HBH Consultants

Sarah, Dayton and I are here at the Hyatt Regency in Minneapolis at the MCN Technology and Communications Conference getting ready to present an afternoon breakout session, “Keeping your Donors: a High-Touch Approach in a High-Tech World.”

Donors want to be treated as social investors. They want relevant, meaningful information provided to them. They want us to pay attention to their preferences and honor them. In developing the content for today’s session, we landed on 7 Principles of a High-Touch Approach that nonprofits can use to help guide a strategy for personalizing the donor experience.

Here they are:

1) Listen First. Get to know your donors. Meet with them. Survey them. Ask them what program they are most interested in and what sparked their first gift to your organization.

2) Segment, Segment, Segment. Categorize your donors and break your mailing list into groups. Segment them according to their interests and values.

3) Create a communications plan. Once you have the information about what your donors’ interests are, and have a way to organize them, it is time to map out your donor retention strategy. Use a 3:1 ratio to guide your touch points. For every one time you are asking for a gift, you should be thanking, recognizing or providing information about their social investment. three times.

4) Treat your donors as true program partners. Invite them to see your work. To touch and feel it. Don’t think about your donors as a seperate group of people who are only interested in giving money. Treat them like VIPs.

5) Use the right tool at the right time. No technology, no matter how sophisticated, can replace a face to face meeting or phone call. Use your good judgement.

6) Use a story-based approach in your donor communications. Make sure the information you present showcases how you are making a difference. Use details, videos and real photos.

7) Filter everything. Is it timely, relevant and meaningful? If it doesn’t fit this criteria, it probably is not going to be perceived by your donors as a worthwhile message.

What has worked well for you? What strategies do you have for retaining your donors?

-Katrina & Sarah

p.s. If you want more info on personalizing the donor experience, go to the MCN website to download our presentation slideshow.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011 at 6:04 pm and is filed under What's New. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.