The recent e-letter of donor loyalty specialist Lisa Sargent describes how the Atlanta Union Mission builds relationships with its donors.
AUM provides emergency food and shelter, residential recovery programs and transitional housing for men, women and children.
Lisa’s article focuses on AUM’s cultivation program for $5,000+ donors, but I was equally intrigued by a brief mention of a “Thank you AUM” website for donors that is not available to the general public.
I can think of many reasons why a dedicated site for donors only would be a smart component of a donor retention and cultivation strategy. For starters, building and maintaining such a site would (should!) place a focus on donor-centric thinking … “What do my donors want to see and know?” versus “What do we want to tell them?”
Most nonprofits see their web investment in outreach terms … their websites are intended to be virtual fishing nets waiting for the fish to swim by. Unfortunately, the data indicates that these web “nets” catch only 2-3% of passers-by.
Arguably, a “Members Only” or “Donors Only” site would have a different approach to content and engagement. And its ROI would be easier to establish!
But I must say, I can’t think of any other examples of this off the top of my head. Can anyone help me out?
Tom
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The NSPCC here in the UK has a donor and volunteer fundraiser only site.
http://www.nspcc.org.uk (mynspcc)
I too am really interested in how this works and am aiming to find our more! Will keep you posted.
What about the Convio model, on which donors/members can have some latitude to manipulate content and interact with their donor profiles?
I don’t work for Convio but I do work for a human rights org that deploys their solution.
Some of the better walk/run events have microsites that take steps in this direction by giving me the story of the person I know (or their loved one) who is asking me to contribute to their personal fundraising efforts. These micro sites are typically only available to the people who are contacted about the walk. It’s not the tremendous potential described above, but a good cultivation sign, in my opinion.