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Every nonprofit knows the power of strong and long-lasting donor relationships, but engaging small donors effectively can be challenging. With limited time and resources, how do you make each small supporter feel valued?
The good news is you don't need a big budget or a large team to engage small donors and show them they matter. Simple, well-planned engagement strategies help make meaningful connections and inspire them to deepen their support over time.
In this guide, we'll discuss some unique ways to engage your small donors online and keep them connected with your organization’s mission for years to come.
Donor engagement refers to the strategy of building and maintaining strong relationships with your supporters. It is crucial for donor retention as the more engaged your donors are, the more likely they are to stay involved with your mission and continue supporting it.
While many nonprofits focus more on big donors, keeping small donors engaged is just as important. These supporters may give less individually, but their combined impact and loyalty can make a huge difference. Here's why small donor engagement matters:
Get more donations
Most people can give at least $5 to a good cause regardless of their earnings. Your job is to show them how that $5 will make a real difference for your nonprofit. When you welcome small donations, you give everyone a chance to help, regardless of their income level.
Prioritize your needs
Relying on small donations helps you focus more on your mission and less on regulatory guidelines. You can use funds where they're truly needed without worrying about the rules that come with grants or the pressure to please major donors.
Build a reliable income stream
Many major donors give once, but small donors often give regularly, providing you with a steady funding source. Small donations can grow into big amounts over time. They are also less impacted by economic fluctuations than larger, one-time gifts, which helps maintain sustained funding.
Develop local connections
Small donors from your area become your local champions. These supporters live in your community and can help in many ways – they can spread the word to neighbors and assist you in catering to local needs, thus expanding your outreach and improving your operations.
Creating an online membership program for small donors helps maintain consistent engagement. Your membership program can be open to selected small donors who have contributed for a while or reached certain giving amounts.
To show members they're valued, give them exclusive benefits like special event invites or behind-the-scenes updates. Send short surveys every few months to ask them if they're enjoying being members and what benefits they want most. Use this feedback to make the program more valuable for them.
Another way you can boost donor engagement is by organizing online challenges each month. People can join these challenges by posting photos, videos, or personal stories on social media and tagging your organization in them. This keeps donors active and helps raise awareness about your mission among more people.
Here are five virtual challenge ideas you can try:
Walk for water challenge: Ask your engaged donors to walk 1 mile daily with a water bottle, showing support for communities that walk long distances for clean water, and share daily photos of their walk
No-waste week challenge: Invite donors to cut down waste for a week - they can share tips and photos of reusable items they're using
Kind acts challenge: Encourage doing one kind thing daily for 7 days - participants post their good deeds and inspire others
Plant and grow challenge: Ask people to plant something and share its growth over a month - connecting with environmental causes
Save your change challenge: Ask donors to collect spare change for a month and donate it - they can share photos of their growing collection
To run these challenges effectively, share clear guidelines at least a week before starting.
Post updates to keep people excited as the virtual campaign starts, highlight participant stories to show impact, and offer small rewards to active members. This helps you to build momentum and encourage more participation.
3. Celebrate donors on social media
Show appreciation for your supporters through simple, no-cost recognition on your existing social channels. Share weekly "Donor Spotlight" posts highlighting a supporter's story and impact.
Create dedicated campaigns for your donor community and encourage them to share why they support your cause. Feature these stories in your newsletter or website.
Even without fancy technology, you can demonstrate meaningful recognition through:
Monthly donor appreciation posts
Thank you stories in your regular email updates
Simple photo collages of donor impact
Highlight quotes from supporters about why they give
This personal recognition costs nothing but time and shows donors their support matters, regardless of the amount.
4. Host virtual meetups
Plan regular virtual meetups with your donors - it's not always about asking for money. Once a month, host a friendly online chat with your small donors to get to know them better.
During these chats, your aim should be to learn more about them, like why they give – their motivations and the personal connections they have with your cause.
Share stories about how their gifts are making a difference. Show them what happens behind the scenes - a quick tour of your food bank. Ask for their ideas, too - they might have some suggestions to help create more impact in your field.
While major donors often get most of the attention because of their large gifts, your small donors' views matter just as much. Listening to their ideas and including them in your work makes them feel valued and more likely to stay engaged with your cause. These meetups are easy to set up using tools like Zoom or YouTube Live.
A great way to boost donor engagement is by sending short video testimonials from people your organization has helped. Ask your beneficiaries to share their stories and how donations made a difference in their lives.
Follow Make-A-Wish America's example - they use YouTube to share powerful stories of how donations turn children's wishes into reality.
If they're comfortable, ask them to say a personal thank-you using donors' first names - like "Thank you, Sarah" or "Thanks, Tom and Mary." This personal touch makes donors feel directly connected to the impact they've created.
Some other best practices for creating effective video testimonials include:
Keep videos short - just 1-2 minutes long
Focus on one personal story at a time
Add captions so that everyone can easily understand
Create a storytelling narrative like what's the problem, what was the solution, and how donations helped
Share widely - through emails, social media, and newsletters
These simple, heartfelt videos help donors see exactly how their giving is helping real people, enhancing their faith in your efforts.
6. Encourage donors to volunteer
Offer your donors simple ways to help from home. Let them share your social media posts, write encouraging notes to people you serve, or share your work with their friends and get them added to the mailing list.
Make it fun by giving rewards at different levels - add their names to a special wall on your website when they complete tasks. Give them digital badges they can share online, like "Proud Helper of [Your Organization]" or "3-Month Star Volunteer." Seeing these badges on social media might encourage other people to join in, too.
4 tips for long-term small donor retention
1. Segment and engage donors
Once you know your small donors well, create donor segments based on how often they engage, their age group, giving amounts, and other details. This segmentation helps create targeted messages for different donor groups across all your channels - from emails to social media.
For example, young donors who mainly give around the holidays might prefer Instagram stories, while monthly givers might value detailed email updates with project milestones. This way, you share content that matters to them and strengthen donor relationships.
2. Track donor engagement
Track and measure how donors interact with your nonprofit to understand what engagement strategies work best. Regular monitoring helps improve your retention efforts.
Some of the metrics to measure donor engagement include:
Email open rate
Email click-through rate
Social media interactions
Events attended
Volunteered hours
Website visits
Donation method
Average donation amount growth
Use your donor software and social media tools to measure donor engagement. This data shows you which donors are active and how they like to stay in touch, helping you improve your engagement and retention efforts.
3. Create a donor engagement plan
A strong donor engagement strategy helps you avoid confusion and strengthen retention. With a clear plan, you know exactly when to reach out to each donor, what messages will interest them most, and which activities they prefer.
This focused approach means you can send the right updates, invite donors to relevant events, and recognize their support in ways that matter to them so they feel connected to your projects.
4. Involve your board
Getting board members involved adds a personal touch that deepens relationships with prospective donors. Though board members typically focus on major supporters, ask them to reach out to small donors, too, through thank-you calls, one-on-one chats, or virtual meetups.
Hearing directly from board members makes small donors feel truly valued by your organization's leaders, strengthening their commitment to your cause.
Final words on small donor engagement strategy
Building relationships with small donors is an ongoing journey. As they engage more with your organization, they are likely to give more, volunteer enthusiastically, advocate proactively, and join your fundraising efforts regularly.
Your donor engagement strategies should focus on creating genuine, lasting connections through personalization. Taking the time to understand and engage small donors based on their interests shows them they matter - not just for their gifts, but as individuals. Small donors who feel valued today often become your strongest supporters tomorrow.
To start your small donor engagement journey, join Zeffy's 100% free donation management platform. Our tools help you group donors, track their activities, and send personalized messages that keep them connected to your cause.
Small donations typically range from $1 to $100, though some organizations can consider up to $250 or $500 as small. These make giving possible for supporters of different financial backgrounds.
Small donations are particularly important in recurring giving and crowdfunding, where consistent, small amounts can make a significant impact. For nonprofits, small donations create a steady stream of funding that provides reliable support.
A good donor system automates small donor management. The system tracks each donor's gifts, activities, and interactions with your organization.
You can group donors based on how much they give, how they engage with you, and other key details. This helps tailor engagement, ensuring messages are relevant to each small donor's preferences.
Engaging small donors comes with many key challenges. First, limited staff and resources make it hard to maintain regular donor communications. Second, creating personalized experiences becomes complex for hundreds of small donors - each with different giving interests. This makes it especially challenging to show impact and value to every supporter.
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