EP 88: Donor Retention -- Keeping Supporters Engaged Year-Round

This conversation is for informational and educational purposes only and is not professional advice.

Positioning review: Content reviewed for positioning compliance. Prescriptive statements about donor data capture and event practices reframed from direct "you must/should" to experiential and observational framing where needed. References to Handbid kept experiential -- describing real event outcomes and team experiences rather than prescribing product use. Donor engagement advice framed as observations from experience rather than guarantees. All content is experiential fundraising discussion with practical event management insights.

Jeff: Welcome to Elevate Your Event, your favorite podcast for transforming fundraising events. Join us weekly for expert tips and creative ideas to make your next event a standout success. Today we're diving into donor retention -- how to keep supporters engaged, build lasting relationships, and make small changes that have a big impact. Plus, we're sharing expert insights and a few fun stories along the way. Let's get into it.

Jeff: Welcome back to the Elevate Your Event podcast, where we talk about all the weirdest things you've ever drank in your life -- and events. We talk about events as well. We've got a little home team episode here. We've got the Handbid team here in the studio. So let's go around. We've got our favorite Gen Z-er.

Michaela: I'm the favorite? My daughters are probably offended, but yes, go ahead.

Jeff: It's okay. You're the favorite at the office. I'll take that.

Michaela: That's right. My name is Michaela Roth, and I am on the sales team here at Handbid. Michaela's fire.

Inga: I'm Inga Gevice, and I'm old enough to be Michaela's mother. I think all of us are. Or take her out drinking. I'm on the service team.

Elise: I'm Elise Neugebauer. I'm also on the service team. All of the most special people at Handbid.

Jeff: Jeff Porter, CEO, founder, Handbid. And we are here to talk about retaining our donors. Retaining them after an event. All year round.

Jeff: So one of the best ways to retain a donor is don't let them drink fish vodka at your event.

Inga: That's a good one.

Jeff: What about wheatgrass, though? You might keep them alive with the wheatgrass. You might have them for years and years to come. We are definitely going to have to splice in the long conversation we just had about the weirdest things we've ever drank. Mine was fish vodka, which smells as bad as it sounds when you talk about fish vodka. It's terrible.

Elise: Sounds pretty bad.

Jeff: Anyway, so this comes up a lot. We're talking about donor retention. And with events, everybody's like, we have these events and we want the entire experience to be really smooth. And so that means we're going to make check-in really streamlined. And a lot of times when people start doing those things, what ends up happening -- you guys tell me.

Inga: Well, you don't capture all the information you need in order to start a great donor relationship. So donor retention has to start with knowing who the people are.

Jeff: Right. So we should start out with that. Let's talk about the check-in and registration process. We've beat this horse to death on this podcast. But as we kind of go through the event itself and we talk about follow-up, in order to do follow-up, what do I need to know?

Inga: Need to know how to contact them.

Jeff: Yes. How about a phone number or an email? That would be a start. And their name. Versus "guest," right? Or my favorite is when it's like, "Oh, Inga brought somebody but we didn't get his name." Okay, well, I guess we're not going to be able to chat with him. What if Inga's friend ends up being the biggest donor of the night? "Here, Inga's friend. Thank you so much for your $1,000 donation." And why would you not want to know who's coming to your event?

Inga: Well, I think they do want to know, but I think there's a missing connection between what I need to do to capture information at the door and the trade-offs that it might slow down your process or require your donors to provide information in exchange for your ability to be able to thank them or communicate with them. So I think a lot of times people just miss that connection. It's like, "I'm just going to pre-register everybody. I'm going to put all their paddle numbers on the table and that's what's going to be." Except for you don't even know who they are in a lot of cases.

Jeff: For sure. So when you chat with people on the service team where you're coaching them and they bring this kind of stuff up, what kind of pushback or arguments do you get around why they don't want to capture this data?

Inga: I feel like they focus on the wrong things. I literally had a conversation in service desk yesterday via email with a client. And I got major pushback because she kept saying, "I do not want to bother this donor. They're giving us a donation. They don't want to register. I'm not going to ask them for their email because I don't want to bother them. I just want to enter their donation. There has to be a way to bypass their information." I was like, but what's the point? Why would you not want to have at least their email?

Jeff: So if they're going to donate -- do you know their name? You don't want to get their email address. So how are you going to send them a receipt? You're going to print it out at the front desk and hand it to them?

Inga: That's right. Especially it's tax season right now. I'm gathering everything together. And it's like, if you don't have that receipt, then how are you ever going to get it to them?

Jeff: I know. That's what I'm struggling with. And I think we're disconnected. They feel like they're going to bother or inconvenience a donor by asking for their contact information. They want the money. "Of course I want the donor's money, but I'm not going to bother him and ask him for his email." It doesn't make sense.

Elise: Yeah, I'm not making that connection.

Jeff: Because how are you -- I mean, and the last thing I want as a donor is for you to hand me a piece of paper. I have to stick it in my pocket at the event with my receipt. I didn't want the paddle number.

Elise: So true.

Jeff: My wife carries a purse that's smaller than her hand. Where is that piece of paper going?

Elise: In the trash.

Jeff: Or they leave it around. So I think that's kind of the first part, right? You look at it and say, if you want to have a long-term relationship with the donor or at least a follow-up relationship where you're trying to retain them, you have to know them first.

Inga: Yeah.

Jeff: Okay. So coming in the door -- obviously, a little bit of work to do, but you're streamlining the process as much as you possibly can. And hopefully there's been a lot of pre-registration. And hopefully, Inga wrote down her guest's name and his email address.

Inga: That's right.

Jeff: But if she didn't, you capture it at the door. You can get it. And now they're in and they're doing their thing. And so obviously, another great way to retain donors is to have a good experience.

Elise: Yeah.

Jeff: So don't serve fish vodka on the tables. But what else? We're talking about people that may be new to your organization or those that have been around for a while. If they've been around for a while, you fear donor fatigue. And so we'll talk about that. One way to maybe deal with donor fatigue is to make constant micro-improvements to your event. You don't have to shake the whole tree every year, but switch it up a little. You switch it up, or you identify areas through surveys of what worked and what didn't work and you make adjustments there to constantly improve the experience. We'll talk about my event here in a second because we're going to do that. But then on the new side, you have to give your newly minted donors -- you just got their email address -- you've got to give them some way to connect with you. So what is that? Well, we always talk about making your event easier so you can go and work the room, talk with your donors, go and thank them for coming, introduce yourself, find out why they're there. Maybe hire some qualified staff to do your check-in or get your volunteers extra trained up so you don't have to be at the front door.

Elise: I like that.

Jeff: But also, I think you have to give some of these folks something to do. So I walk into the event, sure, I can grab a drink at the bar. I can go grab some hors d'oeuvres that are passed or maybe at a food station. But I'm not engaging with you to do that as a new donor. So you've got to have stuff to do. Maybe it's an auction. Maybe it's some sort of game. Games are fun. People love games. Some of them are lame and boring when you do them again. It could be selling them some beads for a heads or tails game later on -- anything where you've got to get them to connect. So now I'm connecting that guy or gal that checks in, email address, phone number, to some sort of activity where they're going to hopefully spend some money with you, because not everybody walking in the door is likely to donate in your paddle raise.

Elise: Right.

Jeff: I mean, you hope so, but that's not always the case. And you're an auctioneer. So you might have seen this. I have mixed feelings about this approach. But have you seen auctioneers -- and maybe you've done this -- that try to persuade or shame some of the people in the room to donating in the paddle raise?

Elise: Oh, yeah. I've seen it. You came here with somebody. Maybe you're new to the organization and you've never been here before, but you got a great meal and somebody paid for that. And so we're just asking that you consider strongly donating at least $100 to cover the price of your ticket.

Jeff: Have you heard that?

Inga: Yes, multiple times and it's cringe. It's guilt-trippy.

Elise: It is.

Jeff: Do you think it works?

Inga: It works for certain crowds. I've seen it done where it does not come across as tacky and it works. There are events where you have a lot of sponsor tables. The sponsor might invite their entire office to their table and maybe they've never been to the event. They have no idea what to expect. And somebody literally has to tell them, "You got an amazing meal. You didn't pay for your ticket. Can you please raise your paddle?" And they're like, "Of course I will." It works for certain audiences, and it doesn't work for certain audiences at all. It's cringeworthy and awkward.

Jeff: I just wonder if you're going to retain that donor. You probably will not. I struggle with that. One of the first events I ever did with Handbid -- and this is like 12 years ago -- we did this event in D.C. and it was very much like that. I'm going to pick on Michaela a little bit. So about 12 kids come in the door that are obviously in their early to mid-20s, and they all work for Google. Google bought two tables as a sponsor and gave them to all the people in the office -- the brokest of all the people in the office. And kids come in the door. I don't think these kids have any money. They're not going to spend money in a paddle raise. And they spent -- maybe some of them bid in the auction on a couple of things. The auction wasn't very big. But it was kind of a misfire. They were given free tickets by their company to a party.

Elise: They probably got free drinks.

Michaela: Listen, I know well enough that if you guys put me in charge of getting a table full of donors, I'm not going to invite my friends because I know that we're all still broke, paying off college and whatever else.

Jeff: That's right. You have to know your audience. You have to know your donor base. And it's great to give your big sponsors free tickets and free tables, but then you are taking a risk. There's going to be 20 people at that table that are there to enjoy the party and those free drinks and they're not going to be your donors ever. And so you need to look at those types of sponsorships and say, who is the donor relationship with? It's going to have to be with the sponsor. And you can try to get these people engaged, but you're going to have to get their data at the door and give them some way of engaging that probably isn't a $100 paddle raise or $250 raise. It might be an auction where they're like, "Hey, I'm going to bid on this spa package" or a gift card to a local restaurant. And now you're starting to connect with them.

Jeff: Okay, so you've got the folks there. You're trying to get them to connect somehow. You're trying to get a transaction going because once you do that, you can thank them. So let's talk about the other side of this -- obviously avoiding fatigue at the same time -- understanding what works in your event and what doesn't. And the best way to do that, honestly, is through a survey. So thank them and then ask them the question. And actually, we did this change last year. And I'm not sure we fully nailed it yet. But we started putting survey QR codes around the event, at the event.

Elise: Oh, interesting.

Inga: Absolutely. Because they're there. They're like, the bar line's too long or the drinks are too strong. Music's too loud. We got all of it, but why not?

Jeff: And then you can take that and start to make adjustments. So for us, at our event as an example -- we do a Kentucky Derby theme party, so it's outdoors. There's a stage, there's live music, live bands, there's a huge TV screen that shows the race. People bet on the race. And then we sell these fire pit tables because this is Colorado and even in May it gets a little cool. So these tables -- there's a six-person fire pit table and then we have a couple of the eight-person ones. And the feedback we got, which I thought was extremely legitimate, was that the six-person fire pit tables were too close to the stage. So you have to think, when you think of box seats at an event or more premium seats, most people at a rock concert -- unless they're junkies or Gen Z-ers -- you don't want to be standing in the front row.

Inga: You bought a table. You want to enjoy the experience but you don't want to be 10 feet from the speaker.

Jeff: And when I say the speaker -- not the person speaking, but the massive thing that is blasting 100 decibel music out. And so we got this feedback and said, okay, this year we need to reconfigure our layouts. We're going to pull all the fire pit tables back and put all of the "mosh pit" Gen Z-ers and millennials that want to pay $150 to come -- they can have a seat in the front. And it's such a small change but that's the feedback we're talking about, because you want to retain donors and get them to come back or get them to engage. Make sure you give them a great experience. And I get it -- everybody's like, "That's why we don't ask for their information at check-in because it's an inconvenience." It is not. I will probably argue with you until the cows come home because it is not an inconvenience to get their information when they arrive. But you create these experiences at the event. You get them to connect with you. We talk about all of that. And then you see what's working and what's not working and you make your adjustments.

Elise: I like that.

Jeff: And I am big on -- we're going to put more of these out this year -- big on surveying them while they're there. Let's put QR codes out. "How's your event experience? Do you have any comments? Scan here." And it's a really simple form. Let them fill it out.

Elise: I think that's a great idea. You don't need their name. You just need their feedback.

Jeff: Because as soon as you leave the event, you're done with it. You're not thinking, "Let me go back into the survey." Or if you do get it later on, you might just go through, hit all tens or all zeros. People that love you and they're always like, "Your event's great every year. Thank you so much. Had a great time. Nine, nine, nine, nine." I was like, you're not the one I want.

Elise: Exactly. You want the honest, real feedback so you can make those micro adjustments.

Jeff: Not all feedback should be actioned on. I will caution you on that. That's for sure. But you have to take it all and accumulate it and sift through it. Because some people are unreasonable. But there are nuggets in there. Okay, so you do your feedback and -- hey, even afterwards, send something out. How quickly?

Inga: Right away. Right away. If you wait three months, you miss the window. They're going to be like, "What was that again?"

Jeff: Timeliness. Right away. So the next thing would be what you communicate at your event needs to connect with what you follow up with.

Elise: The same voice.

Jeff: It's like, look, some of these events we've been to -- we can argue that maybe the charity is spending way too long on stage talking about what they're up to. That could be shortened. But there are certain things that you're communicating on that stage, and those things in a lot of cases require some follow-up. Because it's like, "We're going and doing X, Y, and Z and we need your support in order to accomplish those things." How many people do you think really go out there and give quarterly updates to their donor base who attended on how they're doing against those objectives?

Inga: Not many. They expect those donors to show up again next year after they didn't hear from them. And they might. The most important donors might. They love you. They'll probably show up next year again.

Jeff: But that's a wrong expectation. You're going to ghost them for an entire year. And then you expect them to show up next year and give maybe a little bit more money because you only touch base with them once a year. That approach does not work.

Inga: I agree. It's hard to say you have donor fatigue when you haven't fatigued them. When you only have time to say hi to them once a year at your event and you think that's all it takes. Because there are so many other organizations reaching out to the same donors. And how do you stand out? Every donor has a budget. Someone's budget could be much bigger than others, but they still have a budget. They can allocate fundraising funds to whoever they wish. And if you do not talk to them, guess what?

Jeff: And think about it. If your event's late in the year, maybe they've expended those funds. The budget is gone. It's been allocated and you missed your chance. And it's all on you.

Elise: So do you think there is something to be said for an event earlier in the year?

Jeff: Not necessarily. It depends on what the event is. But there is something to be said for running an event in November and then never communicating with these people again until the following late September when you invite them back. They might have already spent their charity spending for the year. Versus in January or February saying, "Hey, save the date. We're back again in November. Really excited about inviting you guys back. Here's what we're up to." And look, you don't have to send them a weekly email, but you definitely have to keep them connected through regular updates of what I promised at the event. Keep them engaged. "This is what we're doing with the funds that you so graciously donated."

Elise: What about mini events or some kind of ways to continue that relationship that maybe makes them feel special?

Jeff: That's the old Benevon raising-more-money model. Do you guys remember Benevon? This is -- oh my God, this is dating me -- this is like 20 years ago.

Michaela: I was five years old.

Jeff: Yeah, she wasn't born. Michaela was maybe still a thought. So this became really popular. And the way the model worked is you become a table sponsor or a table captain. So I really love this organization. Inga, I love what they're all about. I'm going to invite seven of my friends to come to this event. I'm going to get them super excited about what this organization is about. And the whole point is, you as the table captain need to recruit people that you expect will be future table captains. So you invite them all to the event, and then they come and they get their information captured, and now the organization is reaching out to them. "Michaela, I know you were a guest of Inga's. Thank you so much for your support. We really want to connect with you." So you do these little micro events. "I'm going to invite you to just a coffee or a tea. We're going to give you a lot more detail about this because my job is to recruit you into becoming a table captain."

Michaela: Interesting.

Jeff: Because now you're going to bring your friends. And so now you're out there. It's kind of like peer-to-peer fundraising at events in a sense. It just takes some time. And I think there's something to be said about doing that because you are expanding your donor base. And I've even witnessed this recently. There was one organization that we got connected with. They were a client of ours. Handbid came in and a group of us at Handbid bought a table. I brought in some of my friends who donated significant amounts of money. And so they were like, "Can you invite them back next year?" I'm like, "You should invite them back to buy their own table." That's what they should be doing. That expands you from a lot of money at one table to three different tables that might also give you money. And so it's the same type of concept, but the micro-event thing can work.

Elise: I think it can. And I think sometimes depending on how you frame it, it could be just a little thank-you -- come to this cocktail hour at a fun venue, let's just chat, network, and make them feel special. Appreciation. Get them to host it. That's the other thing -- you came to an event and you got really excited and connected about it. And maybe Inga, you were new, and it's like, "Hey, you gave us $50. Thank you so much. Do you want to learn more about the organization?" And you say yes. So we have a conversation, we go out for coffee, and it's like, "You really are wanting to get more connected. Inga, would you mind hosting a small event? We can help you with it. Can you invite your friends? And you can do it at your house." There's so many ways.

Jeff: And at that event, not only are we connecting with them, we're inviting them to the next event, getting them excited about it. That stuff can work. And not every event has to be the same model where you're just going to ask for money. It could be a networking event, a donor appreciation event. It could be anything -- an hour on a Tuesday. Or meeting for coffee. "Meet the principal on Monday at 8:30 and let's network." And then you follow up with them with more information. Now they're already engaged. That's when you can plant the seed that you still want their support. But now you know them already.

Inga: Of course. It builds that relationship. It's all about personal relationships and building that familiarity with your organization or your personal brand. And on the flip side -- we see this a lot in service and working events. There are so many organizations that do it well. They actually have a great donor base. And they are so afraid to rock the boat, to change anything. And the response we get is, "But that's going to upset our donors. We've always done it this way. We don't want to upset our big donors because they like what we do every year. And this is the only format we can do it." And it's so hard because you're like, you can introduce little micro-changes. Move the fire pit tables around. That's already enhancing someone's experience. You don't have to change your event altogether, but introduce something new.

Jeff: If I had a major donor that liked being in the front row, I'll leave them in the front row. Because no matter how amazing you think your event is, events get stale. I promise you it gets stale for your donors. How many times have you left an event and you've been like, "This is the same thing"? You sell the same items. It's the same people. It's the same program. It's the same stale auctioneer. Change it up.

Elise: Yeah.

Jeff: It kind of feels like the principles of the innovator's dilemma. Have you guys heard of the innovator's dilemma?

Elise: No.

Jeff: So Clayton Christensen wrote this book years and years ago. It's about the concept of what they call disruptive innovations. You have sustaining innovations and disruptive innovations. You have a company that comes in with a technology and they get really successful with it. And then what generated their success becomes their demise because they have certain really large customers who are so connected to that technology that they drive all the decision making for the company. So classic example -- Storage Technology. They were a huge tape backup company. Their innovation was tapes for backups. Well, what do you think disrupted that?

Michaela: CDs? No. Internet? No.

Jeff: What do you have to drive? So cloud. Cloud storage. Dropbox, iCloud, Google Drive. That disrupted it because hard disk storage became so cheap. You don't need tapes anymore. But this organization got so connected to that technology that as new innovations came out, they were ignoring them because their biggest customers wanted more tapes. They're not moving. They're not budging.

Jeff: Take that to fundraising. You've got these donors and they're probably not going anywhere. They're connected to your organization. And so you're running your event in a way that pleases them, but you're not bringing in that disruptive new idea that's going to attract the next generation of donors. And for the longest time, that was mobile bidding. "Oh, my donors don't want to use technology. They don't want to use their phone. They want to bid on bid sheets. They like their paper. That's how we've done it."

Inga: We still hear it.

Jeff: And the problem is that one day when they're gone, you're gone. Because you can't connect to the next generation. And it's not that you can't flip the switch one year and switch to mobile bidding -- you could. But you're just not conditioning your organization to be able to stay current with the people that are coming up. That's called the innovator's dilemma -- the thing that got you that customer base in the beginning is the thing that might cause you to lose the next generation of customers. It's not any different in any other industry. The Yellow Pages got disrupted by the internet. The internet got disrupted by mobile. The music industry got disrupted.

Inga: And things are changing so much quicker now.

Jeff: So the fundraising industry was disrupted by technology that allowed people to use their phones. What are the next innovations coming up that are going to take events to their next level? Whether it's facial recognition or augmented reality or all these really cool technologies. There's going to be a collection of charities out there that would say, "My donors don't want that." Well, those donors are going to stay no matter what. You're trying to attract that next generation of donors who does want that, who's not going to scream at you because you put a QR code on the screen. Or maybe they do scream at you but they're still going to donate. There's so much fear sometimes -- "If I upset Fred and Judy, they're just not going to write their check." I think they're going to write their check.

Inga: And we've seen in different organizations when they switched to mobile and we were there and they're like, "This guy is our biggest donor. He has a flip phone. We are terrified he's going to have a bad experience."

Jeff: And I said, he's not going to have a bad experience because here's what we're going to do. We're going to grab this young woman over here who's 23 years old. She's a student at the local college. We're going to put his account on her phone. She's going to walk around and be his personal bidding assistant.

Elise: Love it.

Jeff: He spent 20 grand in the auction. And you can keep things and expand. So if you have someone who's going to write you a check who says, "I'm not using credit cards, I'm not scanning a QR code," you say, "Come up and see me and I'll take care of you." It's easy to do and you can appeal to everybody.

Inga: There's one event we do where most of the people write checks at checkout, and checkout doesn't mean "write a check." But it does to them. People love their checks. And they're writing it out, long form, "1,223 and no/100." And you're just watching them do it. And they are so proud to write their checks. And we have a little baggy for all the checks that come in.

Michaela: I carry my checkbook with me.

Jeff: You have a checkbook? That's probably the least Gen Z thing. A Gen Z-er that carries a checkbook -- I promise you.

Elise: That's a whole other podcast.

Jeff: How do you know your bank account number or the routing number?

Michaela: It's on your app.

Jeff: What do you need it for?

Michaela: It is on your app. I just learned when I was young that that's how you found it.

Jeff: I still look at my checks for that. But I feel like you don't need that often. My mother-in-law came over the other day, and she was going to support my daughter's mission trip and fundraiser -- it's a peer-to-peer actually running on Handbid. And she writes us a check for it. That's fine. But you know what's great about checks these days? You can deposit that by just snapping a picture with your phone. Mobile deposit.

Michaela: It's amazing.

Jeff: So you think old people can't learn technology? My dad is 82. And during COVID, I taught him how to deposit checks on his phone. I called him up and he's like, "Well, I just deposited four checks using my mobile phone. Are you proud of me?" I'm like, actually, I am, dad. That's a feat.

Jeff: When there's a will, there's a way. But anyway, let's wrap this up. So we talked about donor fatigue and donor retention and it all starts with -- I have to know who they are.

Inga: Yes.

Jeff: Which means I have to get their data when they check in. I've got to create a great experience for them. I've got to thank them. I've got to get their feedback -- while they're there. I think real-time, in-the-moment feedback is the best. I have to thank them as quickly as I possibly can. I have to keep them connected through regular updates of what I promised at the event. Keep them engaged. "This is what we're doing with the funds that you so graciously donated."

Inga: Exactly right. People love that. People appreciate that. And they'll come back.

Jeff: And don't fear changing things up to drive a better experience because you're worried about one or two people who are going to be opposed to it. Because we ran into that. When we ran Handbid at our event for the very first time in May of 2011, we had our post-event review, and we doubled our auction revenue. We went to technology. We doubled it. And so we're at the post-event review, and it was like, "Well, Fred and Ginger are upset. They like the bid sheets. We should consider going back." We are not going back. Fred and Ginger are going to come next year and they're going to be fine. We doubled our auction revenue. We are not going back. And the noise goes down the next year, goes down a little bit more. And all of a sudden they're engaged. And five or six years later, Fred and Ginger were the biggest bidders on Handbid. Just give them time.

Jeff: So anyway, we encourage you guys to take these tips, make them your own. But definitely, without a doubt, if you want to stay connected to your donors, get their info.

Inga: That's right.

Jeff: All right. Thank you guys so much. Until next time, happy fundraising. If you enjoyed our show, please take a moment to leave us a review. You can find us on Apple, Google, and Spotify. Don't forget to subscribe for more great content. And if you're a fan of video, check us out on YouTube. Until next time, happy fundraising.