Did you know that total giving declined by 2.1% when adjusted for inflation in 2023? To win over new donors and retain current supporters, nonprofits must fully engage their stakeholders and prove why their causes are worth supporting.
Small tweaks to your fundraising appeal can make a big difference in persuading people to give. One adjustment you can make is incorporating impact data that shows the effect of donors’ contributions.
In this guide, we’ll explore exactly what impact data is, why it’s crucial to highlight it, and how you can add it to your appeal. Let’s get started!
What is impact data?
As UpMetrics’ impact measurement guide explains, “Impact refers to the tangible changes or results that your organization generates for its community as outlined by its mission, vision, and goals.” Therefore, impact data is any information that demonstrates how effective your organization is in creating programs, initiatives, and interventions that help you achieve these results.
You may be used to collecting and leveraging data relating to your regular activities, like events, volunteer outings, and services. However, impact data goes beyond just tracking these activities to evaluate the positive outcomes of your work on your beneficiaries.
For example, the impact data you collect may demonstrate your effect on:
- Individuals
- Societal systems
- The environment
- Economic development
- Public health and well-being
- Education
- Cultural and artistic expression
- Human rights and social justice
- Technology and innovation
To prove your impact in a holistic way, use a combination of quantitative and qualitative impact data. While quantitative data has numbers attached to it, qualitative data focuses on nonnumerical, descriptive information. For example, a quantitative data point would be the number of beneficiaries you helped through a specific program. In contrast, qualitative data might be something like an interview with a major donor about their experience with your nonprofit.
Why is it important to include impact data in nonprofit fundraising appeals?
Impact data can help your team make well-informed decisions about the future direction of your services, but it can also be eye-opening for your external stakeholders, like donors, sponsors, and grantors, to review as well. By reporting impact data in your fundraising appeals, you can:
- Show donors the difference they can make. Studies show that 67% of people want to know all the details of how nonprofits use their donations to ensure that they don’t go to waste. While you might not be able to map where each individual donor’s contributions went, you can use impact data to demonstrate the difference they’ve made (and can continue to make) on your beneficiaries. Use donor-focused language like “you” and “your” as opposed to “we” and “us” to center their effect on your cause.
- Build credibility. Any nonprofit can say they touch people’s lives and drive real impact. When you actually incorporate impact data into your fundraising appeals, you back up these claims with real facts and figures, allowing you to build trust with current and potential donors.
- Induce urgency. Let’s say you’re running a text-to-give campaign to fund your disaster relief efforts. You can use impact data about how you’ve successfully helped natural disaster victims in the past to demonstrate the importance of gathering funds as quickly as possible to support even more people in need.
- Emotionally charge your appeal. By combining impact data with storytelling elements, you can develop a heartwarming appeal that elicits supporters’ emotions and inspires them to give back.
When you incorporate impact data into your fundraising appeals, you create a more compelling argument for why people should contribute to your cause and, as a result, can boost your campaign revenue.
How can you incorporate impact data into your fundraising appeals?
Build your appeal around your impact data for the best results. Consider these tips to effectively weave in this information:
- Create a narrative. Make your impact data come to life through storytelling. Start by identifying the main character of your story—in this case, one of your beneficiaries or stakeholders. Then, determine the setting, plot, conflict, and resolution to show the effect your nonprofit had on this individual. Lastly, back up your story with relevant metrics. For example, you may tell the story of how a long-term donor became a legacy giver and include a statistic about how many people your organization has helped due to previous legacy gifts.
- Use visuals. If you’re creating an email, direct mail, or text-to-give appeal, leverage visuals that emphasize your impact. These may be charts or graphs that provide a visual representation of your impact data or photos and videos that show your work in action. Either way, these visuals can help contextualize your data and make your appeal more engaging.
- Showcase testimonials. Don’t forget about qualitative impact data! Testimonials show prospective donors why your organization is worth supporting in current stakeholders’ own words. Reach out to donors, sponsors, beneficiaries, or staff members who may be willing to provide a quote about their relationship with your nonprofit and its impact on their lives.
- Attach impact to different donation amounts. Based on your impact data, demonstrate what different donation amounts will allow your organization to achieve. For example, Bloomerang’s donation page guide explains that the Nashville Food Project’s donation form takes this approach by pulling data from their impact report and connecting it to real outcomes. This way, you show donors the exact impact they can make and inspire them to get involved.
Lastly, end your fundraising appeal with a compelling call to action (CTA). Leverage your impact data to make a compelling case for why donors should contribute, and tie that to action with a CTA like “Donate now to make your mark on our program!” or “Contribute today to change the life of a child in need.”
After they’ve contributed, remember to follow up with donors to show them how their specific donations made an impact. Send them regular updates and your nonprofit’s annual report to keep them in the loop about your work.
About the Author
Charles Sword
Charles Sword is the Chief Revenue Officer at UpMetrics, a leading impact measurement and management software company that’s revolutionizing the way mission-driven organizations harness data to drive positive social outcomes. With a wealth of experience in business development and strategic planning, Charles is responsible for all aspects of market development for the company and is passionate about helping the world’s leading foundations, nonprofits and impact investors to drive accelerated social and environmental change.
