3 Sustainer Retention Strategies to Engage Monthly Donors

The power of a strong sustainer program is undeniable. In addition to being loyal supporters of your mission, monthly donors offer a reliable fundraising revenue stream. This allows fiscal planning, strategic goal-setting, and the creation of realistic growth plans. 

But the solid financial foundation these sustainers provide depends on a few variables, starting with this: you need to retain those donors! Your long-term success depends on it. Here are three proven strategies to make sustainer retention easy.

1. Build strong relationships through personalization.

Personalizing your donor engagement is the first step to deepening your relationships. Use your constituent relationship management (CRM) system to explore information about your supporters, including their communication method or frequency preferences. These details will make personalization easier as you apply donor data to your communications by:

• Using donors’ names. Generic salutations in your emails or letters can cause you to lose donors pretty quickly. Not only should you address donors by their names, but also pay attention to titles like “Doctor” or “Reverend.” This attention to detail will make your donor feel seen and recognized. 

• Referencing past donations. Pulling donation history helps you thank donors for their most recent gift and find opportunities to request an increase in the frequency or amount of their gifts. A strategic nudge to move from quarterly to monthly giving or a $5 increase in monthly donations can make a big difference to your nonprofit’s mission. 

• Sharing content based on interests. What’s compelling to your donors? Is it statistics about a certain need or case studies highlighting how your nonprofit is changing the world? Learn what motivates them and personalize communications to develop messaging that resonates.

To balance personalization with operational efficiency, look for opportunities to automate your tailored communications. For example, CharityEngine recommends looking for a CRM that automatically populates supporters’ names in email salutations to streamline personalization. This way, you can send fully customized communications without manually typing each message.

2. Share donors’ impact.

Philanthropy is rooted in a passion for a cause, and there’s nothing more motivating to your sustainers than seeing exactly how their donations are making a difference in the world.

When you regularly send impact reports, you’re making the value of donors’ gifts visible and encouraging them to continue their contributions. It’s an easy way to connect your sustainers to the mission they’re supporting.

Impact reports should include:

• Data. Export data from your fundraising platform to share insights into the amount your nonprofit raised. Include details about how this funding was used, sharing hard numbers where possible. For example, telling donors that their gift allowed your nonprofit to serve 10 people sounds more impactful than broadly stating that their donation helped fulfill your mission.

• Storytelling. Which is more impactful: a table of numbers, or a story about the challenges a beneficiary overcame with the help of your nonprofit’s work, supplemented by images and data visualizations? Using stories to evoke positive emotions remains one of the most effective ways to impact donors. Getting Attention recommends focusing on an individual protagonist and using vivid details to bring the story to life.

• Calls-to-action. It’s wonderful to receive donations, but what other ways can you encourage people to support your cause? Perhaps it’s downloading an educational resource or signing up for your newsletter. Maybe you have an event and would love some volunteers or hope for advocacy help. Offer many ways for supporters to get involved; you’ll be surprised by the outcome.

While these techniques can make any communications more engaging, don’t underestimate the power of exclusive content to make donors feel special. Access to behind-the-scenes videos, a private webinar with an expert, lunch with your board, and other private resources can help donors feel singled your by your organization. 

3. Offer special recognition and perks.

Whether you tier your donors or want to recognize all sustainers, having an established donor recognition program is critical for donor retention. Perhaps plan quarterly donor appreciation events, even if you’re opening the doors to your offices and inviting people to stop by. You can have virtual events and leverage donor skills that can be shared, such as a talk on financial literacy or even a talented home chef preparing a meal and having donors follow along in their homes.

It’s also easy and fast to spotlight donors on social media, your newsletter, or your website. These efforts celebrate contributions, pique the curiosity of prospective donors, and help with donor retention. 

You can also offer exclusive perks to recurring donors, such as:

• Early event registration. If you have an event coming up, create a little buzz by offering exclusive early access to monthly donors. If the event is popular, others will be incentivized to join the sustainer program, and those already participating will feel appreciated.  

• Special impact reports. More detailed than quick monthly reports, perhaps these feature interviews with recipients of your work or in-depth analyses of critical issues.

• Small gifts. Branded merchandise, gift cards to a local coffee shop, or even small commercial gifts can be given to your most ardent supporters. They’ll be proud to sport proof of the good they’re doing through you!

By choosing nonprofit fundraising software with sustainer management capabilities, you can track recurring donations and make it easy for donors to give consistently. 

When building a strong sustainer program and retaining those donors, robust technology is your most powerful tool. These systems have built-in reports to help you analyze your donations, meaning you can spot trends or areas that need attention before losing donors. The level of detail and automation you can access makes it easy to track donations and thank donors promptly with personalized messages. 

It’s easy to get started! Whether these three strategies make sense for you or they give you other ideas, it’s always the right time to focus on keeping that sustainer program strong. Anything you can do to keep your monthly program strong will greatly impact your nonprofit and the good you’re doing.