Donor recognition is the clearest way to tell donors that their gifts matter, show them their impact, and create an ongoing connection that leads to future donations.
But there’s more to donor recognition than a simple thank-you email, and your donor data can help. Donor data helps nonprofits know who to recognize, how to recognize them, and when to recognize them. In order to effectively recognize (and ultimately retain) their donors, nonprofits should collect and analyze the following types of donor data:
Contact Information
Demographics
Donation History
Organizational History
Communication Preferences
Other Nonprofit Interests
In this guide, we’ll look at why you should collect this information from donors and how to put it to use in your recognition program.
While it’s great to collect donor information at the time of donation—likely via your online donation form—don’t worry if you’re missing some of these data points. Donor data can also be collected in the aftermath of a donation. Partner with a third-party data provider to automatically add or update your donors’ information.
Contact Information
Collecting accurate contact information is a critical step to being able to thank your donors. Without up-to-date information, your gratitude isn’t reaching the people who matter.
According to Fundraising Letters’ guide to donor thank yous, only 19% of new donors will give again after their first donation. Of the 81% who never make a second donation, many churn simply because the recipient nonprofit doesn’t have or utilize their contact information.
Hopefully, you’re already collecting your donors’ names and email addresses when they make their donations. But these two data points represent only a few of the many types of contact data you should track. Generally, collect the following contact information from donors:
Name
Email address
Title
Physical address
Phone number
Social media profiles
Even as you collect these data points, your donors’ contact information isn’t static and will change over time as people move, get married, and change jobs. AccuData’s guide to data hygiene notes that inaccurate data costs U.S. businesses $3.1 trillion annually. Thus, don’t stop after one round of updates. Plan to routinely review and refresh your donors’ contact information before each major campaign.
Demographics
Donor recognition is more than just sending a thank you note after each donation. In order to truly recognize donors, you need to get more specific—and personal—in your approach. Start with tracking the following demographic data:
Real estate ownership
Employer
Job title
Religion
Gender
Stock ownership
Real estate ownership
Age (and birthday)
Wedding anniversary
Children (and their names and ages)
Pets
Hobbies
When you track these data points, you can better personalize your recognition efforts to donors’ interests and needs. For example, you might decide to use this information to send donors a personalized thank you note on their birthday or anniversary. If you have their job information on file, you could even include specific information about how to apply for a matching gift with their employer.
In nearly every case, tracking demographic data allows you to more accurately and appropriately tailor your recognition program and show donors that they are valued as individuals and their donations matter.
Donation History
To appropriately thank your donors, it’s critical to keep track of donors’ past giving, including the recency, frequency, and typical amount. Even if you don’t have strict donor tiers, you’ll likely want to recognize a large donor in different, more expansive ways than you do a small one.
Similarly, you might thank recurring monthly donors differently than one-time donors. Tracking this information allows you to quickly adapt your donor recognition to the many different ways donors give. On the other hand, for supporters with an extensive donation history, you might plan a donor recognition wall as a permanent, visual marker of their long-standing contribution.
Additionally, when you know how much donors have given in the past, you can estimate how much to ask from them in future giving campaigns to maximize their donations. As a best practice, include this amount when sending your initial thank-you note for tax filing purposes. Many donors will want this information as a record for tax filing purposes.
Organizational History
Donations are only one of a variety of ways that your supporters connect with your organization. Many of your donors are likely also volunteers, board members, attendees of your events, and advocates for your cause.
Ultimately, when you thank supporters—in whatever way you decide to thank them—you want to be as specific as possible about what you’re thanking them for. Thus, in addition to tracking their donation history, it’s essential to track all the ways in which they touch your organization for the better, including their:
Volunteer history
Event attendance
Advocacy activity
Additional roles in your organization, like board membership
Plus, if you keep track of how you’ve recognized your donors in the past and how they responded, you can adjust your future recognition strategies accordingly. For instance, if your last recognition event was poorly attended, you may want to try something different.
Communication Preferences
In general, it’s a good idea to know your donors’ communication preferences. But this is particularly important when you’re trying to recognize their support. If you’re communicating your gratitude to donors in the wrong way, you may be doing more harm than good. For example, supporters won’t see a message when it’s sent through a channel they don’t use.
Thus, plan to track your donors’ answers to the following questions:
How do your donors want to be contacted? Via email, phone, text messaging, direct mail, or social media?
When do they want to be contacted? Morning, afternoon, or evening?
How often do they want to be contacted? Daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly?
What types of messages do they want to receive? Thank yous, newsletters, donation and volunteer requests, or event opportunities?
For example, you might decide to recognize a donor who prefers receiving communication via social media by giving them a shout-out on Facebook or Twitter. On the other hand, if a donor indicates they don’t want to be in the public eye, you might reach out to them by email or phone to thank them individually.
Other Nonprofit Interests
In addition to collecting data regarding your donors’ relationship to your nonprofit, you should also consider data appends for information about the other causes they’re involved in. These might include their:
Charitable contributions to other nonprofits
Political contributions
Tracking this information can help you understand your donors’ motivations for giving and further tailor your recognition to address that motivation. If, for example, you notice your donors tend to also support another local nonprofit, you could partner up to host a shared donor recognition event that exposes your organization to a broader donor base.
As you can see, data can do more than simply record basic donor and donation info. Donor data is crucial for personalizing otherwise generic forms of gratitude and creating long-lasting relationships with donors.
But don’t stop at donor recognition. Now that you have comprehensive donor data at your fingertips, you can use it for a range of engagement and fundraising purposes. For example, you can leverage your data to encourage matching gifts, find new donors who match existing profiles, and market events to the right people on the right channels.
This is a guest post from Gabrielle Perham of AccuData.
Gabrielle is the Director of Marketing for AccuData Integrated Marketing. She joined the organization in 2017 and possesses more than 15 years of experience in strategic marketing, branding, communications, and digital marketing. She earned a B.S. in Marketing and an M.B.A in Marketing Management from the University of Tampa.