Building strong relationships with your various audiences requires a year-round communications plan so you can connect meaningfully and encourage deeper engagement.
Here are six best practices for engaging your donors year-round:
1. Thank your donors
Start the new year right by thanking your donors who made year-end gifts. If you can, try to personalize the thank you to acknowledge repeat donors, donors who have upgraded their gifts, first time donors, and new monthly donors. Of course, thanking your donors applies all year round.
2. Create an email welcome series for new email subscribers
New subscribers to your email list should receive a series of three or four automated emails to welcome them. Let your creativity flow and create something truly special to inspire and engage. Your email welcome series could include a series of emails from key stakeholders in your organizations, including a Board member or a long-time committed volunteer.
3. Create balanced communications with your donors
Strive to achieve balance in your communications of fundraising, cultivation, and engagement. Do a communications audit to assess what your audiences receive. Donors, supporters, and volunteers have different interests and levels of commitment. Create a communications plan that matches with audience interests.
4. Map out your seasonal cornerstone fundraising campaigns
Cornerstone campaigns are repeated every year and will allow you to map out your fundraising appeals and your anticipated revenue. Examples include yearly renewal and membership drives, monthly giving recruitment efforts, matching gift campaigns, and the ubiquitous year-end giving season.
5. Rethink your newsletter as a donor engagement tool
Your newsletter is one of the most powerful tools in your communications toolbox. The danger comes in underestimating its potential and wasting it with casual monthly “news” content. The true power of this monthly or quarterly opportunity is to rethink your newsletter as a donor, supporter, and volunteer engagement tool. By refocusing your message on how donors are making a difference, you can better utilize your newsletter for deepening donor engagement.
6. Invest in connecting with donors through your social media channels
Your donors are very interesting people and you should be keeping tabs on them via any social media channels where they are active. Consider your donors as a special class of “social media influencers” and be sure to retweet their content and engage in direct messaging with them. This sort of cross-channel communication will allow you to deepen relationships with donors and open new doors to collaboration.