Knowing your ideal donors is a key fund development strategy. You must know your donors, what drives them, how they prefer to give, and why they support your mission. This is where a donor profile comes in.
What Is a Donor Profile?
A donor profile represents your ideal donor based on real data and research. It gives you a clear picture of the people who support your cause.
Developing donor profile offers several benefits:
- Guides you when sending personal messages. Personalized emails see a 29% higher rate of opens compared to non-personalized emails. This leads to higher engagement rates
- Helps nonprofits focus on potential donors, saving time and resources.
- Increases donor retention. Most donors are only loyal to nonprofits they support and relate to.
How to Build Donor Personas in 5 Steps
1. Analyze Existing Donor Data
Start by analyzing your current donor database to identify patterns. Focus on these key areas:
- Demographics: Age, gender, location, occupation, and income level.
- Giving Patterns: Frequency of donations, average gift size, and preferred payment methods.
- Engagement History: Event attendance or volunteer involvement.
2. Conduct Surveys and Interviews
Get meaningful insights from your donors through surveys or interviews. This helps you understand the “why” behind their giving. Ask questions like:
- What motivated you to give to our cause?
- What causes do you care about most?
- How would you prefer we communicate with you?
Use interviews to understand what impact stories matter to your donors.
3. Segment Your Audience
Group donors with similar segments to create specific personas. For example:
- Young Experts: Aged 25–40, value digital engagement and prefer monthly giving.
- Retirees: Aged 60+, focus on legacy giving and appreciate phone or direct mail contact.
4. Create Detailed Donor Profiles
For each segment, create a complete donor profile. This should include name, photo, demographics, giving patterns and engagement history.
Example:
- Name: Maria
- Age: 30–45 years old
- Gender: Female
- Location: Urban and suburban areas with strong community ties
- Occupation: Healthcare workers
- Income Level: $60,000–$120,000 yearly
- Giving Patterns: Monthly recurring donations of $25-$50
- Preferred Payment Methods: Credit card
- Average Gift Size: $50 monthly
- Engagement History: Attends virtual and in-person fundraising events focused on child welfare.
5. Use fundraising platforms
Fundraising platforms like Lamp fundraising software make it easy to build donor profiles. They track key data points like donation frequency, payment methods, and engagement history.
Why use fundraising platforms:
- Analyze Donor Behavior: They provide analytics on how and when people give. Making it easy to identify giving patterns and recurring donors.
- Store Information: They collect and organize demographics like age, location, and occupation. With this info you can build accurate donor profiles.
- CRM Capabilities: Platforms like Lamp make building relationships with donors very easy.
- Integrated payment system: These platforms integrate with payment platforms like Stripe.
Creating a donor profile is extra work, but the benefits outweigh the extra work. Every donor wants to make a difference. By relating with donors in a personal way, you’re building a community of people committed to your cause. And the stronger the relationship, the greater the impact you can make.