Every nonprofit loses a donor or donors at some point. Sadly, some donors leave because we didn’t do a good job keeping them engaged. Maybe this was caused by lack of staff, or high turnover, or poor nonprofit marketing practices, or just simply neglect. Nonetheless, it happened, so now we need to find a way to reconnect with past donors and rebuild trust.
Capture the attention of past donors with visual content and performance outcomes
To build trust with donors and keep them donating to the nonprofit, we need to be transparent with how we spend their donations and keep them updated on our progress. If they know they have made a good investment, they are more likely to continue investing.
So, to re-engage with past donors, we need to keep this same strategy top of mind. Do this by creating engaging content that brings past donors up to date on what they’ve missed. Highlight your progress over a specific time period, and include a sincere note of thanks from the executive director or board chair.
Below is an example video created by Young Vision Africa. The video tells the story of their progress and provides a peek into what they are planning for the future. It tells past donors that their money was well spent. The “look ahead” into the future gives past donors ideas for how they can get involved again.
Click on the image to see the nonprofit’s landing page.
What stands out most with Young Vision Africa is that within just a few minutes of being on the landing page, you feel like you know the leadership team, you feel like you know the audience they serve, and you can see how valuable your contribution is regardless of how much you donate.
Use Mission-Focused Content, Content Heroes, and Impact Statements to re-establish trust
Click above to watch the detailed training about mission-focused content design.
In the free on-demand training How To Use Content Marketing To Drastically Increase Donors, guest webinar host Nonprofit Consultant Jo Lynn Deal presents the mission-focused content strategy.
The strategy begins by identifying a content hero. Content heroes are people who are connected to the nonprofit, such as staff, volunteers, board members, donors, sponsors, or others. They are the human face of the content.
The next step is to write the message. Design the message to focus on how the content hero is involved in the nonprofit, and also highlight a specific outcome that is important to donors and supporters.
The final step is to include a call-to-action. What do you want your audience to do? Get a bigger ROI on your marketing by sending the audience to a landing page that continues to tell the story and provides a mechanism for donating.
Mission-focused content is valuable multi-purposeful content, and it can be used across a variety of marketing channels. Let’s look at an example below.
The content above:
- Is visually captivating and engaging. In just this one image, the content tells a complete story.
- Includes a content hero: The VC Reading Team. This puts a face(s) to the hard work the nonprofit is doing, and in many cases, donors will recognize the content hero.
- Shares the outcomes and impact of the program. This proves the nonprofit operates in transparency and is working hard to perform at its best. It shows the donation was a good investment and is making an impact. For more on impact reporting, read: How To Leverage Impact Reporting To Sustain A Future For Your Nonprofit.
- Links to more detailed information. The content connects viewers to a landing page that includes more information and strategic calls-to-action.
- Can be used on multiple channels. Use this content in a newsletter, email campaign, across social channels, as a direct mail piece, as a handout at events, and more.
Content Design Source: This content was created using the free tool Canva.
Create a Formal Marketing and Fundraising Plan to Prevent Donor Neglect
We all know it’s far easier and less costly to retain an existing donor than it is to recruit a new one. If your nonprofit is not following a formal plan to keep donors engaged, change that! The more organized you are with your marketing efforts, the more streamlined and self-sustaining the process is.
This article shares a 10-step strategy to get started with nonprofit marketing.
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