Donor retention is a crucial aspect of a productive fundraising strategy. Keeping donors can undoubtedly be hard work but, a loyal donor base is vital in sustaining the work you do and furthering your mission. While a good deal of time and resources will be dedicated to this effort, certain aspects of donor retention can be made easy. Here are seven excellent methods of increasing donor retention and how to automate them.

1) Keep the Conversation with Donors Going
First impressions are essential. Chances are, you’ve already made a good one with your donor because they’ve made their first gift to your organization. Don’t let it stop there. Frequent communication is vital in cultivating donor relationships, especially with new supporters. What’s the easiest way to ensure that no new donor is lost in the mix? Set up a drip email to do the work for you.
To use a drip-email campaign, determine what your end goal is, or your call to action.
Examples:
• Make a second gift
• Sign up to volunteer
• Become a monthly donor
Whatever you want your donors to do, make sure you have this goal in mind when crafting your email series. This will keep your emails concise and focused.

2) Have Current Donor Information Sent to Your Inbox
Use scheduled reports to make sure you have the most relevant and up to date information sent to your inbox: monthly, weekly, daily, etc. What would benefit you most to know about your constituent base?
• List of first-time donors in the week
• List of major gifts given today
• List of donors who haven’t given a gift in the past six months
• List of reactivated donors
When you only run these reports monthly, quarterly, or even yearly, the information is a bit stale, and it can be overwhelming to do much with your list of donors. However, if you receive a small list daily or weekly and set aside 10 to 15 minutes each day or week, you can take small effective measures to retain these donors. Maybe it’s a phone call or a personalized email, but taking these few moments can make a difference to your donors.

3) Make Giving Easier For Donors than a Gym Membership
Your local gym knows how to retain its members, even the members that don’t go regularly. They make it easy by using automatic billing. Your donors can benefit from the same thing by setting up a monthly gift. They’ll have all the advantages without the guilt that comes with an unused gym membership.

4) Keep Your Donor Records Up to Date
Make sure the credit card information you have on file for your monthly supporters is up to date. Credit cards expire, and following up with donors to ask for new card information can be time-consuming. Fortunately, there are services now available that automate this task for you.

5) Reduce How Many Clicks it Takes to Donate
Forms with the highest conversion rates are the simplest forms with the fewest clicks required for your donors to contribute. The more fields a donor has to fill out and the more clicks required, the less likely they are to complete the form and make a donation. So make this an easy job for your supporters by sending them a form that is already filled out.

6) Retain Donors With Consistent Branding
Your donors are paying attention to your brand. Not only is a strong brand a great way to attract new donors, but it’s also essential in keeping your donors too. This means your emails, webpage, online donation forms, printed material, etc. should all have consistency in logos, colors, typography, and messaging. This requires a good deal of thoughtful consideration when creating materials that will be presented to your public.
Nowhere is branding more critical than on an online form where donors will be making a donation and providing you with their private financial information making trust in your brand paramount. Make sure you brand your online donation forms to help with your form conversion rate and donor retention.

7) Improve Donor Retention by Thanking Donors Faster
Don’t forget the most important thing you can do to retain your donors: thank them! Donors that are thanked for their gift within 24 hours have a 60% retention rate. By far, this is one of the most influential pieces of communication you can use to keep your donors coming back. In addition to thanking your donors promptly, it can also be highly effective to personalize your communication. Make sure their name is included instead of a general salutation like “friend” and specify their gift and what they donated towards. If you have the time, you can even add a personal note.
Personalized thank you sound incredibly time-consuming, but there are tools to make this essential task manageable for your team.