Happy New Year! I’m thrilled to be joining the iDonate guest writer squad in 2025. Each month, I’ll dive into a different topic related to digital fundraising. To kick it off, I want to help you map out a donor journey so you can grow your fans and funds online with creativity, curiosity, and clarity. My goal for you is Diana Nyad energy this year, not just treading water!
I’m defining the “donor journey” as the series of interactions a person has with your organization before, during, and after making their first donation. This journey begins with someone first learning about your nonprofit (awareness), guiding them to donate (often with months or years of consideration in between), and ideally interchanges to Retention Road for years to come.
A lot goes into crafting, analyzing, and improving the donor journey. Here are five steps to help you map it all out:
Who are your existing donors in terms of their interests, beliefs, and online behavior? Why do they care about your work enough to put money behind it? Where do they hang out online? You need answers to these questions to find more people like them. If you don’t have answers, audience research should be your top priority this quarter!
You may come up with two or three distinct donor personas if different types of people support different areas of your work. For instance, some donors may be motivated by urgent appeals for disaster relief, while others may prioritize long-term impact in areas like education or environmental sustainability.
Once you understand who your donors are and break them into distinct groups as needed, identify what they all have in common. Their common ground—be it a belief, a vision for the future, or a lived experience—should be woven through every piece of content along your donor journey so current and prospective donors feel unique and deeply understood.
List out every opportunity you have to connect with current and prospective donors throughout the year. These might include:
Which touchpoints are the best fit for each stage of your donor journey?
Awareness and Consideration touchpoints might involve educational blog posts, digital ads featuring a compelling video about your mission, and leveraging partnerships and events to reach and move new people.
During the donation phase, your focus should shift to creating a seamless and emotionally engaging giving experience.
Post-donation, prioritize expressing gratitude and demonstrating the impact of your donors’ contributions, continuously hyping up your monthly giving program to entice one-time donors to join this exclusive sustainer group.
As you map all of this out, make sure you’re milking what you’ve got! Your existing content, partnerships, staff, volunteers, and donors all have a part to play.
Start by placing the big moments in your fundraising year, such as Giving Tuesday, year-end, and any annual fundraisers. Then, fill in the rest of 2025 with awareness and lead generation campaigns and donor recognition activities. The year should feel like a nice balance of meeting new people, asking for money, and celebrating where that money went.
Remember to mix up your content formats as much as possible. Share stories of impact through videos, launch interactive experiences like polls and quizzes, and collaborate with brand-aligned people and businesses as much as possible to leverage their audiences and credibility for your organization.
Identify the most meaningful moments for segmentation and personalization to honor those unique donor personas mentioned earlier.
For example, first-time donors should receive a welcome series that gives them a look behind the curtain at your organization’s inner workings, while long-time donors should be thanked for their ongoing support instead. And your monthly + major donors should regularly receive special content or perks that no one else gets.
Leverage your donor data to automate a few personalized messages. For example, celebrating a donor’s birthday, first gift anniversary, or total contributions over the years will make them feel remembered and valued, fostering loyalty.
A successful donor journey isn’t static. Every month, allocate time to evaluate what’s working. Look at your…
The numbers tell part of the story, and your experience as a content manager fills in the gaps. Noodle on questions like,
If a specific piece of content performed well: How can I weave it into my automated/evergreen content plan so more people see it?
If lots of people are unsubscribing from one of your automated emails: What can I replace this with that they would like better?
If a particular campaign or piece of content didn’t perform as expected: Was there an issue with the timing, messaging, or both?
Sometimes, the best way to get answers is to directly ask a handful of donors for their feedback.
Mapping your 2025 donor journey is about creating meaningful and memorable experiences for donors that match their level of understanding and involvement as they progress.
By defining donor personas and donors’ common ground, planning out your touchpoints, crafting a content calendar, segmenting and personalizing where needed, and continuously analyzing your results, you will grow your donor base and improve donor retention.
If the content planning step is a sticking point for you, check out this conversation I had with Adam last month for a deeper dive.
Here’s to a year of learning and growth for your organization in 2025!
About the Author
Caroline Griffin has worked in nonprofit marketing, communications, and digital fundraising since 2013. She has seen it from all angles: in-house as a marketing team of one, agency-side serving dozens of clients over the years, and as a solo consultant since 2020.
About Marketer on a Mission
As the Marketer on a Mission, Caroline helps nonprofits grow their fans and funds online with donor research, strategy, and implementation support. You can check out her website to learn more and sign up for her monthly newsletter, The Good Stuff.