Why Donor Connection Studies Should Be Part of Your Fundraising Strategy
- Laura Vitelli
- Apr 7
- 3 min read
Raise your hand if you’d like to:
🙋🏽♀️ Connect one-on-one with key donors to understand what they care about and how they plan to support your organization in the future. 🙋🏽♂️ Gather insights to craft a compelling case for support and refine your messaging. 🙋🏽♀️ Estimate donor giving potential to plan for the years ahead. 🙋🏻 Share directly with donors what it truly takes to fuel your mission.
This is powerful information—information that can help you raise more funds with greater ease and joy. It’s the kind of insight we gather during donor interviews when assessing the feasibility of a major campaign. In other words, it’s the core of feasibility studies.
But here’s the question: Why limit feasibility studies to major campaigns? Isn’t every fundraising effort important? We certainly think so!
Let’s Do More Donor Connection Studies
We’re not suggesting you conduct a full-fledged donor study before every year-end campaign or spring appeal. But if you’re an organization that fundraises regularly, consider conducting these studies more often than once every five to ten years. And if your organization has never run a major campaign and doesn’t plan to, integrating these studies every two to three years can be a game-changer.
One excellent time to conduct a study? When rolling out a new strategic plan.
How to Conduct a Donor Connection Study
📝 Step 1: Update Your Case Statement
In two to four pages, outline your organization’s goals and plans for the next three to five years. Clearly state what it will take—financially—to achieve them. Don’t overthink it; this is a working draft that will evolve based on donor feedback.
🔎 Step 2: Identify Key Donors to Interview
Consider your team’s capacity. Each interview takes about an hour, so decide how many conversations you can manage. Even a small number of interviews can provide valuable insights, but we typically recommend 10-20.
Ensure your interview list represents your donor community. Include:
Individual donors at different giving levels (including monthly donors)
A few foundation or corporate donors
Longtime supporters and recent donors
Engaged donors and those less actively involved
☎️ Step 3: Listen to Your Donors
Schedule 45-minute phone or virtual meetings. Ask donors to review your case statement in advance. Then, in the conversation, ask:
❓Why do you support our organization? ❓What stood out to you in the case statement? ❓What questions do you have about the case statement? (You don’t need all the answers immediately—just listen.) ❓Would you be willing to contribute to support this work? How much can you see yourself giving? (Explain that this helps with planning and isn’t a commitment.) ❓Who else might be interested in hearing about this work?
🤔 Step 4: Make Meaning from the Conversations
Share interview notes with a small team and discuss what you heard. Identify common themes as well as unique perspectives that could reveal emerging insights or blind spots.
Remember: While donor feedback is crucial, they are just one part of your community. Their insights should be balanced with input from service users, staff, and other stakeholders.
🔊 Step 5: Follow Up with Donors
Close the loop by sharing a brief summary of what you learned and how you’re using the feedback. A simple email update works well. Also, follow up with donors who expressed interest in giving—you’ll want to invite them to make those contributions soon!
Make Donor Connection Studies a Regular Practice
While this process requires planning, most organizations can incorporate it every few years. You may need to temporarily shift focus—perhaps pausing an event, skipping an annual report, reducing social media activity, or applying for fewer new grants—but the insights gained will be well worth it. In fact, they might even help improve those other activities when you return to them.
Ready to give this a try? We’d love to hear your thoughts and questions. Want a donor connection or campaign feasibility study done for you? We can do that!
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