How to Rebuild Supporter Trust in Your Organization

Charitable giving to nonprofits is declining each year, and one reason is that donor attitudes and expectations are changing. Trust has become even more important as it continues to decline each year, and only 52% of Americans saying they trust nonprofits to do what is right today (2023 Independent Sector Trust in Civil Society).

Why are supporters losing trust? Some organizations might not be effective in demonstrating how their work is making a difference or how donations are being used towards their mission. In other cases, organizations might struggle with sending personalized and accurate communications to their supporters.

Ask yourself: How much confidence do we have in our supporter data? Are we satisfied with the experience we provide? How are we using this data to show supporters we understand them?

As competition for donations grows, it’s crucial for nonprofits to build trust to raise funds more effectively. There are a few ways to do this, and it starts with focusing on the small details first.

Use Your Tech Stack to Make a Bigger Impact on Supporters

Donor Personalization

62% of organizations are using 5 or more systems to engage donors, from email marketing and event management solutions to online giving platforms and more (Omatic Nonprofit Technology Ecosystem Trends 2024). However, organizations often don’t have confidence in the data they collect from these systems to create personalized messaging. The data might be wrong, incomplete, or there might be duplicate records, making it hard to know which information is most up to date. This mainly stems from the fact that these systems are often siloed, and as a result teams struggle to see the full picture of each supporter’s journey.

What’s the impact?

• Getting supporters’ names wrong in outreach emails
• Asking for donations when they just recently gave
• Not acknowledging supporters who have gone above and beyond in supporting your mission
• …The list goes on!

By bringing together giving data, volunteer information, event details, email activity, and more into one place, your organization can better understand your supporters and personalize outreach based on their specific interactions.

Timely Acknowledgments

Timely acknowledgments are crucial for building trust, as they show donors that their contributions are valued and appreciated. A recent study from Guidestar showed that donors who are acknowledged within 48 hours of donating their first gift are four times more likely to donate again the following year. However, the reality is that many organizations operate with limited resources, making it hard to keep up with the high volume of gift processing alongside their primary mission-focused work. Additionally, many organizations also use manual processes to track donations and send thank-you messages, which are time-consuming, error-prone, and often cause delays.

Connecting your systems is essential to ensuring that all relevant nonprofit data is accessible and up-to-date. With supporter information in one place, teams can automate acknowledgment processes, reducing the time and effort needed to send personalized thank-you messages.

Example: By integrating your online giving, email marketing, and fundraising CRM, you can automate:

• Importing gift data into the supporter’s record
• Segmenting first-time donors vs. recurring donors
• Generating instant personalized thank-you messages that reference their name and gift amount

The Impact of Bad Data on Supporter Trust

Accurate, up-to-date supporter information can go a long way in building trust and relationships with supporters over time. What’s the impact to your organization if you’re struggling with bad data?

Wasted time and lost productivity

If your organization doesn’t have an effective means of centralizing data, then staff end up spending too much time manipulating that data to get it in the right format and into the right places. That’s a lot of valuable time taken away from more strategic fundraising activities. From the supporter’s perspective, this can look like a lack of progress or ineffective usage of funds.

Stale, erroneous data leads to ineffective decision-making

It can be difficult to plan a targeted fundraiser or campaign if you can’t quickly identify and segment your audience based on demographic data or engagement history. The result? Generalized, one-size-fits-all communications make supporters feel like they’re just another name on the outreach list.

Lack of trust in the data by those who need it most

While database and system administrators handle most of the data consolidation and fixing, teams like Development, Marketing, and Finance depend on this data to do their jobs well. If they’ve had too many bad experiences with inaccurate data, they may use it less, leading to fewer data-driven decisions. If supporters notice consistent errors in the organization’s communications, they will be less likely to trust future financial or outcome reports and messaging.

Disparate data sources inhibit complete view of supporters

When data lives in different places, it becomes difficult for teams to see the full picture of a supporter’s journey with the organization. Supporters want to feel appreciated, and that includes recognizing the history and diversity of their contributions towards the organization’s cause.

Accurate Impact Reporting Is More Important Than Ever

In addition to donor personalization, impact reporting is more important than ever for effective stewardship and building trust.

Ask yourself: How often do I get a call from a donor asking what their gift has been used for, or how much money is left?

Disconnected systems, data quality issues, and dual data entry often make it difficult for development and finance teams to produce accurate, timely reports for supporters and auditors. In the worst case, delayed or inaccurate financial reporting can result in penalties or loss of tax-exempt status. Even in the best case, it can damage long-term credibility with supporters and hurt future fundraising potential.

Streamlining workflows between your fundraising CRM and general ledger allows organizations to address reporting with confidence and share donor impact more efficiently.

How to Get Started with Building Your Organization’s Data Integration Strategy

High-quality data is essential for your organization’s long-term success. Here are some practical steps to begin developing a data integration strategy:

1. Set Your Business Goals

What are you trying to achieve by implementing this strategy? Is your goal to increase retention and revenue across the organization? Is your goal more mission-related? Is it to be able to serve more individuals in your communities? Setting your objectives early on is important, and will help guide how you approach data integration.

2. Evaluate Current Data Sources and Solutions

Organizations are using more systems than ever for their daily operations. Do you have a 3^rd party online giving provider? Are you using a digital engagement or email marketing solution? Do you use an event software for an auction or gala? What finance system do you use?

It’s critical to take an audit of every system that each team relies on to do their jobs effectively. Take the time to evaluate and document how different teams are capturing data today.

3. Map Out Current Processes

Understand current processes that you have internally for how you centralize and consolidate data. What steps does your organization take to address data errors, merge duplicates, or migrate data into a new location? Even if your organization does not have a standard process in place today, it’s still important to document that.

4. Outline Data Integration Requirements

What are your organization’s data integration requirements? For example, perhaps there is a current process that’s extremely manual today—such as keying in information. That kind of process might not be sustainable long-term, and your organization may need a better way to process data in bulk. It’s important to not only understand what your existing processes are today, but what your ideal process could look like in the future with better integration.

5. Invest in Technology Solutions and Define Processes

Once you know your goals, data sources, processes, and how to improve them, the last step is to invest in technology to effectively connect applications and define the new processes you’ll put in place.

Conclusion

Today’s supporters expect a personalized experience, valuing messages tailored to their interests, previous interactions, and giving history. They also demand greater transparency and accountability, favoring causes with visible, measurable outcomes. To build trust and support, nonprofits must ensure they have accurate, up-to-date data to communicate effectively and demonstrate their impact.

Want to learn how you can ensure you’re getting the data you need to build stronger relationships with supporters? Reach out to Omatic for a personalized demo.