Yes, You Want Transactional Donors

I’ve heard the following multiple times this year:

“But we don’t want transactional donors.”

If you’ve ever heard this at your organization, or even thought it yourself, please keep reading.

Because you absolutely want transactional donors.  Not only are they a good source of revenue, but transactional donors are where you find many of your future major donors.

I mean, sophisticated organizations think it’s so important to acquire “transactional” donors that they have line items in their budgets expressly for doing so!

Here’s why, summarized:

• The term a large fundraising organization would use for “transactional donors” is “mass donors.”
  • A well-run mass donor program generates $3 or $4 for every $1 spent on the program. 
• Most of your mid donors are mass donors who start giving more.  More mass donors + well-run annual fund = more mid donors!
• Likewise, most of your major donors are simply mid donors who start giving more.  More mid donors + well-run annual fund = more major donors.

So the next time someone says, “no, we don’t want transactional donors,” you now know that you absolutely do want them.  You’ll raise money from them today, and you’ll raise a lot of money from them tomorrow.