You have a donor database, and you communicate with them via email on a regular basis. That’s a great start! Now, we go further.
In my last article, I wrote about what donor segmentation is. Here, I will discuss how to create donor segments, and in turn long term engagement. Fundraising can be greatly improved if we understand the behaviours, needs, and personalities of our donors. They are individuals from diverse backgrounds, after all; treating donors as a uniform entity will lead to disengagement, and worse, losses. Segmentation is a crucial part of delivering personalised communication to your donors.
You can create segments based on information about donor attributes that you have in your database, thus creating many subsets from the larger dataset. The segments can include the following:
Personal information
- Name
- Address
- Gender
- Email (work or personal)
- Income level
- If possible, Birthdays (allowing you to group people by age and deliver relevant messages)
Types of donors
- Donation frequency
- Donation amount
- Causes/campaigns for which donations were received
- Recency: When was the last time a donor gave a gift or donation
Donation format
- Credit card donation in person
- Credit card donation by phone
- Online donation (desktop vs mobile)
- Cheque donation in person
- Cheque donation by post
- Cash donations
Online behaviour
How does the donor engage with you?
- Emails
- Video
- Social media
- Blogs
- Direct mail
- Desktop or mobile
Demographics and Values
- People between the ages of 24 to 34, aka Millennials, want to reinforce a sense of self-worth in what they are doing. How are you going to make them feel that their donations matter?
- People between the ages of 58 to 65, popularly known as boomers, tend to focus on leaving a good legacy for future generations. What message will you use for them?
- Donors living locally are likely to be committed to a project’s success. However, how do you communicate with donors on a regional or even national scale?
In my experience, many nonprofits use a single segment, based on the amount of money donated. However, this approach leads to non-holistic and impersonal engagement with donors. Consequently, these organisations suffer a high attrition rate. A segmentation strategy, then, helps us understand donors more personably. When used with regular communication, segmenting results in the creation of an authentic brand, loyal donors, less attrition, and high donor lifetime value.
Two important questions to ask yourself
- Are you constantly collecting relevant data to better your understanding of your donor base? Do you understand why they are involved with your organisation?
To successfully create segmentation there must be a cohesive and comprehensive dataset. You should look at all outreach channels for donor interaction, including your website, landing pages, emails, Google Analytics, etc. You should also capture data from your mobile interaction using Google Analytics. Use all this information to then create segments based on:
- Personal information
- Types of donors
- Donation format
- Online behaviour
- Demographics and values
2. Do you have good processes in place to create segmentation and ensure that you understand your donors?
Once you have created segments based on the above, look for any emerging patterns within each of them to create a sub-segment of the dataset. The more specific a segment and its messaging, the higher the return on investment.
You do not want to create too many segments, however; 3 to 5 will suffice. Having these groups will allow you to be specific but within a broad range of parameters. Keep reviewing results at regular intervals and optimise where there are opportunities.
In a world where online communication has rapidly become the norm, people expect personalised communication. With segmentation, you can achieve exactly that, reaping benefits for the foreseeable future.