iDonate Blog

Cultivating Donor Loyalty

Written by Ray Gary | November 19

Thank you for taking a look at our third issue of Connected Giving. We’ve received tremendous response to this magazine, and we’ll continue to enrich the content to serve you better.

Our latest issue features another incredible organization, ZOE International. ZOE is taking on one of the most serious and important issues of our day — human trafficking. According to their website, human trafficking is a $150B industry, with more than 40M people trafficked daily — 25% of whom are children! Just think about that. What I love about ZOE is that they take on the entire cycle of this issue, from prevention to rescue to restoration — they work to solve the whole problem.

Also included in our newest publication is a feature on recurring giving. There’s a lot of talk these days about recurring giving, and it’s certainly important. Our collective missions benefit greatly from the predictability of consistent donations. 

There are a number of techniques and methods used to achieve repeated giving — such as framing the ask in terms of “X dollars per month make X specific impact.” But the most important thing you can do is simply keep your donors clearly and continually informed about the impact of your work. 

I hate to provide a commercial example, but these days, we are all subscription “addicts,” reliant on video streaming and other types of ongoing services. We keep paying for them month after month because we perceive greater value in new content or new access, e.g. The same applies to giving. If you’re proactive with your value proposition and continue to deliver it in a relevant and intentional manner, your donors will keep giving. By the way, those are principles of Connected Giving — which leads me to my final point. 

"Alignment and Accessibility" is another one of the Connected Giving principles we follow at iDonate. A quick summary of this principle is: make sure you address the tools and systems needed to put your donors first. Are your systems and tools aligned to deliver a donor-centric experience that delights your supporters and keeps them coming back? Don’t underestimate the impact of recurring donations. Make sure your systems support them with more than a “give monthly” button. Provide an overall experience that encourages donors to give repeatedly, in a proactive and intentional way. 

Thanks again for your interest in iDonate. We look forward to staying connected.