Hi Lynne, how you doing?

I’m great Josh. Thanks for having me.

Yeah, thanks for for being here. We appreciate your time. So this is the one of our early editions here of the nonprofit crash course brought to you by Yearly, a platform for nonprofits to create digital reports like annual reports impact reports and we have with us today Lynne Wester of the donor relations group and Lynne. We’ve been talking lately as we’ve been kind of planning on this chat here donor retention rates and you talked about what if you could tell organizations how they can improve first time and current donor retention rates with with a simple age and that there’s this whole future of donor relations. It’s based on Behavior rather than gift giving can you talk a little bit about what that what that means and what a strategy could look like for organizations.

Sure, so we know that donor retention is the single most important measure of your fundraising success at your organization. And yet year over year fundraising retention Falls at many organizations without them understanding why? Part of the reason. Why is that? We have for Generations at least the last 20 years that I’ve been in the industry valued donors based on how much they give not who they are as individuals. And so with one small switch instead of thanking donors differently based on $25 or $2,000 instead. Thanking them based on who they are and their behavior. Thus creating more personalized come content and more personalized Behavior Journeys. You can actually change their retention Behavior.

So if I if I was a scientist and I knew that I was really focused on interests around, you know stem and maybe youth education or climate change and those were my interests then an organization that had programs that aligned to that like could they tell or their messages to me along those interests that I have is that one of the kind of Behavioral interest, you know marketing tactics that you’re thinking about sure. So behavior could mean that I give online versus I mail you a check but it also could be what part of the cause I care about the most.

So for example with the main Coast Heritage Trust, it could be land stewardship versus land purchasing. And so those donors are different people and the more data we have to feed into their Communications. The more personalized we can make their education see it’s a lot like going to a restaurant if I know that you’re a vegan, I’m probably not going to take you to a steakhouse right even though steaks are yummy and people like them? It won’t be a good fit, but we don’t do that in non-profits. We think you like everything we have to offer. So instead. We need to tailor those Communications.

So kind of like stepping into the the customer the donors shoes for a little while. I’m thinking about what their interests are. Okay, so that that cuts across really all the fundraising and all of the marketing and all the campaign work you would do around the year, right? So does that I guess that creates like a little more work that you have to do and set up because you’re you’re segmenting your audiences or no?

It’s not more work. It’s the exact same amount of work because right now we’re segmenting our audience is based on the dollar amount. All I’m suggesting is segmenting them based on Behavior first time loyal. Monthly gift increasers, things like that.

Okay got it. So if I’m used to giving through Facebook and the next person is giving through like, you know the responding by writing a paper check because they get that postcard in the mail say for an end of year campaign. I know that from last year. So how do you know that person like that people creatures of habit Josh, right? Like if you do one thing one year the likelihood that you’re going to do it the next year is very probable right? Like only when we see large dynamic shifts, for example, many people didn’t give online and then when the pandemic hit more people gave online because online, you know, we were living Our Lives online whereas and the mail wasn’t safe and all that good stuff, but it takes us like a generation of a shift to do something like that, but people are creatures of habit.

If you’re just joining us, I’m Josh Kligman with Yearly. This is Yearly’s nonprofit crash course and Lynne wester’s chatting with us for the donor relations group and Lynne’s talking about, you know, donor retention and how thinking about their behaviors and their interests and their habits as you were just saying when our are a way to drive I guess it’s sustainable consistent donations. Do you you have an example of an organization or client. Maybe you worked with that has either switched to this or done this consistently and then they saw increases in giving rates?

Oh, yeah. So I have many of my clients have been doing this for the past eight or nine years since we’ve made the switch and something is simple as changing. The way in which a donor gives channel. So because Andrew is asking a question here about what additional criteria we might tailor. At channel is the number one so a donor who gives online or gives online through their phone or makes a text gift or gives through venmo is a very different person than somebody who writes you a check. The way in which a donor gives is their strong communication preference. So simply tailoring that Could have a huge impact so but the most important population. At your nonprofit is your first time donors. If. you don’t get them to give a second gift you can hang it up. So we use things like Yearly to give impact reports.

We use platforms like thank you to send videos to donors and if you look at a place like the greater Charlotte why they went from 24% first time donor retention to 44% first time donor attention, which means long-term sustainable fundraising with impact results that you can measure because again,

The most important thing you can do as a nonprofit is to have your first time donors turn into loyal donors. Yeah, so that’s concept that in the for-profit world that your existing customers are cheaper to market to than going and finding new customers. Think about, you know, if you’d run a commercial or even advertise say on Facebook and pay to promote your nonprofit people that have never heard you of you before versus going back to your existing audience. It’s a lot more efficient and it’s probably faster. It’s seven times cheaper seven times keep the donor that you have then to go acquire a new donor that you don’t know about and the donors that you do have are often overlooked.

Yeah, so I saw a blog post on on the DRG Group website on your blog. I think it was last week of the week before about impact reporting and the importance of that. So your marketing to these different segments all year round and thinking about the behavior. Then you have to go and tell the story and with you know, with our our platform yearly the digital platform for annual reports and impact reports. You can create those kind of stories in a very Visual and interactive way with the work that you do. You know, how much do you see those different audiences that have all different types of Behavioral differences in terms of how they like to give and what their interests are react to something like a year-end report or maybe even quarterly updates that nonprofits and universities and Healthcare systems are are putting out there to stay in touch and see how the middle needle moving like is that is that important or does it depends on what they’re interests are. Well, that’s why Yearly is so important in platforms and to for digital delivery. So Garner the days of serving donors a whole meal. They want snackable content. And so we need to think mobile digital first print second not the print is dead.

But think postcards think small impact reports that are doled out quarterly rather than some 30 page something that they have to keep flipping through and flipping through people don’t have the appetite for that. Our attention spans are shorter and shorter so more frequent touches over time is better.

Well, you talked about metrics before and I think tracking those metrics to see what how your donors and your volunteers and your board members are reacting to. Web-based reports that you put out are probably just as important as tracking how donors are giving is it on mobile? Is it on you know during certain times a year and then keep hitting those audiences over and over because if you print an annual report and you bring it to a meeting, you don’t know if they’re reading it but if you’re tracking metrics around it then you know, I think Google analytics is like a free but great tool where you can track all those types of items.

So I see another question here coming from the chat. Do you think it makes sense to continue to send print materials to older donors 65 and up? I hear this one a lot.

So but I hear a lot and I think it’s one of the most dangerous. Things that I hear in professional development in our space. Well, my donors are older. Well, my parents are 84 and 86 and they both have iPads and that’s how they consume their information. They hate print because it they can’t make it bigger. Oh, yeah, we love digital. They pay all their bills online. Like I find it like if we said that same stereotype about any other group in America, we would be shunned and shamed and why are we picking on old people? Like I just think that’s horrible. And so just because I’m old doesn’t mean I have prints like again, it’s just such a misnomer that old people like print it’s not even true and then we create the stereotype for this myth based on it just because they didn’t grow up with a cell phone in their pocket doesn’t mean they’re not living in the world. How do you think they get their social security? Everything’s online? Everything’s online.

So that’s how they manage their money. That’s how they I mean, that’s how they shop that’s everything so I don’t think that’s a safe assumption to make.

Yeah, I I like that way of thinking and I think along a similar lens. I think that they’re there may be that one two, and I’m exagering but like a small portion of your population that says they want to they want to hold whatever you’re giving in in their hands and and that’s fair but that doesn’t mean that’s where you know, like the the future is going and your strategy needs to be in from a cost perspective. I think it could save a lot there too. And there’s probably other ways that you can Steward donors that have told you that they have an issue with it rather than saying like, all right. Well, we’re going to take that entire population of in this quick case of the question 65 plus and and print everything.  So you got their behavior first before dumping our stereotypes on to their behavior.

All right. So let’s take behaviors and relate it to any of your giving just because that’s coming up around the corner. How soon are nonprofits starting let’s say either planning for giving Tuesday or which is probably immediate or and if you’re giving campaigns and that and more importantly like how does that relate to?

Different behaviors. I mean digital big way that they can attack it but are there different kind of tactics that you see people use or different channels that people use for end of year? I mean, what’s the trend now?

Well, if you’re planning on and giving Tuesday campaign and you haven’t started and it’s October 3rd, I worry so, you know, most of us have been planning for end of year for months now end of years when you know, 60% of the donations are made in the United States, right it is in December late, November And that’s indicative of a donor who has a behavior that every year they give at the end of the year. So we know the end of year giving tends to come in more digitally than it used to but check still are a valid way. So you have to give people your mailing address and make sure that it’s very clear and easy, you know.

I say to people what is the friction in your giving experience? And how do you remove it? That is how you will retain donors. It never ceases to amaze me when I go and try to make a gift online how difficult it is some days, but what I want to go to Amazon and buy a product two clicks later, and it’s sitting at your door, and so we really have to focus on making sure that our donors can give us money easily. For example If I call your main telephone number and I say I’d like to make a donation. Do you know where I get routed and what the response to that is? Yeah, I guess I guess similarly if you want to sign up volunteers and someone’s calling, you know, you have to have staff trained on on where to send people on how to respond right exactly. All right. Be thought about

So an organization hasn’t really gotten started with let’s say a strategy that they’re using year over year for and if you’re giving just because we’re in the fourth quarter now with our final minute left here. Where’s a good place to start wrapping your head around building a strategy for that?

Well, the first is knowledge. So knowing your knowing your donor retention rate so that you can get through the fundraising Effectiveness project through Bloomerang and they can help you do the math to figure out so knowing is the first part knowing your retention rate and then second is building plans and we have those plans on our website. We have webinars. We have a lot of educational content for to help you make the switch.

All right, that’s helpful. So that’s donorrelations.com, right?

That’s right. Okay, or if you’re on LinkedIn watching this you can just comment and respond and I’m sure Lynn would be happy to chat with you a little bit further. All right. Well Lynne, thank you very much for joining here. We really appreciate your time. And yeah, this is yearly a nonprofit crash course, so if you want to think about how all these behaviors in terms of how you reach your donors on fold at the end of the season or an event or a year into a digital reports. You can check out Yearly from where information, but thanks Lynne, and we’ll talk to you.

Have a great one.

Bye.