I had the opportunity to interview Jay Wilkinson of Firespring. Jay’s expertise revolves around donor retention and, in particular, what people can do to improve their online presence.
In this interview, Jay shares 3 simple but effective website tweaks to to help you retain donors, as well as more insights regarding donor retention.
Interview Highlights
As always with interviews, I’m posting the highlights in the text below. For all the tips from Jay, you’re gonna have to watch the video! But you can get the gist below.
Donor Retention Rates Among Nonprofits are “Abysmal”
AE: We’re going to talk about donor retention today. Why is this such a hot topic?
JW: Just to be blunt, we in the nonprofit sector don’t do a good job with it. It’s astounding to me that in the for-profit world — think about your dry cleaner or any business that you frequent — those retention rates are 90 or 95% nearly across all industries.
In the nonprofit world, those of us that are out trying to change the world — we’re having these abysmal retention rates that make it really difficult to maintain momentum from year to year.
It’s an issue for nonprofits, because if we can figure it out, it would be transformative to be able to build sustainable fundraising practices over time.
Studying Your Donor Retention Rate
AE: So what can nonprofits do about it, and what can we learn from the business world?
JW: We need to be more mindful about the practices we employ. One of the first things is the Fundraising Effectiveness Report that’s out.
What I find fascinating about this is that 10 years ago I asked a roomful of 500 donors to raise their hand if they knew what their fundraising retention rate was. Maybe 10% of the hands in the room went up.
AE: Yes, we’ve been talking about this for 5 or 10 years, and still only 10% of nonprofits know their retention rates.
JW: When this study [the Fundraising Effectiveness Report] came out, it was the first time that anyone had ever gone inside out on the research. Instead of asking nonprofits what they think their numbers are, the software could tell them. You could now track to see who had given again.
There are a lot of issues with it. I hear people say … what if it’s a timing issue? What if I give 12 ½ months apart? Or what if one year I give in my name and the next year my wife give in her name, so it’s not credited to the same account?
So there are those types of things, and people say you have to take it with a grain of salt.
We learned when the study came out that somewhere around 40 to 45% of the donors who were giving were retained every year. Flip that and it shows we’re losing donors at a rate of about 6 out of every 10.
Follow Up: The Key to Better Donor Retention
AE: What are some things nonprofits can do?
JW: It’s as simple as being intentional about follow up — it’s about drip feeding over time about your successes.
There’s a lot of talk about stories over statistics. Feelings over facts … I don’t know if agree with that, but I get the sentiment, because people connect.
AE: I think it is about making sure that people understand what you’re doing, the impact you’re having, and how their money was used. And feeling appreciated as donors.
3 Ways to Fine-tune Your Website for Donor Retention
AE: One of the things we started talking about was more along the lines of what you do at Firespring with websites. Websites play a big role in donor retention and attracting donors for the first time. Why don’t you talk a bit about the role that a website plays in terms of attracting new donors and retaining them?
JW: Your website is the core center of your brand. It’s the center of your marketing universe. Nonprofit Hub did a study and learned that 82% of people who give money to nonprofit go to that nonprofits website to check them out.
The website has to tell the story of the nonprofit in a quick, easy and compelling way.
We get so caught up in the trends and the design standard — we think that’s what we should be focused on, when in reality a well-designed website for a nonprofit needs to do 3 things to compel people to donate:
1. Help website visitors “get it” quickly.
Visitors need to understand quickly what your organization is all about. Your site should have a photograph and a headline that tells the story of the organization. So people can get it in an instant. People immediately need to know who you are and what you’re about.
Some organizations have rotating pictures, without a headline or statement to give context. When people see just a photograph with no words, it can be interpreted in so many ways.
2. Use Website vitality — a simple 3-part formula.
These three parts of website vitality can lead to a double-digit increase in return visitors to the website, which in turn has an impact on donor retention:
a.) Have dated content on the front page of the website. Have a date next to the headline, and keep it current.
b.) Dated content should never be more than seven days apart. In other words, you’re posting something at least once a week.
c.) Show three occurrences of the dated content on the homepage.
When we employ this strategy, we see the return visitors to that site skyrocket. My brain tells me that everything here is always evolving and changing.
3. Make your event registration page remarkably simple.
The number one thing that someone wants to do when they go to a nonprofit website is sign up for their event. So absolutely DO NOT make someone print out a downloadable PDF form. Let them complete the registration online.
Final Thoughts on Donor Retention
AE: Any final thoughts on donor retention?
JW: You have to be intentional and you have to be proactive. What that means to me is that I’m intentional about sending out thank you notes. More than half of nonprofits don’t send thank you notes.
AE: It’s also so simple to make a thank you call. It’s been shown to make such an impact. Think about how often you as a donor, have received a thank you call. The reality is probably not very often.
The place to start is “know your donor retention rate.” You must know if it’s going up or down, and where you are.
Going Further
Check out Jay’s monthly webinar for more great tips to improve your nonprofit website:
How to Captivate and Engage Constituents with Your Website »
Firespring also offers a number of other free online seminars and live sessions that share valuable insights designed to help you build a better nonprofit.
For more information about donor retention, why it’s so important, and how to calculate your donor retention rate, check out Bloomerang’s Guide to Donor Retention.
This was a great conversation and very helpful. I’m happy to say that we know and track our donor retention rate carefully, year over year, and that over the past 5 years it averages 70%. This quarter, we’re planning a homepage redesign to simplify the page and have clearer calls to action. The information about website vitality and its impact on return visitors is so timely. Thank you both!
Hooray! That’s great, Heather.