Over the last generation, development has been in a knock-down, drag-out fight to defend building and even maintaining sustainable development programs focused on everyday donors. Generations before built communities of trust and resiliency for nonprofits. We’ve been reaping the rewards of this work with high-net-worth giving programs.   

While some of the entrepreneurial wealthy donors have given premier nonprofits transformational commitments for problem solving, many of these mega gifts have been the result of a long game of trust building and thoughtful donor experience management. Naïve at best, shortsighted at worst, administrations are dismantling the foundation of these programs because they only see the big gifts above the surface and ignore everyday donors. 

I get it. When budgets are tight and operating margins are in the red, organizations must survive. It is also very human to be as fair as possible when making cuts. This comes from a good place. But cutting your ladder when you are stuck in a hole is not effective for escaping the hole. Yet, this happens time and again in development. 

The Importance of Building a Base of Everyday Donors

Building a base of support from everyday donors is fundamental to development programs’ resilience in times of changing economic circumstances. These programs, often called annual funds, membership, regular giving, or base development, are primary philanthropic sources of unrestricted cash. While more expensive to raise than one-off major gifts, the return is still better than most of the stocks in your investment portfolio.

Everyday donor programs build connections between individuals and the organization; they build communities among the donors; they establish norms and identities around giving behaviors, and they feed the pipeline for future major gifts. In our studies of resilient donors during economic uncertainty and disruption following the pandemic, we found the top predictors were:  

  1. everyday donors knew multiple people at the nonprofit,
  2. donors were friends with other donors, and  
  3. they viewed giving to the nonprofit as being part of a community of giving—it was part of their identity.  

Basically, everyday donor base development is the fundamental source of donor resiliency. When times are tough, cutting the base and its supporting infrastructure digs your hole deeper.

Read the full article about the impact of everyday donors by Josh Birkholz at BWF Philanthropy.