5 Tips to Successful Donor Cultivation

Imagine you just had a perfect first date that left you with butterflies in your stomach.  All you can think about is the next date that you hope will follow (the logical next step, right?).  The next morning, the doorbell rings.  When you answer, you find your perfect date standing in front of you proposing marriage.  OR, on the flip side, you don’t hear from your perfect date for the next three months.  You’d be right to wonder, “What is happening?”  This is what a relationship would look like without cultivation. 

Something similar can occur — the “What is happening?” moment — if we don’t take the time to thoughtfully build a relationship with each of our new donors from the start.  Touchpoints that don’t make sense from both a messaging and timing perspective, after that first gift is given, can be detrimental to donor retention.  Enter cultivation!

The definition of cultivation is the planting, tending, improving, or harvesting of crops and plants; and the preparation of ground to promote their growth, culture, and refinement.  We aren’t literally harvesting crops, but we are absolutely harvesting what we hope to be a long-term relationship with our donors that takes time, nurturing, and growth.  We don’t want to propose marriage after the first date, OR not call for months. 

So, how do we do this and do it great?  Well, donors take a big step when they make their first gift and begin their journey with The Salvation Army.  As soon as this step is taken, cultivation efforts need to begin to thank, acknowledge, and engage them in The Salvation Army’s mission.  Here are a few important things that need to happen in order to do this effectively:
  

1. Understand the donor.  Before even beginning to think about a cultivation plan, you need to have an in-depth understanding of the donor you are engaging with.  A few ways to do this are conducting annual surveys, demographic analysis, and generational research of your existing donor database.  This intel will arm you with answers to the who, what, where, why, and how questions — which are critical to audience identification, and will guide the development of effective, segmented cultivation journeys.
   
   
2. Be donor-centric.  It’s all about the donor!  Without them, we could not do all of the amazing things that we do.  That is why we need to be sure that all of our cultivation touchpoints are centered around them, what they have done, and what they can continue to do.  Just like in life, if someone talks about themselves all the time, there will be zero interest in developing a long-term relationship with that person.
   
   
3. Thank you!  This is our very first communication to a new donor after they have made their first gift, and it has to be on point.  The short time after a donor makes their first gift is when they feel most excited about what they have just done, and feel most like the hero that they are.  So, making sure that they are thanked in a way that continues to fuel this feeling is extremely important.
   
   
4. Test, test, test.  Not only do you need to test, but you need to test smart.  Focus on tests that have a strongly backed hypothesis to move the needle on performance.  Always chasing after .1 or .2 lifts in anything will get you nowhere very slowly.  And make sure that tests are set up to allow for readable, significantly sound results.
   
   
5. Measure.  As with everything that we do, analytics is key to determining what tactics are most effective in improving donor retention.  There are a number of ways to measure the success of a testing campaign, and it’s all dependent on the set goal and hypothesized results.  By having a clear understanding of the upfront objectives for every test, we are able to effectively test, re-test, and then roll out proven tactics based on the right key performance indicators.
   
   

We want donors to feel like they are our partners in fulfilling The Salvation Army’s mission.  By developing and implementing an effective cultivation plan, we help build this partnership by laying the groundwork for a long-term relationship between the donor and the organization.