A Nonprofit's Mini Guide to Donor Segmentation with Salesforce

This guide will explore how to intelligently segment your donors using the power of Salesforce, allowing you to personalise your outreach, cultivate deeper relationships, and ultimately increase your fundraising success.

Key Takeaways

• Salesforce offers tools that transform donor management: Using these tools, nonprofits can build stronger relationships and increase their overall fundraising success.
• Data Unification is Crucial: Salesforce centralises donor information, enabling comprehensive profiles and targeted segmentation.
• AI and data Enhances Fundraising: Data Cloud, together with Einstein's predictive capabilities identify high-potential donors and prevent donor lapses, optimising fundraising efforts.
• Personalised Engagement is Key: Agentforce facilitates the creation of tailored engagement plans, maximising donor connections and donation potential.

Unify Donor Data with Data Cloud

Data Cloud, a powerful Salesforce platform, can help nonprofits unify donor data across multiple sources for more effective segmentation. It allows you to bring together all your donor information from various sources into a single, centralised platform.

• Connect Your Data Sources: Think beyond your CRM. Integrate data from your website, email platform, social media channels, fundraising events, and any other relevant sources. This gives you a complete picture of each donor's interactions and preferences.
• Build Rich Donor Profiles: With Data Cloud, you can create comprehensive donor profiles that go beyond basic contact information. Include details like giving history, donation amounts, preferred communication channels, volunteer activities, event attendance, and interests. The more information you have, the better you can understand your donors and tailor your engagement strategies.

Strategic Donor Segmentation 

Once you have a unified view of your donors, it's time to segment them into meaningful groups. This allows you to tailor your communication and engagement strategies to resonate with each group's unique characteristics and motivations.

Here are some common ways to segment donors:

• Giving History:
  • Recency: When was their last donation?
  • Frequency: How often do they donate?
  • Monetary Value: What is the total value of their donations?
  • Giving Channels: Do they prefer online donations, mail-in donations, or event-based giving?
• Engagement Patterns:
  • Email Engagement: Do they open your emails? Click on links?
  • Website Activity: Which pages do they visit on your website?
  • Social Media Engagement: Do they follow you on social media? Like or share your posts?
  • Event Attendance: Have they attended any of your events?
• Interests and Demographics:
  • Areas of Support: Which programmes or campaigns are they most interested in?
  • Demographics: Age, location, profession, interests.

Predict Donation Likelihood with Einstein

Einstein, Salesforce's AI engine, can add a powerful layer of intelligence to your donor segmentation strategy. By analysing your historical donor data, Einstein can predict the likelihood of future donations for each individual.

This predictive modelling helps you:

• Prioritise Your Outreach: Focus your efforts on donors who are most likely to give, maximising your fundraising efficiency.
• Identify Potential Major Donors: Spot donors who have the potential to increase their giving significantly.
• Prevent Donor Lapses: Identify donors who are at risk of lapsing and proactively engage them to maintain their support.

Develop a Close Plan with Agentforce

Agentforce, Salesforce's platform for creating AI-powered agents, can help you personalise your engagement with donors and automate key tasks.

• Create a Personalised Close Plan: Ask Agentforce to create a Close Plan for your most likely donors. This plan will outline the best strategies for engaging with each donor based on their individual profile and predicted giving potential.
• Identify Optimal Engagement Strategies: Agentforce can analyse donor data and provide tailored recommendations for maximising engagement and donations. For example, it might suggest:
  • Sending targeted email campaigns with personalised donation requests.
  • Inviting major donors to exclusive events or cultivation opportunities.
  • Offering volunteer opportunities that align with donors' passions.
  • Providing personalised content that resonates with their interests.

Personalise Your Outreach

With your donor segments defined and Agentforce's recommendations in hand, you can create personalised communication strategies that resonate with each group.

• Tailor Your Messaging: Craft messages that speak directly to each segment's interests and motivations. Highlight the impact their donations have made and how their continued support can make a difference.
• Choose the Right Channels: Communicate with donors through their preferred channels, whether it's email, social media, phone calls, or direct mail.
• Offer Relevant Opportunities: Provide opportunities for donors to engage with your organisation in meaningful ways, such as volunteering, attending events, or joining advocacy campaigns.

By intelligently segmenting your donors using Salesforce's powerful tools, you can build stronger relationships, increase engagement, and maximise your fundraising success. Remember to:

• Unify your data with Data Cloud.
• Segment your donors strategically.
• Predict donation likelihood with Einstein.
• Develop a Close Plan with Agentforce.
• Personalise your outreach.

With a data-driven approach and the right tools, you can cultivate a loyal and engaged donor base that helps you achieve your mission and make a lasting impact.

Need help or want to find out how we can help you build stronger donor relationships? As a leading Nonprofit partner in the Salesforce ecosystem, we can help you fast-track your journey to success with Salesforce. Get in touch today here.