Your supporters are all unique, and so are their donating patterns! Some of your supporters donate seasonally; others only donate when they can. This information can help your organization better understand your donors and plan future fundraising efforts. However, many organizations struggle to gather these insights.
Having insight into your prospective donors’ philanthropic activities and past patterns can help track and predict future donations. Here are some ways to identify prospective donors:
How to Identify Prospective Donors through Past Patterns
There are several ways to identify prospective donors for your nonprofit’s fundraising strategies. Understanding your existing donors can help you recognize who might donate to your organization again. Here are some other ways to identify potential donors using your organization’s donor data:
- Analyze your past donors’ engagement and interactions with your organization. Tracking these metrics can help you determine their interest level for future donations.
- Reviewing your supporter’s giving history. The frequency and amount they have shown in the past can tell you if they’re likely to your organization again in the future.
- See if they have attended your past events or have opened your email newsletters.
Supporters who are engaging with your organization’s mission by interacting with your marketing efforts and who have previously donated are more likely to give again, so it’s helpful to use your donor data to your advantage.
4 Ways to Optimize Your Fundraising Outreach
After identifying prospective donors in your database based on their past patterns, you can tailor your outreach to your donor audience. Here are four ways to continue narrowing down prospective donors:
1. Conduct a Wealth Screening to Identify Major Donors
A wealth screening service can help you identify potential major donors with a more significant financial capacity to give. When you know this type of financial information about your major supporters and analyze their previous donation habits, you can better predict the next time they might donate.
After you conduct a wealth screening, sending personalized messages to these major donors can help your organization better connect with them. Identifying the capacity and frequency of when these types of donors give can help your organization better predict its fundraising goals.
2. Analyze Existing Donors with DonorModel
Reviewing your supporters’ past engagement and interactions from previous fundraising campaigns is a great first step. But you can take it a step further; AlumniFinder’s DonorModel solution helps predict which of your existing donors are more likely to give in the future. With this data-driven approach, you can focus your fundraising efforts on donors who are most likely to give.
3. Update Your Database
When your database is up-to-date, you can analyze your supporters’ past patterns and engagement with confidence. Here are some tools and services to help you maintain your data quality.
- Data Quality Report: AlumniFinder’s complimentary Data Quality Report can inform you about the current health of your database. Learn where there are gaps in your records and which records can be updated. Start your next campaign by viewing your data quality to make sure it’s current.
- Data Hygiene Service: Regularly cleaning your database can help your fundraising return on investment (ROI). AlumniFinder’s Data Hygiene Services can identify supporters who have moved to a different address and verify phone numbers and email addresses.
- Data Append: Missing information in your supporter records can lead to a lost connection. Fill in missing data with a data append to make your fundraising campaigns more successful.
4. Obtain a Prospecting List to Find New Donors
While the existing donors in your database are great for outreach for future giving, connecting with new individuals and encouraging them to support your cause is also beneficial. A data-driven prospecting list similar to your existing target audience can help you reach your fundraising goals. Whether it’s a direct mailing or email campaign, finding new donors to engage with your organization can help boost your outreach efforts.
While past patterns don’t always indicate future giving, having the tools and knowledge to identify prospective donors can help your nonprofit with its future outreach. Whether it’s reviewing existing donors in your database, identifying major donors, or using services to enhance your data—there are numerous ways to obtain a more complete picture of your supporters. Contact AlumniFinder today to learn more about how you can reach prospective donors.
Other Helpful Resources and Guides for Nonprofits
- With data privacy concerns, it’s essential to be up-to-date on privacy compliance. Check out Deep Sync’s Nonprofit Guide to Navigating Data Privacy Laws.
- Stand out in your fundraising campaigns! This blog post discusses five strategies for nonprofits to create meaningful marketing.
- Donors feel valued and respond well to messages that are tailored to their interests. This blog post explains how to personalize your nonprofit’s communications to better connect with donors.
