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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Summer Checklist for Nonprofits

We’re more than halfway through the 2016 tax year - honestly, where does the time go? And as we continue to push through the Summer, it’s important for exempt organizations to regroup and refocus efforts to efficiently prepare for the second half of the year. While others are enjoying Summer luxuries like breaks or vacations, the development cycle for nonprofits goes on nonstop. To make the best use of the summer season, here are a few suggestions for nonprofits to get ready for the year’s second half.

Review Prospects
Take a look at your organization’s top 100 prospects, or however many you have. Verify if you need to remove any of them that are beyond consideration, or if they are officially added to your organization.

Update Database
Nothing is worse than trying to contact someone with incorrect information - an unfortunate scenario could be inquiring a grant from a now defunct email or physical address. It may be a daunting task depending on how many contacts you have, but it’s nothing a few volunteers or interns can’t handle.

Review Organization’s Yearly Plan
Double check if your nonprofit is still on track with its proposed plan from the beginning of the year. Make a note about your organization either reaching or missing goals at this point, the impact of donor investments, and what still needs funding for the upcoming months.

Develop Personal Work Plan
Along with revising your nonprofit’s milestones for the rest of year, you should also review and make any necessary changes about how you can personally achieve those goals. Your choices could include better time management, less or more workloads, or manage specific duties.

Prepare for Autumn and Winter
It’s never too early get organized for the last few months of the year. You can get holiday cards printed, write “Thank You” notes for those guaranteed to contribute, and outline seasonal fundraising campaigns.

Strengthen Social Media Presence
Now’s the time to post, post, post! With the extra leisure time that comes with Summer, you can bet people spending more time checking social media. And with social media management programs like Hootsuite, you can schedule posts to show as soon or late as you want. Check out our other blog on how social media can enhance your organization: Increasing Online Engagement

Clean, Clean, Clean
A decent organization is a happy organization or something like that. The point is to be more organized so that your nonprofit can run efficiently - sort out inboxes, file donor letters electronically or physically, update the relationships you have with contributors.

Communicate with Leaders
Keep lines of communication open with your board members and principal officers. Let them all know of the work that’s complete and any upcoming plans for the rest of year - you can develop a board meeting calendar or confirm that member information is up to date.

There’s probably so much more you can do within your organization during the summer months, so don’t constrict yourself to just this list. Another important thing is to make sure your organization filed its exempt return with IRS. If you filed an extension earlier this year, you have until August 15 to file without any penalties.

With ExpressTaxExempt.com, you e-file directly to the IRS and receive email notifications about your filing status. Even if your form gets rejected, you’ll know why and be able to make edits and re-transmit at no extra charge. And if you need even more time file, we also offer IRS Form 8868 Part II for an additional, non-automatic 3-month extension.

Our U.S. - based e-filing experts, in Rock Hill, South Carolina, are available throughout your e-filing process. Call us for any questions or assistance at 704.839.2321, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST. Drop us a message some time with our 24/7 email service, support@ExpressTaxExempt.com.

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