Get to know your donors: Develop profiles that build engagement and inspire support

Organizations expend a lot of time and resources communicating with donors – but how can they be sure those communications are truly resonating and maximizing giving potential?

BRAC USA engaged Big Duck to get into the minds of major donors and create profiles to better satisfy donor interest, and drive new engagement across digital channels. The resulting three profiles and ladders of engagement provided BRAC with a framework for communications planning and content creation. The impetus for this work was BRAC USA’s unique relationship with the wider BRAC organization, which is headquartered in Dhaka, Bangladesh. BRAC works primarily in Africa and Asia; the BRAC USA office is charged with raising awareness of BRAC’s leading anti-poverty work, and inspiring Americans to support this critical work overseas.

In this session, Menaka Chandurkar, director of strategy, Big Duck and Mica Bevington, director of communications & digital fundraising, BRAC USA will walk through their collaboration from the research phase to the creation of donor profiles to the application of those profiles in communications and fundraising strategy.

Menaka will explain how Big Duck uses qualitative and quantitative data analysis to create donor profiles and how pieces of that process (surveys, interviews, focus groups) can be opportunities for cultivation.

Mica will share how she uses BRAC USA’s donor profiles to communicate within the larger international organization, helping program colleagues on the ground to identify relevant stories and create content that inspires U.S. audiences.

Participants will leave the session understanding how audience profiles can provide a strategic foundation for donor communications while considering how to build equity into audience research and creative decisions.

Learning objectives:

• To adopt tactics to strengthen their understanding of donor motivations and values, apply their understanding to create more meaningful donor experiences, and leverage that work to find new supporters. Participants will also understand donor profile basics and why the profile framework is more equitable than donor “personas”.
• To prepare their own audience research plan that incorporates IDEA (inclusion, diversity, equity, accessibility) principles.
• To apply profiles and ladders of engagement when making communications decisions for donor audiences.