Sometimes your donors stick around, but sometimes you have to participate in the chase. Maintaining existing donors or re-engaging lapsed donors is more effective and more affordable for your nonprofit than soliciting brand-new donors.
So, if you are looking for ways to re-ignite the passion of passed donors, here are some tips!
- Reach out to them personally. Take a look at your database to get a sense of who your lapsed donors are. A LYBUNT or SYBUNT report is a great way to do this. Once you know who to segment, you can start to rekindle those specific relationships by reaching out with personalized communications. Checking in on your lapsed donors will make them feel recognized and not forgotten just because they haven’t given in a bit. And by sending them personalized messages, you show them that you’re not just sending out mass emails to your contact list and are instead taking the time to recognize that their situation is different and that you are taking time out of your day to personally reach out and rekindle that relationship.
- Ask for their opinions. Do you know why your lapsed donors stopped donating? Ask them! Shoot them an email or a phone call and ask them if there are ways your organization can improve or if there were specific reasons that they lapsed in their giving. This will give you a chance to reconnect with lapsed donors and identify pain-points that could be improved to prevent lapsed donors in the future.
- Offer a variety of opportunities for them to get involved again. Learn about what your donors want! It’s possible that your lapsed donors just didn’t know what types of opportunities were available to them. If they are no longer in a spot to give financially, let them know what volunteer opportunities are available. If you have different giving tiers, let them know what those are. This provides flexibility for your lapsed donors to get involved in ways that work for them, their time and their financial position.
- Keep the lines of communication open. You can’t expect your lapsed donors to come running back after your first attempt at rekindling the relationship, so it’s important to keep the lines of communication open and to continue to reach out consistently with personalized messaging. Keeping the lines of communication open provides an opportunity for your lapsed donors to feel heard and offer opportunities for them to re-engage.
Ready to turn your lapsed donors into regular donors? Implementing these tips into your donor nurturing strategy is sure to help bring back the donors who have been sitting on the sidelines!