Don’t just donate - join the club

How do you make a segment of your supporters feel special?

With several of our charity clients recently, we’ve been seeing the benefits of starting up a ‘new thing’ for supporters to belong to.

If you want to increase people’s investment in your cause, enrolling them in a special club or community is a no-brainer. Here are a few tips from our recent experiences of launching initiatives like this.

Engage with your regular givers

It’s depressing how many charities only thank their regular givers once a year! Give a one-off gift three times in one year, and you get thanked three times. Give faithfully every single month, and you only get thanked once! Not only is this illogical, it’s unwise. Regular givers are the lifeblood that keeps many charities running - and once lost, it’s hard to recruit more!

One great way to look after them is to make regular giving into a ‘club’.

• Give them a name (For instance, CAP calls them ‘Life Changers’).

• Send them something exclusive - regularly. Perhaps in return for their monthly donation, they receive a monthly impact story that you don’t share with those outside the club? Why not also phone one regular giver for a quick chat once a week to show your interest in them? And keep sending those hand-written Christmas cards too.

• Could you put on a meet-up or special event just for them?

This is more than just retention, it’s inviting them into the inner circle and increasing their knowledge of and enthusiasm for what you do.

Talk it out!

The personal touch makes a lot of difference. We’ve seen a senior charity leader going to personally talk to the leaders of businesses that they want to enrol in their supporter ‘club’.

Another charity set up Q&A sessions on Zoom for any supporters who had questions about a big new programme they were launching. They’re left with a ready-made email list of the people who are most interested and invested in this new programme. They’ve formed their own club.

What’s in it for them?

A club should have benefits, but let’s get real - people don’t support a charity to get freebies. They don’t want you to waste the money they give on free branded pens. They want to make a difference.

What they want to receive back from being in your club is the warm feeling of having done good in the world. So reward them with extra impact stories, videos and your personal thanks. Because it’s true that you couldn’t do it without them.

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If you’d like help with nurturing your supporters, feel free to get in touch with our team.