How Do Charities Communicate with Donors?

A successful nonprofit spends time finding individual donors, sponsors and organisations who contribute their time and money to help the organisation achieve its set objectives and goals. From covering operational expenses to directly financing the charitable cause, it’s vital to have a consistent flow of funds and donations coming in. 

After finding donors for the charity, in order to retain meaningful relationships, it’s important to regularly communicate with existing donors in order to express gratitude and appreciation for funds donated and to keep them up to date with ongoing projects and new campaigns. 

So how do charities communicate with their donors? 

Email

One of the most convenient ways to stay in touch with your donors while reaching out to individuals looking to find nonprofit jobs is to communicate via email. While it may seem simple to type out a message, crafting your emails wisely will ensure that they have a big impact on the recipient as a clear and concise message that is relevant, personalised and inspiring can go a long way! 

Relevant: Noone likes to receive emails that are not relevant to them. Therefore, to avoid ending up in the spam or trash folder, create mailing lists with previous donors, businesses that are looking to find a charity online, event attendees, sponsors, etc. so that emails regarding your nonprofit get sent to those who want to hear from you. 

Personalise: As emails can come across as cold, it’s important to personalise your emails to add a human touch to them. Small ways that you can make your email seem warm and friendly include: starting each e-mail by addressing the recipient by their first or last name, mentioning the previous donations received, inquiring about their wellbeing, etc. 

Inspiring: An email is your chance to tell a story and to talk about your organisation to make people aware of your vision and mission. Seize this opportunity to create a lasting impression by sending your donors emails with detailed stories, pictures and infographics that will motivate them to get more involved with your nonprofit organisation. 

Text Messages

A short and easy way to get your message across, a text message can ‌convey quick reminders and alerts to your donors and sponsors. Updates on ongoing campaigns, prompts to purchase event tickets, event registration links and other announcements can be effortlessly conveyed through short messages. Unlike an email, the chances of a text message being opened and read are very high if you keep your message brief and to the point.  

Letters

More time-consuming than the previous two methods of communication, handwritten letters can make a huge impression on your donors. As everyone is aware of the time and effort taken to write letters by hand, it really shows the recipient how much you appreciate them. Sending Thank You cards, birthday wishes, anniversary wishes, etc. to your donors is a sure way to build and maintain a good relationship with them. 

Whether via email, text message or even an in-person meeting, regular communication with your donors and sponsors is essential for successfully operating a nonprofit organisation.