Engaging At-risk Donors: Friendly Interactions To Reconnect

Steve Stegelin

On the Home page today, you may notice a new item titled At-risk donors. From that item, you can quickly access a list of donors who haven't given a gift — or received a soft credit — in 12-15 months, similar to a LYBUNT (Last Year, But Unfortunately Not This year) report. In short, these are donors who gave last year(ish) but could be at risk of lapsing. Now that you've identified these donors, consider these steps to help retain them.

 
Review their giving history.  While these donors haven't given in 12-15 months, they might not really be "at-risk." In fact, an at-risk donor may consider their latest gift as recent, so the last thing you want is to unintentionally offend a loyal supporter. In the list, select Choose columns and include Giving columns like Latest gift and Lifetime giving to help determine whether this sort of gap in giving is normal. You can also select a constituent's name to view their record, which includes a snapshot of their gifts under Giving.

Reach out with a friendly interaction. Take this opportunity to reach out with a friendly interaction to reconnect with the donor and nurture the relationship. It's important you carefully craft this message to not rub them the wrong way. Again, the donor may think of themselves as a loyal supporter — not "at-risk" — or may've had a unfortunate change in their economic standing. Think of this as a light check-in, like you would a friend you haven't talked to in a short while.

Suggest a recurring gift. To help ensure regular giving from the donor in the future, suggest they set up a recurring gift. Recurring gifts enable donors to show their support with automatic payments of any amount, at any frequency. Unlike pledges, recurring gifts can also be open-ended. To determine how frequently — and how much — to suggest a donor give through a recurring gift, refer to their giving history as a guideline, or suggest a schedule of smaller, monthly payments that have low-impact to their budget but a big impact on your mission in the long-term.


For more information about how to identify and re-engage at-risk, lapsing, lapsed, or lost donors, see the Donor Attrition Help.