Increasing Donor Contributions

If I was behind on fundraising goals, here's what I would do between now and the end of the year. 1️⃣ Turn the homepage into a donation page. There are exceptions, but most traffic in the last two weeks comes from people making gifts. Even if you're driving ads and emails to specific landing pages (you should), donors often don't follow your carefully designed donor journey. We sometimes see upward of 50% of gifts driven by emails, ads, direct mail, etc. come in through the general donation page—even though none of the links in any of the campaign pointed to it. So I would turn the homepage into a donation page either by turning on a default lightbox or popup, changing the banner to a value proposition and offer, including a gift form (highly dependent on gift form, not broad stroke advice)—and lighten the load for anyone coming to the org to give. 2️⃣ Put a big phone number on the homepage. A significant amount of donors still prefer to call in a donation, or call in with questions. In the age of AI chat bots and offshore call centres, one of the most human things I would do is let humans talk to other humans. And yes, I'd have a plan in place for someone to be trained to answer the phone—and for someone to be available all the way until midnight at year end. A factor to consider here is that people who make gifts of assets (stocks, securities, DAF gifts, etc.) often like to talk to someone at the org first. I wouldn't sleep on these gifts. They're typically much larger than your average gift—and also come with a significant tax advantage to donors. I'd want to encourage as many of these as possible. 3️⃣ Pull a list of people who made a year-end gift last year but haven't yet this year. I would rank them by giving amount, and include if they have a phone number, email address or mailing address on file. Then I'd start with those who have all 3 on file and have given more than $300. Our analysis of close to 1m donor records shows that these are high-intent signals for donors who not only give more, but also give more frequently. What would I do with that list? Call them. Personal phone calls are highly under-valued in mass and mid-level fundraising, but they're one of the highest levers you can pull (with the right audience). These calls aren't rocket science at all. It's a 3-5 minute phone conversation where you thank donors for their past support, listen carefully, share the current need and vision, and ask them if they'd consider making another gift. Along with phone calls, I'd expand the list and pair the calls with personal emails sent through a service like Yet Another Mail Merge. Finally, I'd put a simple postcard in the mail right now—with a picture, an offer, a clear and specific and tangible ask, and a link/QR code. They're quick to print, and cheap to mail. They don't perform *nearly* as well a direct mail, but they can be an effective touch point as part of a larger campaign. What would you do?

Stop Chasing Billionaires and Multi-Millionaires: Mid-Level Donors Are Your Fastest Path to 7-Figure Growth Nonprofits spend too many hours cultivating ultra-high-net-worth prospects who rarely convert. Meanwhile, donors giving $500–$5,000 quietly fund the mission, compounding faster than any billionaire pipeline ever will. Here’s the math: - Retention wins. Repeat donors at mid-level hold 69% retention, while new-donor retention languishes below 20%. - Compound growth. In a five-year window, committed mid-level supporters increase lifetime value by 1,500%—averaging $3,034 each—without a single “transformational” ask. - Lower friction. High acquisition costs and <14% retention for entry-level givers make mass‐mail recruiting a money pit. Mid-level donors are already past the trust threshold. Why the Middle Moves Millions - Predictable cash flow. Monthly or quarterly mid-level gifts smooth the revenue curve, funding program expansion today. - Prime upgrade pool. They are statistically the most likely source of your next $50k+ commitment, bequest, or DAF grant. - Community catalytic. Mid-level ambassadors bring social proof that unlocks peer influence far beyond their own checkbooks. 3-Steps to Hit 7 Figures - Segment and name the tier. Create a branded society (e.g., Momentum Circle) with a starting price of $1,000/year. - Deliver concierge stewardship. Personal thank-you videos, insider briefings, and surprise impact updates keep retention sticky. - Map an intentional runway. Calendar two value-adds (education calls, backstage tours) for every solicitation, then invite the top decile to a vision dinner where major-gift conversations begin. Stop treating mid-level donors as a layover on the way to the C-suite. Treat them as partners and watch seven-figure growth emerge from the center of your pyramid, no billionaires required. #Fundraising #CharitableGiving #Philanthropy #Nonprofits #Donors

A homeless shelter sends out two fundraising letters. Letter A says: "Your $100 donation provides emergency shelter and meals for someone experiencing homelessness. We serve over 500 people each month who desperately need a warm bed and hot food tonight. The crisis is growing. Please help…" Letter B says: "Your $100 donation helps people like James rebuild their lives. James used our job training program to earn his commercial driver’s license. Within 6 months, he went from sleeping in his car to driving for a local trucking company. Today, he has his own apartment and sends us a holiday card every year…" Which letter gave you more of a gut-level urge to give? Which letter do you think raised more money? If you said Letter B, you’re not alone. And you’d be right. But what’s most surprising is just how much more effective this shift in messaging was: 💰 3x more donors pulled out their wallets. 💰 The average gift jumped from $75 to $134. 💰 Total donations skyrocketed by 400% (!) This insight comes from groundbreaking research from Jonathan Hasford and his team, who call this the “autonomous aid effect.” They discovered that focusing on independence and long-term transformation—not just immediate needs—compels more people to give and give generously. Because when donors give, they want their money to create lasting change—not just put a band-aid on the problem. They’re moved by transformation, not just urgency. So, how can you apply this to your nonprofit’s messaging today? 🚫 Instead of: "Your donation feeds hungry families" ✅ Try: "Your donation helps families grow their own food through our community garden program." 🚫 Instead of: "Help us provide school supplies to children in need" ✅ Try: "Help students like Maria get the tools she needs to become the first in her family to graduate." 🚫 Instead of: "Support our job training program" ✅ Try: "Help determined people learn the skills they need to never need our help again." One homeless shelter in the study recreated their website, emails, and social media around this principle. Their donations have climbed year after year. Now, ask yourself: ❓ Does your website inspire donors to create lasting change—or just solve an immediate crisis? ❓Do your latest fundraising appeal emphasize immediate needs or independence? Crisis or transformation? Dependence or empowerment? This one messaging tweak can transform how donors see your organization—and how much they give. If you’re not 100% sure your messaging is doing this, it may be time to rethink it. P.S. If you want help revamping your messaging to inspire lasting change—and bigger donations—let’s talk. ___ 📌 This is the last of a series of 5 posts for nonprofits and nonprofit marketers about fundraising messaging hacks to kickoff the new year. Comment ME if you'd like me to send you the links to all five posts!

Stop fighting for crumbs in your fundraising efforts. Only about 7% of all wealth in the U.S. is held in cash. But the majority of nonprofits only ask donors to write a check or give a gift by credit card when seeking financial support. That means we're artificially locking ourselves out of ~93% of the wealth that generous individuals could use to impact our cause. Savvy nonprofits, on the other hand, are approaching this entirely differently and asking donors to consider gifts from: ✅ Donor Advised Funds ✅ Appreciated Stock ✅ Retirement Funds ✅ Crypto ✅ Real Estate, etc. The results? For the orgs that my team and I serve, it's working pretty dang well! 🔥 In one asset-based giving campaign, over 50% of all gifts to the campaign came via assets instead of cash 🔥 Donors are upgrading their giving from $80 in cash to $20,000 from their DAF, AND, from $150 to $70,000 in Stock 🔥 In some campaigns, half of all respondents increased their giving through assets up into either Mid-level or Major Donor categories 🔥 Our partners are seeing their annual revenue from asset-based giving increase by as much as $1 Million year-over-year If you're not creating opportunities for your donors to give through their accumulated wealth via assets, you're missing a ton of opportunity (and they're missing out on the joy of making an even bigger impact in your cause)!

If I were leading a fundraising team right now and retention was sliding, here’s exactly how I’d turn it around 👇 Retention doesn’t improve with luck. It improves with clarity. 🔹 Step 1: Define your at-risk group Pull a list of donors who gave last year but not this year. That’s your highest-ROI audience. 🔹 Step 2: Segment by relationship Who has personal ties to staff or board? Who’s been a loyal advocate for 5+ years? Those relationships are warm. Start there. 🔹 Step 3: Reach out like a human Not “Dear Friend” emails. Actual conversations. A check-in call. A quick video message. A handwritten note. Donors remember when you show up in personal ways. 🔹 Step 4: Track reasons, not just renewals Why did they stop giving? Why did they come back? If you don’t capture the why, you’ll repeat the same mistakes. 🔹 Step 5: Celebrate the second gift It’s the most important one. The second gift is what transforms a casual donor into someone who sticks. Treat it like a milestone. 🔹 Step 6: Build it into your system Don’t make this a one-off campaign. Bake lapsed-donor reactivation into your monthly workflows and use tools that surface who’s slipping away before it’s too late. Do this with discipline and you’ll stop bleeding donors and start building lifelong ones.

The Q3 numbers from Quarterly Fundraising Report are in. Based on this data, plus the reports we’ve read throughout the year alongside our own published Classy data, the trend of smaller donor participation is staying steady for much of 2023. When we look closer, new donor retention is dropping, while repeat donor retention rates are holding steady (-1% in Q3). We are contributors to this research, and conduct our own extensive analysis on our platform. The truth is that some organizations are bucking this trend. The happy anomalies are those organizations that spend a lot of time on donor retention and progression. Non-recurring but engaged donors are 4x more valuable than one-time donors. Recurring donors are 9x more valuable. Nonprofits like Shriners Hospital for Children have created scalable cross-channel communications focused on recruiting recurring donors, which has allowed them to consistently grow and fund their incredible work. These cross-channel strategies have helped them expand both their recurring monthly donor base and the average donation size of that monthly donation. Thanks to Woodrow Rosenbaum and team for the research: https://lnkd.in/gn2DVZPD Hear from Alan Stininger at Shriners Hospitals for Children on how they built their multi-million dollar recurring program: https://lnkd.in/gCZFsEqs

If your nonprofit, cause, charity, wants to raise a bigger-than-business-as-usual-chunk of cash via a #Fundraising #Campaign, here are the things you need to do (and your #fundraising #consultant should probably tell you to do): #Ideals. You can only raise big donations if you are trusted, so your fundraising priorities and methods must align with your organisational values. Plus fundraising campaigns are brutal. So, your values will also set the guardrails that guide the "HOW" you will do this. Otherwise a campaign will burn through your people and partnerships. #Intention. Organisations are built on a series of intentional choices. High-Value Fundraising needs to become one of them, from now on until you've reached the price tag of your future impact (because that's all a fundraising campaign target really is). #Impact. Most high-value fundraising conversations WRONGLY begin with #income. Start your high-value fundraising conversations by talking about your impact, and your promise of future impact. That's what donors are investing in. #Investment. You need to believe in this enough to invest first, if you want others to. You definitely need the right people in the right places with the capacity and competency to do the fundraising. You also need people in other places too, to make this work - think programmes, project management, communications, etc. Your investment will by a major determinant of how much funding you can raise and within what timescale. So, what is your organisation's and leadership's appetite for risk when it comes to investing in fundraising? #Integration. Your new intention means that high-value fundraising must be fully integrated. Into leadership decisions, into the job descriptions of trustees, senior staff, senior volunteers. Everyone needs to own this and be pulling in the same direction. #Innovation. You've never done this before, that's okay. You're going to experiment, find what works, and do more of it. You also need to craft a culture that accepts mistakes and wrong turns are part of the learning journey. Campaigns that work with high-value donors also need to nurture the internal spaces where co-creation can happen with these donors. It's a core expectation. These "I"s all enable the following "V"s: #Value. Elevated expectations and more audacious expectations of donors. They will probably donate you more than you think, if you believe your cause is worth the investment, and can communicate your impact. #Volume. More high-value donors via inspired and connected individuals willing to elevate your cause's network into new circles and connections. #Velocity. Pick up the pace of your partnership-building with high-value donors. This means an empowered team who can initiate and sign off new partnerships - this needs a trusting culture and the right people in the right places (and a leap of faith). Where do you start? Get the right people in a room and start the #conversation.

Call it the “X factor.” Engaged donors give more. That’s the key insight from research Ron Cohen and I did on the connection between engagement and giving. According to data from surveys of nearly 10,000 donors, those who feel highly engaged with an organization—defined as frequently meeting with people related to and feeling valued by the organization—give at significantly higher levels. In fact, the most engaged donors give at up to 5 times the rate of donors overall. For organizations focused on fundraising, engagement with donors and constituents dramatically multiplies giving over time. Donor engagement is the X factor that significantly boosts giving from key donor groups: • Gifts under $1,000: Highly engaged donors gave at 1.2 times the rate of all donors. • Gifts $2,500-$9,999: Highly engaged donors gave at 2 times the rate of all donors. • Gifts $10,000-$24,999: Highly engaged donors gave at 3 times the rate of all donors. • Gifts $25,000-$49,999: Highly engaged donors gave at 4 times the rate of all donors. • Gifts $50,000 and up: Highly engaged donors gave at 5 times the rate of all donors. The more an organization can cultivate engagement, the more it will see giving increase over time, especially among mid-level and major donors. The key is focusing on the three elements of trust that drive engagement: Credibility, Reliability, and Intimacy. This means communicating transparently and consistently, following through on promises, and personalizing interactions. Donors who trust an organization, talk about it, and feel valued will become partners in its mission. While tactics like increasing call volumes or events may boost short-term dollars, engagement builds lifetime value and transforms donors into advocates and ambassadors. For long-term funding, engagement is the strategic “X factor” that multiplies giving across the donor pyramid. Nonprofits that make engagement a priority will thrive. Those that don’t risk being left behind.

Generosity isn’t just about writing a check. When we analyzed nearly 100,000 donors over five years for The Generosity Report that Neon One will release on April 29, we found that the most engaged supporters weren’t just donors - they were volunteers, event attendees, and peer-to-peer fundraisers. Here’s what the data revealed: 🔹 Event attendees who gave for multiple years significantly increased their giving over time. Showing up leads to showing support. 🔹 Volunteers contributed at benchmark giving levels for three years - then their donations accelerated. Investing time builds deeper connections. 🔹 Peer-to-peer fundraisers gave above average but often disengaged after their first year. These champions need better stewardship to stay engaged. Participation in generosity goes beyond financial transactions - and the more ways people engage, the more likely they are to deepen their commitment. If nonprofits can break down the silos between fundraising, volunteerism, and events, they can build stronger, more connected communities that sustain giving for years to come. How is your organization engaging people beyond donations? Let’s discuss in the comments. 👇