6 ways to engage and retain donors and fundraisers

16 February 2022  |  Stuart Palmer

A GlobalGiving study uncovered 11 key factors with the power to engage and retain charity supporters. This article focuses on six of those principles together with tips on how to use them in your charity campaigns.

Factor 1: Salience and simplicity

If you want visitors to make a donation you have to make the process easy for them. Starting with your website, it should be immediately clear where the visitor needs to go to donate. Your donation form and button should also be easy to use and ask for only the minimum information to complete the transaction.

As all charities know, securing recurring donations is the ultimate goal. There are several tools out there that can simplify setting this up. These include:

• WordPress plug-ins for your website
• Integrating crowdfunding tools such as JustGiving Checkout or the GoFundMe donate button, both of which now have recurring payment options.
• Create a ‘Subscribe’ button using PayPal.

If you’d like to dig deeper into donation form user experience, check out our book – Driving conversions & the art of maximising digital donations

Factor 2: Framing effects

A lot of research has been carried out into the effect of different ways of framing a charity donation. Are you presenting it as a moral duty (like the famous Bob Geldoff Live Aid outburst) or as a chance to be part of something special?

One simple but powerful technique is reminding someone of their previous generosity. One study found that donations were 20% higher for donors who were reminded of an earlier gift they had made compared to a matched control group where no such mention was made. Wikipedia makes use of this framing effect in their online appeals.

Factor 3: Completion effects

As explained in a previous post on behavioural economics, humans love to complete things. Rather than connecting donations to a long-term, vague goal (e.g. wildlife conservation in Africa), consider tying them to specific, short-term goals. Take the #EndSkyLitter campaign by the RSPCA. The ultimate goal of this campaign is a total UK wide ban on sky lanterns.

Some fundraisers appeal to our urge to complete and collect through so-called ‘pseudo-sets’. For example, a global wildlife charity might run five campaigns, one in each continent, and encourage supporters to donate to each to complete the set.

Another example of a pseudo-set would be a campaign which encourages you to follow a series of steps. For example, you might be asked to first make your donation, then email your MP and then share your activity on Twitter and Facebook.

Factor 4: Incentives

This one should come as no surprise. If a donor is rewarded for what they have done, they are more likely to repeat the act. Incentives can range from a personalised thank you note to a free T-shirt. The Red Cross are known for sending simple incentives with their appeals. These might include personalised address labels, gift wrapping sheets, a branded biro or a tote bag, etc.

Factor 5: Social norms

As social creatures, we like to fit in with the crowd. Charities can make use this psychological quirk by highlighting a specific donation amount on a form.

When we see this, it gives us the subtle signal that this is a ‘normal’ donation. Studies have proven that we will tend to match or even exceed this amount leading to an overall higher average donation amount. You can test this out for yourself using A/B split testing.

Factor 6: Commitment devices

How many times have you intended to make a donation or sign up for a campaign but never got round to it? A commitment device helps people make that small but significant step from intention to action.

Savvy charities are using social media as a commitment device by encouraging people to shout about campaigns they support. This increases the chances of friends and family members reinforcing the supporter’s commitment.

Email reminders can also serve as an important commitment device. Easyfundraising will often nudge supporters to remind them that they haven’t donated to their chosen charity for a while.

Are you using any of the principles above to boost donations and campaign signups? Let us know what has worked for you or what you are inspired to try next.