For my first post to the Sage Community blog, I want to dive right into the world of online fundraising. Savvy fundraisers know that successful fund drives, either online or offline, depend on strong relationships. That is where engaged donors come in.  

What are “engaged donors”?

First, it helps to know what the term “engaged donors” means. There are two elements that are seen in people who are engaged donors. These folks:

1) Take Action – this includes activities such as donating to your organization, attending your organization’s events, or volunteering with your organization

AND

2) Are a part of your community – in addition to the above, engaged donors are interacting and communicating WITH your organization and interacting and communicating with others ABOUT your organization.

This means people who mail a check to your organization may not be engaged donors – there is another level of engagement that can be even more satisfying for donors and nonprofits alike.

Why do you want engaged donors?

Engaged donors are the people who take the mission of your organization to heart. This passion means that engaged donors:

• Extend your organization’s reach as they tell others about your organization and its work
• Take more actions, such as selling tickets to a fundraiser or volunteer to support your organization’s activities
• Increase your fund raising as they tend to make more frequent and larger donations
• Save your organization money since it is more cost-effective to renew a donor than to find a new donor

Engaged donors are also one of the most important pieces of a Peer-to-Peer fundraising campaign, which I’ll discuss further in a later post.

Three simple ways to tell if your donors are engaged

So now that you know what they are and why they are important, how can you tell if your donors are already engaged or if this is an area you need to address? Here are three straightforward methods to do just that:

1. Are your donors taking actions, such as completing surveys, attending events, or forwarding emails?
2. Are folks mentioning the work of your organization on Social Media, such as Twitter or Facebook?
3. Has there been increased traffic to your organization’s website, especially from forwarded emails and social media mentions?

You want the answers to all three questions to be yes. Any question(s) that cannot be answered with a yes point to areas where improvements can be made. In my next post, I’ll provide five tips to help increase your donor engagement. 

If you can’t wait that long, you can also view a recorded webinar we recently held with Sage titled Improving Donor Engagement Online.

Slides also available on SlideShare

Until next time,
Richard Dietz
Founder, Nonprofit R+D

Richard is the founder of Nonprofit R+D, a consulting firm dedicated to helping emerging nonprofits fully utilize technology and the web to support their missions through training, best practices and interactive services. Richard holds a M.S.W. from The University of California - Berkeley as well as a B.A. in Political Science from UCLA.

Please feel free to send questions, answers or discussion topics to richard@nonprofitrd.com, If you liked this post, please stop by our blog at http://www.nonprofitrd.com to read more.