Small nonprofit looking for advice on better donor retention
We are a small 4 person org and our donor retention rate sits around 30-40 percent. Apparently that is average, but it could be a lot better. We've worked on speeding things up a bit, we can send a real acknowledgment within 48 hours. First time donors also get their own sequence aimed at earning the second gift, and about three months later we tell them specifically what their money paid for. Mid level donors get more personal contact instead of the same treatment as someone giving much smaller amounts. We've also cut mass appeals to four a year and dropped the year end letter because it seemed generic. We don't have a dedicated development person and we're just figuring this out as we go along. Would really appreciate any other useful advice on improving donor retention at our scale.