Engagement: The Donor Retention Myth

I know all the rage currently is to discuss both communication/giving channels and engagement as key

tools for donor retention. If you've never been responsible for creating and delivering a strategy that resulted in donor retention then these items would be incredibly logical to focus on. The problem is it doesn't really work that way. You can't create something new and different with an old mindset, ie the dude on the right :-)

If donor retention is a desired outcome for you it begins with your organizational structure and culture , characteristics of your staff and the environment that is created for them to perform within. Retention is not an outcome as a result of doing X to another person. There are a couple of accounting phrases worth a closer look: FIFO and LIFO are keys to what creates extraordinary increases in both donor satisfaction, their sense of connection and ultimately their decision whether to stay longer. Retention is a direct result of the environment that is created for the workforce responsible for delivering the donor experience. What goes in is what comes out.

If you want to begin to understand what steps that you need to take in order to increase the lifetime value of a donor to your organization start with walking out of your office door. What is the environment with the staff and how is their energy? is there laughter? are people talking about getting together after work? is there any highly engaged group having a conversation about creating something extraordinary for their customers?

Suggesting that engagement is the focus of generating retention is the equivalent of suggesting you need plates in order to have a great restaurant. Of course you need engagement, just like you need plates. However, if there isn't a spirit of creativity, sense of pride and commitment to an extraordinary dining experience in the kitchen and with the wait staff that dining experience will not create a desire for the customer to return. 

Start devouring information on creating extraordinary teams and begin the process of understand the unique talents of each person that works in your fundraising operation. Dorothy put it best in the final scene when leaving the city of Oz. It really starts with understanding your own backyard and developing an appreciation for the unique talents of your team. These are the first gifts you need to cultivate in order for others to decide doing the same.

The Art Of Donor Retention

I just got back from the AFP conference in San Diego. Great energy, 4000+ people and it was wonderful to see my good friend Bob Carter leading many of the general sessions. The exhibit hall was overflowing with lots of companies doing some fascinating and interesting work. Donor retention has certainly become a hot topic and there were many  companies demonstrating their new tools to help address this challenging problem facing the nonprofit industry.

Here's the rub: the key to successfully addressing donor retention is not really about a tool. Having tools that provide you the information to make good decisions is critical but the fact is the way we have thought about fundraising needs to shift.

You could give me a Stradivarius violin but it would be useless in my hands unless I changed significantly so that I could use such an instrument to its fullest potential. When my team and I created a new fund-raising model that produced almost 300% increase in number of donors and increased donor retention at the same percentage Facebook had not been founded. We did not have anywhere close to the connection tools as we do today. Yet with all our ability to connect our retention rates continue to plummet! 

There is a significant culture shift that needs to take place within an organization in order to successfully increase donor attention. At the core of this shift is a new methodology of measuring what is successful in the business of raising money. The New Science Of Philanthropy has developed such a dash board from proven techniques that dramatically increased donor retention rates and exceeded capital campaign goals by 180%.  In the marketplace today you'll hear all sorts of suggestions about stuff to do to a donor in order to keep them. There's one simple key to turning around or understanding how to impact retention and that is you simply have to rethink what is. 

We have built an industry around measuring a single monetary transaction, yet we

speak a language of transformation with the most critical element being the quality of the relationship. I would suggest that there is not a single relationship in your life that is of significant value or meaningful because of the number of times you are called, taken to lunch or the average length of time each visit lasts.

There are multiple layers to creating a successful culture that can impact the quality of the donor experience. It begins with organizations understanding that in order for donors to desire a meaningful connection to an organization's mission, the organization first has to to create an extraordinary environment in which their employees can create such an experience for themselves. Seth Godin refers to people making their art. Donor retention starts with a nonprofit culture understanding that they are a blank canvas on which donors paint and create a life of significance and meaning.