Unlike other times of the year, the summer provides a respite from some of the more demanding giving seasons in the nonprofit world.
But, while the so-called “summer slump” in the philanthropic sector can be great for tired nonprofit employees, it can be disastrous for donor engagement. Without lots of fundraising activities going on, donors can lapse and lose interest, and when giving season rolls around, they can be far out of sight.
In this blog, we’ll cover everything you need to know about sustaining donor engagement through the summer, particularly through email—a great, non-intrusive way to remind donors of your mission and maintain connection, without asking too much of them during their busy season.
Why Is Donor Engagement So Slow In The Summer?
Lots of nonprofits report that the summer—mainly July and August—tends to be the worst months to fundraise and connect with stakeholders. But why is that?
Typically, in the summer, donors experience:
- Distractions: Though summer can be a time of rest, for many donors, it is full of vacations, activities, and spending time with family and friends. This shift in focus and routine often means that donors are less likely to attend events or contribute to causes.
- Competing financial priorities: Summer often brings about additional expenses, such as travel costs, recreational activities, and back-to-school preparations. With a tightened budget, charitable giving might take a backseat as donors prioritize personal spending.
- Limited nonprofit activities: The end of the year is the biggest season for giving. Because of that, many nonprofits schedule their major fundraising events, campaigns, and appeals around this time of year. Meaning, there’s often a natural lull in activity during the summer, causing donors to drop off and lose interest.
Why Does Summer Donor Engagement Matter?
If you’re a busy nonprofit, you might be thinking: Okay, well, the summer is a great time for us to rest and take a step back from engaging with donors and conduct a mid-year review. While it’s true that the summer is a great time to reset and get your affairs in order, not consistently engaging with donors during that time can lead to long-term consequences.
Not only is retaining old donors more cost-efficient than trying to attract new ones, but research actually shows that there’s also a direct correlation between retention and gift size: the more a donor seemingly gives, the more likely they are to remain loyal to your organization. Meaning, the more you can keep in touch with donors—and build lasting relationships— the better off your nonprofit will be.
12 Email Tips For Sustaining Donor Engagement Through The Summer
While fundraising events are effortful for nonprofits, they’re also a big ask for busy donors. Instead of trying to engage with supporters through in-person programs, email works as a nonintrusive, simple, and incredibly effective touchpoint.
1. Personalize Your Outreach
Research shows that personalization in marketing materials is essential for conversion: Donors feel 71% more engaged when they receive personalized communications from the nonprofits they support. And it’s why more than 60% of nonprofits already use personalization in their email marketing.
Here’s what that means for nonprofits: It’s not enough to send out generic emails to your entire donor base. Use a marketing and communications software that allows you to segment and sort donor lists and input personalized information to create a more genuine connection with donors.
2. Use A/B Testing
Summer is a perfect time to enhance your email strategy with little effort. Create different emails and newsletters with varied subject lines to see which ones have higher open rates. For example, send two versions of an email with different subject lines, like “Urgent: Help Us Today,” vs. “Your Support is Needed Now!”
Likewise, experiment with content, too. Try different email formats, lengths, and types of content (e.g., text-heavy vs. image-heavy) to determine what resonates best with your audience.
Be sure to use a marketing and communications software that allows you to track email metrics, too, like open and bounce rates so you can assess what’s working and what’s not.
3. Target Lapsed Donors
Lapsed donors can be a challenge to recapture, but they’re well worth it if you do. In order to capitalize on this audience, create a distinct email campaign that targets them.
Using a robust CRM software, segment donors based on past interactions, donation amounts, and engagement levels. Then, create emails that speak to their personal experiences with your nonprofit, new initiatives you’re hoping they take part in, and more.
4. Encourage Recurring Giving
Recurring giving is one of the best ways for nonprofits to retain donors and create long-term sustainability. But often, encouraging recurring giving falls by the wayside during the slower giving seasons.
Columbia Lighthouse for the Blind, for example—a nonprofit that helps the blind or visually impaired in the greater Washington region overcome the challenges of vision loss—started encouraging its supporters to sign up for a recurring giving program (Monthly Sustainers Program) through its email newsletter.
Since launching the email campaign, their newsletter has achieved an impressive average open rate of 32.1%, which surpasses the industry standard by 10%. Additionally, their recurring giving program brought in an average of $576 in monthly recurring donations.
During the slower summer season, take the time to introduce or reintroduce your donors to recurring giving as a way that they can remain supportive with little effort on their part.
5. Leverage Automated Email Sequences
Email sequences are a great, effective way to engage with donors. With platforms like Giveffect, nonprofits can create and automate these campaigns in minutes.
For example, your nonprofit might create a drip campaign or a series of automated emails that gradually share more about your work, upcoming events, and volunteer opportunities. These can be scheduled to go out at regular intervals throughout the summer.
Examples of effective drip campaigns include:
- New donor welcome journey
- Donor anniversary journey
- Volunteer anniversary journey
- Constituent birthday journey
6. Include Interactive Content
Instead of sending donors a generic newsletter or email, engage them in interactive content. Send polls and surveys that encourage donor participation and feedback, and even incorporate fun quizzes or challenges that relate to your cause.
Even better—set up challenges for donors related to your email and offer incentives and prizes for winners. For example, tell donors that if they forward your email to 5 new recipients welcoming them to your mission, you’ll enter their name into a raffle for a grand prize.
7. Offer Exclusive Content
To keep donors informed throughout the summer, consider creating and sending exclusive content, such as behind-the-scenes reports or detailed updates that only email subscribers have access to. Or, host an online event or webinar and only send invites via email.
8. Share Impactful Stories
No matter the season, storytelling is always evergreen. To keep donors connected and engaged with your mission when there are few fundraising events or volunteer opportunities, gather and select new or old testimonials and feature them in a newsletter. If possible, include photos and videos, too, to better create an emotional connection.
Some impactful stories might include spotlights of:
- Donors
- Beneficiaries
- Nonprofit staff
- Volunteers
- Other important community members
9. Go Beyond Financial Asks
In addition to sending out a donation request, remind donors of upcoming volunteer opportunities and how they can get involved. Offering volunteer opportunities keeps donors engaged and deepens their connection to your cause—plus, it gives supporters a sense of control over their contributions, which monetary donations don’t always offer.
Be sure to provide easy sign-up links and detailed information about volunteer roles and keep track of their contributions in a volunteer management system.
10. Bring in a “Guest” Email Author
Donors are probably used to receiving emails from a few key members of your organization—your executive director, communications manager, etc.
To pique donors’ interests and keep them engaged, invite a trusted stakeholder from your nonprofit or community to author an email or email series. You might invite a beneficiary to talk about their experiences, a board member to reach out and give personal thanks, or even a new staff member to introduce themselves and create a connection.
11. Show Appreciation
Thanking your donors is always an effective way to make them feel seen and good about their support for your cause.
Using a CRM and moves management system, round up some of your supporters’ giving history and create a tailored thank you email that gives donors insights into how important their gift continues to be.
12. Have Fun
Engaging donors doesn’t always have to be serious and professional. In fact, a lighthearted point of connection might just be the thing that keeps donors engaged and happy to support your cause.
In light of the summer fun, show donors some funny behind-the-scenes moments of the last season’s events, or personal anecdotes that made your staff smile. This will make donors feel like a part of the team, and even bring some levity to your mission.
Succeed at Summer Donor Engagement with Giveffect
Connecting and engaging with donors during any season requires lots of time, effort, and strategy—not to mention the right tools. While cobbling together email marketing software and a CRM to effectively track and use donor information is possible, toggling between multiple software solutions can quickly cause errors and much more stress than necessary.
With Giveffect, nonprofits can store all of their donors’ information—giving and interaction histories, event attendance, communication preferences, and more—and use that information to create engaging, powerful, and automated email campaigns, right from the platform.