How charities are increasing supporter retention in 2023

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Building a loyal donor base is vital for charities, especially in the cost-of-living crisis when funds may be less readily available. Research shows that 2022 was a great year for fundraising, with £12.7 billion raised for charity, an increase of £2 billion in 2021. Yet while the amount of money soared, the number of individual donors fell. 

However, public appetite for giving to charity has not waned. The time is ripe for charities to engage – or, in some cases, reengage – with supporters, communicate the importance of their donation, and deliver impact to the communities they serve, shaping one-time donors into loyal supporters. 

By improving their donor retention rates, charities can create reliable revenue streams to fund their services, while reducing the costs of having to reach out to a brand new donor base each time they campaign. A new e-guide from marketing software provider Apteco points out, “Those that depend on the goodwill of one-time donors alone are at greater risk of incurring unnecessarily high acquisition costs.” 

The e-guide – 5 real-world examples to help charity marketers increase supporter retention – offers charities practical tips to help them maximise supporter loyalty by using data-driven insights. The right data can vastly improve a charity’s decision-making, showing them the stage in the donation cycle where they are losing their supporters and areas where they are succeeding in keeping them engaged. 

Indeed, more than half of charities told the 2022 Charity Digital Skills report that using data and insights more effectively was a priority for their organisation over the next 12 months. A quarter of charities said they would like help in developing their data skills. 

Below, we explore how charities can use data to inform their supporter retention strategies, with some of the key insights from Apteco’s e-guide, which you can download in full here.  

How data can support donor retention  

According to Apteco’s e-guide, there are 14 core metrics that charities must measure in order to successfully increase supporter retention. These metrics include donations secured per year, number of donors, number of lapsed donors, and average duration of the donor lifecycle – you can find the full list in the e-guide itself.  

But measuring these 14 metrics is all well and good – it is vital that charities are able to analyse them in order to understand their performance and move forward accordingly. The e-guide points to the importance of data visibility and accessibility, as well as investment in I.T. infrastructure to support these aims – almost a third of charities invest in I.T. on an ad hoc basis, rather than strategically.  

The e-guide shares five practical examples of charity objectives and how marketing technology and data can support them. For example, a charity might want to increase their legacy fundraising. Legacy fundraising can be a significant, if

slightly unpredictable, source of income for charities, and should not be overlooked.  

But as Apteco point out, untargeted communications would be unhelpful in encouraging potential donors to leave a legacy. Instead, the e-guide demonstrates how charities can use drive time analysis to select the most suitable prospects for legacy events, in particular. It includes which metrics are most helpful for measuring this goal and the solutions needed to achieve it. 

Similarly, the e-guide shares advice for charities on how to launch a loyalty campaign for regular donors, focusing less on the donation amount and more on the frequency and timing of the donation. Supporter loyalty can mean so much more than monetary value. Supporters can be your most vocal advocates in a world where word-of-mouth is an important catalyst towards giving to charity. 

Ultimately, whatever a charity’s fundraising goal is, Apteco’s goal is to help them use data to achieve it. You can find out more about how to optimise your fundraising with data – with real-world examples to follow – in the full eGuide here.