Donor Experience Matters

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As a nonprofit, communicating what you do, along with opportunities to participate, can be tough. The power dynamic between donors and organizations can get intense, if not weird. There is a balance that we can strike, we can modify and augment our communication to speak to people as partners, as people, instead of as resources to be tapped.

It’s true, as organizations, no one wants to feel like a beggar, and as donors, no one wants to feel like an ATM. There is a balance that we can strike, we can modify and augment our communication to speak to people as partners instead of a means to an end.

As an organization, you have the ability to give your donors a gift. You give your donors the ability to participate, to share in the good work you are doing. You offer your donors the ability to connect with their community, their culture in a new way. You allow your donors to reconnect with an elemental piece of their humanity.

You are not asking only for your donors to give to you, you are also offering to give to your donors. And, what you are offering is valuable, is needed. When you are communicating with them, treat it this way. Being involved with one another benefits both sides. Tell that story, show them how. Because, when you do, you’ll not only feel a lot less like a beggar, you will also have much more engaged and involved donors.

What Increasing Donor Experience (DX) Does

Connect the Dots and Watch Magic Happen

In a nutshell, Donor Experience (DX) is about creating delightful, inspiring experiences for donors. There’s nothing quite like the moment where a donor not only really “gets” what an organization is doing, but is also so inspired by it that they are compelled to act. Those moments are magic and we work to create as many of them as possible. At the core of what we do is inspired action, is compelling information that creates behavior.

Of course, we cannot 100% control this, these are people after all (and that would be manipulation). But, we can influence it. And, the best kind of influence is an authentic influence; a compelling narrative based on truth, opportunity, and an irresistible offer to help.

This is what we help organizations do. We help them find and showcase the most compelling bits of their story. We help organizations treat their donors like partners, like trusted friends. We help organizations create delightful interactions with their donors, creating deeper relationships and engagement along the way. In a nutshell, we help organizations connect with their donors, and even more importantly, we help donors connect with their organizations.

Ecommerce has known these sorts of lessons for a long time (and retail much longer before that). Treat your customers better and they treat you better. Treat your customers like family and they will reciprocate with loyalty and repeated visits. With donors, all of the same opportunities are available, plus more. Now, not only does creating delight for donors increase donations but now there is more good in the world. Creating delight for a consumer is a benefit of one. Creating delight for donors can create benefit for the world.

Donor Experience is about more than just taking in more donations (which does very reliably happen). More important than donations are the relationships, specifically the depth of relationships that organizations that communicate well create and maintain.