Practical Steps for Gaining and Keeping Your Best Donors

It’s not enough to simply know your giving landscape. Why? Because knowledge without action is worthless. The following are some key ideas on how you can gain and keep donors.

Implement a front-end back-end strategy. A front-end strategy works to attract new donors AND to see younger donors become consistent givers. A back-end strategy works to retain what you have with a focus on older generations, moving them toward making a lasting impact. Here are some brief thoughts on each.

On the front end…

• Create a positive culture of generosity. Never be afraid to ask people to give when you…
• Show the value of your church. Younger generations will give when they see the impact your church is making. So, tell your story! Then…
• Teach stewardship as a lifestyle, Financial Peace, etc. One of the great values you can add to the generation coming up is to free them from the debts their education and poor lifestyle choices have enslaved upon them.
• Have a robust 1^st-time giver plan. If you don’t get the first gift, you can’t get the second. Yet, if you stop at the first gift, you will never offset your churn rate losses.
• Keep at it! Lowering your Churn Rate will not happen overnight. Yet, if you don’t start and keep at it, you will continue to experience financial difficulty.

On the back end…

• Build relationships with your top 50%. Take one a week out for coffee, lunch, or dinner and ask how you can pray for them. It is not about asking for money. It is about building into their lives. Then, when the time comes to ask for money, you have won the right to ask.
• Thank all your donors continually. Churches need to learn from non-profits and show gratefulness for those that help financially support our ministries.
• Help them invest in the future by leaving a legacy. The reality is these donors will not always be with you. Yet, by leaving your church in their will, they can make a lasting impact beyond their lives. The challenge we need to give to the generations moving off the scene is to help provide for the next generations coming after them by leaving a legacy.

This is the time to get serious about keeping the donors you have. What are you doing to keep your donors? It’s time to get serious.