Planning Your Fundraiser Using Your Donor Demographics
How well do you know your donor base? Are they young families, Millennials, Baby Boomers, or a mixture of many generations? Are they active, or would they prefer a classy banquet?
Your donor demographics play a role in hosting the most effective fundraisers and fundraising events. When you know what type of event your donors want, you can deliver on experience and exceed their expectations. You can also form strategies to reach them, communicate your mission, and collect donations through their preferred giving method.
But what if you don’t know the demographic breakdown of your current donor base?
How to Learn Your Donors’ Demographics
Keeping a well-maintained donor list can benefit your marketing and fundraising initiatives, but how do you collect the data you need in the first place?
There are a few ways to do this.
#1. Personal Interactions
If you get to know your donors personally, you will probably find out many of the answers to your demographic questions naturally through conversation. Do they have kids? When did they graduate college? What bands did they listen to growing up?
Try to meet donors at events and take notes on a notepad or in an app on your phone. Add these notes later to your CRM system.
Bonus tip: Connect with lapsed donors during your information search so you can engage them in your mission again.
#2. Add Questions to Your Donation Page
When donors give online, you can add some questions to the form. Be selective to keep your donation form user-friendly. Focus on a few key pieces of information you’d like to know.
If you don’t want to add questions to your donation form, you could add it to another form, such as the one for subscribing to your mailing list or registering for an upcoming event.
#3. Send Out a Donor Survey
Try sending out a dedicated online survey to your donor email list. You will not receive 100% completion from all your donors, but you will receive more information than you originally had to start.
When you send out a donor survey, you could also include questions about which fundraising events they prefer. That would remove some guesswork from your event planning and strategy.
Utilizing Donor Demographics for Better Fundraising Results
From demographic information, we can draw insights for fundraising and event planning. This can apply to preferred giving styles, fundraising events, and how you reach them.
Preferred Giving Styles
For instance, younger generations will be more comfortable with online giving and cash app methods. They are also more likely to prefer subscription-style giving and giving in more but smaller sums. While generally popular with many generations, younger generations tend to favor crowdfunding based on research.
If you know your audience trends older, you could receive more donations through emails, direct mail appeals, and larger one-time gifts.
Fundraising Events
As addressed earlier, different fundraising events will appeal to different demographics between women and men and various age groups.
Events for Men, Women, or Both
If you learn your donors are mainly women or want to build your female donor base, check out these eight types of events designed for women. From fancy tea parties to ladies’ nights out, you can cater to your unique audience.
If your audience contains more men than women, consider hosting a golf outing, barbeque, or sporting event.
Every gender will appreciate banquets, spaghetti dinners, walkathons, and many popular fundraising events. So rest assured, if you aren’t clear on your donor demographics or you’re a completely new organization, any of the classics will offer an excellent starting point.
Events for Various Generations
Knowing your donors’ demographics allows you to choose events that appeal to their generational differences.
Gen Z - Fresh to the workforce or enrolled in high school or college, raising funds from Gen Z can be challenging. They have less disposable income than older generations but have a heart for giving and care about causes.
To target this generation, consider ticketed events that offer a fun experience. They could also participate in active events like 5Ks, or enjoy the ease of a virtual fundraising event.
Millennials - According to Pew Research (2019), 30% of Millennials live with a spouse and a child. This number could have increased over time, but it’s clear that many are now in family mode. With family in mind, consider events for the whole family so they can donate to your center without paying a babysitter.
Gen X - We can’t forget about Gen X. They lead the generations in volunteer hours and range in age from 42 to 58. They could have young children or be empty nesters or grandparents. Either way, they could appreciate family-friendly, classic, or enjoyable immersive events.
Baby Boomers - While aging, they have long led the donation charge. While they won’t engage in some of the events like 5Ks targeted toward younger runners, they will (like Gen X) enjoy unique, immersive experiences. Try to offer them something new and different. What about a concert in the park or a organization tour?
Reaching Each Generation
When wondering how to connect with donors, we recommend reaching each generation or demographic where they’re at.
For Gen Z, that could be TikTok. For Millennials, that could be Instagram. For Gen X and Baby Boomers, you could try Facebook. Each generation spends its time on various online platforms. Then, there are the donors who aren’t digitally savvy. Older generations could prefer email, direct mail, networking, and even a personal phone call.
By knowing your donor demographics, you can find them, communicate with them, and invite them to partner with your non-profit organization to make a positive impact.
Embracing the Digital Age
FundEasy’s event software for nonprofits makes event organization and event registration a breeze. Easy and fun to use for fundraising professionals and donors of all demographics, schedule a demo to see our Attendance software in action.
We also offer software for online peer-to-peer fundraising and nonprofit crowdfunding, so you can effectively reach digital natives and raise more funds to fuel your organization.
Schedule a demo today!
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Madison Hull
This article was inspired by our customers and written to encourage your fundraising efforts. Although we work with nonprofits and events daily, our team members are not Event Consultants. We encourage you to consult with your event consultant, executive team, and/or affiliate organization before making any major changes to your events.
