guest post // Navigating the Donor Lifecycle: How to Build Relationships
By Sarah Tedesco, DonorSearch
For your nonprofit to effectively engage its donors in its mission, you need to answer two key questions:
First, how does someone go from an uninvolved prospect to a loyal, long-term supporter of your organization?
And second, what should your team do to help them move from point A to point B?
The answer to the first question can be found in the donor management lifecycle, also known as the donor journey. This tool lays out the six main stages supporters progress through as they interact with your nonprofit:
To answer the second question, your organization will strategically guide donors through each stage of their donor journeys in a process known as moves management. In this guide, we’ll walk through the six steps of the donor lifecycle and discuss the actions you should take at each stage. Let’s dive in!
Acquisition
At the first stage of the donor journey, acquisition, potential supporters make first contact with your organization. Key actions to take at this stage include:
Marketing. To draw in lower-level donors, leverage communication channels with a broad audience, such as your website, social media, digital ads, and flyers.
Prospect research. Identifying potential major donors first requires learning about them so you can tailor your outreach. DonorSearch’s prospect research guide recommends analyzing data on giving capacity, philanthropic history, and affinity for your mission to find prospects who are both able and willing to make significant gifts to your nonprofit.
Donor profile creation. Once someone responds to your marketing and outreach efforts, create a profile in your donor database for them with their name, contact details, and anything else you know about them.
Your donor profiles will be an essential resource throughout the rest of your moves management process, so keep them organized and up-to-date at all times.
Cultivation
Cultivation describes the process of building relationships with potential donors to prepare them to make their first gift. This stage is most critical with major donors, who you’ll likely spend months cultivating through actions like:
Meeting one-on-one to introduce them to your nonprofit and get to know them personally.
Establishing a regular communication cadence to send them relevant resources, introduce them to other key players at your organization, and keep your nonprofit top of mind.
Offering opportunities to get involved with your work through volunteering, attending events, or consulting on projects that align with their skills and interests.
Your cultivation process for lower-level donors will likely be much shorter—it’s significantly easier to convince someone to give $20 to your nonprofit than $20,000, and you’ll do most of the work through consistent marketing and brand-building. However, be prepared to answer questions, send additional information on current initiatives, or offer other engagement opportunities as needed.
Solicitation
At the solicitation stage, you’re ready to request your first gift from a donor. This is also very straightforward for lower-level donors—in most cases, you’ll just need to send them an email with a link to your online donation page or a direct mail appeal with a prepaid return envelope.
To solicit a major gift, Double the Donation’s donation request guide recommends meeting face-to-face with the prospect to deliver a thorough, practiced presentation. Use your prospect research data and the information you’ve learned through cultivation to strategically choose an amount to ask for and a program or project to designate that gift to. However, be prepared to pivot if the prospect turns down your initial request. You’ll also need to outline a payment plan once you land on an amount and designation that you and the donor are both happy with.
Stewardship
After a donor contributes to your nonprofit, promptly move them to the stewardship stage. The major action to take here is to express appreciation for their gift—here are some ideas for how to do this based on donors’ giving levels:
Small gift: Thank-you email, text message for mobile donations, end-of-year mass mailing thanking all low-level donors for their support
Mid-size gift: Handwritten thank-you note, phone call from one of your organization’s leaders, tangible gift (such as branded merchandise or a gift card)
Major gift: Donor appreciation dinner invite, annual report mention, social media shoutout, public name recognition (e.g., inclusion on a donor wall or naming rights to a space in your facility)
Even if you plan to recognize a mid-level or major donor in a more elaborate way later on, always contact them within 48 hours of their donation to confirm that you received it and send them a receipt for tax- deduction purposes. This instills confidence in the donor that their gift was processed and that you’re grateful for it.
Retention
The stewardship and retention phases of the donor lifecycle overlap somewhat—to keep donors engaged with your nonprofit, you first need to demonstrate that you value their support. Then, ensure your organization stays top of mind by:
Re-establishing a regular communication cadence using the donor’s preferred method of contact.
Sharing the impact of their contributions, leveraging data and storytelling to make your updates more concrete.
Asking for feedback on the donation process by sending out surveys, and taking donors’ suggestions into consideration as you improve your strategy.
While it’s tempting to ask for more money right away, donors can experience burnout if you send them too many donation requests. Instead, focus on continuing to cultivate a relationship with them and offering other ways to get involved in your work, such as volunteering, events, or advocacy.
Upgrade
Once some time has passed after the initial gift (which will vary from donor to donor) and the donor has stayed engaged with your nonprofit, your next goal is to get them to upgrade their support.
The upgrade process can look like going from a one-time to a recurring donor, moving up a giving tier (low-level to mid-level or mid-level to major), or simply giving a larger amount within the same tier.
Your actions at this stage will be similar to the solicitation phase, except that your requests for every giving level should be personalized—after all, these donors are part of your community now. Use your donor database and prospect research tools to determine reasonable upgrades to request from each supporter. For example, you could ask a donor who has given $200 to your year-end campaign the last two years to join your recurring giving program at $20 per month, an increase of $40 per year with the added benefit of convenience for the donor.
Note that the stewardship, retention, and upgrade steps of the donor journey are cyclical—once a donor upgrades their support, promptly thank them and continue regular follow-ups with the eventual goal of another upgrade. Additionally, track your interactions with each donor in their individual profiles so you know what actions they did and didn’t respond well to for future reference.
This guest post was written by Sarah Tedesco.
Sarah Tedesco is the Chief Operating Officer and Part Owner of DonorSearch, a prospect research company that focuses on proven philanthropy. Sarah is responsible for managing the production and customer support department, which focuses on client contract fulfillment, retention, and satisfaction. She also collaborates with other team members in various areas like sales, marketing, and product development. Sarah holds an MBA from the University of Maryland and worked as a foundation prospect researcher before joining DonorSearch, providing her with industry experience that she applies to her responsibilities day-to-day.