Modernizing Yesterday’s 8 Basics Of Donor Retention To Achieve Retention

I was recently reading a blog post where the author was commenting on another blog post about the eight basics of donor retention. The author correctly notes that the list of eight has pretty much been the same for almost 2 decades. Well, if the list has been sort of the same, and our retention rates are as dismal as they are, then it is logical that the list may no longer be relevant in its current form.

I have professionally wrestled with this list over a decade and a half ago. My team and I believed that

the items on this list were NOT capable of creating the outcomes we wanted. We wanted to dramatically increase our donor retention rates. After making significant changes in how we approached the items on this list we were able to increase donor retention well over 250%. The adjustments we made to each of these basics were as follows.

1. Listen more (traditional)

We realized we couldn't just listen more we needed to listen effectively. In order to be effective it required us to ask the right questions. What we learned over time was asking the right questions and listening to our donors response gave us the tools to be listened to when we designed a communication for them. Listening more without purpose or design was meaningless. 

2. Produce valuable content (traditional)

Over a decade we produced an incredible amount of content. The kind of content that was read at the highest percentages was content that was of personal value to the recipient. A foundation of any effective donor retention strategy requires content that is of personal value to the recipient. We learned that when you produced something for everyone it was not for anyone. Just producing content was not enough.

3. Communicate consistently (traditional)

After generating thousands and thousands of pieces of content we began to see a pattern. What emerged from analyzing our readership was individuals were uniquely consistent not globally consistent. This meant that if we were going to communicate consistently, and be effective, we needed to define what was consistent by individual donors.

4. Recognize contributions (traditional)

On the surface this seems fairly easy and something that our industry has focused a lot on over the past four or five decades. Recognition is critical, but again that looks different for individuals. Be careful in creating global recognition strategies, while they are appreciated global actions will not have the impact of a highly personalized recognition plan arrived at by asking the right questions and then listening intently to the response.

5. Show outcomes prove impact (traditional)

This seems quite logical yet in building an initiative that dramatically increased retention we learned that we needed to slightly adjust how we approached this item. What we learned was that we didn't need to demonstrate what we had accomplished in the past tense what we needed to do is design a communication strategy that validated the donors investment decision. As close to real time as we could we had our supporters part of major milestones. We celebrated our partnership and are shared impact so it was always clear that we were in this together. Designing communications as if we're partners is a critical element in shaping all conversations and communications with key donors, if your goal is improved retention.

6. Be responsive (traditional)

Our sense was being responsive was a minimal expectation. Who among us doesn't expect a timely call

returned or a gift acknowledged personally and quickly. Instead what would help us stand out in a very crowded philanthropic marketplace is anticipating their needs and being proactive in our communication. This required us to ask good questions listen to the answers and then design a proactive communication strategy that would wow our donors. Designing retention strategies with minimal expectations will rarely reap strong results.

7. Exude positivity (traditional)

Well of course it's important to be positive. What we learned was designing a ride for our donors that was wrapped in a feeling of passion for our shared belief was incredibly impactful in their desire to stay connected and create a tomorrow that we jointly believed was possible.

8. Put the donor first (traditional)

We started believing that this was true, but it turned out to really only being a half truth. Putting the donor first or being donor centered in the traditional manner will not dramatically impact retention. What we learned was what we needed to put first, and this required significant understanding of the individuals we worked with, was who the donor was looking to become. Tom Asacker, friend and author, was interviewed recently where he spoke about individuals each having their own personal narrative that is always evolving. To be effective in donor retention you need to understand the momentum of the individual narratives your donors are creating for themselves. You also have to put that evolution in the context of your mission. Understanding how those two things work together is probably the most impactful ingredient in designing a sophisticated, impactful donor retention strategy. It requires asking the right questions, understanding their life stage and effectively listening in order to create strategy.

Retention requires new thinking drawn from real experience and not traditional best practice.

Best Practice On Finding Best Practice

These are extraordinary times in the nonprofit sector. Never before have we had the opportunity to have such an incredible amount of relevant and real-time information that gives us the ability to advance our organizations by enabling strategic thinking. However, it is also a time of highly contagious misinformation.

The phrase best practice gets thrown around quite often in the many linkedin groups I participate in. While reading a blog recently about a data scientist who has thoughts on improving donor retention, I wondered what kind of an expert is this scientist. The author seemed to suggest that because this person called himself a data scientist than they were a de facto expert on the topic of donor retention. When reading his individual background I couldn't find a time in his career where he was responsible for impacting donor retention at any time. Where did this new expertise come from I wondered?

Social media has given rise to an extraordinary amount of experts. When you look up the term expert

the word experience is associated with the definition. I suppose one might feel comfortable seeing a gynecologist for open-heart surgery. But I believe, however, when it comes to our personal health we may choose to do a little research on the professional experience of the people we decide to trust our lives to.

Putting our professional lives in the hands of “experts” that have little or no experience on the topics they are providing guidance on is a significant risk for all of us. At a time when anyone can publish information to the world it is also a time for us to be incredibly good at weeding out the faux experts, whom massively outnumber real thoughtful professionals.

So I'm thinking that there is a place in the world for an expert scientist...  How many "experts" do you think read this?

6 Ways To Be An Expert.....Even If You're Not An Expert! 

Wishing you a great second half of 2013.

Connecting or Engagement?

The distinction between engagement and connecting is significant. We have all been to a concert where you liked it but were not wowed.  In contrast have you been to a concert where you couldn't wait to purchase tickets to see the act again? Which one of those connected with you? Each of them technically engaged you.

The idea of engagement has its roots in stewarding our donors on our terms. In many ways is just more of the same type of thinking that brought us the retention rates that our industry experiences today.

Livingston Taylor teaches at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. He has also written a book on the art of building an audience. It is these principles that would serve the nonprofit community well to understand in order to build an emotionally engaged donor base.

Connecting with people in an emotional way that has them wanting more is not achieved through a

statistical number of communications or by a multichannel delivery system. An emotional connection can only be achieved through both the understanding of the individual you're looking to connect with and a delivery that reveals your authentic self.

One of the secrets to dramatically growing your donor retention rates is directly connected to your ability to build an emotionally engaged audience. Take a few moments and enjoy these works of art on how to connect with and build an audience.

Measuring What Can Now Be Measured

In many ways, in the business of raising money, we create based on what we measure. What we measure seems so small in relation to what really matters and what is now possible to measure. Our focus on measuring the quantity and size of transactions, while important, limits our view and ultimately our strategies.

How helpful would be for us to know more about our donors than just an understanding of their recent transactions with us? What industry are they in? What are the current conversations going on within that industry? What do their personal and professional networks looks like? What is being talked about in those different networks? What is the sentiment in each, at this moment!?

Our donors/customers do not live in silos. They exist in a networked world and those networks affect how they think, act and what they believe. In many ways the world that our donors are immersed in creates a lens for their decision making strategies.

The ability today to learn and understand much more about our customers creates extraordinary

opportunity for the nonprofit community to design and deliver donor experiences. If our focus remains solely on the transaction then we will limit our organization's ability to maximize its potential.

Today we must have the capacity to pull data from the structured and unstructured world to inform our decision-making process. What is in store for your donor knowledge system  in the year ahead?

Fosbury Flop Your Culture

I was recently reading a thread inside of the LinkedIn group, it was a group of predominantly young professionals. Their conversation centered around using Instagram  as an annual report platform. At one level it was encouraging to read about such creativity on another it was evidence of the strength of the gravitational pull to keep things the way they have always been.

Limiting creativity to exist in our old structures will be incremental at best in improving the experience our donors appear to be craving. For example when you look at this image what do you see? An old woman?

Most likely you've seen this image 1 million times before. You know that one view is an old woman and another view is young women. Knowing this from your experience your mind can quickly turn off its ability to see something new. For example as you look at that image do see the pixels? Do you see it being displayed on the computer screen that was built somewhere? Do you understand what was going on in the lives of the people who built that screen? Where did it travel from to be in your hands? Experience is an incredibly powerful thing, but the opposite of every truth is another equal truth. Experience can also be very limiting if you aren't able to keep it in check.

In the summer of 1968 Dick Fosbury changed high jumping forever. His unique methodology for jumping the high bar changed the sport and had the Olympic Committee scratching its head. Dick discovered a better way and changed the sport, for the better.

It's possible that your donors are looking for you to create a Fosbury flop experience for them. Not that they are looking for you to jump over them backwards, but they are hopeful that you have the ability to create a new way for them to experience philanthropy. Will you tweak the past or create a completely new experience. Which do you believe will engage your best customers?