NFPs need to look into donor segmentation when they are communicating with their donors. Many NFPs are finding that it is beneficial and not only saves them time and money, but increases donations and participation. This recently published article may prove to be quite helpful on the subject.

So what is donor segmentation?

Donor segmentation means focusing on smaller groups within your donor base who are interested in the same things, are the same age, live in the same area, etc. The goal of donor segmentation is to create lasting relationships with donors instead of looking at them as a number.

There are three different ways that NFPs can separate their donors.

They can separate them based on sociology, psychology or preferred method of communication.

• The sociology method would separate the donors by age, sex, family size, income level, occupations or social class.
• The psychology method would include donor lifestyle, attitude and personality traits.
• Many times donors only want to be reached by either email, postal mail or by phone. NFPs can send information out to those donors accordingly using those different methods.

Email seems to work better for NFPs than social media when it comes to conversion rates. Most people will open an email if they know who it is from, but it is quite easy to scan over a post on Facebook or a tweet on Twitter. People receive so many updates throughout the day in all of their social media platforms it is not possible to ever see all of them. Research has determined that when NFPs send personalised emails, they are clicked on 14% more and the conversion rate is actually 10%.

Why do I need a donor persona?

While many NFPs think that donor segmentation is enough when corresponding with their donors, donor personas also play a part. A donor persona is a fictional character that represents some of the donors in a group. NFPs can create many different personas for each group and these personas can help them answer specific questions before communication is sent out. No NFP will want to send out a communication that will make people ask more questions. They want the communication to be clearly understood right away.

For example, if an NFP sends out an email to all of their donors who have five people in their family, they might think that that each reader will understand the information. However, some of the people receiving the email may be 40 years old while some are only 20 years old. If the NFP sets up personas for both of these age groups, they can make adjustments to ensure that both age groups would be able to understand the information that is being conveyed.

Donor segmentation is the best way to increase relationships with each donor. Everyone wants to feel like they are making a difference in a cause that they support and a little personalisation is one of the best ways to do that.