In the last couple of years, we’ve seen more and more non-profits approach us to help them better understand their donors and prospects.
While the US and Canada are considered “giving” countries, the pool of donors has declined.
According to the Charities Aid Foundation World Report 20231, the US and Canada are two of the most giving countries based on their World Giving Index. The US ranked fifth, and Canada ranked eighth, with six-in-ten Americans and Canadians saying they have donated money. According to Statistics Canada2, the pool of individual donors in Canada has decreased since 2010. In the US, a decline of individual donors is also seen, according to the Giving USA 2024 Report1. And with our non-profit clients, we see research and strategies pivoting to address these declining donations, with organizations trying to understand the reasons behind the decline.
Insights are more vital than ever in helping guide donor tactics.
Financial donations are becoming increasingly competitive, meaning better tactics are needed to ensure existing donors remain engaged and new donors are attracted. Many of our non-profit clients are also facing challenges with lower brand awareness, changes to how people donate, and a challenging economy on both sides of the border. While it can be extremely tempting to deprioritize research, making decisions with limited understanding and knowledge can pose risks. For example, the changing composition of the donor pool in the market may be misaligned with the engaged donor profiles with your brand – leading to a decline in funds. At Lux, we pride ourselves on thinking critically about effectively maximizing our clients’ budgets. For example, for a non-profit, we proposed and trained our client’s engaged pool of volunteers to help save costs.
Given the smaller pool of individual donors, retention of donors is more important than ever.
To ensure existing donors have the best experience possible, we encourage our non-profit clients to conduct an experience audit. This typically includes a mix of internal metrics and primary research. Some elements to examine include when donors typically choose to start giving, how long donors give, their experience at key points of the journey, and their demographic, attitudinal and lifestyle profiles. We find the best insights come from both data sources working together.
Donor Insights can be key to unlocking how to speak to your donor pool and how to win over prospective donors in the market.
Conducting research to understand how we communicate and how we are perceived can be an important way to reach a new audience or re-inspire lapsed donors. Optimizing our messaging and the way that our brand is presented in the market can also be a key to growth. For one of our non-profit clients, we conducted a trade-off analysis of the most resonating benefits to donating to help inform messaging in market. For another client we used a highlighting tool with a large group of prospective donors to better understand what aspects of the messaging / copy resonated the most, which were disliked, and which aspects where confusing to help better design and evolve their brand positioning for their website.
Even with optimized engagement strategies, growth of your donor base is necessary for long-term success.
While you may have success with a specific donor profile, at some point, you will find growth diminishes as you reach a limit. For instance, there may only be so much they can continue to give, before donors feel taken for granted or devalued. Primary market research with both your existing donors and potential donors helps identify areas where you can feed two birds with one scone, and where distinct tactics are necessary. While ample research is available about Canadians’ and Americans’ likelihood to give in general, it isn’t personalized for your organization’s purpose. Primary research sheds light on engagement around what you stand for, the specific profile of these most engaged donors based on their attitudes, behaviors, values and demographics, ways to reach them to what potential messages resonate the best.
With shaky economic fundamentals in both Canada and the US, an aging donor profile for many non-profits, and a plethora of voices looking for donor attention, opportunities exist to optimize investments in brand and messaging.
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