If there’s one thing 2020 and the ensuing pandemic taught us, it’s how much value personal connection and interaction bring to our everyday lives. We didn’t have a clue just how isolating it would feel to be cut off from the day-to-day hellos with a coffee shop barista or the daily banter with colleagues about the latest shows we’d binge-watched. And while technology proved to be a throughline by which many of us remained connected (Zoom meetings for work, of course, but also for virtual events and happy hours with friends), the digital world hasn’t completely replaced the need for human interaction. Personal connection is powerful.

As fundraisers, we know just how powerful relationships are to our work. Ask any major gift officer, and they’ll tell you the foundation to major gift success begins and ends with the donor relationship. Whether engaging face-to-face, over the phone or by written communication, it all comes down to treating donors as impact partners by building mission-based relationships instead of transactional ones. And in public media, major giving presents the single greatest fundraising opportunity for stations today —over $100 million annually. The chart below represents the 12-month revenue per donor giving over $1,000, where the average amount is just over $2,800. Incremental improvements to your major giving program, focused specifically on deepening donor relationships, have the power to result in big revenue gains.

The opportunity to increase revenue through personal relationships exists because of the breadth and depth of public media’s donor base. Built on the strength of station membership, it’s about knowing how to unlock the philanthropic potential that already exists within your donor file in order to grow giving. Mid-level giving programs are a prime example of bridging membership and major gifts, creating a donor pipeline focused on personal connection to raise more revenue at scale. With such large membership files, “at scale” is going to be the key to success.

So how can we embrace building personal connections on a broader scale? By focusing on the donor journey and leveraging different tools, tactics and solutions that can support the flow of your donor pipeline. Prospect research and donor insights, through services like DonorSearch, can support moves management and donor qualification, helping improve efficiency and accuracy by matching a donor’s ability to give with their passion for your mission. Artificial intelligence tools, like Raise, can deepen donor relationships at scale by identifying and personalizing messages to donors, boosting fundraiser efficiency and capacity. Adding a personal touch to donor communications by sending personalized videos, with the help of tools like Gratavid, to say thanks or update supporters can transform digital communication into a high-touch personal experience.  

High-touch personal experiences with donors are just as important in membership fundraising as they are in mid-level and major gifts. There is no substitute for face-to-face connection, whether it’s a personalized video where the donor gets to see the “face” behind the station or a door-to-door conversation with an ambassador for your station. Canvassing has been proven to establish personal connections that can lead to future engagement and support. By building brand awareness through hyper-local, high-touch interactions, new canvassing donors have the strongest retention rates versus donors acquired via other channels.

The charts below show just how important one-to-one donor connections are in relation to donor retention. The chart on the left represents the five-year donor retention rates for sustainers brought in through canvassing, and the chart on the right is the five-year sustainer retention rate for pledge, Passport and digital donors. While the canvass sustainer retention rates are higher overall, you also see a more dramatic decrease across years three, four and five for pledge, digital and Passport sustainers. Sustainer donor attrition year over year is normal and to be expected, but any effort to flatten the rate at which sustainers drop off the file is a huge feat.

Beyond canvassing, we see the power of personal connection in fundraising action with peer-to-peer (P2P) fundraising. We know a person is more likely to support a cause when asked by a friend, colleague or family member. P2P campaigns enable stations to increase their reach, find new donors and build deeper connections with existing supporters. Public Media Giving Days is the perfect opportunity to see this concept in action! By asking your existing supporters to share why public media is important to them, your station can organically expand its reach to new networks of supporters. And to make it easy for your public media supporters and fans to share what #PublicMediaGives, recommended social posts, promotional blurbs and graphics will be provided. In April, they will be posted on the Public Media Giving Days website so stations can share directly with their supporter base.

While new donors from a P2P campaign may have given because of a friend, it’s up to you to build a personal connection with them. Make sure their journey after making a gift helps deepen their relationship with your station. Maybe it won’t be grabbing a cup of coffee face-to-face, but it could be a personal handwritten thank-you note or video or even a newsletter that includes personal staff recommendations about favorite programs or podcasts. Whatever it may be, there’s nothing more powerful than knowing your station’s mission is connected to real people having a tangible impact in their local community.