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Creating Sustainer Connections: a DMAW community-driven conference

Sustainer Day Opening

Joanne Wilson, DMAW Vice President, kicked off the 4th annual Sustainer Day by addressing the challenges not only with sustainer acquisition and retention, but also the impact of the uncertain economy and political climate. Margaret Romig then posed the question, "How can disruption help us be more creative?” during the opening panel.

The panelists agreed that while achieving fundraising goals will be difficult, this is the opportunity to lean on your sustainer programs and keep your sustainers engaged. They emphasized the importance of keeping sustainers engaged and showcasing their long-term value by running scenarios for year 1, 5, and 8 based on join channels, acquisition costs and average gift size.

“How can disruption help us be more creative?”

Lapsed Sustainer Outreach

A common theme throughout the day was the importance of lapsed sustainer outreach. This involves intentional efforts to re-engage sustainers who have experienced credit card declines or have canceled their pledges. Whether through calls, emails, or letters, these individuals are prime candidates for rejoining your program. Tools like display ads, surveys and targeted landing pages, can further motivate your lapsed sustainers to come back.

Retention and Recapture Strategies

In addition, retention and recapture strategies were essential to keeping sustainers engaged.

Retention: Smile Train shared retention tactics like gratitude cards and tracking sustainers’ gifts over the years.

Recapture: The ACLU shared their approach to consistently inviting their lapsed and canceled sustainers to rejoin their program.

Budgeting Advice

As organizations prepare their next budgets, fundraising teams must prioritize acquisition costs. One attendee remarked, “It might look bad on paper now, but cutting acquisition will hurt the program’s growth in 2-3 years.” Attendees agreed, stressing the importance of showing Finance the costs involved, expected recoup timelines and when the program will be in the black. Additionally, a test and invest budget, or R&D fund, can help test new initiatives and bolster strategies.

“It might look bad on paper now, but cutting acquisition will hurt the program’s growth in 2-3 years.”

Creating Your Idea List

At the end of day, I had a long list of ideas. Some were easier to implement, while others would require more time, money and support from others.

Here are some ideas to help you create your own sustainer action plan:

  • Craft and send retention emails
  • Prioritize sustainers in donation forms, newsletters, acknowledgments, and more
  • Develop a robust welcome series and test for the best emails
  • Reach out to lapsed sustainers
  • Explore SMS outreach
  • Create a solid plan for decline and pre-expire credit card outreach
  • Score and run scenarios on sustainer data
  • Consider Spanish-speaking outreach
  • Continue learning, connect with peers and volunteer for DMAW

Thank you to the DMAW team and presenters for facilitating a meaningful space to discuss sustainer strategies. Let's continue the discussion and share ideas to retain and recruit sustainers!

Guest blog by: Kim Gube is the Senior Manager of Integrated Marketing & Fundraising at the United Way of the National Capital Area and can be reached at kgube@uwnca.org.