Make Your Fundraising Easier with a Donor Communications Calendar
Do you know what you are going to say to your donors this month? In three months? At the end of the year?
Far too often, donors are forgotten until it’s time to ask them for more money. You’re living and breathing your mission every day, but the only time your donors hear from you is when you want money.
No wonder more than half of them don’t bother to continue their giving.
Donor communication tends to fall to the back burner way more than it should. It makes sense: you’re stretched thin with grant deadlines, programs, and board meetings. And your current donors have already given once, so they’re all set, right?
More than half of donors stop giving because of poor communication. That means if you don’t have a plan for communicating with the folks who support your organization, more than 50% of them won’t give again. According to Penelope Burk of Cygnus Research:
5% of donors stop giving because they thought the organization didn’t need them
8% of donors didn’t get any information on how their gift was used
9% of donors didn’t even remember they’d made a gift
13% of donors were never thanked for donating
18% of donors left due to poor communication
Your lack of donor cultivation is hurting you. A lot.
The good news is that you’re already doing great work. You just need to share it with donors in an authentic, frequent, and streamlined way. Share your stories—donors want to hear them!
Read More: How One Executive Director Doubled Individual Giving in One Year
Create a Donor Communications Calendar for Easy Cultivation
Why would someone make a gift to your nonprofit? Because they feel personally connected with your work and your organization. Making a gift is not paying the water bill; it’s a choice.
Luckily, giving your donors great content does not have to be an onerous task. Start by sharing stories of your work, and do it frequently and systematically.
What you need to do to be successful is write this calendar down, and use it. Get important dates, donor cultivation ideas, and events out of your head and into your calendar. By building your donor communications calendar, you’ll have a roadmap to guide you through the year.
Start with Your Hard Deadlines
Once you’ve downloaded our free donor communications calendar template, start by jotting down key dates for events or fundraising campaigns that are already planned, or happen the same time every year. Key events may include:
Fundraising events, galas, or annual meetings.
End-of-Year Appeals and other fundraising campaigns.
Donor cultivation events such as donor appreciation lunches, site visits, etc.
Board Meetings (so you can have board members write hand-written notecards!)
Add Ongoing Donor Communication Touchpoints
What are the current ways that donors are hearing from you fairly regularly? Ongoing donor touchpoints will help bring your calendar to life—and you may already have quite a few!
Handwritten notes from Board Members. Bring a stack of pre-addressed notecards to each board meeting, and spend the first 15 minutes of the meeting having each Board Member write 5 thank you letters.
A Bi-Annual Thank-a-Thon where Board Members and key staff members call donors just to say thank you.
Monthly or Quarterly Newsletters with updates from your Executive Director or Board President
Fill in the Gaps
Take a look at your calendar now that you’ve added hard deadlines and ongoing touchpoints. Are there months—even quarters— where donors are scratching their heads wondering what happened to you? Brainstorm one touchpoint per month to bring your donors relevant, exciting, and engaging content. This might include:
A Valentine’s Day postcard;
End-of-Year Update email or mailing;
Annual Report;
Holiday Cards;
...and so much more. If you’re stumped, brainstorm with your whole team. This is the time for creativity!
Once you know what you want to share, put it into a calendar.
Get (and Stay) Organized
Use a spreadsheet (like our donor communications calendar template) or project management tool to create your donor communications calendar, and then use it. You might feel like you don’t have time, but spending a few hours per month on donor communications will help you increase fundraising, streamline processes, and build sustainable donor relationships that will carry your organization into the future.
Need a little help thinking of the best donor touchpoints for your organization? Book a complimentary strategy call with Giant Squid Group and we’ll spend 50 minutes exploring how you can improve your donor outreach this year!
