How To Determine When To Engage With Non-Profit Donors

We all know that donations from generous individuals help sustain the mission of non-profit organizations. Throughout the year you find yourself promoting your non-profit through numerous emails, phone calls, social media posts, and more to receive donations. Once you’ve attracted a donor and received donations, when is the perfect time to follow up with them?

Today, we will answer the questions you’ve always had and will learn more about how to determine when to engage with donors.

How To Determine When To Engage With Non-Profit Donors

First-time and recurring donors want to know that you appreciate their contribution to your non-profit. While “thank you” goes a long way, there is a strategy that should go behind when to say it. Here is some insight on the best time to engage with your donors.

Prepare to Engage

As always, preparation is key to anything. Before you engage with a donor, it is essential to have a way to receive, track, and manage their information so you can maintain a positive donor relationship to foster continuous support.

Create a Donor Management System. This is a database where you will store all donor and gift information such as the date and time of the donation, the donor’s name, address and zip code. You can refer back to this information as needed to help customize donor communications in the future which will lead to recurring contributions.

Tip: Save this documentation and upload to a secure drive online. Once you create this database you will not want to lose it...trust me!

Same Day [Online Donation]

Express your gratitude immediately. 

When receiving an online donation, it is best to share your appreciation with a follow-up page as soon as the donor has finished the transaction.

The Following Day

Be sure to thank your donors for their contributions in a brief, yet compelling, email by the following day.

A great way to utilize your donor management system is to initiate this email after the donor's first gift automatically. Feel free to mention the campaign or project that their contribution will be supporting and attach a receipt for their records.

Note: This email should be sent from the director of the organization or a very well-known staff member that does well with maintaining donor relationships.

Within Four to Seven Business Days

An extra “thank you” never hurt, right? After a few days have passed, reinforce your gratitude with a heartfelt follow-up. This can be done via email or by letter. Take time to reiterate your appreciation and welcome them to your support team. Sharing an impactful story is always a plus!

Engaging with your donors is simple, easy, and rewarding! With so many ways to encourage giving, ExpressTaxExempt and our sister product TaxBandits are here to empower your nonprofit and be a helping hand with your nonprofit tax filing needs. You are in the business of helping others, now let us help you! Create a free account today and get back to making a difference in your community.

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Top Membership Recruitment Tips for Your Nonprofit

Summer is quickly passing us by which means that summer vacations are coming to an end, schools are back in session, and organizations across the country are gearing up to continue reaching their annual goals. Some of these organizations will open their doors for membership intake within the next few weeks and may find that it will be somewhat challenging to not only find, but retain new members. ExpressTaxExempt is here to support your organization by providing some beneficial recruitment strategies and tips that can help your organization as it continues to grow. 

Know and Understand Your Organization

Leaders should have a clear understand of the organization’s goals, objectives, mission, and purpose prior to recruiting others to join. Have leaders in your group come up with an “elevator speech” (clear, brief message/commercial about the organization) that can be shared with those interested in joining your organization. These speeches can be shared first in a role playing activity during a monthly leadership meeting. 

Develop a Target Audience

If your organization is looking for specific types of individuals to carry out the work of the group, market and cater your recruitment efforts to the type of people that you need. For example, if you are recruiting for a college campus ministry, gear your recruitment efforts towards millennials with innovative and intriguing materials that incorporate scriptures or inspirational quotes. 

Set Realistic Membership Goals

Once you can identify who your target audience will be, then determine a realistic number of new members that you would like to have join your organization. 

How many new members can your organization reasonably assimilate into the group? Knowing the answer to this question will greatly impact the outcome of your recruitment efforts. 

Creative Marketing & Advertising

When marketing and/or advertising for your organization, be sure to use creative and strong visual elements. These visual elements will attract the attention of potential members. Utilize the talents of those within your organization and have those members with artistic talents design your flyers, posters, promotional videos, and marketing materials. Be strategic with your marketing. Do a social media blast and have the members of your organization repost a flyer or promotion at a specific time & date. Post printed flyers in “high traffic” areas where people seem to walk by or gather to fellowship which will increase the overall reach of your marketing. 

Be Authentic

When seeking others to become a part of your group it is important to be genuine. Prospective members can easily tell if your efforts are to simply just increase the size of your membership roster. Be real and let them be real. Also, remember that personal contact is always better than tons of flyers and advertisements. People tend to join an organization because of the people they will be associated with. Take time to get to know your new members. 

Ask for Input

Members of organizations want to feel a part and know that their presence in your group is valued and that they are appreciated. Throughout the year, have conversations and open discussions with members to let them voice their opinions and provide ideas as to how to make the organization become even stronger and more effective. 

By implementing these strategies into your annual recruiting efforts, you will be able to see a positive enhancement to your organization. As always, ExpressTaxExempt is here to help you in any way that we can. Be sure to e-file your Form 990 series tax forms with us each year to maintain your tax exempt status and remain in good standing with the IRS. Feel free to contact our support team of e-file experts at 704.839.2321 for any questions or help with your e-filing experience. We’re here to assist you Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST or feel free to reach us 24/7 via email at support@ExpressTaxExempt.com. 

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The Nonprofit Summer Checklist

Summertime is here! But here in the nonprofit game, that hardly means it’s time for a vacation. You know better than anybody that, even if you’re not actively bringing in donations, doing service work, or holding fundraisers, there’s still plenty of nonprofit work to be done! Liiike…

Boosting Your Social Media Presence
A great time to launch, re-launch, or rebrand yourself on social media is during the summer. School’s out, people are taking more vacations, and with all that extra time, traffic to social media sites increases. So now is the perfect time to put your best virtual face forward!

Developing a Personal Work Plan
You’re a big reason your organization’s charitable work gets done. So it’s especially beneficial to make sure you take some time this summer to review your own personal goals for what you want to achieve during the second half of the year. Think about how you’ll be able to manage your time, workloads, and other specific duties.

Doing Some Summer Cleaning
Like spring cleaning except a season later! Based on everything that’s happened so far this year, you should have an idea of what you’ll need for the second half of 2017. So now’s the time to get organized: sort your inboxes, file donor letters, and update your contributor relationships.

Filing Your Return (If You Need To)
Some of you may have gotten this out of the way in May, but others may have due dates this month! Organizations with certain fiscal tax years will need to file June, July, or August 15 this year for the 2016 tax year. Additionally, if you filed Form 8868 to extend your Form 990 May 15th deadline, you may have until November to actually file, but it wouldn’t hurt to go ahead and get a jump start on it this summer!

Preparing for Fall & Winter 2017
A lot of fundraising is done in the later months of the year and now’s the time to go ahead and plan for that. Get your holiday cards printed, write “Thank You” cards for your guaranteed contributors, and make outlines for any seasonal fundraising campaigns.

Reviewing Your Prospects
Go over your organization’s prospects - maybe pull your top 100, or however many you have. Check to see if you need to remove any of them that happen to have moved beyond consideration. You can also verify which ones have officially been added to your organization.

Taking a Look at Your Yearly Plan
Make sure your organization is on track with its proposed plan for this year. Take notes on whether or not your organization is reaching its goals. Also, pay close attention to your donor investments impact and what needs funding in the upcoming months.

Talking with Your Nonprofit’s Leaders
Don’t forget to keep the lines of communication open with your organization’s board members and principal officers this summer. If necessary, develop a board meeting calendar to confirm everything’s up to date and let them know the organization’s progress and plans for the year.

Updating Your Database
People move, phone numbers change, and the world spins madly on. So take some time this summer to make sure that you’ve got your organization’s contacts up-to-date and in order.



Of course, there are many, many more things you can do this summer to make sure everything for your nonprofit is organized, up-to-date, and readily available when you need it. But this checklist will certainly help get you and your organization on track for a successful second half of 2017!

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