Segmenting Donors

As with many non-profits, identifying and appealing to prospective donors, while maximizing involvement from current donors is essential in raising funds to help meet their mission. A US-based, national healthcare organization wanted to understand its constituent base, as well as other consumers donating to health-related charities to identify similarities/groups (or segments) to improve their messaging and ultimately drive higher engagement and fundraising.

We determined that we needed to gain a deeper knowledge of donors/supporters first and hypothesize segments and likely donors, so we held online bulletin board focus groups to cost-effectively pull in dozens of nationwide donors, administer qualitative exercises and capture verbatim responses, important to gaining a deeper understanding of this audience. Once we completed the OBBFGs, we went on to design and administer an online survey designed to profile/segment donors to healthcare charities across the US.

Five donor segments were created, and our healthcare non-profit partner was able to prioritize their limited resources for fundraising efforts targeting the 2-3 segments that could provide the most support for their organization. We also learned a lot more about why these consumers donate their hard-earned dollars and time to healthcare charities (and specific charities), thus aiding in the creation of messaging for this organization. Additional research was conducted to test messaging that was utilized in their fundraising efforts.