Taking it offline
Donor fatigue—so hot right now.
I’ve read a lot of articles about it, many linking donor fatigue (which seems like a new phenomenon in our industry right now) to compassion fatigue, the idea that people eventually get desensitized to tragedy or tired of responding to emergencies.
I have a different diagnosis. I think donor fatigue is something that we can point at that feels new—after COVID and so many other urgent emergencies—but is really the same tune I’ve been listening to since I started fundraising back in 2009. The tune of low donor retention rates. Donors don’t tend to give anywhere more than once. Industry retention numbers have never been higher than the low 40% since I started.
And during the pandemic, we maybe saw that number budge up a bit. Donors picked their causes and saw the organizations through the tumultuous time that was 2020 and 2021. But then 2022 and the “return to normalcy” made those numbers go back to…well…normal.
What was different during the pandemic? Here’s my hypothesis…
We were temporarily a lot more grateful for our donors and significantly more communicative. For a while, we were all starved of human interaction, and we spent that wild time finding more human ways to connect. Then we went back to “normal.”
And we’ve got another problem on our hands…
The increasing use of mass marketing tools being adopted into the nonprofit sector, and I’m talking way simpler than AI, my friends. Back when I started fundraising, tools like Constant Contact were pretty sleek. I remember when the organization I worked for back in 2011 getting MailChimp and the ability to schedule emails and I remember it blowing my mind! You mean I can schedule emails to donors to send when I’m not working?!?! AMAZING!!!
We look at tools like AI, MailChimp, re-marketing campaigns, social media programming tools like Buffer and HootSuite…and we see efficiency. But I’m seeing more and more that this drive toward efficiency sometimes cuts out humanity (which is perhaps why I’m really resisting the call to “learn to incorporate AI into everything!”).
I often joke that I’m the world’s worst millennial. I’m not a big fan of social media (yes, I know professionally how to leverage it for fundraising purposes, but I only really ever check my LinkedIn profile…and I never post photos of my kid, much to the chagrin of many of my mother’s friends). And I’m definitely the weirdo who’d rather have a meeting than send an email.
WHY? So many reasons:
I’m a kinesthetic learner. Digital everything is hard to touch and feel…and it’s not appealing to me. Show me something, I’ll forget it in a heartbeat. Let me do something myself, I’ll never forget it as long as I live. I care most about things I can experience, touch, and feel.
I am an empath. To truly understand someone, I need to understand what they are feeling. It’s hard to get a real read on what someone is feeling via text or email. Zoom, in-person, even phone calls are better for me because I can hear vocal tone, I can see facial expressions, I get to read body language. This is stuff I struggle to communicate without.
I’m neurodivergent, and the “squirrel!” effect of social media is kryptonite for minds like mine. Easier to stay away entirely than engage at all.
Essentially what I am saying is that if you want my time and attention, you need to talk to ME.
I’m not trying to be demanding, I’m just trying to be real. Too many people want my attention. Too many people are sending emails to my inbox (thank you Google for the “promotions” tab!). Too many people think a social media post now and then sharing a story is enough to grab my heart and not let go…I’ve got news for you, when you work for nonprofits and all your friends work for nonprofits, the next heart-wrenching post is literally the next one on my feed.
And I’m guessing these things about me aren’t all that different for you and the pressure you feel on your time and attention.
And if that’s true for you and me…I’m guessing it’s true for your donors!
All the methods we’ve come up with to get more “efficient” in our communications also take us further and further away from authentic communication. We’re removing the human element from a lot of what we do…when we work in an industry that supposedly is focused on humanity.
People give to people to support people. And somehow we think talking to our donors through bots and AI and mass email systems will somehow…what…trick them?
That’s why I offer something quite different to my clients…I teach efficient ways to engage people authentically, on a human level, to build community.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m also the queen of automation. (Zapier is the best invention of the last decade…change my mind!) I’m always looking for ways to make more happen more efficiently. But here’s what I’m not trying to offload to a program or platform: building relationships.
Building relationships is really something that can only be done by humans.
I’m a huge fan of using tools to help support and grow relationships (Calendly is the second best invention of all time, IMHO), but at the end of the day there has to be human-to-human contact.
This push toward automation and AI is really hurting the smaller nonprofits the most as well, which is unfortunate because they are the ones that really need to be communicating authentically with their audience the most. If you’re a big brand, say The Red Cross, when there’s a disaster, it’s easy to raise funds on social media. When you’re a smaller organization, like the local Maui YMCA that I just spoke to, you have less of a platform when disaster strikes. You can’t do the same thing as the Red Cross and hope to get results, even if you need the money more and can be more effective with it.
I just had this conversation with a client of mine. They are a small organization that provides a play space and coffee shop for parents of little kids, primarily to support parental mental health. Amazing work they do! They came to me wondering why they were floundering when they were deploying the same techniques and tactics they were seeing from their local Children’s Museum.
For starters, they don’t have the reach or name recognition; they are in a small neighborhood, not downtown; they weren’t founded by the mayor, like the Museum was; and they are less than a year old. The Children’s Museum can automate and use social media to raise funds because they have massive brand recognition. But my client can’t mass email people and raise much money, primarily because they don’t have much of an email list.
Small nonprofits have to play a different game. We need to remember that people give to people to support people. I’ve grown individual giving programs for small nonprofits remarkably rapidly and attained 60-80% donor retention for these organizations by doing things differently: by bucking tech trends and sticking with human connection.
I create community between my donors and the people I serve. I do this by inviting people in. Come in for an office open house and meet our staff. Join our experts for a breakfast and discussion about environmental problems facing our community. Come to a film screening to learn more about how community organizing works. Attend a house party hosted by a dedicated supporter to learn more about our mission and meet other people who care about our cause.
Honestly, after I’ve run a program for a while, I don’t know if my donors are coming back because of the mission or because they’ve become such good friends with their fellow donors that they come for the camaraderie. And ya know what, that’s fine with me. People give to people (I’ll say it again).
I marvel at organizations who tell me they have less than 20 donors but don’t know every single one’s names. They are so precious, how could you not?! If these are people who have said they believe in your mission and want to help you accomplish it, how do you not keep them engaged and informed!?!
And I don’t do this to be donor-centered; it’s mission-centered at its core.
None of it is meant to put the donor on a pedestal. I’ll reiterate again my deep, abiding commitment to the Principles of Community-Centric Fundraising. (If you only have 20 clients, I’d also expect you to know all of their names and talk to them regularly.) At the heart of my brand of fundraising is the idea that people are human…and we want connection. So many of the ills I see in the world today come from forgetting that people are people…that everyone else is just like us. We crave connection and recognition of our humanity.
Donors aren’t some weird out-of-touch group of “rich” people who are donors only. That’s a stereotype of the ultra-rich, ultra-big philanthropists. They aren’t most donors.
Donors are me, donors are you.
(I was hosting a focus session, and led participants on a journey to reflect on who their ideal donor…and one person had an epiphany, “Kelly, my ideal donor is…me!”)
Donors are rich, donors are poor. Donors are parents that are homeschooling while supporting the nonprofit community (hey there, that’s me 🙋♀️), and donors are your fellow nonprofit leaders that care about more causes than the one they serve. For some missions (though certainly a minority), your donors may BE the people you serve.
Bottom line: donors aren’t monoliths…because they are people. (Are you sensing a theme?)
And the only way to keep them engaged and loving your mission is to engage them as human beings.
Final story: I will be a lifelong donor to World Central Kitchen. I love José Andres’s restaurants, I love his values, and I love his organization. I love that the minute I hear about a disaster, his people are already there feeding those affected. When I see their social media posts, it feels like a little piece of me is there, feeding those people too. And you know why? The first time I ever donated, I shared about my donation on Instagram, encouraged my followers to donate, and tagged their organization…and someone on their team took two seconds to send me a DM that said, “Thanks so much for donating and sharing. It means a lot.” For that, I’ll love them forever.
It honestly doesn’t take a lot to be good at donor retention. You just have to remind your donor that you’re a human and you recognize their humanity, and connect with them over your shared desire to help humanity.
Need help with that? We’ve got you! Schedule a discovery call today to see if we can bake up a better fundraising recipe for your nonprofit so this year’s bake can rise to new heights!
