Donors and advocates are key components of success for any nonprofit; no matter the cause you’re trying to support or the message you’re seeking to amplify, maintaining a healthy dynamic with those who support your organization, monetarily or otherwise, is critical. Nonprofits are constantly trying to solve big problems and help their respective causes, and this sometimes leads to donors being hassled for donations and support without receiving something in return.
Now, let’s be clear, Regular donors are passionate about the causes they support, but getting treated like a firehose of money would wear anyone down. Since nonprofits juggle a million priorities at once, partnering with donors can sometimes take a backseat. As long as the money comes in at some point, who cares how, right? Wrong. It’s time for nonprofits of all kinds to use tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator to better manage the dynamic with their biggest supporters, so the relationship never feels like a one-way street.
What is LinkedIn Sales Navigator?
This account version of LinkedIn opens up a world of possibilities for its users, making lead generation, donor engagement, and relationship building the primary focal point for fundraising and prospective donors. Since nonprofits usually seek repeat donations from committed supporters, their teams should be focusing on strengthening relationships with those supporters and personalizing the approach with potential supporters.
Not only does LinkedIn Navigator grant access to an extended network with unlimited searches, but it also allows users to prioritize potential donors with notifications and updates. For instance, if a donor experiences a job change or promotion, the Navigator will send you a notification, giving you the perfect opportunity to reach out to that person, send congratulations, and cement the relationship without an ask behind the conversation.
Some of the top features of LinkedIn Sales Navigator are:
InMail messages allow you to reach out to individuals that you aren’t connected with on LinkedIn, expanding your reach and connecting with more advocates.
The Lead Recommendations and Saved Leads features will use data to point you in the right direction, keeping your pipeline fresh, while monitoring the leads you already have or work with, enabling strong relationships.
Easy integration with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions. Adding more data points to how you interact with and track your “customers” – or donors, in this case.
Real-time updates of milestones, job changes, or posts from important sales leads. Think of this as a “favoriting” mechanism that will alert you of any big moments in the professional lives of your donors.
Revolutionizing Relationships with Donors
Do you know what makes a donor never want to donate again? Feeling as if they were just a box that needed to be ticked or a check that needed to be cashed; the hand that signs those checks is attached to a person that should be treated as such. You would never call your grandma and ask for her to send you money out of the blue, right? Treat donors like your grandma; by asking them about their lives, showing compassion through an ongoing relationship, and offering something of value back to them, it’s much more likely that they’ll continue donating.
Effectively Fighting Donor Fatigue
Some people in the nonprofit world will say donor fatigue isn’t real, but in our experience, donor fatigue is quite real. When donors are constantly asked to show support or provide monetary sums to many organizations, or even by the same organization too often, they can become disinterested, unengaged, and even develop a negative view of the organization itself. There’s no one-size-fits-all to combating donor fatigue, but the tools offered by LinkedIn Sales Navigator are a great start.
As a fundraising organization, finding the balance between asking for enough and not overstepping is a constant challenge. Money helps solve problems, and to you, your organization is fighting one of the most important problems in the world. But keep in mind, that’s how every nonprofit feels and that passion can quickly spiral into demanding more from donors than they can financially (and even mentally!) support. So, be bold, but don’t be disconnected from the human side of what you’re asking for.
Integration with Microsoft’s Fundraising Solution
Aside from the effective tools offered by LinkedIn Sales Navigator on its own, it also seamlessly integrates with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Fundraising and Engagement Solution. If your organization uses this platform to conduct data analytics and reporting, the LinkedIn Sales Navigator features can amplify its effectiveness.
With this approach, you can assess historical donations from specific donors, get recommendations for potential leads, and begin building relationships all in one place. In the nonprofit world, efficiency is key, and this is a great way to increase the efficiency of your process flows.
Humanity is Behind Everything
The problems nonprofits aim to solve are usually about the betterment of the world for a group of people or animals, but you cannot forget your own humanity in the meantime. By harnessing the power of technology and different tools available to our organizations, nonprofits can be the most effective communicators with donors and advocates, ultimately giving more time to the causes they are passionate about.
References:
1. https://www.wildapricot.com/blog/linkedin-for-nonprofits#what-you-need-to-know-about-linkedin-grants
2. https://nonprofit.linkedin.com/blog/2021/05/fundraising-and-engagement-with-linkedin-sales-navigator
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