Quick Guide on Expanding Your New Donor Strategy

We all know that increasing revenue is critical to fulfilling your organizations mission while achieving goals. Expanding your donor base is a key step in that direction.

You likely already have a strong understanding of your organization’s donor base. However, expanding into new markets or groups is critical to achieving your goals over the next three years. Below is an outline you can use at your next strategic planning session that explores strategies around identify new potential donors and develop a plan to reach out to them.

Let’s get started!

1. Identifying Potential New Donor Groups

• Review your organization’s mission and vision. Identify if there are mission adjacent groups of individuals or organizations who align with those values but are not typically part of your target audience.
• If available, use your current donor’s demographic and psychographic data, interests on social media, and donor databases. Keep it simple at first. What is the Postal code, City, State, Region, or Country of your current donors? That’s data you should already have available.
• Evaluate the feasibility of expanding your donor base to these groups, considering factors such as their giving behaviors, capacity, and likelihood of engagement

2. Developing a Plan to Reach Out to New Donor Groups

• Define specific goals for engaging each new donor group. Are you looking to acquire these donors as low-dollar gift or Major donors? Will they be One-Time donors or recurring givers?
• Identify key messages and communication channels to effectively reach out to these groups. What do you already have available to share with these donors? How does your current donor base perform with the information you share?
• Create a plan to build relationships with new donors through cultivation events, regular updates of their gifts impact, and targeted appeals. Think how you target them across all channels and then what information you can collect along the way to make the mid-level to major donor to planned gift ladder work.

Identifying potential new donor groups that align with your mission and vision laddering up to a developed plan can be daunting. However, expanding your donor base is critical to achieving fundraising goals and fulfilling your organization’s mission. By cultivating relationships with new donors, groups can increase impact and sustain your organization for years to come. Put your plan into action and continue to build your donor community!