Legacy giving, also called planned giving, is a type of donor-based fundraising that scares a lot of organizations, causing them to neglect it altogether. But it’s not that scary—at least, it doesn’t have to be. 

This form of fundraising can be extremely impactful, helping you generate steady, predictable revenue streams of often unrestricted funding. It also creates many opportunities to deepen your relationships with donors, allowing them to work with you to create meaningful and long-lasting legacies. 

Let’s go through the basics so you can decide if legacy giving might be the secret ingredient to your fundraising strategy. Here’s what we’ll cover:

1. What is legacy giving?
2. How to solicit legacy gifts
3. How to cut the jargon
4. Honoring gifts and growing your program

What is legacy giving?

A legacy gift is a donation made by an individual through their will or other formal estate planning designation. 

Bequests (which designate a dollar amount or portion of the total estate to be donated) are by far the most common type of legacy gift. FreeWill’s guide to the types of planned gifts covers the other forms you may encounter as your program grows.

Legacy gifts are typically prepared by a financial planner and reflect the values and desires of the donor. Today’s online platforms have also made it easier for donors to create simple, planned gifts on their own.

But why do people want to leave legacy gifts? As the name suggests, most donors want to leave a legacy or memory of their life through their posthumous giving. Helping sustain the good work of a favorite charity for years can be a powerful motivator for some. Plus, planned gifts can bring various tax benefits, particularly reduced estate taxes for a donor’s heirs, making them a meaningful and practical choice for many donors.

In most cases, a legacy gift is made upon someone’s death, but not always. Legacy giving can take a number of forms, including recurring donations that begin while the donor is alive and continue after they’re deceased. Legacy gifts don’t have to be monetary, either. They can include material goods, property, mutual funds, stocks—anything valuable to the beneficiary.

How to solicit legacy gifts

Nonprofits solicit and secure legacy gifts through their legacy or planned giving programs. There are a few essential (and easy) steps you can take to get your program up and running:

1. Create a planned giving process.

How will you help donors create their legacy gifts? Playing an active role in the process can help increase completion. 

For instance, many nonprofits offer their donors free will creation tools that simplify the process of creating a bequest (the simplest and most common type of planned gift). You can also provide detailed instructions and resources for donors once they’ve reached the point of wanting to set up a gift. 

Either way, educating your team and understanding the process from start to finish will set you up for success.

2. Add legacy gifts to your website.

Most nonprofits don’t receive legacy gifts because their donors simply don’t know it’s an option. 

Add a dedicated section about legacy giving to your website’s Ways to Give page, or go a step further by creating a separate landing page or microsite specifically about the different types of planned gifts, how they work, and their benefits. Here’s an example—the Humane Society of the Pike’s Peak Region created an entire microsite to promote planned gifts and other forms of non-cash giving.

3. Develop additional materials.

You’ll need more than just a web page to promote legacy gifts effectively. Letters, emails, phone scripts, mailers, and more will be helpful once your team discusses planned giving with interested donors.

And since this form of giving is often new to donors and more complex than straightforward cash gifts, you’ll need to provide user-centric educational materials. Remember to explain why these gifts are essential to your organization. Like any other form of fundraising, if a donor doesn’t see an organizational need, they may not donate. Explain to your donors the impact a legacy gift would have on your organization and the people you help.

4. Survey your donors.

The tricky part about legacy gifts is that a donor doesn’t necessarily need to notify you when they create one—your organization could already be in a donor’s will.

This is why it’s helpful to kick off your giving program with a quick email survey. Ask your donors a couple of questions:

• Are you interested in creating a legacy gift with our organization?
• If legacy giving is new to you, would you like to learn more?
• Have you already created a bequest or other form of legacy gift for our organization?

If you find that donors have already created legacy gifts, immediately thank them and begin actively nurturing the relationships to maintain engagement.

Conducting a survey also allows you to gauge general interest in planned giving among your donor base. Suppose donors respond that they’re interested or would like to learn more. In that case, you can flag them for outreach by sending them educational materials or directly reaching out to discuss the process.

5. Start promoting your giving program.

With all the essentials in place, you’re ready to begin earnestly promoting legacy gifts.

Lightly mention it across your various appeals and newsletters and in conversations with major donors. For donors who have already expressed interest, add them to an email stream or other outreach cadence that dives into greater detail about planned giving. Remember to have a concrete plan to guide interested donors toward a completed planned gift once they’re ready to start.

It’s also important to remember that donors will only leave a significant gift if they have a strong personal connection to the cause. Make sure you know your audience. Like with significant donations, legacy giving requires nurturing relationships with donors. 

For instance, detailed discussions of planned giving should only go to engaged, active donors with whom the topic has already been broached. Asking a one-time donor or volunteer to leave a legacy gift upon their passing isn’t an effective use of your time (and can come off as tactless).

6. Keep track of gifts over time.

Once you begin securing legacy gifts, keep track of them. This will bring a few important benefits:

• The ability to monitor the performance of your strategies and make improvements over time
• More insights into the types of donors who choose to give legacy gifts will help you more easily identify future prospects
• The ability to follow up with and actively steward your relationships with legacy donors

Track legacy giving data in your database or through a dedicated planned giving tool.

How to cut the jargon

A major barrier to legacy giving is the financial jargon that goes along with it. Bequest? Residuary? Annuities? What? 

These terms are essential for donors to know. However, it’s not your job to explain the fine financial details. Your team must understand the different types of planned gifts and their benefits. But, donors’ financial planners will best handle the nitty-gritty of exactly how they work (especially more complex annuities and trusts) and their tax implications.

Instead, use concise, emphatic language to explain the benefits of legacy gifts for both donors and your organization. You don’t want to scare them off before they understand your needs.

Keep these key benefits front of mind as you discuss planned giving:

• Benefits for donors
  • Legacy-building by sustaining a cause they love
  • Freedom to choose how the organization will use the gift
  • Tax breaks (discuss with professionals as needed)
• Benefits for nonprofits
  • Reliable, predictable revenue
  • Often unrestricted funds (although donors can restrict them)
  • Builds a more engaged community of supporters

You can have more productive conversations with donors by emphasizing these benefits and the long-term good that legacy gifts can do for your mission.

Honoring legacy gifts and growing your program

If a donor grants your organization a legacy gift, it’s crucial to express gratitude. Honor their legacy with a dedication, a plaque, or a public thank you. If the donor had any specific wishes for their contribution, such as funding a particular program, abide by those requests. It’s also a good idea to keep staff and volunteers informed of the person’s impact on your organization and cause.

Over the long run, it’s important to continue stewarding your relationships with legacy donors. Keep them engaged with special events and personal messages. This will encourage further giving (making a legacy gift has been shown to increase future annual gifts) and ensure that you’re kept in the loop if a donor chooses to make changes to their estate plans.

Many nonprofits create legacy societies, special memberships just for legacy donors, to centralize their stewardship efforts. They can be as casual or formal as you want, whatever is most aligned with your organization’s culture—just be sure to anchor your outreach and events in gratitude.

Updated Sept. 28, 2023 | Originally published in 2017

The post Legacy Gifts: What They Are and How to Get Them appeared first on Nonprofit Hub.

You wouldn’t waste time trying to convince somebody they needed something if their heart just wasn’t in it. But too often, we ignore that logic when soliciting donors. While it’s impossible to know for sure who will give and who will dodge your attempts, you can make educated decisions about where to spend time.

According to Marc Pitman, founder of The Fundraising Authority, here is where you should focus your time with donors:

Planned Gifts

For planned giving, focus on loyal, small dollar donors who have given consistently over the years. Avoid getting distracted chasing people with the appearance of wealth. Stay focused on those loyal supporters.

Major Gifts

For major gifts, spend time with those who have both the capacity to give at a major level for your nonprofit, and evidence that they actually give at that level for other causes. Don’t waste time on those with capacity who don’t exercise it.

Unassuming Donors

Treat all donors with equal respect and appreciation. Major gifts sometimes come from small, dedicated givers that go under the radar. Wealth is about how much people save, not how much they spend.

Rely on Data

Avoid assumptions – do the work to find the hard data on giving history and capacity. Money doesn’t tell the whole story. Use metrics like Pitman’s CPI rating system to evaluate capacity, philanthropy, and interest.

Beyond where to allocate time, here are some key strategies for efficient fundraising:

1. Develop a Clear Fundraising Strategy:

• Set clear fundraising goals and objectives.
• Identify target donor segments (individuals, corporations, foundations, etc.).
• Determine the fundraising methods that best suit your organization (events, online campaigns, direct mail, etc.).
• Create a timeline and budget for your fundraising efforts.

2. Build Strong Relationships:

• Cultivate a genuine and personal relationship with donors. Make them feel valued and appreciated.
• Communicate regularly through personalized messages, updates, and thank-you notes.
• Tailor your interactions based on each donor’s preferences and interests.

3. Segment Donors:

• Categorize donors based on their giving history, interests, and engagement level.
• Prioritize major donors and those with a higher potential to contribute significantly.

4. Use Data and Analytics:

• Utilize donor management software to track interactions, contributions, and preferences.
• Analyze data to identify trends and adjust your fundraising strategies accordingly.
• Use data to personalize communication and tailor fundraising appeals.

5. Plan Effective Fundraising Events:

• Organize events that resonate with your donors and align with your organization’s mission.
• Leverage events to create opportunities for donor engagement and connection.

6. Leverage Online Platforms:

• Utilize social media, crowdfunding platforms, and your organization’s website for online fundraising.
• Create compelling online campaigns with clear calls to action.

7. Showcase Impact:

• Clearly communicate how donors’ contributions are making a difference.
• Share success stories, case studies, and data illustrating the impact of their support.

8. Provide Multiple Giving Options:

• Offer various giving levels and options to accommodate different donor capacities.
• Provide recurring donation options for consistent support.

9. Respect Donors’ Time:

• Be mindful of donors’ time constraints and commitments.
• Schedule meetings or interactions at their convenience.
• Keep communication concise and focused.

10. Automate and Delegate:

• Use automation tools for routine communication, such as thank-you emails and updates.
• Delegate tasks within your team to ensure efficient donor management.

11. Continuously Evaluate and Adjust:

• Regularly assess the effectiveness of your how to fundraise strategies.
• Adapt your approach based on donor feedback, changing trends, and results.

12. Invest in Stewardship:

• Allocate time and resources to stewardship efforts, including donor recognition and engagement initiatives.

Remember that successful how to fundraise and donor relationship management require ongoing effort and dedication. By implementing these strategies and continuously refining your approach, you can how to fundraise effectively and optimize your time allocation with donors.

With ongoing effort and refinement, you can optimize your fundraising strategy and time spent with each donor.

This article was originally published in the Nonprofit Hub Magazine.

Updated: August 2023

The post How to Fundraise and Better Allocate Your Time with Donors appeared first on Nonprofit Hub.

The post Prospect Research for Planned Giving: 5 Fundamental Steps appeared first on Nonprofit Hub.

The post Finding the Right Donor Database for Your Nonprofit (Updated) appeared first on Nonprofit Hub.

Prior to the feasibility study, you should be talking with key donors and close stakeholders about your project. Talk about the need you see and your plans for addressing it. These conversations are an opportunity to ask for something often overlooked in donor relationship building—advice.

A key part of our relationships with donors is building trust. When we ask donors for their feedback and advice, we are signaling that we trust them and value their opinion. Certainly, donors can have relevant business knowledge or other nonprofit experience that can help you strengthen your project or development strategy. When donors are invited to participate in the early stages of the process, they feel a sense of ownership and are invested in seeing the project fulfilled.   

To maximize your pre-feasibility engagement, consider these two key ideas:

Start Building Your Coalition of Support

Pre-feasibility conversations are a great way to begin building a pipeline of campaign volunteers.  These are the people who will help you identify and cultivate prospective donors. Donors and stakeholders who show strong enthusiasm and support for the project should be considered as future campaign volunteers. You should be working to ensure diversity among campaign volunteers by intentionally engaging with a broad representation of community members early on. Building relationships with people in the community served will not only confirm you have the right project but will also increase buy-in and help ensure you will have a wider reach.

Listen for Common Concerns

It’s not possible or wise to act on every piece of feedback shared in pre-feasibility conversations. You should pay attention to widely held concerns or misconceptions about the proposed project. Questions raised in these early discussions can also be helpful in developing talking points and FAQs. This will ensure staff and campaign volunteers are consistently answering questions when the project moves forward. Significant concerns may also indicate the need for a messaging campaign or changes to the project before you move forward.

As an organization based in a community and asking community members to support your campaign efforts, don’t underestimate the importance of engagement early in the process. Sharing your vision, asking for feedback, and valuing the input of community leaders, donors, and stakeholders are important aspects of the strong project and campaign development.

If you would like more information on how to boost donor retention, check out this blog.

This blog was written by Sandi Frost Steensma from Kennari Consulting. Sandi is the founder of Kennari Consulting, and believes in raising expectations and building connections to create more successful fundraising in a changing landscape. For more information on their consulting services, you can visit www.kennariconsulting.com. 

The post Build Donor Engagement Before You Start A Campaign  appeared first on Nonprofit Hub.

Engaged!

After a donor has given a first-time gift, here are some ways to keep them engaged and encourage another gift.

Messages that work: 

• Ask them to consider joining a giving circle or scheduling a monthly gift.

• Tell stories of the impact of their gift
• Use the words “you” and “yours” instead of “us” and “we”

Tactics:

• Encourage a first-time donor to follow your social media. Then share stories illustrating the impact their gift is creating.

• Don’t forget your website. Share impact stories and ensure the donate button is easy to find.

• Consider setting up an email series that is triggered with a first-time gift. These emails help educate the donor on your mission and should show them how their gift is put to good use while thanking them for their support.

• Never forget a thank-you note and receipt! Consider a hand-written note or even a phone call to give it a personal touch. 

• Regular e-newsletters are a great way to share stories. Make sure the subject line is an intriguing headline, not “April Newsletter from Our Charity.”
• Invite them to attend your fundraising events

Happily Married!

Now that a donor has given a second or third time, they’ve shown commitment. Work to keep the relationship happy.

Messages that work: 

• Continue to tell stories of the impact of their gifts and use the word “you” 

• Illustrate additional annual opportunities to support your cause, such as giving days or end-of-year appeals
• Find out what speaks to these donors individually, or what is their love language? Do they want to hear how special they are? Or meet with you personally? Receive gifts? Or visit your organization to see the mission in action?

Tactics:

• Continue providing regular communication via e-newsletters, social media, website and direct mail. 

• Segment your mailing lists so that loyal donors receive exclusive content.

• In your thank you notes, remind them it is “you” that makes the mission happen.

• Thank your donors in your annual report

• Invite them to meet in person to get to know them. This is a great way for boards to get involved.

• Learn their giving patterns and ask accordingly.
• If the donor is approaching retirement age and mentions it, respond to that cue by asking if you can send information about legacy planning.

Retired Together!

Donors that have given consistently each year for 5 years are likely to stay loyal to your organization. The easiest way to lose that relationship is for the organization to ignore the donor. The love must continue!

Messages that work: 

• Create family-oriented volunteer opportunities

• Honor them by asking them to serve on the board or on a committee to plan or host an event
• Approach them about lead gift opportunities for a Capital Campaign

Tactics:

• Continue the tactics used early in the relationship such as regular communication and events

• Invite them to behind-the-scenes tours of your organization

• Consider hosting exclusive events for high net worth donors and their friends 

• For very involved donors, create a photo book featuring both your mission and the way their family supported it (for example, photos from galas, volunteering or a named space in your building.)  
• Never, ever forget a thank-you note. Handwritten thank-you notes and phone calls are a nice extra touch.

´Til Death Do Us Part!

Long-time donors are likely to give a legacy gift to their favorite organizations. With continued love, your organization could be one of them.

Messages that work: 

• Ask them: how can we help your passion live on through our mission?

• Could there be a naming opportunity available?
• Might they contribute to your endowment or set up an endowed gift that will benefit your organization in perpetuity?

Tactics:

• Just because a donor has shown so much commitment doesn’t mean you can stop regular communication. Respect their communication wishes but be sure to call them occasionally or meet with them in person. 

• Educate yourself on the many ways people can leave a legacy gift. 

• Get to know the donor’s family. 

• Meet with estate attorneys and financial advisors.   

• Remember, you may not know about the gift until after the donor passes away so treat every donor accordingly. 
• Be sure to thank and steward the family after the death of the donor, even if they didn’t leave a legacy gift. 

Relationships are key to fundraising and with the right messages and tactics, your organization will find true love!

For more on boosting donor retention, check out this blog!

The post Romancing Your Donors: Showing the Love to Donors of all Levels appeared first on Nonprofit Hub.

Your ability to retain donors and keep them engaged can directly impact your nonprofit for a few reasons:

• Retained donors can be more easily guided towards making larger gifts in the future.
• Building a solid base of retained support that already feels connected to your mission is essential. Acquiring new donors through constant outreach is much more expensive over time.
• With concrete retention strategies, you can make the most of increases in new donors. This is especially relevant amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 year-end giving season (which is shaping up to be a big one).

Whether you’re looking to revamp your existing approach or start from scratch, we’ve got you covered. Here are the essentials to keep in mind when building or updating your nonprofit’s donor retention strategy.

Use integrated software whenever possible.

Software integrations allow your various platforms to freely share data as needed. Integrations from your donor-facing tools to your central database are especially important, as more comprehensive and easy-to-analyze data is invaluable for strengthening your retention efforts.

Your donation software and marketing platforms are the key places to focus on when it comes to database integrations. 

Properly configured, these integrations will ensure that all incoming donation and engagement data is properly associated with the right donors, campaigns, and/or marketing sources. This is an essential foundation for strategic retention, as smarter data makes it easier to identify problem areas where donors might be slipping away.

Start tracking your retention rates.

To improve your retention rate over time, you first have to track it! With incoming data properly reported with accurate dates and associated donors, campaigns, and sources, you should be able to easily calculate retention rates across time periods within your CRM.

Immediately begin looking for big-picture trends. Consider the various virtual and online-only fundraising ideas you’ve rolled out in 2020 and answer these questions:

• How many donors did you retain from one campaign or virtual event to the next? 
• Which types of campaigns or events saw the highest retention rates?
• Which types saw the fewest donors return to give over time?

Understanding these trends can quickly show you how effectively you’re currently retaining donors as well as which tactics do and don’t help in the process. If one campaign or event saw especially high donor retention, plan to do it again!

Dig deeper into trends and sources.

Once you’ve begun tracking your retention rates and identified big-picture trends, it’s time to dig deeper. Correlate your retention data and initial insights with the specific marketing sources or campaign strategies that contributed to them. 

These could include anything from the number of direct mail recipients who you retained from one letter-writing campaign to the next, to the rate at which donors acquired through Google Grant advertising choose to stick around over time. The exact areas you choose to investigate will vary based on the particular outlets and engagement strategies that you’ve employed during that specific time period. The main goal is to answer questions like:

• Which specific engagement or marketing strategies in your campaigns or events generated higher retention rates?
• Do donors acquired through particular marketing sources stay engaged at higher or lower rates?
• If a campaign or event saw poor retention, which strategies might have contributed to that shortfall?

Create an action plan.

As you learn more about how many donors you’ve retained, and why, you can begin outlining actionable ways to both capitalize on those trends and address shortcomings. 

For example, if your retention rate is higher among donors who gave through email appeals, look for ways to funnel more donors towards engaging with you via email. If you retain few donors through social media sources, take a new approach to make a more memorable impression with peer-to-peer tactics or stronger content.

Actively tracking your retention is important beyond campaign-to-campaign considerations, too. Use this data to inform your overall fundraising strategy for the year. For instance, are you pursuing more major gifts in 2021? Start your donor prospecting process by looking for individuals whose support you’ve retained for a long time or who show signs of becoming a highly-engaged, long-lasting supporter.

As the nonprofit sector continues adapting to the challenges of the virtual fundraising era, having a solid base of retained support on your side will be more valuable than ever before. If your approach to donor retention could use a refresh (or if you’ve never had time to give it much thought before), now is definitely the time.

Remember, donor retention is an ongoing process, not a one-time strategy update. By using integrated tools, actively tracking the metrics you’ll need, and knowing where to dig deeper, you can build a sustainable retention strategy that delivers increasing value over the long run.

The post How to Boost Online Donor Retention appeared first on Nonprofit Hub.

Lisa is the chief fablanthropist for Fablanthropy, helping nonprofits reach the intersection of fabulous and philanthropy. As she talked with Randy, she discussed a few reservations donors might have to set up planned giving. 

She said donors tend to be hesitant when talking about planned giving because no one really wants to think about where their money will go when they’re gone. We know we won’t be able to personally speak for what we leave behind. So, if you can help your donors accomplish a meaningful goal and help them curate a plan for when they’re gone, you can establish a level of comfort when it comes to these tough conversations.

This is a process, and it’s not easy. That’s why Lisa stressed that building these donor relationships is so important. It can take years, so you need patience. But if you show dedication to your donors, you can help them achieve their life’s goals in a way they feel confident about their legacy.

Check out the full interview with Lisa Chimola here:

The post Today’s Talk with Lisa Chimola appeared first on Nonprofit Hub.

However, during these discussions, many organizations ask the same question: “How do we attract more donors?” While this is important for spreading awareness, it’s not the most effective way to raise money. 

In fact, there’s often a negative return on investment when it comes to attracting new prospects. Research shows that it’s much more difficult and expensive to attract new supporters than it is to retain the ones you already have.

Start boosting your donor retention rate by focusing on those who are just giving to your nonprofit for the first time. We’ll start this guide by explaining why these new donors are so important to this strategic approach. 

Why First-Time Donor Retention is Important

New donor retention plays a major role in your overall retention rate. This has a lot to do with the power behind a second donation. The second donation a supporter makes to a nonprofit is often called the “golden donation” because it signifies that that individual will likely give for many more years to come. 

According to data from the Fundraising Effectiveness Project found in Bloomerang’s donor retention guide, the donor retention rate for those who contribute the “golden donation,” also known as the repeat donor retention rate, averages at about 60%. Meanwhile, new donors who have only given once only have a little over 20% likelihood of contributing again. You can see this represented in the image below: 

The drastically lower new donor retention rate means that focusing your efforts here offers the greatest potential for fundraising success.

We recommend the following strategies to boost your first-time donor retention rate to see the greatest impact on retention: 

1. Call your new donors. 
2. Send welcome kits.
3. Show the impact of donors’ contributions. 

As we walk through these top suggestions, consider how you can incorporate them into your nonprofit’s strategy to boost your new supporter relationships. 

1. Calling Your Donors

One of the best ways to instantly engage your supporters is to call them on the phone or use video conferencing tools in order to establish a personal connection through one-on-one conversations. 

This Bloomerang study found that donors who received more than one phone call within 90 days of their first donation were retained 58% of the time compared to the 33% donor retention rate for those who did not receive a phone call. 

Therefore, we know that phone calls have a positive impact on your first-time donor retention rate. So how do you make the most of these phone calls? 

First, make sure to collect supporters’ correct phone numbers and save them to your donor database. Prior to each call, log in to review individuals’ data such as donation dates, amounts, and campaigns they contributed to. 

Armed with this information, you can structure your call: 

• Ask them how they’re doing. You always want to make sure that you’re putting the wellbeing of your supporter first. 

• Thank them for their contribution. Specifically mention the amount, the campaign it was given to, its specific impact and how that impact will advance your overall mission. 

• Get to know them. You might not yet know why a first-time donor has chosen to support you, how they heard about you, and/or why they’re passionate about your cause.
• Remind them of your mission. Casually talk about the broad needs in the community and how your philanthropic initiatives are working to fulfill those needs. 
• Finally, mention the plans for the future. Do you have another upcoming campaign or event? Tell your supporters about other involvement opportunities and invite them to stay engaged with your mission.

No matter how you approach it, make sure to call within the first 90 days (preferably within the first 30 days) of the initial donation. 

2. Welcome Kits

While calling supporters can help establish a personalized connection, sending a welcome kit can bolster the relationship with the organization. 

Your welcome kits, whether sent by email or through the mail should, of course, say “thank you.” But, primarily, they should speak to the burgeoning relationship by telling the donor that you recognize they are new to the “family” of donors. Donors like it when you tell them what kind of donor that they are because it shows that you’re paying attention. Saying things like “Thank you for your first gift” or “Welcome to our community of supporters” in an exclusive piece that only new donors get will make recipients feel like they’re now part of something special.

Including a unique thank-you letter for first-time donors, brochures, past issues of print newsletters, and even small premiums like stickers or seed packets will make the kit seem substantial but not overwhelming or wasteful.

You can include material that leads supporters to additional ways to get involved, so that they can continue contributing either financially, with their time, or by attending events. 

But how do you lead them to stay involved? Provide educational resources so they better understand what your organization does and why it’s important for the community. 

Use welcome emails as an opportunity to arm your supporters with the education they need to feel connected to your cause. Try crafting emails for your new supporters that mention: 

• Your organization’s mission
• Needs in your community
• Your next big project or initiative

By providing additional information, you can deepen supporters’ understanding and their connection. 

If you’re having difficulty getting started with welcome kits, we recommend using and customizing a template to ensure you don’t forget any integral information. You can find great resources for templates online!

3. Showing Impact

Research shows that supporters love to know the impact that they’ve created through their giving. After all, people give in order to impact their communities and the causes they care about. There are several methods for showing supporters’ impact on your mission, including: 

• Include it in your thank-you message. Frame your thank-you message to show supporters that their contributions are integral in helping you achieve your goals.

• Incorporate impact stories in future communications. Subsequent newsletters and appeals sent to first-time donors should include stories of impact, giving those donors the chance to continue to make a difference.
• Use social media. Social media is a great place to show supporters (and prospective supporters) the impact that gifts have. Photos and videos of service recipients, whether they’re humans, animals, or the environment – will give followers a tangible sense of what gifts go towards.

When you craft your impact statements, be sure to put it in terms that highlight the supporters’ actions. To practice this, try completely removing the first-person narrative language. This means avoiding “we,” “our,” “I,” and “my” and replacing them with “you” and “your.”

For example, consider the following statements: 

Our organization now has the resources to feed 25 additional families this Thanksgiving thanks to your generous gift of $100. 

Versus: 

Your generous donation of $100 has helped provide a full Thanksgiving dinner for an additional 25 people this year. On behalf of them, thank you for your support. 

The second statement shows the supporter the impact of their gift and how important they are to your mission (which is what they feel driven to support). It’s framed in a way that highlights the supporter’s actions and shows appreciation for their involvement. 

In addition to framing your impact statements properly, be sure to tell stories throughout the year that also demonstrate the large-scale impact of gifts. This guide explains how including constituents’ personal stories in your marketing outreach can drive continued donations.

Remember, the greatest opportunity your organization has to boost fundraising through your donor retention rate is by increasing your first-time donor retention rate. This means you need to make a strong first impression on your donors right away. 

These three best practices enable you to establish personal donor connections, provide necessary educational resources, and show the impact they have on your mission—which can directly boost this retention rate.

The post First-Time Donor Retention: 3 Nonprofit Best Practices appeared first on Nonprofit Hub.

Ultimately, it’s up to you to make sure your organization’s data is secure ― and the stakes are high. A 2016 study showed an average cost of $7 million to companies that experienced a data breach that required their victims to be notified. This number doesn’t include non-numerical costs like loss of trust and reputation which, for many nonprofits, is the most important asset of all.

Building relationships with your donors takes time. Those relationships, based on trust and empathy, can be shattered in an instant with a data breach that exposes their personal information. As a nonprofit, good stewardship of your donors’ money and information yields long-term rewards. Protecting your donors’ information saves money and reputations in the short and long term. 

How can you protect donor data while you’re working with third-party vendors, then? As an IT professional who’s worked with nonprofits for many years, I have some simple recommendations that will keep you and your donors safe from increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks.

Update, Update, Update

It’s the simplest, but most important step you can take. Update your organization’s perimeter protections, your frontline defenses and make sure you’re keeping up on them. This includes performing regular malware scans, updating your antivirus software and keeping up to date on payment for your protection programs. 

You’ll also want to appoint one person or department to keep a regular schedule of updates and virus scans. For larger organizations with IT departments, it should be a regular part of the department’s activities. Smaller nonprofits will want to designate one person to coordinate updates for every computer and every software product that deals with data.

Train Your Staff

Your employees and volunteers can be your best resources, but they can also be your greatest weakness. We recommend that all nonprofit clients hold regular training sessions or, at the very least, send regular updates to staff and volunteers about the latest malware, ransomware, and phishing schemes. 

Consider providing online courses in scam detection for anyone who might work with sensitive donor data. Make sure everyone knows federal and international privacy regulations and is in compliance with the most recent changes. At the very least, make sure you’re hosting an annual IT security awareness training session.

Don’t assume that everyone dealing with donor data has the same level of breach awareness that you do. Provide your staff with detailed descriptions of the different types of cyber-attacks possible.

Finally, test their tech-savviness with drills. Send out a fake phishing email to employees every once in a while. Ask your vendors to do the same. This will help identify who could use more help and who needs more information. You might be surprised, too, by who takes the bait: sometimes it’s a higher-level exec who’s always in such a hurry that they’ll click anything in front of them. 

Establish Clear Rules of Engagement with Your Vendors — And Stick to Them

It’s a great idea to set up a questionnaire for each of your third-party vendors. This will help you establish areas of particular data vulnerability. You’ll want to know several things, including: 

• How much do they know about federal privacy requirements?
• What kind of security protocols are in place on their equipment and their networks?
• Do they carry their own professional liability insurance and if so, how much? 
• If they will have access to printed donor data, what physical precautions are they taking to secure the storage and transfer locations of that printed data?  

Establish a point person for each vendor’s data security. Make sure they agree with you about the importance of protecting donor data. Conduct frequent check-ins with your vendors to make sure they’re still compliant. 

Secure Your Connections

A recent catastrophic data breach is thought to have been accomplished because a third-party vendor employee took a work laptop with access to their client’s sensitive HIPAA-regulated data to a coffee shop. From there, it was frighteningly simple for spyware to infiltrate the employee’s computer, access all that sensitive data, and wreak havoc. Hundreds of thousands of patients had their medical data compromised because one employee chose to work from a coffee shop on a Wi-Fi connection that wasn’t secure. 

Make sure your staff knows the difference between a secure and a public Wi-Fi connection. And make sure that any equipment with access to donor information — including telephones, and equipment belonging to vendors — is working on secure connections at all times. 

Be Accountable

At the end of the day, the loss of money, trust and reputation caused by a data breach will devastate you and your vendors. Be accountable to each other. Conduct self-checks consistently, remain in communication and compliance, and your treasured relationships with both vendors and donors, just like your data architecture, will stay secure.

———

Founded in 1987, Phoenix Innovate is Detroit’s only marketing firm guaranteeing results. We focus on understanding, finding and keeping audiences. The results are transformative and sustainable. Our immersive approach harnesses a powerful combination of research, data, vision and creativity to build emotionally-engaged, lasting relationships for our non-profit and for-profit clients. We call this Authentic Marketing.

The post Protect Donor Data When Working with Third-Party Vendors appeared first on Nonprofit Hub.