Sustainable fundraising has been a top priority for nonprofit professionals this year. According to the most recent Giving USA report, total charitable giving and individual donations are down compared to recent years. As a result, organizations are looking for ways to foster flexible, reliable fundraising streams that create more resiliency in their long-term fundraising strategies.

With that in mind, we’ve outlined five practical strategies to develop a sustainable donor pipeline to fuel your annual fundraising efforts, major campaigns, and other initiatives. These strategies will help you build a repeatable cycle of acquiring new donors, engaging them personally, and retaining their support for the long haul.

1. Optimize the fundraising funnel.

The fundraising funnel, also known as the ACES model, is a representation of the journey that supporters take from when they’re first introduced to your organization to when they decide to give and become recurring donors.

The fundraising funnel is a useful tool for identifying strategies to use at every stage of the donor pipeline to draw donors more deeply into your organization’s orbit and prove to them that you deserve their support.

Here’s an overview of the ACES model of fundraising, along with recommended strategies for optimizing audience relationships at every stage:

1. Awareness: During the awareness stage of the fundraising funnel, your organization will work to generate leads from various sources.
   • Tactics to use at this stage: Create online content such as website blog posts or videos, social media posts, and email streams to reach a wide audience with information about your organization.
2. Consideration: In the consideration phase, your organization will engage with marketing qualified leads. These individuals have engaged with your outreach in some way (liking a social media post, visiting your website, etc.) but have not yet indicated their readiness to donate.
   • Tactics to use at this stage: Develop a retargeting campaign to send impact stories, case studies, and testimonials to individuals who have previously engaged. Spotlight opportunities to get involved with advocacy and volunteering and make smaller asks, like registering for a virtual webinar.
3. Engagement: In the engagement phase, you’ll reach out to fundraising qualified leads. These individuals have demonstrated a strong interest in getting more involved with your organization, whether through attending an event or visiting your online donation form.
   • Tactics to use at this stage: Send leads personalized email outreach with invites to fundraising events or information about current campaigns.
4. Solicitation: At this point, you’ll be ready to ask prospects for specific donation amounts based on their demonstrated capacity and willingness to give.
   • Tactics to use at this stage: Use prospect research findings (more on this later!) to send leads personalized donation requests based on their capacity and willingness to give.
5. Stewardship: After donors give, thank them for their generosity and highlight additional ways to engage with your mission.
   • Tactics to use at this stage: Send appreciation emails, personalized impact reports, and feedback surveys to gather donors’ insights into the giving process. Inform donors about additional involvement opportunities like volunteering, keeping their interests top of mind.

After the stewardship phase, the funnel will repeat itself, becoming a cyclical process of donor engagement, solicitation, and stewardship. Don’t overlook the importance of engagement and stewardship because those steps make this process sustainable. Proper engagement and stewardship ensure donors won’t feel burnt out or unappreciated by your organization.

2. Use prospect research to identify highly engaged potential donors.

Prospect research allows you to prioritize your fundraising efforts, focusing your energy, time, and resources on donors who will most likely give significant gifts. Your top prospects will be individuals with a high capacity to give and a strong willingness to do so. To find these supporters, you’ll conduct two types of screening—wealth and philanthropic screening:

• Wealth screening involves identifying high-net-worth donors with the financial capacity to give larger gifts. In the wealth screening process, you’ll look for indicators such as stock and real estate ownership and significant past donations to other nonprofits or political organizations.
• Philanthropic screening involves pinpointing donors with a strong affinity for your organization and a true passion for your mission. To screen for philanthropic interests, search for indicators such as past donation or volunteer history with your nonprofit, current status as a volunteer, board member, or beneficiary, and a high level of engagement with your marketing materials.

Your highest-priority prospects will display both of these indicators in equal measure.

You can work with a prospect research consultant, wealth screening platform, or predictive AI fundraising solution to identify top prospects. Using predictive AI, you can create a model to analyze donors’ giving patterns and identify supporters who exhibit wealth and philanthropic indicators. In addition, working with a dedicated consultant or wealth screening tool allows you to parse through your results more strategically, offering expertise your organization may not have in-house.

3. Tailor outreach to meet donors’ needs and interests.

After identifying your organization’s top prospects, tailor your marketing efforts to align with their interests and needs. Develop personalized outreach with these tips:

• Engage with prospects via their preferred communication channels. Track each individual’s engagement history in your nonprofit’s CRM to understand their preferred communication channels. For example, if one prospect opens all your emails but rarely engages with your social media content, you should focus on sending them personalized emails.
• Segment your audience to send relevant information to specific groups. Segmentation is the process of grouping audience members based on shared interests or characteristics. For instance, you could create a segment for prospective donors who have expressed interest in your volunteer program to provide them with program updates and upcoming opportunities they can sign up for.
• Demonstrate the impact of specific gifts. Don’t just let prospects know their gifts will support your mission. Let them know that a $1,000 gift funds a scholarship for a student in need, or a $5,000 gift helps purchase necessary new equipment to replace aging materials.

Use all of these strategies for existing donors as well as prospects to create a positive experience at every stage of the fundraising funnel.

4. Don’t overlook everyday donors.

Everyday donors, including small and mid-sized donors, are a reliable source of fundraising in difficult times. They provide the ongoing support your nonprofit needs to weather economic downturns or challenges.

Making everyday donors feel included in your nonprofit’s efforts starts with creating a community around your giving efforts. Enable relationship-building between donors and your nonprofit’s staff by taking the following steps:

• Create specialized volunteer opportunities for donors. Plan special, small-group volunteer activities for donors to get to know your organization’s staff and one another on a deeper level.
• Plan social events for your organization’s supporters. Schedule happy hours, coffee chats, or casual dinners with your supporters. Leave time for a Q&A with your organization’s staff to help attendees get an inside look at your current priorities and projects.
• Develop a sense of community around your monthly giving program. Give your monthly giving program a name and offer exclusive benefits, such as special event invites or branded merchandise. Use calls to action that spark a sense of FOMO (the fear of missing out), such as “Members of our monthly giving program receive a $25 discount on annual nature preserve passes.

With dedicated cultivation efforts, some everyday donors may become major or legacy donors over time. However, many will want to maintain their current level of support, and they should be celebrated for that as well. Make every donor feel acknowledged for their efforts with genuine, personalized thank-you emails or letters.

5. Track metrics to assess progress.

Keeping a close eye on your organization’s progress through metrics tracking allows you to identify what’s going well with the donor pipeline and what needs to be improved. We recommend tracking data at every stage of the conversion process, including:

• Total leads generated
• Conversion rate
• Total donors of under $1,000
• Total major donors and the total raised from these donors
• Donor retention rate

Run regular reports at monthly intervals to assess these analytics and help set strategic priorities. For example, if your donor retention rate dips, you can focus more on improving your stewardship approach to encourage continued engagement and support.

These strategies will help you engage with and retain donors at all giving levels. By building strong, genuine relationships, you can develop a reliable donor pipeline that sustains your organization for years to come.

Megan DePaul, Director of Marketing at BWF
With over 20 years of experience spanning multiple industries, including philanthropy, education, advertising, and entertainment, Megan DePaul’s marketing career has been expansive and multifaceted. As director of marketing at BWF, Megan oversees the company’s marketing division, applying her expertise in digital and print marketing, public relations, communications, and event planning.