The 2 Sources of Donor Motivation and Why Your Nonprofit Needs to Address Both
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Why do donors give? What motivates them to choose one nonprofit organization over another? Donor motivation must depend on more than just the cause, because many causes have multiple organizations all pursuing the same basic mission.
There are many nonprofits supporting veterans. Many helping stray animals. Many helping fight various diseases. Many fighting human trafficking.
But there is something that motivates a donor to choose the specific organizations they will support with actual money.
The January 2020 issue of Advancing Philanthropy included a terrific article that shed some light on donor motivation. It was based on a study that put forth the Two Factor Theory of motivation. The study dealt with employee motivation, but the author of the article saw many applications to donor motivation as well.
The two factors are two groups of reasons why donors choose to support a particular nonprofit. The article calls these ‘hygiene factors’ and ‘motivators.’ I’m going to rename the hygiene factors and will call them ‘assurances,’ which is a clearer description of what that category represents, as you’ll see.
Let’s look at both these categories of donor motivation.
Motivators that Compel Donors to Give
Motivators have to do with your mission. The problems your nonprofit is solving. The cause you’re fighting for. The impact you are having that is making the world a better place.
Let’s look at some specific motivators identified in the article, and how your nonprofit can appeal to them.
Impact – the donor has solved specific problems that matter to them
Your nonprofit can communicate impact best by telling donors what their money will accomplish. You can do this best with stories. And these can be success stories, showing the impact their money has already had, or they can be unresolved stories, highlighting the need for the donor to continue helping.
Connectedness – feeling part of something bigger than themselves
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Community has immense staying power. People stick around when they like the community. Your nonprofit can built community using volunteers, live events and smaller gatherings, service parties, and even online events. You can also celebrate other volunteers.
Your monthly giving program is also a form of community. Give it a good name, for starters. Something better than “monthly giving program.” 30 name ideas for your monthly giving program.
Then, consider having special live events and parties now and then – and only monthly donors (and their friends) can attend. You can also send them gifts. Give them discounts, free raffle tickets, or special seating at your live events.
Whatever you do, make them feel special, and help them meet and get to know each other.
Recognition – do your donors feel appreciated?
Recognition doesn’t always have to be public. Some donors appreciate that; others do not. But every donor wants to be thanked for their gift. You should be thanking in as many ways as possible – by email, in writing, over the phone, or even in person in some situations.
When donors give but hear nothing back, it greatly diminishes their chances of giving again. I personally have experienced this. I have given one-time gifts to organizations that have never acknowledged it – ever. It’s just a weird feeling to give someone free money but not get thanked. I really wanted to give to these organizations. But I haven’t felt as motivated to do so again. Not out of spite. Just out of this odd feeling – did they even notice?
Purpose – the donor wants to change something in the world
This is sort of the flip side of impact. This is pre-impact. I want to solve this problem and I care about it enough to give money to fix it. A donor giving out of the purposeful motivation is easy to keep. All you have to do is communicate impact and recognize them for helping. But are you doing that?
Assurances that Keep Donors Giving
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Assurances are what we could humorously call the ‘boring’ stuff. The behind the scenes stuff. When donors feel assured that their gift is behind handled properly, they are more likely to keep giving.
So even though assurances are ‘boring,’ they are critical factors in donor motivation. If you neglect these, what will happen is that even your best donors will start to retreat because they will lose confidence that their money is being properly utilized.
Some Assurance Motivations for giving:
Organizational Stability – do your people stick around?
This is why treating your employees well and paying them good wages is important. If donors detect a ton of turnover at your nonprofit, and it persists for too long, they will start to wonder if you have an unhealthy internal culture. Why are so many people leaving?
Do you see how this is sort of the opposite of Community, a motivator from the previous list? A strong community is one where when people get together, they see people they recognize. This is one reason live events are so critical.
Donors want to see some of the same people speaking at each live event. Using the same auctioneer is a good idea too, because that auctioneer knows your staff and some of your loyal donors.
Annual reports, though a slog to produce, can also help give a sense of stability. You have the sense from the reports that this is a real organization, being responsible, tracking their numbers, and staffed with professionals.
Stability reassures donors that your nonprofit won’t disappear next year. This is an especially critical issue for smaller and newer nonprofits.
Communication Practices – with employees and volunteers
Ever have a volunteer event filled with shouting and arguing? I hope not, because any new volunteers or supporters who show up and see that will probably not be back. Likewise, when a donor or anyone else calls in, for any reason, they need to be treated well.
A lot could be said about this, but communication is the lifeblood of relationships. Spoil your communications within your staff and with anyone outside, and your relationships will wither. Poor internal communication also leads to increased turnover, and more instability – the first Assurance Motivator on this list.
Trust – do donors have confidence you are handling their money right?
Are you doing a good job of keeping donor data secure? Doing everything you can, especially with online donations, to maintain donor privacy is one way to retain trust.
Your annual report also serves to build trust, because it is a report of how donations are being used. Is money being spent responsibly? Donors want to know and believe it is. But if they find out otherwise, rebuilding that lost trust can be virtually impossible.
Admin Processes – as I said, the boring stuff
But ‘boring’ is what makes the world go round. Not a single industry exists that doesn’t have administrative support helping make it all happen. You can be a fan of your favorite singers, athletes, and performers, but none of them would even have a job if there wasn’t an admin support system behind them.
This is why tax receipts and gift acknowledgements matter so much. It’s not just so your donors can get a tax deduction. It’s to demonstrate that you’ve got your stuff together, which is why it should go out immediately after a donation is given.
Responding to phone and email falls into this category too. Showing up at an event and being greeted with a functional process. A website that works.
When administrative tasks falter and it feels like things aren’t working, all the greatest causes in the world won’t be able to withstand the rush of donors fleeing for the exits.
Which Areas of Donor Motivation Can Your Nonprofit Improve?
You’ve just seen eight factors that motivate donors to give. All of them matter. You can argue about which ones matter more. But there’s a good chance your nonprofit could stand to improve in at least one of them.
Here’s a good task for your next planning meeting (that boring admin stuff):
Figure out which of these motivators you want to work on next year, and develop a plan for improving in this area. Come up with a way to measure progress, and see how it’s going after a few months.
The result you’re looking for is a deepening of donor motivation and commitment to your mission by more of your supporters.
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