Four Donor Pipeline Strategies To Drive Holistic Program Growth for the Long Term

A healthy fundraising program that’s built to withstand the ups and downs of economic and broader nonprofit environments is one that’s calibrated for ongoing growth – at all levels and audiences. While this may seem like a tall order, or a long list of initiatives all packed into one, at its core, it’s donor pipeline strategies that are essential to achieving holistic growth for your organization.

Now and again, we’re asked by our partners: Should we focus on maximizing one-time givers at milestone moments? Should we prioritize sustainers? The answer, to both questions, is a resounding yes.

In order to have a robust donor pipeline in place, you need to continue acquiring donors to fuel that pipeline, giving you a pool of low-dollar donors to engage, convert to sustainers, and upgrade to mid-level. As your future sustainers and mid-level donors, your audience of low-dollar donors is critical to the long-term health of your program.

We’re excited to share four strategies for growing your audiences at every level: low-dollar donors, sustainers, mid-level prospects, and existing mid-level donors.

1. Continue Investing in Acquisition To Fuel Sustainer and Mid-Level Pipelines.

Earlier this year, The Chronicle of Philanthropy shared a telling data point for mid-level strategies: 53% of mid-level donors have been giving to these nonprofits for more than 10 years. By consistently bringing first-time donors into your program, you’re beginning new relationships that will go on to evolve over the long term. We recommend using a variety of effective channels to invest in lead generation, from paid media to fixed-cost sources, especially those that are powered by data to connect you with the best prospects for your mission like The Digital Co-Op.

Once you have your acquisition strategies optimized to keep your donor pipeline fueled with audience members who are interested in your work and mission, you’ll be able to see a greater impact from your retention efforts and your appeals for larger or recurring gifts.

2. Use Creative Strategies for Sustainer Upgrades.

Sustainers are critical to direct response programs – because their consistent gifts offer protection from the ups and downs of the economic fundraising environment, providing programs a foundation of support to build and grow from.

Traditionally, your multi-gift donors are an excellent place to look when identifying the best prospects to convert to sustainers. But with the right tactics and creative strategies, it’s possible to make a sustainer ask even immediately after a donor’s very first gift to your program.

Our proprietary Sign For Good tool is instrumental in helping our partners build fully customized user journeys that build up to a sustaining gift ask. With mission-first engagement tactics like this one, which introduce new donors to the full breadth of your work, implemented across all channels and every donation form, our nonprofit partners have been able to ensure that their programs are always optimized for sustainer acquisition. One nonprofit partner has grown their monthly program to $10M annually using this and other sustainer acquisition strategies.

3. Build a Thoughtful Segmentation Strategy for Mid-Level Appeals.

Though mid-level donors often make up a small percentage of an organization’s audience, their impact is tremendous. When it comes to the work of upgrading your existing donors to mid-level, the key to giving your appeals their best chance of success is to be sure you’re getting the most optimal ask in front of each donor. You want to maximize upgrade potential without putting someone off with too high of an ask. That’s why a strong segmentation plan is key here, and should be backed by data and propensity modeling to help you identify which of your existing donors are most likely to convert.

Consider the thresholds you’re setting for mid-level appeals in your existing segmentation strategy: Recent studies conducted within the industry have found that donors who give $100 or more are 9X more likely to become a mid-level donor at some point in their relationship with your organization.

4. Have a Solid Engagement and Retention Plan in Place.

Now that you’re building out effective, creative, and data-backed strategies to acquire and upgrade more donors, here’s one more step you’ll want to be sure not to skip: Ensure that all those mid-level donors and sustainers you’re bringing in will be included in a strong engagement and retention program.

Focus on stewardship campaigns that offer donors an inside scoop into the impact their gift has on your mission. Prioritize cultivation opportunities that emphasize their part in your thriving community of supporters. These messaging approaches help your mid-level and recurring donors feel like the valued key stakeholders in your work that they certainly are. At MissionWired, we believe that engagement strategies go hand in hand with creative strategies – the stories you tell about your mission and the impact your work makes in your community can go a long way in retaining your supporters year after year.

For these high-value members of your audience, consider holistic, omni-channel approaches to connect with supporters wherever they’re active, and tailored cultivation packages with no financial ask included – even in the mail. And consider the creative approaches that are most effective at driving response from your supporters: the photos, stories, and creative engagement approaches that brought them to your program in the first place and inspired them to upgrade their gift, and be sure to continue those top-performing creative approaches in your retention and cultivation campaigns.

Donor pipeline strategies are a powerful way to impact the growth of your program in a sustainable, holistic way – and when they are rooted in powerful storytelling, innovative creative strategies, and tools to help you find and connect directly with your audiences, these approaches can help keep folks engaged as members of your community for a lifetime.