Your nonprofit likely has plenty of strategies for gathering direct donor feedback. You might send surveys or host meetings with high-level supporters to get their input on your organization’s strategies.

But donors can reveal just as much information about their motivations and interests through their unspoken actions. Specifically, donor giving patterns can reveal insights about how to best reach donors across multiple platforms and secure their long-term support. 

Let’s review three strategies for analyzing your donor giving patterns to create a data-driven fundraising and marketing strategy: 

1. Identify popular times of the year for giving.
2. Review your donor demographics.
3. Analyze your online giving trends and engagement metrics. 

Let’s explore how to adjust your donor management strategy to better appeal to their preferences and take advantage of instances where donors are highly motivated to give. 

1. Identify popular times of the year for giving.

Certain times of the year put donors in a charitable mood, leading them to give more. Identifying and leveraging these times will help your nonprofit make the most of ideal giving opportunities. 

For example, here are a few times of the year when donors may be compelled to give:

• Giving Tuesday. Giving Tuesday takes place the Tuesday after Thanksgiving each year in the United States. An estimated $3 billion was donated to nonprofits in the U.S. alone for Giving Tuesday 2022, a 15% increase from Giving Tuesday 2021. This global generosity movement is becoming more well-known worldwide, making it an excellent opportunity for your nonprofit to start its own campaign.
• December 31. The last day of the year is another major giving day as donors submit their final tax-deductible donations for the year. In fact, nonprofits received 5% of all 2022 revenue on December 31. Your nonprofit should have a marketing plan in place to encourage donors to contribute these valuable gifts before the clock strikes midnight. 
• Affinity months. Your nonprofit’s mission might be associated with a specific affinity or awareness month. For instance, if your nonprofit supports LGBTQ+ youth, donors might be compelled to give during June for Pride Month. Consider creating a strategic marketing campaign to spread awareness during an affinity month and raise funds. 
• Major events that are relevant to your mission. Significant, unplanned events might happen throughout the year that drive donors to support your mission. For example, a change in legislation or a natural disaster could motivate concerned supporters to take action. Make sure your online donation form is easily accessible on your social media pages and website so supporters can give at the moment of inspiration. 

Track data for your marketing campaigns during these special events to determine which messages are most effective for driving donations. For example, you might test different Giving Tuesday email strategies or affinity month themes to see if donors respond better to certain appeals. Assess metrics such as your email open rate or online donation rate to measure your success. 

2. Review your donor demographics.

Assessing demographic-related giving patterns can help you understand who is supporting your cause and how you can better connect with them. 

Bloomerang recommends finding donor management software that lets you maintain comprehensive donor profiles with details about supporters’ past interactions with your organization and personal information. Using this tool, you can track the following donor demographics: 

• Age: Do your donors tend to be younger, older, or somewhere in between? Younger donors tend to have a lower giving capacity but are more tech-savvy and can help spread awareness of your cause online. Meanwhile, older donors tend to be wealthier and have a greater capacity to donate. 
• Location: Do donors live nearby your nonprofit’s headquarters, or are they purely virtual supporters? Knowing where donors live allows you to segment them to send virtual engagement opportunities to those who live far and in-person event invitations to those who live in your community. 
• Employment: What do your donors do for a living? Are any of them business owners? This can be helpful information when searching for prospective business partners or event sponsors.
• Wealth: How wealthy are your donors in general, and do some have the capacity to become major donors? Using your donor database, you can conduct wealth screening to identify donors that have greater giving potential. 

For each of these demographics, conduct audience research to determine: 

• Their preferred giving avenue. Do donors like to give via cash, check, online donation, stock transfer, or some other method? How can you make those options more accessible for each demographic? 
• Their preferred giving amount. How much do your small, mid-tier, and major donors tend to give? Knowing your most common giving amounts for each tier can help you come up with donation requests that are more likely to yield gifts. 
• Their retention rate. Which types of supporters tend to stick around and continue giving? When you can identify your most engaged demographics, you can understand what makes them so dedicated and how to continue reaching them effectively. 

Proper data management is necessary so you can keep your donor information organized and ensure it’s reliable. NPOInfo’s donor data management guide recommends developing data entry guidelines with standard formats so your full team is on the same page about how to update your database. 

When your data is clean and accurate, you can boost the ROI of your outreach efforts because you can reach out to each demographic in ways that resonate with them. Donors will be more likely to engage with messaging that applies to their interests and motivations. 

3. Analyze your online giving trends and engagement metrics. 

Online giving continues to grow in popularity, meaning it’s important to stay updated on the latest online giving trends and patterns. Soliciting donations online tends to be more challenging than in person because you’re separated from donors by a screen. However, by studying your donor engagement metrics regularly, you can determine what makes online donors tick. 

Use your fundraising tools like your online donation software, donor database, and website metrics to determine the following: 

• Where online donors come from. You might recruit new online supporters from social media, email, organic search, or paid ads. Understanding your most popular recruitment channels can allow you to focus your efforts more intentionally on those platforms. 
• How much online donors tend to give. Knowing your average online gift size can help you determine your suggested donation amounts on your online giving form. 
• Your online donor retention rate. How well does your organization retain online donors? Assess this metric over time as you adjust your outreach strategy to see which changes make the biggest positive impact. 

Measure the impact that changes to your online engagement approach have on your fundraising outcomes. For example, you might use A/B testing to determine the best layout for your online donation page. Run metrics reports regularly and share the results with your team to ensure everyone is on the same page about how your strategy is going. 

About the Author

Jay Love

Jay Love is the Co-Founder and current Chief Relationship Officer at Bloomerang.

He has served this sector for 33 years and is considered the most well-known senior statesman whose advice is sought constantly.

Prior to Bloomerang, he was the CEO and Co-Founder of eTapestry for 11 years, which at the time was the leading SaaS technology company serving the charity sector. Jay and his team grew the company to more than 10,000 nonprofit clients, charting a decade of record growth.

He is a graduate of Butler University with a B.S. in Business Administration. Over the years, he has given more than 2,500 speeches around the world for the charity sector and is often the voice of new technology for fundraisers.