Erika Carley is Senior Director of Operations at Chive Charities. She caught my attention several months ago when she shared on LinkedIn that her nonprofit organization achieves 98% month-over-month donor retention.
My first thought was…that can’t be true. That’s impossible.
But it is.
So I invited Erika onto the show to talk about how she and the team at Chive Charities achieves such amazing retention rates, and what makes their approach so successful.
You’ll want to check out this episode because there are some great insights that Erika shares that you can adopt in your organization today!
Here are some of the key takeaways from our conversation:
- Focus first and foremost on monthly giving. Instead of defaulting to a one-time gift ask, prioritize ongoing monthly support asks everywhere
- Remember that donor retention is a long game. You won’t always see an immediate benefit, but the payoff over time is incredible
- Keeping your donors engaged and inspired requires deep, ongoing storytelling. Prioritize capturing and telling great stories of impact around the work that you do.
- Be human. Be relatable. Put yourself in the shoes of your donors and try to understand what motivates them, and what they need to hear from you to stay engaged and supportive of your work.
- Focus on small, intentional habits done well every day instead of looking for silver bullets that just don’t exist.
- Be intentional about your goals. At Chive Charities, they have an expectation that any new strategy or tactic will generate a 6:1 ROI.
- After you set your goals, be willing to adjust and pivot based on the realities on the ground – you have to adjust based on realities or you’ll fail.
- Create systems and methodologies that enable your organization to retain donors across your entire supporter base with as much ease as possible.
- Test a lot of strategies and tactics, and learn as quickly as possible. Keep what works, and learn from those that don’t.
- You are going to miss out on so much for your organization and your supporters if you are not meaningfully engaging your donors.
Here’s something that Erika and her team do that I think is BRILLIANT…
When a monthly donor decreases their ongoing giving (i.e., they decrease from $20/month to $10/month), Chive Charities sends them a HANDWRITTEN note that thanks them for “sticking with us”. This is the kind of unique and authentic touch point that helps them keep 98% of their donors engaged.
You’ll get these insights and so much more from my conversation with Erika Carley. Check it out today!