Personalizing Donor Stewardship: Make Donors Feel Valued

According to the 2025 M+R Benchmarks Report, the average retention rate for new online donors was 23% last year. That means that less than a quarter of new online supporters from 2023 contributed to the same nonprofits again in 2024.

To keep donors around, nonprofits need to make supporting their causes worthwhile and enhance the donor experience. That’s where donor stewardship comes in.

As Aly Sterling Philanthropy’s donor stewardship guide explains, “Donor stewardship directly impacts the number of repeat donors your nonprofit is able to keep each year. When donors receive consistent communications from your organization and feel emotionally connected to your cause, they’re more likely to give again, improving your retention rate and donor lifetime value.”

This guide will help you develop a donor stewardship plan that makes donors feel like valued members of your community instead of just financial contributors.

1. Segment donors.

Segmentation is the process of grouping supporters based on their similarities. Segmenting donors helps you tailor your outreach to each individual’s specific needs and preferences.

Use your constituent relationship management system (CRM) to place donors in appropriate groups based on key characteristics like:

• Giving level. Develop groups for small, mid-level, major and legacy donors. For donors who give in larger amounts, you may use more intensive stewardship tactics, like phone calls or handwritten letters.

• Length of support. By segmenting donors based on how long they’ve supported your organization, you can reference their history with your organization when thanking them for their contributions.

• Interests. Some donors may be interested in supporting certain programs your nonprofit provides. Give updates on those specific initiatives. Additionally, whenever you launch a new program that relates to donors’ interests, you can inform them about it and direct them to your website to learn more.

• Demographics. Personalize your communications based on demographics like age and location. For instance, you may reach younger donors on social media or send invitations for an event at your nonprofit’s headquarters to supporters who live nearby.

To streamline this process, consider using artificial intelligence (AI) tools. There may already be AI capabilities built into your CRM that can suggest potential groupings and implement them for you.

2. Leverage automation.

Automation prevents you from forgetting about personalization opportunities and incorporates them into your workflow seamlessly. For instance, you may set up automated tasks to:

• Input names into thank-you notes. No one wants to contribute their hard-earned funds to your cause in exchange for an email addressed to “Dear Donor.” Have your email templates automatically pull and insert donor names for a more personal touch.

• Send emails based on certain criteria or triggers. Let’s say a donor interacts with your site’s chatbot and asks it a question about the donation process. You may configure your CRM to automatically send that donor an email that summarizes the chat and provides further resources.

• Implement conditional content blocks. Imagine a donor often reads articles on your blog about environmental conservation, while another usually clicks on entries about animal rescue. You may add a conditional content block to your newsletter that shows different content depending on each donor’s interests.

When trying a new automation for the first time, track results closely to see if it enhances donor engagement. Use metrics like time spent on the page and click-through rate to evaluate effectiveness.

3. Provide personalized impact updates.

Donors want to know that their contributions make a real difference. Go above and beyond normal impact communications to personalize these updates to different donors. For instance, you may implement the following strategies to customize your impact updates:

• Develop individual impact reports for large or recurring donors. In addition to your typical annual report, create more granular impact reports that let major contributors know exactly how their contributions affect your beneficiaries and cause. Organizations of all types have recently started making interactive reports that mimic the popular yearly Spotify Wrapped format to draw in their community members and summarize the year they’ve had with them.

• Reference past donations. When you thank donors, don’t just thank them for their support. Leverage data from your CRM to identify their exact past donation amounts so you can show gratitude for their specific gifts and explain what those funds have allowed your organization to accomplish.

• Incorporate storytelling. In addition to telling donors how they’ve made an impact, show them through storytelling. For example, highlight a beneficiary they’ve helped, and include photos that illustrate the difference donors have made in a tangible way.

Additionally, send donors regular updates on the programs or projects they’ve supported. Ongoing communications like these keep donors engaged and demonstrate how their donations continue to affect your community.

4. Develop donor spotlights.

Put donors at the forefront of your marketing strategy with donor spotlights. By showcasing individuals within your community and celebrating them for their contributions, you show standout donors how much you appreciate them and inspire others to get involved.

Follow these steps to create donor spotlights:

1. Interview donors. Reach out to donors who may be interested in being featured. Interview them about their experiences with your nonprofit and what your cause means to them.

2. Pull out notable quotes. Record the interviews, and pinpoint quotes you’d like to highlight in your donor spotlights.

3. Incorporate visuals. Ask donors for photos you can use in their spotlights, or find photos you’ve taken of them at events or volunteer outings.

4. Adapt your spotlights for different channels. For instance, you may create a short form clip of the donor interview for your Instagram page and write a caption that links to the full interview transcript on your blog.

5. Share your spotlights. Post your spotlights on your website, social media accounts and newsletter.

Always obtain consent before publicly sharing information about your donors. Before proceeding with your donor spotlights, let donors know exactly how you plan to use their information and where you’ll share it.

5. Use predictive analytics.

Predictive analytics uses historical donor data and machine learning algorithms to predict future donor behaviors. It’s a systematic way to personalize communications based on what you already know about your supporters.

BWF’s predictive AI guide recommends using this type of tool for engagement campaigns to personalize your:

• Messaging. Pinpoint what messages resonate most with your donors. For instance, you may use a predictive model to analyze click-through rates for different stewardship email campaigns to determine which communication strategies to use again in the future.

• Channels. Predictive modeling tools can also use data from your past campaigns to help you decide which channels to use to reach supporters based on their preferences and behavior.

• Communication frequency. To avoid overwhelming donors with too many messages or risk under-communicating with too few, use predictive analytics to model effective communication frequencies for different donor segments or high-impact individual donors.

Maximize predictive analytics’ effectiveness by organizing and cleaning your supporter data. That way, the models you leverage will base their predictions on accurate information and provide useful insights.

While the tips above are a great starting point, your stewardship plan should align with your specific donor base. Survey your donors to better understand how they’d like to be appreciated, and work with a nonprofit consultant to develop a comprehensive donor stewardship strategy tailored to your organization.