As a nonprofit professional, you’re likely always looking for ways to further develop your fundraising skills and improve your current strategies. Of the many things nonprofits need to focus on, recurring donors can sometimes fall by the wayside due to their reliability. However, it’s this same reliability that makes their relationships with your nonprofit so important to your overall success. 

Acquiring new donors is always an important part of your growth strategy, but engaging the donors you do have and building relationships with them can lead to more value down the road. In general, donors tend to give more the longer the stay with a nonprofit. Plus, it’s less expensive to retain supporters than to acquire new ones. Convincing current donors to stick around requires both regular communication and providing meaningful engagement opportunities. 

While no two recurring donors want the exact same things out of their relationship with your nonprofit, there are several strategies that are effective for engaging most donors to stay for the long-haul. To help your nonprofit connect with these supporters, we’ll explore how to:

1. Personalize your communications. 
2. Offer multiple engagement opportunities. 
3. Share your donors’ impact. 
4. Make increasing giving easy. 

How you go about using these strategies will depend on your nonprofit and where your supporters are in their donor journey. For example, a supporter who has just signed up to become a recurring donor will likely be more receptive to a thoughtful thank you message than they would a prompt to immediately increase their new gift. 

As you read through these strategies, consider how you can adjust them to fit into your nonprofit’s relationships with your various recurring donors. Let’s get started. 

1. Personalize your communications. 

Whether it’s to express your gratitude for their support, invite them to an event, or let them know about a new initiative, your nonprofit’s communications should always be as personalized to your donors as possible. Doing so, especially for long-term recurring donors, shows your supporters that your nonprofit sees them as individuals, helping to deepen the connection to your organization. 

You can improve your communication by tailoring each message to its recipient with the following strategies: 

• Add personal details. All of your messages should address donors by name and reference personal details where appropriate. For example, if a recurring donor lives in your local area, you might reference the community when sending them an invitation to an in-person event you’re hosting. 

• Reference past participation. The longer a donor is with your nonprofit, the more data you are likely to have about them. This information, ranging from which campaigns your recurring donors have supported to their event participation, can be used to add an extra personal touch to your messages to them. 

• Segment your audience. You can create a more unique messaging experience for your donors by segmenting them based on shared characteristics. Consider creating a segment for your recurring donors and writing message templates based on their experience with your nonprofit. For example, your thank you messages to long-time recurring donors might emphasize their years of support, while your thank yous to first-time donors might serve as an overall introduction to your nonprofit’s mission. 

Of course, writing out individual messages to each of your donors is impractical at best. Ensure that your nonprofit has communication tools that can help you reach out to your supporters faster without losing these key personal details. 

CharityEngine’s nonprofit CRM guide specifically recommends finding a CRM solution that can automatically fill out message templates with personal information for both emails and traditional mail. This helps you also broaden your overall outreach, as communicating with donors on multiple channels and showing consistent attention to detail can go a long way towards converting new donors while also solidifying your relationship with your current ones. 

2. Offer multiple engagement opportunities. 

While some recurring donors are content to just contribute their monthly gift, others will want to get more involved with your nonprofit. Providing engagement opportunities is a chance for supporters to deepen their commitment and relationship with your cause, which can lead to increased support in the future. 

To get your recurring donors more involved and further their supporter journeys, reach out to them about: 

• Volunteer opportunities. Some of your supporters might also be interested in donating their time to your cause. Offer a variety of volunteer opportunities from more physically intensive work for your programs to fundraising on your behalf during an online peer-to-peer campaign. 

• Events. Your nonprofit likely keeps a full event calendar, and sending out a personalized invitation to your recurring donors can be an extra nudge towards encouraging them to attend. If you notice a recurring donor has a history of attending a specific type of event, be sure to invite them to similar future opportunities.

• Advocacy campaigns. You can advance your campaign and give your supporters a new way to get involved by launching an advocacy campaign. Ensure you have the necessary advocacy software available to communicate with your advocates and make note of which ones are also recurring donors. 

Your recurring donors will especially appreciate opportunities like these that allow them to engage with your cause without making an additional monetary contribution. While there is a time to speak to your recurring donors about increasing their support—which we will discuss later—these conversations should be had strategically to avoid making them feel like ATMs. 

3. Share your donors’ impact. 

Donors want to know their support is making a difference and that their money is being used wisely. For recurring donors who make a regular investment in your nonprofit, be sure to communicate how their contributions are being used and what your nonprofit has accomplished with the help of their generous support. 

Here a few ways you can effectively convey your donors’ impact: 

• Use statistics strategically. Your nonprofit likely has a lot of data about your programs, and sharing that data with your donors can help them attach a number to their support’s value. However, the human brain naturally has some difficulty grasping exceptionally large numbers of exactly what percentages mean. Whenever you include a statistics, be sure to explain it with additional context to help your donors better understand their impact. 

• Add visuals. The best way to communicate your nonprofit’s work is often to display it visually. Photographs can help your recurring donors envision who their routine support is helping and how. Additionally, donors are more likely to hold on to traditional mail such as postcards and letters if they contain an eye-catching visual, keeping your nonprofit present in their homes and at the forefront of their minds. 

• Tell a story. Storytelling and personal anecdotes can go a long way towards connecting with your donors. In fact, according to NPOInfo’s charitable giving statistics report, 42% of surveyed donors stated that a personal story from someone helped by a nonprofit influenced their decision to give. For your recurring donors, these stories can not only solidify their support for your nonprofit, but also give them something new to look forward to in your messaging as each personal story you share will always be unique. 

When sharing a specific donor’s impact, try to get as specific as possible. For example, a food bank might communicate how many meals they’ve been able to serve with the help of a donor’s monthly $50 donation. Then, if this same donor decides to raise their donation to $100 a month, the food bank would want to emphasize just how many more people are being fed thanks to the increased support. 

4. Make increasing giving easy. 

As mentioned, your recurring donors’ support will become more valuable the longer they are with your organization. Over time, you should present easy opportunities for them to increase their contributions. This helps move these supporters forward on their donor journey without delaying them with repetitive data re-entry and other administrative tasks. 

Your recurring donors can increase their support in a variety of ways, some of which involve raising their donation total, while others do not require them to reach deeper into their wallets at all. Here are a few easy giving options your nonprofit can recommend to your recurring donors: 

• One-click upgrades. When you ask your supporters to increase their regular donations, ensure the process is as straightforward and convenient as possible. One option to do this is with one-click upgrades, which allow recurring donors to adjust their monthly contributions to a new total suggested by your nonprofit with just a single click. 

• Matching gifts. Some of your recurring donors may be eligible to give more through matching gifts. Matching gifts are donations that some employers make when their employees give to charitable causes, usually matching their contributions dollar per dollar—though some employers give at even greater ratios such as 1:2 or even 1:3. Reach out to your recurring donors to see if they qualify for a matched gift and help them locate the necessary forms to submit a request. 

• Passive fundraisers. Passive fundraisers allow your supporters to make contributions to your organization when they make their routine purchases. These can include online shopping and grocery store programs, which help nonprofits by donating a percentage of your supporters’ sales totals to your organization, at no additional cost to your nonprofit or your supporters. 

For all of these methods, accompany them with a heartfelt thank you for all of the support your donors have given you so far. Providing your donors with new ways to support your cause should be a positive expression of your long relationship, rather than yet another appeal for money.

Recurring donors are some of your most reliable fundraising sources, and engaging them with personal messages and new opportunities can help further develop their relationship with your nonprofit. Research and leverage effective strategies for your organization to solidify these connections and offer your donors new ways to expand their support. Good luck!

About the Author

Philip Schmitz

Philip Schmitz is the CEO and founder of cloud-services leader BIS Global, creators of the CharityEngine fundraising & communications technology platform. Founded in 1999, Phil has managed the vision and strategy for BIS's suite of integrated business applications & hosting tools used by more than 400 businesses & non-profits.