FundRaiser Blog

The FundRaiser Software Blog is an excellent resource for nonprofit organizations looking to learn more about fundraising, donor management, membership management, and much more.

Rethinking Lapsed Donors

lapsed-donors

The old way of thinking about lapsed donors doesn’t work. Not in this new world in which we find ourselves these days. While it’s still as important as ever to build long lasting relationships with your donors, “writing off” a donor after a certain amount of inactivity thinks of them as a transaction, not a relationship. There may be financial reasons to reduce your interactions with them, for example, remove inactive individuals from your newsletter list if you pay on a per-subscriber basis or not printing and mailing to inactivate names to save on paper and postage. However, eliminating them completely also eliminates the relationship.

Let’s lean into that for a moment. An individual who interacts with your organization isn’t looking for a transaction. They’re looking for a relationship. Going to the local grocery store to buy a bag of chips—that’s a transaction. Unless there’s loyalty to the chip brand, or the grocery store chain, it really doesn’t matter to the consumer where they get their junk food fix. A gas station. A dollar store. A grocery store or a big box store. It’s probably based on what’s convenient for them. Again, without brand loyalty the place of purchase or the brand purchase doesn’t matter. They want the transaction, the transfer of money for a treat.

Your organization and the work it does isn’t a bag of chips. It’s better because your organization has a mission and, while there may be many organizations with the same mission (which is a great thing), you have a unique take on that mission. Whether it’s working with a specific aspect of a more general population, such as at risk children instead of all children or a greyhound rescue instead of all dogs, or focusing on a local or regional area, you’re doing good work and looking for people to join your mission. If they join you for a single event or fundraising campaign, that’s great. But more importantly, you want them to join you for the long haul.

Lapsed donors haven’t abandoned the mission. They’ve taken a break. We may not know the reason for the break, but it’s vital that we think of this as a temporary pause not a permanent one. The reason for this break may be personal, such as a life change or a job loss, or it may be because they’re not feeling connected to your work. While to some extent, it’s up to the organization to provide the connection between the donor and the mission, a large part of that also depends on the donor’s current situation. There are times when things happen and the donor really has no choice about pausing donations.

This is where the features FundRaiser Software provides, such as donor tags and coding, creates the opportunity for you to segment and identify donors, both current and lapsed. From there, you can decide what correspondence to send, perhaps even opting to send your letter directly from fundraiser using your email server or ours for better cost savings. Your database instantly transforms from a place just to put names and gifts into a contact management system that can keep you in touch with your donors. This means you can remind these individuals about your mission. Just because they’ve taken a step back doesn’t mean they’ve forgotten about you. And you can take steps to not forget about them.

To learn more about FundRaiser and its word processing features register for a tour or if you are already a FundRaiser user and would like to register for a class, contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call Support at 800-543-4131.

Reconnect With Donors During This Difficult Time

Related Posts

Wait a minute, while we are rendering the calendar
holiday fundraising letters mission driven endowment campaign Constant Contact recurring gifts pledges small donations budget new nonprofit raffle donor slip online donations targeted mailings grassroots campaign look and feel campaign email advanced tab community supported gardens ROI case study overview donor profile upgrade tech tip Crowdfunding Campaign donor attrition building donor relationships memorial giving New Year banquet nonprofit fundraising GivingTuesday data analysis auction motivation announcements communications publicity materials Facebook mailing repeat donors campaign management Tickles arts on site training development director entering auction gifts password protection salutation happiness donor recognition importing csv tribute gifts donor prospects letter brick campaign features donor attrition rate NCOA processing annual maintenance plan how-to videos membership benefits letter templates Reporting to IRS welcome packet Snow Birds user interface giving levels custom page Network for Good planned giving community broadcasting spreadsheets PayPal membersip benefits gift notes field End of Year Letters Codes GoFundMe project the Ask adding personal notes to letters merge notes mode code donor relations segmenting donors major donors donor retention rate Volunteer module donor loyalty Excel social media FundRaiser Hosted understanding giving trends legacy giving user spotlights donor targeting spare fields disaster relief thank you letters donation history appeal letters donor engagement grants gift entry role of nonprofits word processor moves management ticket sales planning relationship tracking flash sales Reminders data conversion donor source Cloud Groupings FundRaiser Basic In-Kind gifts gift acceptance policy donor advised funds tax summary letters major gift prospects donor Facebook campaign alumni LYBUNTS National Change of Address new features Importing Data solicitors Task List support holiday letters Alternative Addresses volunteers change of address updating Resiliency how to handle auction gifts new version pictures new leadership charity golf tournaments online donations Thanksgiving foundations government grants operating systems ticketsales new donors board members SYBUNTS follow up merge fields correspondence upgrading donors vacation community arts nonprofits customer service event management annual campaign Congratulations correspondance personalizing letters capital campaign FundRaiser Spark motivation code volunteering increasing giving amounts animal rescue office customer portal transparency product news technical support training tip premiums general lapsed donor membership programs in honor of donations monthly giving Thank You giving history Personalizing backing up data texting donors direct mail donor preferences holiday giving passwords #GivingTuesday security large donations add ons training reports phoning donors prospects accounting software donor retention fundraising Company culture Donor Portal updates operational costs anonymous donors corporate sponsors data entry donor contact information appeal

Connect With Us

  800-880-3454 ext 3
  Email Us
  Request More Information
  Monday-Friday
      8:30AM-5:30PM CST

Customer Portal Login Form

   

The customer portal is unavailable. If you need support please reach out to support@fundraisersoftware.com Thank you.

 

  User Name:
  Password:

If you are not sure about your Customer User Name, please call 800-543-4131 and we will be able to help you.

Or you have lost your password, Request Password