Re-Thinking Lapsed Donor Reengagement

By Michael Fiaschetti, CEO

As nonprofit professionals, we know it is more cost efficient to reengage individuals who lapse out of our renewal or annual giving programs than it is to acquire new donors from tactics like list exchanges, purchases, or advertising.

And although we know these lapsed donors are valuable, few organizations put much effort into understanding why they lapsed in the first place. It’s almost just expected — and accepted — that current donors will lapse, so we don’t spend a lot of time investigating the source of their behavior.

If we want to get serious about reacquiring lapsed donors, we need to first realize that something went wrong and caused them to step away from your organization in the first place.

How do we get to the source of this? Through solid data evaluation.

What to Consider in Lapsed Donor Data Evaluation

Acquisition Source

The channel by which you acquired a donor can give you immediate indicators as to which segments are worth further investment and which are not.

For example, you may lose donors because they never had or built brand affinity for your organization originally. Mass-market event donors or donors who came in from peer-to-peer fundraising efforts likely engaged because they cared about the friend or family member who asked them to give — and they didn’t necessarily care about you.

If you’re noticing lapsed behavior among segments like these, there’s not often a lot you can do to bring those lost donors back cost-efficiently, and it may not be worth the effort.

However, what is worth the effort is seeking to build brand affinity among groups acquired from these channels in the future so you don’t lose more of them.

Appended Data Fields

While it might seem straightforward, the way you facilitate data appends needs a strategic approach in and of itself. Keep in mind these three factors to optimize your process:

• Your appends should be happening fluidly and with frequency rather than on a one-time basis. This will greatly impact how quickly you can make decisions.

• The fields you’re appending should be rooted in understanding who the donor is rather than who they say they are. Rely on quantitative, unlikely-to-change data and NOT qualitative information that’s based on opinions or belief sets.

• Prioritize self-reported or census data over derived or inferred data. For example, using surname to make assumptions about a person’s ethnicity is problematic from both an ethics and accuracy perspective.

The Impact of Key Life Events

Understanding the life events your donor file is experiencing will give you strong insight into why someone may have stopped donating.

Regularly updating information fields such as deceased date, wealth, home value, and presence of children will help you ascertain over time if someone’s life has changed significantly.

For example, knowing if a person is experiencing the loss of their income or their spouse will help you understand and project whether a person truly lost motivation to give to your organization or whether their priorities have simply shifted for the time being. Test your assumptions (and realize cost savings while doing it) by changing your messaging or choosing to not solicit donors experiencing big change.

Applying the level of analysis required in understanding all of the above — and doing something about what you find — could save you key relationships and ultimately save you money so you can focus your marketing to the best possible prospects.