The Best Digital Channels For Donor Acquisition And Retention

The intention to do good or make a positive change in the world is certainly something wonderful, but those who enter the non-profit sector are often faced with some harsh realities about how competitive the sector can be. Thus, more and more charities are being professionalised and making use of tools and approaches which were more traditionally employed in the private sector.

One such difficulty, and probably the most important facet of running a successful non-profit organisation, is securing adequate funding- without funding good intentions are no more than dreams.

All of the biggest organisations around the world ensure that their digital marketing and communication teams are always on the cutting edge of the latest trends in order to successfully reach and engage with their desired audiences. For charities it is no different.

Non-profit organisations are also turning to digital platforms to get their messages across. Many of the target audiences often feel that a specific cause or call to action resonates with them, but this is only relevant if the message is properly relayed.

Acquiring a Donor

There are several easy to understand and use tools available to reach a broad range of audiences which can really help in creating long-lasting relationship between a charity and a donor. Here are some of the best tools which can be easily accessed by charities to get the donors on board:

Social Media

Even though social media has been coming along for some time now, this space is always evolving and a good charity should by every means be following these developments if they want to stay competitive in the non-profit industry. Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram offer a great way to engage with potential donors in such a manner that the engagement can become a regular or permanent occurrence if they choose to follow such a page or account.

One of the great things about using social media is the interoperability between the various platforms which allows for a charity to create linkages between tools such as Twitter and Facebook accounts, which then allows cross-pollination between these and thus allows drawing a bigger crowd of viewers and listeners.

Also, with the advancement of enabling such linkages between social media platforms and users, the advent of the hash tag has become a great tool in linking up specific charity causes or charities operating in a certain geographic are with similar effort occurring in the same place. Non-profits can benefit from other groups’ efforts and create a digital community where it becomes a lot easier to reach the desired group of donors.

Paid Media

Even though there certainly are some wonderful digital tools which are available at no charge such as social media, blogs and even web space, if an organisation wants to really take its marketing or branding to the next level, paid media campaigns are a very attractive option.

This can range from relatively inexpensive to a little more costly, depending on the method of delivery. An organisation or cause can make use of paid social media adverts, which can cost next to nothing and allows them to amplify their social media campaign without any extra efforts required. This then attracts persons, groups or organisations which may have not otherwise been originally reached.

Other paid digital media tools can also include more traditional media such as radio or television advertisements. This may be a lot more costly but is a tried and tested effective tool for reaching audiences as, let’s face it, not everyone is on Facebook… all the time.

Digital Media Optimisation     

As previously touched on, optimising these efforts of digital communications and marketing really is key in maximising a charity’s efforts to attract donors. This not only means creating linkages between various social media accounts, but goes a step further by using other optimisation tools. This may include search engine optimisation (SEO), which basically makes use of words and phrases which may commonly be used in web searches in order to ensure you are reaching or connecting with the maximum amount of donors.

Keeping Your Donors Close

Once a donor is acquired, maintaining a good and on-going relationship with such a donor is as important as acquiring them in the first place. This means that non-profits need to use various tools to keep their donors in the know, such as diligently updating their social media accounts- but it can be so much more. There are many online reporting software platforms that allow organisation to keep track of donor information and literally just manage the relationship.

This could be in the form of allowing donors to track the progress of a specific good cause or just periodic email updates. Whatever the means, it is definitely important to put as much time into keeping donors happy as it is to acquire them in the first place.

Marketing and advertising is crucial in getting out the right message and attracting the right audience. Even though print media still plays a role in communications and marketing, this has for some time been overshadowed by digital media which grows more each day reaching larger audiences in real-time. Get your charity digitalised and make the donation process as straightforward as possible for your donors.