8 Ways to Cultivate and Strengthen Your Mid-Level Donor Relationships
You know that your mid-level donor relationships matter. These amazing supporters have greater potential to become major donors.
They have higher donor lifetime value because they typically have stable incomes and lifestyles, which leads to longer relationships. And, mid-level donors likely make up a sizable portion of your revenue. It varies by organization of course. But one study found that mid-level donors give 42% more per year than one-time donors. And that reflects all one-time donors averaged together, so it includes one-time major donors.
That means mid-level donors offer revenue stability, reliable commitment, and the ability to bring others from their networks into your sphere of influence.
Thus, it’s to your organization’s great advantage to initiate, cultivate, and nurture relationships with your mid-level donors. But how? And, how can it be done at low cost?
Before we answer those questions, let’s take a look at the playing field.
How Nonprofits Are Doing with Mid-Level Donor Communications
A recent study explored how nonprofit leaders and staff think about fundraising communications on a variety of issues, and one issue they explored was mid-level donor relationships. The study is called A Better Way – A National Study of Nonprofit Leadership & Fundraising in a Rapidly Changing World.
Here are a few key findings as they relate to relationships with mid-level donors.
Some Nonprofits Want to Improve
50% of nonprofit staff and leadership want to focus more on long-term relationships with mid-level donors. That’s good, but it’s concerning that it’s only half. 48% say their organization is willing to take risks in this regard, but then, 46% say that in spite of wanting to use the most effective fundraising methods, their organizations mostly just keep doing what they’ve always done.
So, they want to change. They see the need. But many of them resist when it comes time to implement those changes.
Disagree about How to Change
Maybe part of the problem is that not everyone agrees on what to do differently.
51% of staff want to increase their focus on asking mid-level donors to give assets instead of cash. This is a very important shift to make with major donors too, but you can also pursue it with mid-level donors, and may even elevate some of them to the major donor category. It might be a risk to try, but it might be worth the potential reward.
Another 51% say they think their mid-level donor communications should ask for money less often. Here too there is going to be disagreement, so you’re going to have to figure out what kind of relationship you want to have with your mid-level donors. And your strategy needs to reflect that intention.
Mid-Level Donor Neglect – Current Reality
Intentions are great, but what’s happening now? The study paints a pretty dire picture.
Only 16% of nonprofit staff and leadership say their organizations have a specific strategy for obtaining consistent feedback from mid-level donors. And only 7% say they are highly effective at building mid-level donor relationships.
That’s not very good. That means donor neglect is robbing numerous organizations of significant mid-level donor revenue.
Even more troubling, just 3% say their nonprofits are highly effective at building relationships with potential mid-level donors. And that would include mass market, low-dollar donors who could increase their giving to reach mid-level status.
Just 19% of nonprofit leaders and staff say their organization has an intentional strategy for treating mid-level donors differently.
That’s a lot of neglect.
That means many mid-level donors feel lost, unimportant, and unrecognized. This is true even though they give several thousand dollars per year, if we go with the typical definition of mid-level to mean annual gifts between $1000 and $10,000.
Giving several thousand dollars isn’t a small thing. If all they get for that is a generic thank you email and another request to give six months later, they won’t feel like their gift is making much of a difference.
Do you think you might be able to do better?
How to Cultivate Better Mid-Level Donor Relationships
You know that relationships are built on trust. Then they advance to moments of decision and commitment. They deepen over time when both sides benefit. One-sided relationships, on the other hand, wither and fade.
Here are some strategies your nonprofit can use to initiate and grow quality and rewarding relationships with mid-level donors.
1. Segment Your Communications
Yes, you probably hear this one a lot, but that’s because it’s a smart idea. The more relevant you make your messages, the more they will resonate.
Mid-level donors are not like mass market, low dollar donors. Giving $3,500 a year is very different from giving $50. It doesn’t matter what the person’s net worth is. You can buy some nice stuff for that much money. The fact they’re giving it to support your cause means they consider your organization’s mission valuable and important enough to part with a sizable amount of money.
So, communicate with your mid-level donors, at least part of the time, as an exclusive segment. Figure out who they are (with Smart Surveys ) and put them in a separate email list, separate mailing list, and clearly identify them in your donor database.
2. Minimize Donation Asks (Solicitations)
The study referenced earlier mentioned some disagreement on this topic among nonprofit staff. Well, rest assured, there is no disagreement about it at MarketSmart.
If you’re asking for money in every communication with mid-level donors, that’s not a relationship. It’s a transaction. You’re treating them like an ATM.
Relationships involve give and take. Both sides benefit. Use other strategies on this list for ideas about other things to communicate about – including offers you can make that don’t involve them giving.
3. Send Personalized Communication
When you put effort into learning about your donors, you discover a lot of openings that enable you to send more personalized communication.
For example, if you use MarketSmart’s system, you’ll be able to send donor surveys that allow supporters to share things like:
With the data like that (which our system collects for you, at MarketSmart), you can then send out follow-up communication that aligns with what each supporter has revealed about themselves. And that can be completely automated, too, using our system.
This way you can engage with donors and supporters on their terms, in their timing, and at their pace. And, you’re doing it in a way that makes them feel respected, valued, important, and heard.
That’s a relationship. With MarketSmart, you can do this with your entire donor database – at scale – without needing to hire a bunch of new people.
4. Offer Other Ways to Get Involved
Part of your communication should look for ways to get supporters and mid-level donors more involved, in ways other than just giving. Why? Because that’s what happens in healthy relationships. You invite people to things.
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The bottom line here is that the more people engage and the deeper they involve themselves, the more likely it is that they’ll share major gifts of assets.
Here are a few ways your mid-level donors might appreciate getting involved:
All these sorts of things will deepen the mid-level donor’s emotional and social connection with your organization. You are part of their life.
Do you see how these sorts of offers provide them far more opportunity than simply writing checks?
5. Personalized Gratitude
Gratitude is its own strategy, because its effect on donors is so powerful. Especially mid-level donors.
Again, these people are parting with several thousand dollars. They deserve more than a computer generated thank you email. Handwritten cards are nice. Personal letters are good. Phone calls are great if you have the personnel – and perhaps some board members or volunteers could help.
Make them feel appreciated and important for their gift. Mid-level donors are giving at a high enough level to justify at least one phone call. Try to make this a priority. After all, these people are likely to be your future major donors if you show ‘em that you know ‘em, and express gratitude.
6. Engage According to Past Giving History
Mid-level donors tend to give in two primary ways – monthly, or in chunks.
For monthly mid-level donors, these are people who give at least $100 per month or so. Pay attention to their giving history and use this to influence how you communicate, and how you ask for gifts.
For example, one monthly donor might have given for years, month after month, but never given to any other campaigns, even big ones like year-end or Giving Tuesday. Why? They may be content with their current giving and feel like it’s enough. Or, they may be open to giving an additional four-figure gift now and then, but would respond to a more personal outreach.
How do you know?
You have to ask! You can do this using surveys, and again this is what MarketSmart can automate for you. With surveys, you can find out why this monthly mid-level donor never gives to anything else, and then you can respond accordingly.
Another monthly donor might also make additional gifts to other campaigns, and you would engage them differently.
Now, imagine another mid-level donor who gives in chunks, but not monthly. Maybe they gave $2000 on Giving Tuesday last year, $1,000 as an annual gift, and $1,500 to a campaign some other time during the year. This donor is clearly open to making sizable, heroic and somewhat random gifts. So, you can feel more comfortable reaching out to them for a potential gift, even just with this information.
If you do it with a personal phone call, or a very personal email or mailed letter, they’re not going to mind if they can tell you’re sincere and that they’re the only one receiving this communication.
And, all these mid-level donors might be open to giving a matching gift.
7. Consider Hiring a Mid-Level Caseload Manager
Also known as a donor experience representative, or a donor relations or outreach specialist, if you have enough mid-level donors, making this a formal position may be worth it. Somewhere between 300-500 mid-level donors is a good minimum before you consider this.
A mid-level donor rep can perform many of the donor communication tasks mentioned in this article, because it will be their job. They will have time to do it.
They can make personal calls. They can create personalized emails and letters to specific donors. They can create segmented communications that go out to their whole caseload or all the mid-level donors. They can create special invitations to events and other offers.
All of this will pay for itself in longer relationships where donors greatly increase their lifetime value. If a relationship with a mid-level donor rep takes your average donor relationship from three years to seven years, and each year the average mid-level donor is giving, say, $3,500, you’ve just created a huge increase in revenue that will strengthen your nonprofit’s whole financial situation.
Think about that before you lay down a deposit for another poor performing event or direct mail campaign.
Considerations of hiring a donor rep
If you like this idea, just be aware of a few risks. The primary one is, if you hire just one person for this role, and they gain all this institutional knowledge and forge all these relationships with mid-level donors – and then leave the job – you have to start all over.
One way around this is to make sure others on your staff are also participating and working alongside this person in some capacity. Or, you can hire two donor reps but give them other tasks as well if you don’t have enough mid-level donors to justify two full-time mid-level reps.
Of course, you could ‘hire’ a ‘virtual gift officer’ for less. It can engage supporters with highly relevant, timely, personalized messages that deliver value consistently. Plus, it will never sleep, call in sick, take a vacation or quit.
8. Learn to Find Potential Mid-Level Donors
Lastly, you want to continue adding to your mid-level donor database. But how? How do you find these people?
You can attract new ones just like any other donors, but there’s also a good chance many of them are already present in your database as members, subscribers, or even followers (on social media, of course). But, they’re either not giving at all, or they’re giving just low dollar amounts because they’re not receiving enough effective communications to make their giving experience feel worthwhile.
What can you do?
Past giving
As mentioned, past giving is a strong indicator of willingness to give more or get involved in other ways. A monthly donor giving something like $30 per month possibly has capacity to give much more. Begin communicating with them on a more personal basis, find out more about them, and eventually you’ll discover if people like this want to increase their giving.
Or, what if someone gave a one-time gift several years ago of $3,500, but since then has given only sporadically. That person needs to be engaged more effectively.
Tap volunteers
Many volunteers have capacity to give, but aren’t for various reasons. Look at your volunteers, board members, and their networks of contacts. Give these people the opportunity to provide feedback. You’ll make some nice discoveries.
Email surveys
Email surveys to your donor database work so well because it lets people engage on their terms. But surveys only work if you respond and prove you actually listened. If supporters hear nothing after the survey, it can actually do more harm than good.
With MarketSmart, you can automate the entire process. Here’s what happens:
Digital body language
Our system monitors what we call ‘digital body language.’ This means, we’re constantly evaluating how potential donors are responding to the communication the system sends out. When a supporter’s online engagement actions reveal a high enough level of interest, they can be added to a list of contacts who are ready for more personalized outreach.
This is how you really get the most out of a mid-level donor rep. Tee up the most passionate and wealthiest supporters for them to reach out to when the timing is right for the supporters. Now that’s true donor-centricity!
See how MarketSmart’s automated donor engagement system can help you cultivate relationships and prequalify them for outreach with more mid-level (and major!) donors.