Each year after Give to the Max, thousands of donors respond to GiveMN's annual survey in which we ask questions to learn more about their giving preferences and habits. As you begin to plan spring acquisition campaigns, donor cultivation, and planning the rest of the year, these five key highlights from donors that support Minnesota organizations may provide new insights to guide your 2024 strategies.
Takeaway #1: Donors like to give where they live
When asked if the location of an organization makes a difference in donors’ giving preferences, we saw that most donors prefer to give locally and within their immediate community. In the survey, the GiveMN team framed “local” as “within a neighborhood, city, or county.”
Other than giving locally, donors said they also prefer to give to organizations that work statewide in Minnesota, but were not likely to have a preference for organizations that work nationally or internationally. We also saw a large number of donors indicate that they have no preference for the location of an organization.
With this information in mind, the GiveMN team would suggest keeping a couple things in mind:
- If you are an organization that works closely with your local community, lean into that story! Donors want to give where they live and support causes that affect their neighbors. Think about what story you can tell to showcase the difference you make everyday in your own backyard.
- If you’re an organization that works nationally or internationally, consider how you can shine a spotlight on how you engage and affect Minnesotans through your work. Sometimes work happening in a different part of the country (or halfway across the world!) can be hard to feel connected to. Help your donors see why their support makes a difference, even in the lives of people that may never meet!
Takeaway #2: Donors aren’t fatigued!
One of the top concerns the GiveMN team hears from fundraisers is, “I’m afraid of emailing my donors too often…won’t they get annoyed?”
Well, we’re here to tell you that general donor fatigue is a myth! We asked donors how they felt about the number of communications they were receiving from causes they love during Give to the Max 2023. An overwhelming majority said they felt like they were receiving just the right number of communications!
In fact, 3% of donors said that they’d like to hear more often from the causes they love! And while 18% said they’d like to hear from nonprofits and schools less often, they still donated and participated in Give to the Max Day.
We encourage you to look at donor behavior as a whole and try to base your strategy around what works for the majority of your donors, rather than holding your story back out of fear that donors don’t want to hear from you. Your story is important and getting the word out there is a crucial part of any nonprofit’s fundraising success!
Takeaway #3: A good story makes all the difference
When asked what motivates donors to click “give” when asked for their support, most donors cited one of three answers: they wanted to pay-it-forward for the services they had received from an organization in the past, they read an inspiring story about an organization’s work, or someone close to them asked them to make a donation.
What this tell us is that engaging your community, including past program participants, and telling a good story are important during fundraising campaigns. So, here are our team’s top recommendations for how to use this information to level-up your fundraising:
- Stay in touch with your past program participants! If you provide services or offer experiences that engage the community, be sure to keep them in the loop even after their time in your program has come to an end. By continuing to build your relationship with past program participants, you can build pathways to keep them engaged and supportive of your mission.
- Make sure you’re telling a great story. If 44% of donors are motivated by reading a compelling story about an organization’s impact, then make sure your organization has a clear message and call-to-action! A clear, impactful story can go a long way in moving someone to action.
- We’re all more likely to give to someone we know rather than someone we don’t. Consider leveraging a peer-to-peer strategy that engages your current supporters to ask their friends and family to donate to your organization! Whether that’s through a birthday fundraiser, some friendly fundraising competition using GiveMN’s Team Fundraiser tool, or bringing a friend along to your next event, there are dozens of ways to empower your audience to spread the word.
Takeaway #4: Emails drive revenue
In addition to asking donors what motivates them to give, we also asked what type of communication prompted them to participate in Give to the Max. Overall, we found that donors cited email as the primary “ask” that spurred their gift. Notably, they said that receiving an email from a cause they love was the number one most motivating factor! After that, they said that receiving an email from GiveMN also prompted them to make a donation.
What this tells us is that email is a great way to directly communicate with donors, especially if your fundraising campaign is mostly taking place online. Additionally, fundraising trends show that email generally has a higher donation response rate than other digital communications like social media.
Takeaway #5: Donors are giving in multiple ways
Giving money isn’t the only way to support nonprofits and schools and donors are showing up for organizations in multiple ways! When asked if they also supported causes they love through serving on a board, spreading the word about an organization via word of mouth or social media, and volunteering, nearly half of all respondents said they do at least one of those activities!
Volunteering and spreading the word were the two most cited activities that donors said they partake in to help support organizations about which they care. When planning your fundraising into this spring, consider how you might be able to get your audience involved in your efforts or how you can equip them to be ambassadors for your organization!
We know that national giving data shows that donors are decreasing…and that can feel like a scary and daunting trend. But Minnesotans are continuing to show up for causes like yours and feel excited to be part of your work! Whether you try a new peer-to-peer strategy, refine your storytelling, ask your volunteers to make a gift, or something in between, we want you to know that donors are still here for you and they’re ready to make an impact with you.
===
Are you interested in diving into these metrics more or are curious as to how you can refine your own donor data? We’d love to support you! Schedule a free consultation call with our Director of Coaching Clara Lind to learn more about how our fundraising coaches can help!