Soapbox Engage Blog

So, you've got a lot of supporters, and many of them make donations on a regular basis. But not every donor is the same. You need to think about them both as individuals and as different groups of people.

But they all donate money, what's the difference?

It's how much money they contribute. Depending on the amount of money they're willing to give, people have certain expectations for you and your nonprofit.

Like, they want a place on the board? Special privileges? Snacks?

No, not snacks. However, through giving more or less money, donors have different expectations about how they should be treated and what they should have access to. They also have unique ideas on how they receive communications from you regarding your organization. But the behavior varies with the amount of money contributed. This is why you should consider using donor levels. Nonprofit CRM software can help you develop and assign them to new and existing donors.

Each person here donates differently. What levels will you put them in?

But how would I set up donor levels? Our donor base varies wildly in terms of what we receive.

There are a lot of methods you can use to set up donor levels. Simple tiers with max limits is one way of doing it. In fact, that yields its own rewards if you have people that aren't entirely sure how to donate. You can create donation incentives at levels based on what donors receive in return as well as based on what the money will do, according to the Nonprofit Hub.

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For example, you can set donation tiers on the initial give. If you work for a foundation that provides healthcare to people in third-world countries, you could say that $25 would help vaccinate an entire family against various diseases, $100 could supply the whole village with vaccines, and $300 would supply them with all the medical equipment they need to perform basic care. This has twofold benefits: For one, you can better identify and communicate with your donors based on what they donate. Smaller individual donors will get regular emails and social media communications regarding general information on your cause, while big individual and corporate donors will have a direct line to what you. Two, it incentivizes donors to give a little bit more. They may be wavering on how much to contribute, but if they have a clear idea of where it's going, it'll inspire them to donate more.

Well, the small and big donors are already easy to deal with. What about those in the middle? There are a lot of them, and they donate quite a bit.

You're right. The idea with the middle tier is to give them a sense of distinction from the rest of their donors. As The Non Profit Times suggests, you want to make sure that they feel more prestigious than standard donors while at the same time not giving too much away to the point of alienating your elite sponsors. Giving them a club name, as well as making targeted efforts to get them to auto-renew their donations. These little features you can create using CRM software for nonprofits.