Acquisition Checklist: Discover New Ways to Captivate Donors Classy
go to original July 19, 2022

We turned data from over 5,000 organizations into your roadmap to attract donors who stay and grow with you.

The Donor Acquisition Checklist makes it simple to take action now and get in front of untapped supporter networks that will fuel your fundraising momentum all year.

Donor acquisition is the critical first step to building an effective fundraising strategy. Based on findings from our annual report, The State of Modern Philanthropy 2022, this checklist will help you identify the right prospective donors and cultivate your next wave of life-long supporters.

Step One: Meet Your Donors Where They Are

Get your cause in the right places to catch the attention of target donors. Thoughtful preparation helps you reach new supporters who share an interest in your goals and are ready to make an impact.

  • Activate key platforms to reach new donors
  • Gauge your staff's capacity to expand your social media presence
  • Create social media business profiles
  • Schedule posts around the times and days your audience is most active
  • Stay ahead of new trends and algorithm shifts
  • Prioritize a consistent approach on platforms you know drive results
  • Pair our report findings with your organization's engagement analytics
  • Identify social media platforms that align with your goals
  • Capitalize on Facebook's traffic potential to boost cause awareness
  • Share campaigns on LinkedIn for higher conversion opportunity
  • Unlock traffic from a multi-platform approach

DID YOU KNOW? Gen Z rated social media as the top way they discover new causes to donate to.

  • Develop an email newsletter to share your mission with new supporters
  • Promote your newsletter on your website and social posts
  • Keep outreach consistent and simple with email templates
  • Provide tangible examples of how each donation fuels your mission

DID YOU KNOW? The top reason donors reconsider donating is they do not clearly understand the impact their gift would make.

  • Welcome new donors with a mobile-optimized giving experience
  • Streamline donation forms and campaigns for mobile
  • Reduce the number of required form fields
  • Increase font and donation button sizes
  • Cut unnecessary text and competing calls to action
  • Decrease image sizes to reduce loading times
  • Test your mobile donation experience to ensure a seamless, secure process
  • Use different devices, including phones, tablets, and eReaders
  • Test the mobile journey from social and email to your donation page
  • Invite people who aren't familiar with your campaigns test the experience
  • Note points of friction, load times, clunky formatting, or broken links

DID YOU KNOW? Over 50% of traffic to all campaign types comes from a mobile device.

Step Two: Time Your Campaigns to Engage Motivated Donors

Once you identify which platforms ladder up to your acquisition goals, schedule your content around the times donors are most likely to engage with it.

  • Acquire new donors during peak giving times
  • Reach donors between 9 and 11 a.m. when donation volume is at its highest

DID YOU KNOW? Giving peaks on Tuesday at 10 a.m. (all times reflect the donor's respective time zone)

  • Use weekends to share touchpoints that keep donors connected
  • Plan a mid-year analysis to optimize your fundraising strategy ahead of the peak year-end season
  • Review campaign traffic by day, week, and month to tailor promotions
  • Compare email open rates to send time to target engagement
  • Ramp Up Acquisition Efforts at the End of the Year
  • Target outreach to re-engage donors ahead of the giving season
  • Send personalized thank you notes to lapsed donors
  • Make frequent and impactful updates to your social media platforms
  • Offer small gifts or swag to motivate new donors

DID YOU KNOW? Thirty percent of annual donation volume happens between Giving Tuesday and December 31st on Classy.

  • Take advantage of Giving Tuesday to grow your donor community
  • Launch a campaign on Giving Tuesday, when 10x more donors are acquired compared to an average day of the year
  • After Giving Tuesday, flip your campaign to an end-of-year call to action

Step Three: Use Events to Build Donor Relationships

Once you've identified where your supporters are and when to connect with them, it's time to strengthen each donor relationship with strategic stewardship tactics.

  • Embrace the return of in-person fundraising events
  • Use events to build lasting relationships with first-time donors
  • Foster networking between your attendees and staff members
  • Host fun events in trendy or attractive venues to draw in new supporters
  • Gift attendees with free branded swag or perks
  • Have "next steps" ready to share with attendees
  • Send thank you notes and other follow-up information after the event
  • Make sure new supporters know their next opportunity to give
  • Include a virtual event component to connect with non-local donors

DID YOU KNOW? Ninety-one percent of fundraising event attendees will likely take further action with a nonprofit after a positive event experience.

  • Get attendees to fundraise on your behalf to help expand your reach
  • Use peer-to-peer fundraising to unlock donation volume potential
  • Encourage people to build teams and recruit support to reach their goals
  • Have people fundraise as part of their registration cost for your event
  • Help attendees promote your cause by providing brand assets
  • Make it easy for donors to create their fundraising pages
  • Encourage social media sharing to help fundraisers engage new networks

DID YOU KNOW? Individual fundraising pages bring in an average of 20 donors.

Philanthropy 2022: The Path to Lasting Donor Connections

As you learn to make a sizable impact with these tips, discover additional ways to round out your strategy. Make our full interactive report, The State of Modern Philanthropy 2022, your next stop for an in-depth analysis of proven donor acquisition, conversion, and retention strategies.

Learn more at Classy

Related: Inflation and the Possibility of a Recession Have Fundraisers Worried (Chronicle of Philanthropy)