Transactional Donors

If anyone at your nonprofit has ever said something like, “We don’t want transactional donors,” keep reading.

This belief sounds good on the surface, but it’s limiting your growth.

Instead, you want to purposely make your nonprofit attractive to “transactional donors” for two reasons:

1. Revenue.  A lot of “transactional donors” giving gifts can add up to a lot of revenue and mission impact.
2. Many “transactional” donors, through the action of giving, will develop into true believers over time.   

Larger nonprofits have long known that many of their best donors are “transactional donors” who gave one small gift, had a good experience, gave again, and developed through habit and experience into true believers.  (Recent brain science is catching up to this phenomenon.  In his incredible book Atomic Habits, James Clear calls this “identity-based habits.”  He says that most people believe that “belief drives action” when it’s more often true that “action drives belief.”)

So, it’s smart for nonprofits to develop low-priced offers, and to make your fundraising accessible, so that your organization becomes attractive to “transactional donors.”  And once you attract and cultivate “transactional donors,” some of them will through their actions develop into true believers.   

It’s emotionally easy to prefer true believers.  It’s enjoyable to meet with true believers, and talk to them at events, and be appreciated by them.

But don’t accidentally let personal preference cause your organization to have less impact.

You want both kinds of donors if you really want to grow.