Ask Ariel: Should We List Our Donors On Our Website?
A client in the early stages of their fundraising lifecycle recently asked whether they should list individual donors on their website. This is an incredibly common question for organizations at all stages of their lifecycles, not just new nonprofits, so let’s unpack its many layers. In this blog, we’ll explore:
How widespread is the practice of recognizing donors on nonprofit websites?
What are the privacy concerns involved in public recognition online?
What does an opt-in process for online donor recognition look like?
Does public recognition actually matter to donors?
How widespread is the practice of recognizing donors on nonprofit websites?
With privacy concerns more prevalent and important than ever, most of the organizations we work with don’t list their individual donors on their websites - though some still list them in separate annual report documents which can be found online.
In fact, not listing donors online or in annual reports is so common now that many major gift officers and prospect researchers complain that wealth screening reports, which rely in part on aggregating sources like online annual reports to populate the giving histories of the prospect in their system, are dwindling in their usefulness because all the gift data is much older, and there is very limited information on newer gifts.
But don’t just take it from us. The 2023 Pulse of Donor Relations Survey, conducted annually by Donor Relations Group, aggregated data on donor relations trends from over 600 organizations and higher education institutions. It found that fewer than 20% of respondent organizations recognized donors online, even in a separate annual report document, and almost 80% no longer produce an annual donor honor roll or donor list at all.
The bottom line: your organization is not out of alignment with sector trends if you do not list individual donors on your website or in an annual report.
What are the privacy concerns involved in public recognition online?
We live in an opt-in world. People expect to be asked to opt-in to the various ways they relate to and engage with causes and organizations. Most of us have strict expectations about opting in that are not generally wise to violate. Take for example being opted into 800 million texts a day from political campaigns because the one PAC you donated to in 2020 sold your contact info to other PACs; or the feeling of irritation you get when you donate to a nonprofit and suddenly start getting their weekly newsletter without ever having opted-in to those emails.
Looking at the donor communities among our client base (which ranges from all-volunteer start-up orgs to decades-old organizations with multi-million annual budgets), most of their donors would be shocked or surprised - and not in a good way - to see that their names had been listed directly on the website as donors without having consented to that. And outside of opt-in concerns, most high net worth donors are not excited to have more information about their financial capacity and giving habits known online, because it makes them more of a target.
The bottom line: Don’t recognize individual donors on your website without first going through an opt-in process.
What Does An Opt-In Process for Donor Recognition Look Like?
Getting consent from donors to list them online is just one step in a larger comprehensive process that can take up a significant amount of time.
First, you have to determine a consistent framework for recognizing donors online. This involves asking and answering questions like:
Are all donors recognized, no matter the amount?
Do we recognize donors by the size of their gift, alphabetically, or by some other criteria?
What is the timeframe of gifts that are recognized? When do donors get added after their gift? How long after their last gift do you take them off the list if they haven't given again?
What is the monthly or quarterly process for identifying additions and deletions so the information is current, and whose job is it to do that?
What are the consequences strategically and relationally if they don't do it when they are supposed to?
Once those decisions are made, you now have to operationalize the process for the first time, and obtain consent from each donor. This will likely involve:
Creating a specific report from the donor database that reflects the recognition framework
Craft multiple outreach communications
Send them out personally to each donor on the list
Follow up when you inevitably don't hear back from some (people are busy and unlikely to fill out a non-essential form)
Once you open Pandora’s donor recognition box, you can’t just put the lid back on. With any donors who don't respond, you'll be left with an unresolved request that might then compromise your ability or confidence in reaching out to them for other things, including their next gift. And if you make mistakes or errors in your recognition efforts, you then have to fix them and repair any damage with the donor who noticed you got their middle initial wrong (or whatever it is).
The bottom line: Think long and hard before you decide to embark on this process - especially if you have a large volume of individual donors.
Does public recognition actually matter to donors?
Getting donor consent for online recognition after the fact can be challenging - but if it really matters to donors and helps raise more money, it might be worth it. But in our experience, for most donors, public recognition is not a huge part of their motivation to give.
In fact, a 2021 study showed that offering public recognition for gifts is actually counter-productive and reduces donating behaviors. A previous study from 2018 also supports this conclusion. And this blog post shares some information from a Penelope Burk study (a field leader who literally wrote the book on donor-centered fundraising) that the vast majority of individual and major donors she surveyed do not perceive themselves to be influenced by, and in reality truly were not influenced by, public recognition of their gifts.
The bottom line: It may seem counterintuitive, but donor recognition does not drive giving enough to warrant an investment in a post-facto opt-in process for donors for most nonprofits.
TL;DR
If you want to recognize donors online, you can, but are not obligated to, and there is no evidence that doing so will actually benefit your fundraising outcomes (in fact it may be counterproductive).
If you choose to do so, your organization needs to have an opt-in process. Going through that process will be time-consuming upfront, create a cycle of maintenance for it that will further eat capacity on an ongoing basis, and expose your organization to risks in donor relationships if mistakes are made or loops are unclosed.
There are many other higher-ROI ways to spend the time that you can allot to fundraising that will actually help your organization achieve better donor relationships and benefit fundraising outcomes - like shifting to a recurring-first fundraising framework or building a 60-day cycle for donor retention. Dive into one of those strategic activities instead.
This blog post was authored by Common Great CEO and Founder, Ariel Glassman. Learn more about Ariel here and click here to book a Power Session with her. A Power Session with Ariel is a 90-minute, on-demand meeting that can be used to address your nonprofit’s priorities, ask questions, discuss barriers, and more.