Four Philanthropy Essentials: Communication - Part 3

Four Philanthropy Essentials: Harnessing Your Data

Effective donor stewardship is both an art and a science. We often find that nonprofits have a comfort level with the art—the relational aspect of development and stewardship. But many feel intimidated by the science. In this series, Four Philanthropy Essentials, we’re outlining the key strategies every charitable organization should have in place for the healthy stewardship of donors.

So it’s time to conquer the fear: Understanding your donor patterns and trends is a critical part of your stewardship, and it’s absolutely essential to a healthy giving program. With a few simple habits, you can begin harnessing the information you have to better acknowledge, communicate to, and steward your donors.

ESSENTIAL #2: Harness Your Donor Data

🌟 1. Take the time to study your giving data and patterns.

• Run reports from your database that can help you identify your recurring donors and how they are giving.
• What percentage of your donors are giving online versus paper check?
• How many have set up a recurring credit card or ACH (automatic bank draft) gift?
• If you don’t already have it in place, find a way to flag new, first-time donors.

Even if you’re a small office using a basic Excel spreadsheet to track your giving, spend some time sorting and diving into the information. Plan the time to do a deep dive on a regular (at least quarterly) basis.

📌 2. Study those reports and put in flags.

• Alert yourself to an increase in a donor’s giving amount as well as to those who make gifts to a particular campaign or gifts at a certain level.
• Don’t discount your communication analytics: open rates and how donors interact with your social posts, emails, or newsletters can help you further assess both donor passions and your giving trends.

🎁 3. Pay attention to gifts you receive through donor-advised funds (DAFs).

• Members who give through a DAF are often those who have passion and capacity but are also intentional, sophisticated donors.
• You’ll want to look closely at a stewardship plan that meets those donors’ needs.
• While you won’t be receipting those gifts to the donor for tax purposes, you do need a plan in place to thank and acknowledge those important gifts.

📊 4. Take advantage of any reports you can run from your database or your giving platform.

• These might be reports on “lapsed” donors or donors who gave at one time but haven’t renewed or given again.
• Scanning for any monthly givers who’ve fallen off (sometimes due to simple credit card expiration issues) can lead to retaining those donors.
• Even if you have to do this manually from a basic spreadsheet once a quarter, it’s well worth your while.

Why This Matters

Any of these steps can establish some benchmarks to assess the health—and future growth—of your stewardship program. These practices also provide a way to look at your donors with a new lens:

• Your database assessments can tell you who might be “raising their hand” to tell you they are your next major donor prospect or who has an interest in deepening their walk with your mission and vision.

Equally importantly, having a firm handle on your donor trends and patterns can help you plan your stewardship and communications.

💡 Examples:

• If you discover members who give each month automatically via credit card or a bank draft are making higher and more consistent gifts than those who write checks, you can focus on communicating the benefits of electronic/automatic giving options.
• If a large chunk of first-time donors rarely make a second gift within six months, you can strengthen your communication and acknowledgments to those groups (...which brings us back to the art of stewardship!).

In the coming weeks, we’ll outline additional philanthropy essentials, including an approach for personalized acknowledgments and the basics of non-cash (asset) giving.

Tim Smith