Donor Stewardship: Community-Centric Segmentation and Practices

[Music] The Small Nonprofit podcast is brought to you by Further Together Fundraising, which is actually my company, where fractional fundraisers work with social justice nonprofits in Canada and the States. Typically organizations who have tried hiring wins or twice, but it hasn't worked out. We use community-centric fundraising to build sustainable revenue systems, and here's the key. We don't just strategize. We roll up our sleeves and do the work with you. Donor meetings, campaign execution, grant rating, all of it. If you're ready to stop doing fundraising alone, visit gofurthertogether.ca. So, first of all, donor-centric fundraising wants you to steward the people who give the most amount of money, right? But community-centric fundraising is saying we need to steward different kinds of people, not just based on how much money they give. So today, I would love to dig deeper into that segmentation of who should we be targeting, what should we be saying to them, and why is that a little bit different from what donor-centric fundraising normally teaches us? Hi, friends. Ever wondered how you could turn your big ideas into results? Together, let's reimagine a better sector, tackle systemic issues, and yes, raise some serious cash. Welcome back to the Small Nonprofit, the podcast where your passion meets action. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Small Nonprofit Podcast. In this episode, we are going to talk about how you can segment and do sewer chip in a way that's aligned with the values of community-centric fundraising. I think this is a question that we've all been wondering about. And if you're new here, my name is Maria Rio. I'm an expert fundraiser with over a decade of experience, and I'm on a mission to make sure that EDs get the funding that they need without the stress. And I'm joined by Caitlin. Hi, Caitlin. Hi. So nice to be here again. And for anybody who doesn't know me, I'm Caitlin McBride. I'm a certified fundraising executive, also with over a decade of experience. And I am here to make fundraising feel less chaotic and more doable for Small Nonprofits. Speaking of Small Nonprofits, I feel like a lot of the time they just focus on stewarding people based on giving levels. That's what we're taught to do in a very donor-centric perspective. It's just a really easy, shorthand for saving time, energy, and just building those relationships. But with community-centric fundraising, I feel like some of those stewardship things are changing. So I don't know if you've heard of any nonprofits already telling you how they're thinking about deciding where to put their time, money, and effort. Yeah, there's been some conversations around this. And this is such an interesting question. And it's an interesting time to be talking about it. And I think you're right. This has been the default for so long. And it's not out of anything intentional, I think, or in the farthest. It's literally just a small organization. But so you have 1,000 people that have donated to you. You can't rate 1,000. Thank you, cards. You do need to segment your efforts in a way that is going to streamline your time. And the easiest way to do that is by being like, okay, everybody who gave $500 and up, they're going to get this. And then everybody can give $5,000 and up are going to get this. And it's just so default and it's so easy. You can do it on spreadsheet. But at the same time, there is this growing wave of this doesn't feel quite right. And this doesn't feel aligned with their values. And I have heard of some really interesting things that people are doing. Not just segmenting based on money. You're also looking at the length of time that somebody might be donating or celebrating monthly donors in the same way you'd be celebrating somebody writing a big check. So there's a lot of interesting things going on. But I think it's something that people are still struggling with. And it's something that I struggle with as well. It feels like such a default after fundraising for so long. One of the values of community-centric fundraising is too steward. Every single person in the community, right? Everyone has a very important part to play. And also time is valid equally as money. So also your volunteers need to be a big part of the community that you're stewarding. So first of all, donor-centric fundraising wants you to steward the people who give the most amount of money. Right? But community-centric fundraising is saying we need to steward different kinds of people not just based on how much money they give. So today, I would love to dig deeper into that segmentation of who should we be targeting? What should we be saying to them? And why is that a little bit different from a donor-centric fundraising normally teaches us? So let's start with volunteers. I think they're a really good category there. And it makes sense, right? For most people listening, they'll think, yes, of course, this person is donating the equivalent of $20,000 of staff time or $60,000 of staff time depending on what kind of volunteering that they're doing, how often they're coming in. Right? We understand that as a very large gift that someone is making. But I don't understand why we don't usually steward them in the same way that we steward our major donors. Why do you think that is? I don't know. It's a really good question. And I think that we just maybe struggle to attach the same value to time as we do to money. But you're right. That is a direct correlation between the gifts that volunteers are giving and the gifts that we're getting from donors because we are saving time, we are getting expertise, we are getting talent and things that we would have to pay a lot of money for. I had a volunteer design a whole website for me one time. That's like a $15,000 price tag. That's huge. And in no way did my organization feel the need to steward them in the same way as if that person had written a $15,000 check? There is. Yeah. It's a really interesting question as to like why we don't think of it in that same way. Even if you take out the time element, like if you're not stewarding them for the time that they give, volunteers will actually be some of your best monthly donors and they're definitely some of your best planned gift people, which has one of the highest return of any fundraising portfolio. It's about $1 for each $1 to $2 cents that you invest. So it's one of the highest return on investment that you could do when it comes to financial gains. But still we don't think of volunteers as someone that should be stewarded consistently. And same thing with the board members for also volunteers. We try to steward them as one group, not individually, which I also find a little bit strange because there's not many high touch stewardship that we do. That is one to many like we always really want to focus on that one to one. So with board members sometimes I see them maybe get a badge and an events, get their name on the website, but nothing really more meaningful than that. What about you? Yeah, I do see that. I'm making a board member at a really wonderful organization that does a really good job of stewarding board members. And just to give maybe ideas for our listeners who was during volunteer week and came to a board meeting and what was waiting for us was like a little branded chocolate bar with the logo on it and a little mug and a little thing of honey and the handwritten card from the organization. And stuff about so sweet to have you and cheese the little puns like that, but it honestly did make such a difference. I am giving my time, my talent and my energy to this organization. And in addition to the them being volunteers and board members being great monthly givers and plan givers, they're also huge advocates for your organization. If you treat them well and show them the value and show them the impact that they're making. They're going to be the ones that are going to mention your name in the room full of opportunities. So it is so important to show what your volunteers and your board members in there as well all of the love in the same way that you would somebody who's writing a check. I love how you mentioned how made you feel because I feel like a lot of board members how we steward them and air quotes is like you have to say our name to other people. Right, there's a lot of obligation put on board members rather than her attitude. Hey, you're doing this out of the kindness of your heart, even if you don't always get it right. Let's do some donor education, let's bring you along. Let's do work you in the same way that I would a major donor, but we don't usually do that. It's always the obligation part that kind of makes it feel less meaningful, less engaging, less happy. Got a lower board members. It's true, even if they're frustrating sometime, it's definitely way to build that relationship and get them on side and yeah, just make sure that they are feeling the love for the organization in the same way. I would say similarly that would apply to staff. Right, like they're the people who put in the most blood sweat and tears and they're not usually recognized at all. They're not stewarded and then we also have a complete hiring and retention crisis. You can actually just treat your staff better and really steward them in a similar way that you would a major donor. So doing those check-in calls, doing those, let's go for coffee and do something fine. It doesn't take that much more to make someone feel invested in, but I think that's another kind of key audience that we refuse to segment into our major giving opportunities because yeah, we know exactly how much we pay staff. They're not going to give me $5,000 and they wouldn't be proper for them to do so, but they do already subsidize the organization by 20 to 30,000 each staff person. So why do we not treat them as someone who's making a 20 to $30,000 gift? Absolutely. And I think I actually heard somebody on this podcast talking about that your staff are really your biggest donors like we all know how much nonprofit staff are underpaid and yeah, they could easily be going somewhere else and making much more money, but they're making this decision to be part of the organization. And I'm excited to be able to just prefer that we paid nonprofit staff more, but we're working the words that we're getting there. So when you said it makes me think that it's a very voodoo lay thing to say. I think it was. I think it was. Yeah, yeah. It sounds like that's something that he would say like your staff are your biggest donors and I 100% agree with that. Okay. So we're putting into our major gift portfolio people who volunteer, people who are staff, people who are on the board. Any other people that you think we should segment into these like high touch, super personalized approaches? I would always segment my monthly donors into the major giving category. So when I was having to make those decisions about who I was going to go for a high touch, who was going to get the personalized handwritten note in the phone call. Even if it was a monthly donor who was donating $5 a month, they were in there. They were in that group because the longevity matters and it adds up and these are the people who are the most connected to your organization. Usually have some kind of like affinity or personal relationship to your organization. And there's a really interesting correlation between the longevity of a donor relationship and the increase in monetary donations. There's a really good study from the on one, the generosity report that was just released fairly recently, which talks about how donors who give over multiple years actually increase their giving. So if somebody is donating $40 one year, it's not that they're just donating $40 every single year, they'll actually increase that giving as time goes on. And you're monthly donors. I think that when we think about campaigns and we think about like year end, we're like, well, let's exclude the monthly donors because they're already giving very much not true. Your monthly donors are the ones who are going to give to your campaigns in addition to their monthly gift. So it's so important not to exclude them. So longevity and focusing on those monthly donors and grouping them into your major donor categories and what you're doing for major donors is so critical. I do have another question for you because monthly is 12 gifts, right? So if someone gives five gifts, three gifts in a year, do you lump them into the high touch or how many gifts do you think is a good amount? That's a really good question. I think that probably depends on your organization and your capacity. And that is a segmentation tactic that you're going to have to figure out like how many people does that add to the number of handwritten notes that you're going to have to do and is that going to make your wrist fall off that kind of thing. But I think that thinking about that and having that as a segmentation tactic, not just the cutoff is $2,000 or more that they gave this year and we're going to give them all the loves, but also $2,000 or gave more than five gifts this year or more than three gifts this year. I think that's a really good method to break that out. Oh, you could also do like number of gifts over the past three years or two years, something like that. But something that I talked about with Sarah Stager from St. River Telly Associates was kind of rethinking how we categorize people when they make a large financial contribution as a major donor. So it's not just the like actual financial amounts, but if there's other kind of like indicators that they are more bought into the cause. So maybe it's a large amount and a second and third gift, right? Or maybe it's a large amount and they volunteer. Right. So even if you have, let's say, 500 donors who give more than $1,000, you still want to be segmenting in that group, right? So making sure that your relationship building is being prioritized by other things that they bring to the table, not just our wallet. Yes, I definitely agree. Small organizations are at both an advantage and a disadvantage when it comes to doing that because they're usually disadvantaged by the fact that you don't often have the time or the financial capacity to invest in systems that are really going to be able to pull those people out and bring everything into a report and have all of that. That is quite a complex kind of reporting system. But in a way, they're also at an advantage because a lot of times you're such a small community and such small organization that you really know your champion. It's like these names come up over and over again. Okay, so we talked a little bit about who we want to include in our high touch personalized stewardship. But I feel like a lot of listeners, if I was listening to this episode, I'd be like, what about everyone else? You know, don't I never call them? I'm definitely going to lose them and you want to retain those people, right? So what are things that people can do that are maybe not as high touch, like, super personalized one-on-one, to connect with the rest of the community and how often should they be doing that? Let's take a quick break. Hi, friends. Have you heard of the What the Fundraising Podcast? It is hosted by the amazing Mallory Ericsson. Tell us about it Mallory. If you've ever thought fundraising shouldn't feel this hard. I want you to know you're not imagining it. What the fundraising is a podcast for fundraisers who are tired of burnout, scarcity, and being told to just try harder. Each week I sit down with scientists, fundraisers, and sector leaders to unpack what's actually happening in our brains and bodies, our systems, and our relationships with money. This show is about helping you raise more without hating your job and without abandoning your values. You don't have to choose between effective fundraising and feeling good. Come listen to What the Fundraising, wherever you get your podcasts. That sounds amazing. Friends, I really encourage you to go listen to the really interesting conversations on What the Fundraising. Let me know what you think. And now back to the episode. Yeah. Oh, I love this. Stewardship is just like my favorite thing. I love. This is why Stewardship is probably one of the reasons why I fell in love with fundraising. I just love that we're so lucky to have a career that is rooted in gratitude and we get to do this. One of the things that I've employed in the past, and I will say that these are things that I employed when I was a fundraising department of one. So this is not me relying on a hefty team of communications professionals and a decent budget for Stewardship. My budget was close to nothing. So these are things that, you know, even if you are in a very small team, like you can definitely do. But I would go to the camps I may organization would run and just do a kind of thank you video and then I would be able to send that to my entire donor base. And it was something that felt really personal and they were able to get a glimpse into the work that we were doing. That was something that got a really good response. Also things like impact stories. I would really try to send out stories to our entire donor base every other month. And so that meant that during the course of the year, I would only need to really max most six stories. I would usually not actually send one out during year end. So maybe five stories, I would pre-write all of those and just send that out to everybody who had made a donation in the last year. I said every other month, there was no ask to it. And that again, received a really good response. And it was something that was like easy to do. I could pre-write those. And yeah, they were meaningful, but I could do for everybody. What about you? I tried a lot of different things when it comes to like one to many. The videos one I found was super, super effective. So I would definitely second that one. I didn't get a chance to try texting as much, but I would love to, if someone's listening to this and they're a texture here, I would love to hear how you're using texting to engage your donors. But something else that I've been curious about that I would love to try is doing more asks that are not financial asked. Hey, do you have a really good mother's day story? Because I would love to share it for my campaign, right? Or one of my clients, they have a quilt in one of their buildings that was made by the community. So each community member came by and made one piece of the quilt and it's hanging there now, right? So imagine if we could kind of reach out to our broader email list and say, hey, we're doing this again. If you're interested, send us a message and you can self-select for higher-level stewardship. It's still one to many, but there's ways to automate parts of it. So it's still very, very meaningful and it's not eating the time of your major gift fundraiser. You love those. Those are such nice ways to have a two-way conversation too and have them be giving something back and make something similar in an organization where we were. A lot of the work that we did was based in food. So we got people to submit their favorite recipes and then we were able to share some of their favorite recipes as part of our year end campaign. It was really cute because there was kids like kids recipe, so the recipe was like crackers with peanut butter and cheese. They all think like that. But it was super cute. It's so adorable. I do want to say for any of our listeners who are kind of struggling with, how do I store these people? There's too many people or how do I even get them through the door? You can work with Caitlin and I. We always have information in the descriptions, showcasing how you can get involved with further together and how we can support you grow your revenue in your donor base. I just wanted to say that before we quickly jump into how to actually make stewardship meaningful, right? So you find out who you're stewarding, you've sifted out who is getting high touch versus not as high touch personalized stewardship. But now how can we actually make that engaging? Because I find a lot of major donors, they might be pitched on, I want to name a building after you. I want to name the kitchen after you and many of them don't find that that meaningful. Maybe same thing with sponsorships too, but I love to cure your thoughts on how you can be stewarding people in a really meaningful way that is not really transactional. Because that's something that CCF is very against, right? We really want to be in community with people. We want them to advocate with us, to stand with us. So how do we actually steward them in a way that inspires that and isn't just another scented candle. scented candles, my grad. I feel like there's a time and a place for having names on walls and at the highest, like the biggest font on a board. And I think that is very much in sponsorships, even though I think we can start to move and get more creative around that. I think it is really important to clarify because a lot of people actually don't know this, that there's a big difference between sponsorships and donation. And sponsorships is there, that's a transaction that it's a contract, a mutual marketing opportunity, and that is what it is. So you are providing a service, you're providing visibility, you're providing brand alignment to a company or even maybe a foundation, a family foundation, where it's donation is something very different. And it is important to have something that feels meaningful. I've also found a lot of times when I'm giving gratitude for a donation, they don't want their name just plastered on a wall. They're like, "Why is this bicky and weird? I don't want that." The things that I found that are so meaningful when I was working with companies is really getting their employees involved in the work that we're doing and not doing it in a way that is like a make-work project for the program staff and actually adds a bit of a burden to them, but involving them in something that is useful and helpful. Like, for instance, I would get people to come in and pack food boxes, which is something that we needed to do anyways. So I could just call up this company and say, "Hey, do you want to come in and do this?" And then they were able to really see the work we were a little share some stories. And then on that too, really just sharing stories. And I would do this in a very ad-hoc kind of way. I would just hear some stories sometimes that really resonated and felt really powerful. And I would just send my donors a note, just a quick email off the cuffs. And the response was amazing. And that was just so meaningful for them to hear those personal stories and to hear how their money was being used. And it wasn't fancy, it wasn't canva designed, it wasn't shiny photos or anything. I was just like, "Hey, I heard this great story. This is what you're doing." One say, "Thank you." That's it. And there's some ways that I've done it. I'd love to hear how you created meaning. I try to tie the stewardship item to the organization as closely as possible. So like recently we just did a plantable postcard for one of our clients. Basically, it's printed on this paper that you can plant in shallow ground and then you'll have some kind of flowers pop out of your garden. And it's a way to bring this organization that also has community gardens into your own space. So it's a little bit more interactive. It is less wasteful. So donors don't turn around and say, "Why are you spending my money on this?" And it's meaningful because it connects the community garden that the organization does with that donors own garden. So little things like that, I feel go a really long way. I am also a fan of actually printing a photo and sending it along with a handwritten note. Even if the handwritten note is printed on a bypass tray and it's not as handwritten as it looks, but I am a fan of sending a photo because I think photos is one of my lovely languages to be honest. It's something that I have a horrible memory, so I need to see it and it makes me feel really warm. So I really appreciate that as well. But there was one other thing that I wanted to touch on and it's this example of meaningful stewardship that I received. One example of something that was really meaningful was the organization out on screen sent me because I'm a monthly donor, like year of the dragon mailing because they have a lot of racialized people on staff. So it's meaningful to them. It's authentic to them. And with my year of the dragon mailing, I also got, I think, an envelope that had two chocolate coins in it. So it's like bringing that cultural element forward and rewarding me with a sweet treat. Amazing. But in comparison, I was a patient because I had my gallbladder removed at Mount Sinai like two years ago. And I got there like mailing of like a hundred years. Thank you for being part of our community bubble. And it was printed in really like thick stock glossy paper. So it just felt very like not grassroots. It makes it feel too fancy. I personally, I'm not a billionaire donor. So I don't really relate to needing something fancy. I prefer something that's more off the cuff, more grassroots. And I feel like even your billionaire donors do as well. They want to feel like they're belonged. They're part of the community. Not that they're being catered to with this like fancy flashy piece of paper that they could have bought themselves. They don't need you to do it. Yeah. That's so true. And I love that you gave examples of what works and what didn't. Because I think that's also an important thing to note as well that, you know, if you're sending out, let's say postcards or gold coins, you might get some people that doesn't work for and they might be vocal about it. And that's okay. But like that one person who didn't like your postcard, don't let them do real your stewardship strategy. Some people would get upset about a 50 cent mailing of a postcard that I sent to them. And that's okay. I just took them off the mailing list and I would make sure to give them a call in the future. I obviously like every single time I would respect that, but I think it's important to make sure that you keep going with your stewardship strategy. Even if there's maybe one or two people who say, please don't send this to me, those are the ones that yeah, they're loud, but they're not representative of your entire community. If everybody's coming back and saying, don't send this to me, then yes, pay attention. But I think we get too nervous sometimes. What do you think someone listening to this episode and think about like, how do I segment people in a way that's more aligned with my values? How do I actually move this forward? What are the key takeaways that you want them to have? I think really looking at longevity, like how long somebody has been part of your community, how invested they are in your community, and whether or not that is financially, whether or not that's being a volunteer, being a board member, take a look at, as I talked about, like the number of gifts rather than the size of the gifts. And some of this is also going to be very specific to your organization, like understanding what is meaningful for you and what is driving your mission forward and who are the champions in your community who are helping you do that. There's probably not one blanket criteria that we can put on all donors that is going to put them into a major donor category, but I think just rethinking your levels and understanding that there's flexibility there. It's not like somebody should drop off of your major donor level list just because they don't need it, $1,999 one year and not $2,000. I think for me, as I move away from donor-centric fundraising and thinking, like I've just really been having to sit and think through every single thing that I'm going to do to engage donors and like how it shows like power and how it positions them and how it positions even me as a person in the organization of the people we serve. So it's just been very interesting and for me, my takeaway would be to sit with your brain for a little bit, spend the time to think and strategize through what you actually want people to walk away feeling through your stewardship, right? And who deserves to feel that way and who doesn't, right? Because that's basically what we're saying here. So for people who have been by your side, I would recommend really engaging them if they show up to events all the time, but they don't give outside of that. That's still someone that you might want to connect with. They are definitely keep showing up, right? If they're looking for ways to be more deeply involved, like volunteering, I think that's another really great person to tap into. If you made it to the end of today's episode, thank you so much. We appreciate that you're here listening to what we have to say, sharing with us your knowledge, your expertise. Please make sure to comment, subscribe, like this video so you can tell the algorithm that you enjoy this kind of content and we can show up on your feed. That being said, if you are struggling to do any of this stuff, please click on that link below. I think it just says need help with your fundraising and you can get in touch with Caitlin and myself. But that's it for today. Thank you again for listening to another episode of the Small Nonprofit Podcast. Until Until next time, bye for now.