Track, Retain, & Make the Most of New Donors
Tracking, tracking, tracking. If you’re familiar with Cogeo, you know how much our experts prioritize this step in the process. That’s because tracking your donors allows you and your team to fundraise smarter, not harder.
Cogeo has put together this simple guide to make sure your nonprofit is taking note of all the important aspects of your new donor and making the most of their donation.`
Step 1: Add to Database or Customer Relationship Manager (CRM)
In order to properly track a new donor, your nonprofit should have some type of tracking capabilities within your organization. Many donor platforms have these built-in and many tracking systems offer their products for free to nonprofits. Cogeo recommends Salesforce Nonprofit.
In the most basic of situations, you should at least track these donors on a spreadsheet and then plan in the coming months to move them into a secure platform.
As you add them in, make sure to take note of:
First Name
Last Name
Email Address
Phone Number
Address (Physical)
Gift Amount
Gift Date
Filling in these fields will allow you to organize your follow up to the donor, either by gift date, size, or preferred method of communication.
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Step 2: Separate into Campaigns
It’s important to understand the source of your organization’s donations so you know which areas to target and at what time. At a minimum, create 3-4 campaigns at the beginning of each fiscal year to separate your main funding streams: individuals, foundations, corporations, and government (if applicable). It is also helpful to create campaigns for one-offs throughout the year such as annual appeals or fundraising events.
As new individual donors come in, take note of their giving amount. Depending on how much they’ve donated, they’ll be further organized into subgroups within a campaign. For example, if they’ve donated a significant amount, otherwise known as a major gift (at Cogeo, a major gift equals or exceeds 1/1000th or .1% of your annual budget), they should be separated from the other donors. These donors should be placed in a Major Gift Campaign. All other donors can remain in an Annual Giving Campaign. See step 3 for further details on how to properly steward your donors.
Recommended campaign structure:
Individuals 2020
Major Donors
2020 Spring Appeal Donors
2020 End of Year Appeal Donors
2020 Gala Donors
Foundations 2020
Corporations 2020
Step 3: Set Stewardship Opportunities
If your CRM is similar to Salesforce, you’ll be able to set alerts and tasks to maintain steady and successful stewardship. Otherwise, take advantage of any calendar systems or task management tools you have available.
The major gift donors will be treated differently than the annual giving donors. They will be thanked personally, preferably from the Executive Director and Board President or Chairman, and will be regularly notified of the updates and progress within your organization.
The annual giving donors should be given the opportunity to be regularly updated, but will otherwise continue to receive your organization’s annual outreach that includes a mass update and a chance to donate.
You’ll want to begin building a relationship with each major gift donor. At the most basic level, you should plan to provide them with the updates previously mentioned. There should be three quarterly updates followed by a request to meet with the donor one-on-one (either in-person or over Zoom or phone) to share an annual update and ask for a donation. For clarity, the follow-up will go as such:
Immediate: Initial thank you and welcome
3 months: Stewardship 1
6 months: Stewardship 2
9 months: Stewardship 3
12 months: Schedule a one-on-one meeting
Use the task management tools you have to make sure that each major donor’s stewardship touch points are scheduled. As donors begin to understand their involvement in the success of your nonprofit, they may become more active and participatory. Track the activity, conversations had, and connections provided within your database as a contribution to the future of your nonprofit.
For all other donors, be sure that they receive their annual outreach. However, make sure that additional activity within the organization, such as volunteering, is tracked as well. While these donors may not have the capacity to become a major gift donor, they have an important role in the success of the organization.
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Step 4: Analyze the Data
At the end of each fiscal year, take the time to analyze the data you’ve collected. By reviewing and considering this data carefully, you’ll learn where there is room for growth within your organization and be able to maximize your results year over year. Most CRMs will allow you to easily pull reports on the year’s activity.
You should be able to learn:
What time of year yielded the most donation dollars
Who made the most significant contributions
How (and how often) your donors were stewarded throughout the year
After pulling these reports and analyzing, consider the question: Was your current fundraising strategy effective or do you have more relationship-building to do?
As well, take a look at which foundations funded your projects the previous year so you can line up your foundation outreach calendar for the following. Take note of your corporate donors and sponsors to see if there are any opportunities (i.e. a new event) to expand their giving.