Free Tool to Help Nonprofits Listen To and Learn From Donors and Corporate Partners

Some things are certain: death, taxes—and if you’re a nonprofit, fundraising. It’s a constant for every charitable organization, no matter the mission, scope, or revenue model.

What a depressing sentence. But it’s not all bad – we’re in this together, and there are tools to make fundraising easier. 

While acquiring new donors is an important piece of your fundraising strategy, retaining your existing donors and exploring ways to increase their giving and involvement is far more effective. The 2016 Fundraising Effectiveness Project Report found that nonprofits lose 96 donors for every 100 donors gained. As if that statistic wasn’t awful enough, the cost of acquiring new donors is on the rise. Weigh what it takes to build rapport, market your services, make the “ask” and so much more against keeping the donors you already have and it’s clear that donor retention is a crucial mix to a nonprofit’s strategy.

What can your team do to improve donor retention? Listen.

The best nonprofits know that building relationships with donors is one of the most important things they can do to ensure fundraising success. As the Fundraising Authority states, “great donor cultivation relies on consistent activity, personalized communication, and an excellent strategy.” (Cultivating employee donors? Be more effective with our Employee Donor Cultivation Toolkit.)

An imperative part of that communication cycle is listening. To go from a purely transactional relationship to a truly transformational experience for your donors, it’s about deeply understanding your donors and then delivering on their expectations. You want donations to your nonprofit to be seen as a step in an important relationship, not a one-off business traction. America’s Charities has a new tool designed to help your team do just that – Snapshot 2017.

New Listening Tool to Help Nonprofits: Snapshot 2017

For years, America’s Charities has reported trends, attitudes and perceptions in employee workplace giving through our Snapshot Report Series. We’ve explored these trends from the perspective of:

• Employers: Snapshot 2015 and Snapshot 2013 
• Nonprofits: Snapshot 2014

Now, with Snapshot 2017, we are offering a first-ever look at trends in employee giving from the perspective of donors. Your nonprofit can use Snapshot 2017 as a donor listening tool to use for your donor cultivation and donor retention practices.

How it Works and How Your Nonprofits Benefits:

Our researchers are currently surveying donors to learn about what they value, how they make decisions about giving, and how giving through the workplace impacts their overall charitable endeavors. It doesn’t matter if donors give through the workplace or not. All donor opinions are welcome. Donor responses will be confidential and anonymous in the Snapshot 2017 Report, which will be shared this fall.

We need your nonprofit to share the Snapshot 2017 survey with your donors. The Snapshot 2017 survey is 10 questions, multiple choice, and should take 10-15 minutes max to complete. The survey will remain open through the end of April.

There are two ways you can share the survey:

Option #1

Click here to download our Snapshot 2017 nonprofit promotion toolkit (Word document format) for sample email, website and social media messaging. Share that information and the link to the survey http://impact.ac/2lopd9D with your donors.

Option #2 (Suggested, most beneficial method)

Download the promotion toolkit with sample messaging, BUT instead of using the URL from the toolkit, contact America’s Charities’ VP, Marketing and Communication, Lindsay Nichols at lnichols@charities.org to request a unique survey URL to share with your donors. At the conclusion of the survey, your nonprofit will be sent the full dataset of responses from your donors. She can answer any questions you may have and provide you with a unique survey URL that is for your nonprofit and your nonprofit only. That way, you’ll be able to assess your donors’ values, opinions, and so much more. And once the Snapshot 2017 report is published this fall, you’ll be able to analyze and benchmark your donors’ responses against the larger field’s response. If you want an assessment before the full report comes out this fall, or need help identifying ways to improve your efforts now, America’s Charities can provide that consultation as well.

When it’s all said and done, this landmark research will help your nonprofit gain valuable insights into how to:

• communicate more effectively with employee donors
• attract and retain donors and volunteers
• build partnerships with corporate partners that align with the values of their workplace donors, and expand on those existing corporate relationships

How Your Nonprofit’s Corporate Partners and Board Directors Can Benefit:

In addition to being a great listening tool for your nonprofit, America’s Charities’ Snapshot 2017 Report will also be a helpful listening tool for employers. So please encourage your corporate partners and board directors to share the Snapshot 2017 survey with employees at their companies. The opinions of their employee donors, an important field of prospects for you, could be as useful to you as your own existing donors. Snapshot 2017 will help employers and the larger workplace giving field gain valuable insights into how to:

• communicate more effectively with their employees
• build partnerships with nonprofits that align with the values of their workplace donors
• attract and retain the best talent
• implement more effective employee giving and volunteer programs

By contacting Lindsay Nichols at lnichols@charities.org, America’s Charities can provide your corporate partners with unique survey URLs so that they can compare their employees’ responses against the larger field’s responses this fall when the Snapshot 2017 Report is released.

Included in our Snapshot 2017 promotion toolkit is sample messaging you can use to share this opportunity with your corporate partners and board directors.

Appreciation

Our thanks goes to Senior Advisors Lynne Filderman, Steve Greenhalgh and Peter Panepento, and our committed Advisory Committee, for the development of the Snapshot 2017 survey. The Snapshot 2017 Advisory Committee includes:

1. Dave Armon, 3BL Media
2. Gary Levante, Berkshire Bank
3. Matthew Nelson, New York Life
4. Laura Plato, Causecast
5. Aman Singh, Futerra
6. George Weiner, Whole Whale
7. Adam Weinger, Double the Donation
8. Heather Wright, PwC