Building Community with Donors: 5 Heartfelt Outreach Ideas

Whether you’re cultivating large gifts from prospective major giving candidates or building up a community of moderate donors, fundraising ultimately comes down to relationships. No matter how much they plan to give, all supporters are more likely to donate if they feel a sense of community with your nonprofit. 

Nonprofit fundraising professionals know that every donor is different but that most supporter relationships rest on the same handful of building blocks. From expressing proper donor recognition to providing engagement opportunities, supporters are more likely to form a strong connection with organizations that provide heartfelt, thoughtful outreach. 

To inspire your nonprofit’s relationship-building strategies, this guide will explore five meaningful outreach ideas. 

1. Personalize outreach.

Your outreach will feel heartfelt and genuine if it feels personal. After all, donors are far more likely to feel like valued members of your community if they receive messages addressed by name rather than a generic “Dear donor.” 

To craft unique, individualized messages, use your marketing tools to implement segmentation and personalization strategies. Here’s how these two approaches work:

• Segmentation organizes your supporters based on shared characteristics. This might include demographic information, engagement history, giving capacity, or any other factors you deem relevant. For instance, to guide your texting strategy, you might make one segment for supporters who have opted into SMS communication and another for those who have opted out. By doing so, you can be sure that the supporters who want to be contacted via text will get your messages without bothering those who don’t.
• Personalization involves including details about individual supporters in your messages, such as their names and engagement history. For example, to a supporter on your SMS-friendly list, you might write them a donation appeal text that addresses them by name, thanks them for their last gift, and calls out their previous contribution’s specific amount. 

To keep your supporters organized and automatically fill out message templates with relevant information, you’ll need marketing software. Tools like a constituent management relationship system (CRM), email platforms, and text marketing apps can do most of the work for you. 

2. Send eCards.

Thank-you emails and texts are staples of every nonprofit outreach plan. You can elevate these communications and provide donors with meaningful messages they’ll want to hold onto with eCards. eCards are digital greeting cards that pair a thoughtful message with an eye-catching design. 

eCardWidget’s guide to charity eCards shows off this example of a thank you eCard from the nonprofit Youth for Understanding:

This eCard demonstrates appreciation, shows off the nonprofit’s brand, and provides recipients with a fun visual that represents their donation’s impact. By adding graphics, photos, or even animations that represent your cause, you can connect with donors and reinforce their decision to support your organization.

In addition to thank you messages, nonprofits can also sell eCards to raise funds. For instance, a supporter might donate $25 and get an eCard that they can send to a friend or family member in exchange. This approach not only gives donors something in exchange for their gift but also helps promote and spread awareness of your nonprofit. 

3. Host appreciation events

To form a community around your nonprofit, bring your supporters together through in-person appreciation events. In-person events are opportunities to talk with your supporters one-on-one and encourage them to connect with one another. 

If you have a wide audience who live in geographically remote areas, you can also experiment with virtual events. Hosting a mix of in-person and virtual events gives all of your supporters a chance to engage with your nonprofit and build connections. 

Of course, to get supporters to attend your event, you’ll need to promote it. Get the word out by:

• Sending personalized invitations. Reach out to donors with personalized invitations that address them by name. If supporters have attended past events, be sure to mention that and thank them for their previous participation. 

• Previewing activities. Share details of what will happen at your event to intrigue guests and drive registrations. Feature photos and an itinerary so supporters can decide if they want to attend and share the details with others. 
• Leveraging multiple marketing channels. Reach a wider audience and ensure supporters who RSVP don’t forget to attend by continuing to market your event across numerous channels. For instance, you might email your entire supporter base to fully explain your event and follow it up with a text message that provides the highlights or links to a website page with more details. Mogli’s guide to SMS marketing shares how links in text messages have a 19% click-through rate as compared to email’s 2.6%, making it a useful channel for drawing attention. 

Not every appreciation event has to be a major undertaking. For instance, you might throw an impromptu appreciation lunch for volunteers by taking everyone out to a local restaurant, or you could host weekly online trivia nights that donors can drop in on. 

4. Feature community spotlights

Give specific supporters a bit of public recognition with community spotlights. This outreach idea is a type of direct marketing fundraising, the act of marketing to one specific supporter rather than creating general messages for your entire audience. This type of fundraising tends to be highly individualized and thus can be very effective in making recipients feel recognized and valued. 

Additionally, community spotlights send a message to the rest of your donors. They’ll see that your nonprofit appreciates individual supporters who go above and beyond, which might inspire them to follow suit. 

Use your community spotlights not just as a way to show donor appreciation but also to encourage specific behaviors in the rest of your community. For example, you might spotlight a supporter who brought in the most revenue during a peer-to-peer campaign or someone who racked up 100 volunteer hours this year.

5. Share stakeholder videos

Let your stakeholders express how meaningful your donors’ support is in their own words by recording and sharing videos of them telling their stories. 

Sit down with a few stakeholders and ask them to discuss their experiences with your nonprofit and how support powered by donors has impacted them. In addition to interviews, add footage of your program sites and share photos of your volunteers in action so donors can see the tangible impact their support has made.

In addition to videos that express appreciation for your supporters in general, create personalized videos for notable individual donors. For instance, you might ask a few stakeholders to help record messages for major donors and then use that footage to create unique videos for each recipient. 

When you build heartfelt, meaningful relationships with your supporters, you can boost event attendance, earn volunteers, and maximize donations. To lay the foundation for these connections, assess your audience and start planning outreach strategies that will resonate with as many supporters as possible while maintaining a personal touch.