Soapbox Engage Blog

Last month, we kicked off fall by outlining key segments of your donor list to prioritize in advance of holiday giving and end-of-year (EOY) giving season. Hopefully, you’ve got some of that plan underway, as we are staring EOY in the face, with #GivingTuesday just two months away.

But there’s another important group of supporters that we should not dismiss, and depending on your community, they may make up a considerable portion of it, too -- and that’s the non-donors. These folks aren’t just the ones on your email list who haven’t made a gift; it’s also people who follow you on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, who may have attended an event or volunteered, signed a petition, or taken some other sort of action that places them on the ladder of engagement. So we’re talking hundreds, or more likely, thousands of people that could become donors to your cause.

With the clock ticking, how can we bring these non-donors up another step on the ladder, and convert them into givers? We’ve shared a few ideas below that require all your hats: storyteller/communicator, fundraiser, and data geek/techie.

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1) Sell them with a story.

A tried and true tactic in nonprofit fundraising is use storytelling to persuade people to give, in the same way that friends or family persuade you to join them for an activity or to support one of their own causes. The individuals on your email list or in your social media community obviously were hooked enough to learn more -- now they just need that extra push to give. And that’s where you sell them with a story about how their gift, at this time of year, will make an impact. How do you do that? Some tips:

• Make it personal. The more granular, the better. How deep can you dig to make a one-on-one connection between a potential donor and someone or something they can impact? Literally: “Your $25 will buy school supplies for a girl for the rest of the year.” Or, “James needs a new bike and helmet to help him get to school. Can you chip in half?” You get the idea.
• Make it specific. See above. But also, include a deadline, dollar-for-dollar impact value if you can, geography, names, whatever you can to help someone visualize their gift in action.
• Make it matter. This is where the “What’s in it for me?” question can come into play. If it takes offering an incentive or special value to get someone to convert, there’s perhaps no better time than holiday giving season to do it. Make your donation appeal matter by clearly stating the potential impact, and make your support feel that they matter, and are needed to accomplish your goal. And tease their reward.

2) Let the data help you.

What do we mean by this? As we discussed in last month’s blog post, a few specific reports can help you fine-tune your fundraising strategy. In the case of non-donors, this is still true, even though you’re not looking at gift amounts and frequency. Here’s how:

• Run a report of non-donors on your email list, and break it down into when they signed up. Your message to the people who have been on it the longest will be different than what you say to folks who joined in the last few months. For the olds: Remind them of why they signed up in the first place -- your mission, your story, your goal, and urge them to finally take that next step. For the newbies: Thank them again for becoming a supporter, and take the opportunity to get right into the action with EOY/holiday giving/#GivingTuesday. There’s no time like the present to get started!
• Try some report and segmentation voodoo and determine some other cross-sections of non-donors you could work with; for instance: people who signed up after a particular busy time in the news cycle relevant to your cause and are ripe for the next step; people who have used your advocacy tools; or people who have clicked on a link to donate but then didn’t complete the form. These all take a bit more effort and time to run the numbers and craft some special messages tailored to their level of and type of action, but we think it’s worth experimenting with to try to make some gains.

3) Cast a wide net.

This is your chance to be as inclusive as possible of your community, and to follow up on all the touches you have had in the last year, in all the places and channels. If you have a bunch of lists of volunteer names and event attendees that you haven’t yet imported, now is the time to do so. (Of course, you can only email the ones that have opted in to receive emails!) Segment out the ones who are also non-donors, and take advantage of the fact that they have already made a different kind of big investment -- ask them to make their first gift as a follow-up to their previous action now that they’ve participated in something firsthand.

And what about your social media community? It can be really hard to know who of your followers has already donated, but that shouldn’t stop you from crafting a variety of messages that appeal to the array of folks who follow you on Twitter and Facebook. Acknowledge that some of them may not have given yet, and encourage them to increase their support this holiday season with a donation. Use some of the tips we’ve provided above with data and segmentation to craft ads and targeted posts to get to the right people.