued beyond their capacity to give money.
They want to be partners. This more accurately describes their desired
behavior.”
charity: water’s donate your birthday campaign reveals how passionate people are
about the causes they support.

51. Donor-centric communication can significantly
improve donor acquisition, retention, and
engagement.
I led Jenny to Christ yesterday!
Your investment in our ministry allowed me
to lead Jenny to Christ yesterday!
Please pray for me as I’m speaking to 500
college students tomorrow.
You can make a difference in the lives of
500 college students tomorrow. Please pray
tomorrow at 12pm that I can share the
Gospel boldly with them.
I’m going on a six week summer project to serve
college students from around the country.
Your generous prayer and financial support
will allow me to mentor college students
during a short-term trip this summer.
These are examples of changing the subject
from the fundraiser to the donor to increase
interest and engagement.

52. You are awesome.
What’s happening because of your investment is
even more awesome.
Thank you for being so awesome.
A tongue in cheek format for writing a donor-centered
communication.

53. There is a stark difference between donor-centric and
organization-centric communications that significantly
impacts how a person feels and thinks.
“Receipt for your donation to Saran” “One Time Online Donation Submission”
“Horses are not food. Save them from
slaughter.”
“Create peace of mind”
The examples on the left side focus on the donor and the benefits they receive from their
donation. The examples on the left focus on the organization and the problems they seek
to solve.

54. From Separate to Connected
From Synchronous to Mobile
From Channel Specific to Channel Agnostic
From I to You
From Scarcity to Abundance
A donor-focused
communication strategy