The Challenge
A Berlin-based international relief NGO was acquiring 600–800 new donors a year through digital campaigns, events, and payroll giving. Their problem was what happened next: 82% of those new donors never gave a second time. The organisation was spending approximately €120,000 a year on donor acquisition, and retaining only 18% of the people that investment reached.
The post-donation experience was a generic receipt email, followed by nothing until the next major appeal. There was no acknowledgement of what the donor's first gift had achieved. There was no programme story connecting their money to a specific outcome. The first personal communication most donors received after their initial gift was an ask for another one — typically 10 to 11 months later.
The team knew retention was a problem. They did not have the capacity to run individual stewardship manually for 700 new donors a year, and their existing email platform had no connection to their Salesforce donor database. Every communication was a mass broadcast with no personalisation.