New survey highlights the importance of donor loyalty
Every charity wants loyal donors; people who are passionate enough about a cause to give and continue giving.
However, many charities are so focused on acquiring new donors, they forget to nurture the ones they already have.
The findings of a three-year study by research-based consultancy About Loyalty highlight the importance of a solid donor retention strategy. They suggest that investing in donor loyalty could add thousands, if not millions of pounds to fundraising income.
Intrigued? Let’s take a deep dive to find out more.
The case for growing supporter loyalty
The report, titled ‘the definitive case for growing supporter loyalty’ summarises the findings of the largest ever research study into supporter loyalty and its impact on giving. It involved 30+ charities; 50,000 donors, and took place over a period of three years.
How it worked
Participants were presented with a series of statements relating to ten emotional drivers of loyalty to understand the role each plays in influencing loyalty and future support.
Commitment to the cause and charity
Engagement with the charity’s activities
Knowledge of the issue the charity is working to address
Perceived performance of the charity
Personal connection to the charity or the issue it is addressing
Perceived risk if the donor were to stop supporting
Satisfaction with the charity’s communications and fundraising (and the wider supporter experience)
Social capital gained by supporting the charity
Trust that the charity does what it promises, in an ethical way
Belief that the charity shares the donors’ values
Three drivers were identified as being key to building behavioural loyalty across all causes and forms of charitable giving: Commitment, satisfaction, and trust.
Researchers used the data on the three drivers, along with financial data (gathered through tracking participants’ giving behaviour) to calculate an overall measure of loyalty (a Loyalty Score) for each donor in the study. The score ranged from one (lowest) to seven (highest).
They used the scores to quantify the impact of the three drivers on future giving and found that an increase of just one point in supporter loyalty can lead to:
15% more retained donors over three years
20% more income over three years
9% more people pledging to leave a legacy
To put this in context, the results of the study suggest that, for every 100 donors, a one-point increase in loyalty could lead to an additional £1,417 over the next three years. Extrapolate that out to 1000 donors and that’s an extra £14,173.40. For 70,000 donors, that equates to a cool £1 million.
That’s not a bad return on donor loyalty investment.
Loyalty in action
The analysis highlights the critical role supporter loyalty plays in driving retention and long-term giving. It’s led some of the participating charities to review their existing donor retention strategies and embed new practices to make supporter loyalty a priority.
For example:
Children’s charity Barnardo’s wanted to improve loyalty among new supporters and face-to-face recruited donors. They did this by overhauling their welcome programme. Rebranding it as ‘Take my Hand,’ it focuses on the benefits that donations bring to young people’s lives.
The Woodland Trust is using loyalty to improve its organisation by breaking down silos across charity departments. The charity has put loyalty at the “front and centre” of its work, by creating shared targets and key performance indicators that focus on strengthening supporter satisfaction, commitment, and trust. “We should always start with loyalty,” says Woodland Trust Supporter Journey Manager David Reeves. “Before contacting supporters, the team need to understand what drives loyalty and act towards the single common goal of building and growing it.”
Cancer Research UK has created a ‘centre of expertise’ to monitor loyalty levels among its supporters. It measures what supporters want from their relationship with the charity to better tailor communications with each donor. “Being able to measure loyalty has helped us understand which areas and messages we needed to focus on within the myriad of journeys we’ve been pulling together,” says CRUK’s Loyalty and Cultivation Senior Marketing Manager Sarah Maltby. “It’s helped our decisions in what to prioritise when it comes to technology developments around channels and personalization. It’s helped us to demonstrate the value of loyalty to our income generation as well as to our supporters.”
Looking for a fabulous fundraiser to focus on donor loyalty? We can help. Give us a call on 0203 750 3111 or email info@bamboofundraising.co.uk to get the ball rolling.