5 Ways to Delight and Retain Donors with Video

Why are nonprofits so terrible at donor retention? 

Donor attrition continues at a startling rate.

Some nonprofits are losing as many as 90% of their first-time donors on an annual basis!

The average across all types of donors isn’t much better, with about 59% of annual givers dropping off the radar each year.  

Real talk for a second.

How are you treating your donors? Like ATMs?

Do you only communicate with them a handful of times a year?

What kind of gratitude campaigns do you do?

Think very critically. How do you thank people?

So how can you combat horrific donor attrition?

By using video of course!

Here are just 5 simple ways to delight and inspire your donors with video.

1) Do a live streaming thank-a-thon.

Get a group of people together in your office. Wear wigs and silly costumes. 

Throw glitter, play music, and call your donors out by their names. 

This is especially effective if you are running a campaign for a specific project, or on a giving day like Giving Tuesday.

If people are holding Facebook Fundraisers for you, this is also a great way to thank them!

Create special videos that they can share with the people who contributed to their Fundraisers – their friends and family who gave to support them. 

Go live on Facebook, on Instagram, on Periscope!

After the live stream ends, download the file and embed it into emails, upload to social networks, on your blog – anywhere you want to reach donors. 

2) Record a special video for new donors.

People love and expert personalized experiences. 

Create a video calling them out as a first-time or brand new donor.

Put this video on the Thank You page after they donate and embed a screenshot in the Thank You email.

You can also create a standalone Facebook Ad and target it just at these new donors. You will need to upload their emails and create a Custom Audience in the Facebook Ads manager to do this. 

3) Record Donor Spotlight videos every week or every 2 weeks.

Donor Spotlights and/or Corporate Sponsor Spotlights are SO MUCH more interesting and engaging that simply posting an ugly corporate logo on Facebook and saying “Thank you to Local Business XYZ.”

For more on this topic, revisit my popular post: Thanking Event Sponsors: 5 Ways to Thank Corporate Sponsors with Social Media (Without Posting Ugly Logos)

4) Create a short impact video.

Create a short video with graphics and text detailing 3 accomplishments that you are espeically proud of, from the last week or month.

This can be a simple photo montage, rather than a traditional video featuring people talking or moving.

Use donor-centric language, such as “We could not have done this without you!” and “Without your support, this would not have been possible.”

5) Every week, do a Weekly Wrap-Up Video. 

Your donors believe in you, and they trust you.

People do not give money to causes or businesses that they do not trust.

They want to know what is the latest news affecting the cause and the issue.

What should they pay attention to? What is just noise? What is important?

What do they need to know this week? What’s coming up?

What are you proud of this week? What was a challenge?

The more transparent and accessible you can be, the better!

People want to connect with the human side of your brand. Video is the perfect way to do this.

Free and Low-Cost Tools to Create Nonprofit Videos

• Instagram and Snapchat: Record videos within the app, add enhancements (text overlay, stickers, filters), save the video file to your phone and post on other channels.
• Tools: Flyer, Animaker, After Effects
• I love Animoto for editing and enhancing videos; put them in square format which works best on social media.  
• Lumen5

Watch the replay and leave your questions in the comments!