When it comes to letting donors go without trying to win them back, all experts and specialists in the NFP field are unanimous – you should never do that. The general rule is that it’s easier and more cost efficient for your organisation to make sure it maintains healthy relationship with your existing donors instead of abandoning the ones who no longer respond and moving on. In this post, we will explain how to effectively target existing donors who no longer donate and how to filter your donor database in order to find those people likely to give again.

First Things First: Intelligent Targeting

Before you start contacting your inactive donors, you need to filter those ones that you don’t need to spend time on. You might have a database with thousands of donors and you cannot possibly write to / email / call everyone. A more reasonable approach would be selecting the ones who have been donating regularly, or donating big sums. A ‘big sum’ can mean something different depending on the NFP in question, so it is up to you to decide on the ranges and characteristics of the donors you want back.

Make It Personal

Once you have chosen the donors that matter to you the most, make sure you contact them in a personalised may that will make them feel special. If someone at your organisation knows them personally, let them drop the call or the e-mail. If not, make sure you mention such details as names and titles (and make sure they are spelled correctly), dates of previous donations, projects / events to which the donors have contributed and any other relevant information. That will show those donors that your organisation cares about them and that you have obviously put some effort in contacting them again.

Ask for Donations for a Specific Project / Event

Asking money for something specific is more likely to get you a new donation than just sending a regular e-mail. Saying something like ‘You helped us build a new playground for the local school, now we need your help for …. ‘ can be interpreted as ‘We are struggling to raise money for this, so we need you to make a difference again’. This will again make your donors feel special and motivate them to be active again.

Tell Them What They Mean to You

Some of your donors may not have donated for a while now, but they might consider themselves an important part of the organisation. It is possible that they are planning to donate again later on or have decided to make bigger donations less often. When communicating with them, make sure you express your gratitude for their contributions and show them what they mean to you. You could, then, offer them the chance for a more regular involvement with your organisation.

Inactive donors are not ex-donors until they explicitly state so. Therefore, try to contact them and show them what a difference they make. Sometimes the reason why people become inactive might be a misunderstanding or miscommunication. In other cases, the people might have find a charity they feel better with, or might be expressing financial difficulties or other problems in their personal life. Whatever the reason, it is worth contacting them and trying to win them back. Good luck!