Who Are Your Supporters? The Answer May Surprise You

A friend recently told me a story about how her organization created personas to help target their fundraising and marketing efforts. When they first started crafting a major donor persona, they assumed this person would come from the wealthy part of town. However, once they started researching who the major donors in their database actually were, they were surprised to discover that the best donors were actually in the area they served — quite far from the wealthy area. Her organization had to adjust both the persona they were building and their assumptions.

Likewise, while you might think you know who your supporters are, the actual data may surprise you. When building personas for your organization to use, it’s important to start with your database. Look at the groupings you naturally have and see what characteristics they have in common. Sometimes our instincts are right, but sometimes we find new groups or demographics that we might have never considered for personas.

To explore how to use your database to create data-based personas, take Blackbaud University’s new course Raiser’s Edge Best Practices: Developing Donor Personas. This course is part of the Raiser’s Edge Fundraising Learning Path. For more a more general look at how to create personas, take Organizational Best Practices: Marketing - Personas, part of the Organizational Best Practices Marketing Learning Path.

This course is included with your Blackbaud University Learn More and Learn Everything training subscriptions. Not a subscriber? Chat with us now!