Market segmentation is an important way to ensure your nonprofit is keeping it’s messaging relevant to your donors by considering which subgroups there may be within your donor pool, including those who are still just prospects. For example, most donors choose to support a nonprofit because its mission reflects a set of values or interests that have a personal resonance for them. So it’s important that you respond to these first-time donors or members with messaging that focuses on welcoming them to your organization and conveying aspects of your programming that allows them to develop trust that they have matched with an organization that recognizes their values and interests. Alternatively, if you are looking at a group of long and loyal donors in whom this loyalty has already been established you might be more interested in delivering a message that reflects the difference their contributions have made through the years such as an email campaign asking for their foundational gifts to kick off a capital campaign or endowment.

Or you may want to consider segmentation based on your donors’ different levels of income and giving history. You might tailor major gift asks to those you know have a history of giving large gifts or at least the means to. On the other hand for donors who might make regular, but small donations, your ask might be to continue as a recurring donor but to increase the donation amount by $10 each time. Or perhaps you have a group of people who have come to all of your events but are not regular donors, you might target this group with an ask focused on inviting them to help procure sponsorships for an upcoming event.

The more targeted and relevant your group and message the more likely you are to get a better ROI. If your message is too broad you risk your donors feeling like they were not personally reflected as individuals with a particular relationship and interest in your organization, and they might not engage with your outreach. If on the other hand your groups are targeted with messages relevant to particular fundraising history, interests or values, you realize a higher rate of return and eliminate that tendency toward donor fatigue which blanket, summary communications can elicit.

Here are some common nonprofit market segments:

  • First-time donors
  • Recurring donors
  • Small, medium and large donors
  • Lapsed Donors
  • Donors who prefer to support larger initiatives such as capital campaigns
  • Donors who prefer to give in direct support of program activities
  • Donors who have particular interests i.e. programs, technology, capital campaigns, events
  • Members who are not yet donors
  • Donors that are within a particular constituency such as board members, volunteers or committee members
  • Donors who are in particular phases of life
  • Donors in a particular region or location

Market segmentation is an important consideration in choosing and setting up your CRM in part because at the very least you will need to be able to track and isolate the subset of data needed to identify a group that should receive a particular message. To that end most CRMs allow you to track at least constituencies and attributes so all offer some support for market segments. The question is to what level?

Does your CRM have robust enough tracking and ease of search that you can quickly and clearly pull together a segmented email list and then deliver that email, social or direct mail campaign instantly and within the same system? Does it offer immediate analysis of how that campaign is being received? Can it generate automated email follow-ups and acknowledgments referencing the outbound campaign?

Nonprofit Vertical CRM takes market segmenting to the next level because of the ease and depth with which you can 1) optimally track constituents and filter them into groups based on that tracking 2) easily generate an email campaign with a particular constituent group and receive instant feedback on how that marketing effort is being received and 3) send scheduled reporting with real-time updates and analysis of each campaign to stakeholders within your team or larger organization, such as board members.

Bottom line? Market segmentation gains exponential value when it is aligned with a system that can execute campaigns with ease of use, efficiency, and automated tools. Can your CRM do that?

For more information on Nonprofit Vertical CRM click here.