Donor Segmentation in Nonprofit Fundraising: Creating Something Just For Them

Nonprofit GrowthDevelopment
Written By Sherry Quam Taylor

What does donor segmentation have to do with my world-famous enchiladas? Ok, not world famous…but famous in my house!

Stay with me a moment on this analogy…Here’s what I mean…

All 4 people in my family love enchiladas, but we have different likes and  levels of spice and ingredients.
🐄 + 🧀Hubs is meat + cheese
🐄 + 🧀 + 🫑I’m meat + cheese + bell peppers
🐄 + 🧀 + 🫑 +🌶️Daughter #1 meat + cheese + bell peppers + chilis
🫑 +🌶️🌶️🌶️ Daughter #2 is no meat + bell peppers and a triple shot of chilis

So, left to right I graduate my enchilada pan so that everyone gets exactly what they want and need. In essence, I customize everyone’s dinner in one pan.

I’m so impressed with myself. And only I would think that this applies to my job!

This is exactly what donor segmentation is and should look like!

One comprehensive pan of enchiladas that is not one-size fits all. Everyone feels like you customized what they got. 

I find that this feels really overwhelming to fundraisers. It’s not their fault. They are typically doing all.the.things.

But, you want every one of your donor segments to feel like you created something just for them. That’s donor segmentation.

That’s my enchiladas, too.

Honestly, this is why major donors in your donor file AREN'T giving their best gift to your mission. If everyone is giving as a result of events and appeals, you're leaving money on the table. Their enchiladas? They need to be served during a one-on-one meeting. Customized conversation. Exclusive information.

I find very few fundraisers do this. My clients that do? They're blown away at the results.

This FEELS like so much work, but it's critical. It's empowering your team to align hours with dollars.

Whenever you’re ready, here are THREE things you can do next:

👣 Follow me on LinkedIn where I give away insider info every week - the same lessons I teach my clients about attracting larger gen-ops dollars and adding 7-figures + to their bottom line. 

🍎 Read my NEW GUIDE! THE TRUTH ABOUT GIVE/GETS :: Top 5 Reasons Your Board’s Give/Get Is Leaving Thousands (Sometimes Millions) on the Table. See how limiting board members to the Give/Get model restricts gifts in so many ways and keeps your staff from reaching their full fundraising potential. Here to get it. 

📈 Work with me to fund your organization’s Strategic Plan and scale your budget by 2 - 5X // If you’re a business-minded CEO already raising MILLIONS but still need more general-operating revenue from individuals and family foundations to invest in growth, just send me an email (Sherry@QuamTaylor.com) with the subject line “grow.” Tell me your budget next year and why you need to scale.

Sherry Quam Taylor

Sherry Quam Taylor works with growth-minded Nonprofit CEOs who are scaling their organizations but still need larger amounts of general operating support to truly grow. She breaks their teams free from the limitations of transactional fundraising and helps them reimagine their entire approach to revenue generation.

The high-performing leaders Sherry works with want to find and secure more unrestricted revenue from investment-level donors. They simply need more funding to do what’s in their Strategic Plan. To achieve this, she transforms their teams and boards into high-ROI revenue generators - revealing how they can align every hour they spend fundraising with new principles that double and triple donation sizes.

As a result of learning her methodology, Sherry’s clients regularly add 7-figures of gen-ops revenue to their bottom line by learning how to attract investment-level donors that WANT to fund their work. But the biggest transformation they experience is knowing the exact strategy, path, and team that will propel them to generate the 2-10X dollars their strategic plans require.

Sherry attributes the success of her business to her passion for modeling radical confidence to the future CEOs in her house - her two teenage daughters.

https://www.QuamTaylor.com
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