What does a good donor experience look like?

Your nonprofit’s mission may be the first thing to catch a donor’s eye, but it’s the experience you offer that not only converts them into a donor but keeps them coming back. In a landscape where charitable giving is declining and attention spans are shrinking, standing out isn’t just about what your nonprofit stands for. It’s about how it makes donors feel. If the donor experience isn’t seamless, engaging, and empowering, your nonprofit will lose out. 

Digital convenience has transformed donor expectations, placing a growing emphasis on seamless, personalized experiences to match those of online shopping. Today’s donors, especially Millennials and Gen Z, are accustomed to the intuitive immediacy of digital transactions.

I’ve seen firsthand what a seamless donor experience can deliver—increased donations, higher retention rates, stronger loyalty, and advocacy. I was a frontline fundraiser for nonprofits before becoming executive nonprofit industry advisor at Classy from GoFundMe, where I guide organizations in successfully cultivating strong, trusted fundraising relationships—for which the donor experience is crucial.

A good donor experience shows supporters that you value both their generosity and their time by making it easy for them to embrace your cause, engage with your organization, and expand your donor community.

What makes for a good donor experience?

Classy’s president, Soraya Alexander, has said, “Donors…give as an expression of who they are and what they want the world to be like. Your nonprofit is a vehicle for them to make the change they want to see in the world.”

The donor experience should be seen as a continuous journey. While the upcoming Giving Season offers the perfect opportunity to reimagine and elevate yours—we see about 30% of donation volume occur between Giving Tuesday and New Year’s Eve—a good donor relationship is ongoing throughout the year.

How can nonprofits elevate the donor experience?

While donors come from all walks of life and nonprofits vary in the causes they support and the communities they serve, one thing is certain: The donor experience should be seamless, streamlined, and supportive.

By empowering supporters to make a difference in their preferred ways, you make it easier for donors to give regularly, show up, and rally others. Here are three ways nonprofits can do this:

1. Prioritize personalized messaging

Given how much data today’s organizations have, donors expect messaging that’s tailored to them. The way people discover your cause or find their way to your organization is by no means a one-size-fits-all journey—and both your engagement strategy and donation or landing page should reflect that.

Whether you create unique appeal segments or use machine learning to craft predictive ask amounts, more personalized donor experience does a lot to nurture a relationship rather than a transaction. A tailored experience invites them to be a valued member of your community. It builds trust and fosters loyalty—and loyal, recurring donors (those with active recurring donations or those who gave at least three times over five years) are the foundation of your long-term success. 

2. Make it easy to give back

Your online donation process needs to be easy and intuitive. U.S. adults spend an estimated 88% of their time on mobile using apps, so immediacy and efficiency are key—both in how your page functions and how donors can engage it.

Your donation or landing page should be an optimized experience, so your donation page checklist should ask: Is my landing page fully responsive? Does it load in less than three seconds? Is it easily findable via search engines? 

To remove potential barriers to giving, ensure consistency and accessibility across devices, campaigns, and donation methods. The data shows that when your page offers options like Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, and Venmo, donations are up to 50% faster and gift amounts are up to 64% higher.

3. Make it easy to give forward

Empower your donors by driving more positive impact through social sharing. Once they’ve donated, ensure they’re readily able to share their support with their networks. 

According to The Social State of Giving, half of Gen Z shares causes or fundraisers weekly, over half of Millennials share monthly, and more than half of Gen X shares occasionally. In fact, at least two in five Gen Z say that social media content has motivated them to research or donate to a cause, compared with one in five Millennials and Gen X.

To truly engage and support your donor community, you need to have a clear follow-up strategy in place. Are you leveraging the full power of your donation and landing pages with an ongoing testing roadmap? According to Classy’s Why America Gives, the average loyal donor gives four times the  amount of the average passive donor, and recurring donors ultimately prove to be nine times more valuable than one-time donors.

The donor experience shapes your nonprofit’s future

A good donor experience is one that increases donations while building lasting relationships with your donor community. Focusing on the above principles to guide an improved donor experience will deliver short-term gains, yes, but it’s really about setting up your organization for long-term success. 

By personalizing the experience for donors, inviting them into your community, and empowering them with the right tools to champion your cause, you strengthen each supporter’s commitment while helping them to expand your cause’s reach.

Photo credit: Jacob Wackerhausen via Getty Images