Increasing donor engagement is more challenging than ever during this pandemic. To say the online fundraising space is crowded right now would be an understatement. Nonprofits must try new strategies. But how do you break through the digital noise? How do you capture the attention of your donor base when they are being bombarded with emails, push notifications, and social media posts?
In this blog, we will cover some of the most common ways to build digital donor engagement – one might surprise you.
Digital Donor Engagement – the Macro and Micro
One way to think of digital donor engagement is in terms of the macro and the micro.
Macro digital donor engagement relies heavily upon a cohesive marketing strategy to reach your general donor base. Examples of this include communication campaigns, social media posts, emails, live streaming, and website copy that depend on donor-centric storytelling. Consistent, high-quality content across all communication channels helps nonprofits on a macro-level build donor engagement (and supporter base cohesion!). The key to success with macro engagement is capitalizing on the heart of your mission with supporters. In other words, reminding donors why they fell in love with you in the first place and staying connected.
Micro digital donor engagement, on the other hand, is built on the foundation of those personal touches with individual and specific groups of donors online. This involves 1:1 phone calls, emails, chat messages, video calls, and text messages. Micro donor engagement also includes segmented communication in emails and so on. As a rule of thumb, the more individualized the attention, the better.
Imagine a Venn diagram of two spheres. Or, Russian Nesting Dolls – the micro within the macro. Successful digital donor engagement strives to blend macro and micro connections.
There are many strategies and tools for harmonizing the two:
Crowdfunding
Donor group video calls
Email segmentation
Text-to-Engage
And more!
One of the most underused features for building and a powerful digital donor engagement strategy is a mobile donor base.
Building Digital Donor Engagement With a Mobile Donor Base
Your nonprofit has probably been developing a mobile donor base, whether you know it or not. Are your supporters subscribing to your newsletter and following you on social media? Then you’ve got a mobile donor base! These email and social media connections are absolutely essential for mobile engagement.
But are your donors opted in to text messaging? Research shows that 98 percent of SMS messages have a response rate of 45 percent. This is almost three times the number of people reading your emails! One nonprofit reports that annually, text message donations account for 15 percent of total funds raised.
The main features to look for in Text-to-Engage include:
Speed. Donors want instant communication! A good text messaging platform allows you to do that.
Safety. With text messaging, supporters are less likely to treat your messages like junk or spam, like they might be tempted to with emails. In other words, they feel more secure and alert communicating via text message.
Turnkey. In as little as a few clicks, a supporter can be opted-in to text messaging without multiple pop-ups.
Learn more about how ZGIVE delivers a secure, fast, and easy way to start building your mobile donor base and increase donor engagement through Text-to-Engage.