Confusing constituents is a detriment to non-profit organizations. For instance, if a nonprofit sends an email to a current member (if you have such a category) asking them to become a new member it will not only confuse the current member, it will annoy them.
An organization must know who of their constituents are members, donors, volunteers, board members, and so forth. It’s critical that an organization communicates a message to each of the constituents based on their prior history. The goal is in creating personalized messages, based on the constituent’s current status and giving history, through a segmented approach – providing the right message, to the right person, at the right time, through the right channel.
To help you along in creating an efficient fundraising campaign we have listed four key tips to assist in creating an efficient operation, which targets the correct audience:
Four tips
- Invest in a modern donor management tool to facilitate keeping track of all donor activity. Good examples include Raiser’s Edge and Donor Perfect. The key is to make sure you are making progress in tracking and monitoring activity across all channels (direct mail. online, volunteering, special event attendance, etc) and creating a single view of the constituent.
- Review email metrics, design and messaging on a regular basis to assess appropriate wording, call to actions, and make sure emails are personal and engaging, and consider taking a survey of your readers to measure your success.
- Segment emails according to each audience and their prior history. To get yourself started with a solid segmentation scheme you should attempt to segment your constituents along three tracks: their giving level, the date of their most recent engagement with your organization, and their primary status, such as donor, member, volunteer, board member, etc.
- Do not constantly send the same communication with the same message. Try something new, and test what interests your readers and donors the most. A simple A/B split test will help you refine your messages and ultimately increase response, engagement and funds.
For further reading on this subject read the full article in NonProfit Marketing Blog.