Extraordinary Experiences: Donor Relations Expert Shares Secrets for Building Stronger Donor Relationships at Bay Path Workshop

Here’s a shocker: eight out of 10 first-time donors don’t make a second gift. Worse, it costs 10 times more money to acquire a new donor than to keep one. But these sad statistics can be improved. Simone P. Joyaux, ACFRE, Adv Dip, shared how to beat these odds by learning how to retain donors and build your fund development program at Bay Path University’s recent Hot Topics in Nonprofit Management & Philanthropy workshop. Sylvia de Haas-Phillips, MS, MSW, Director and Assistant Professor, MS Nonprofit Management & Philanthropy, MS Strategic Fundraising & Philanthropy, took the lead in bringing this insightful program to the University and local community. 

Joyaux’s presentation, “Keep your donors: How ‘extraordinary experiences’ build stronger relationships with donors – and raise more money!” explored one of the best ways to retain donors: “extraordinary experiences.” With the audience, Joyaux explored the many ways that fundraisers can surprise and delight donors to increase their giving and retention, and how to measure success.

Nearly 80 fundraisers, board members, and nonprofit executives attended Joyaux’s workshop, which highlighted the following takeaways: focus on building a culture of philanthropy in your organization; effective fund development is about engaging donors to support their interests--the cause is what they care about and your organization is the vehicle for them to support their philanthropic interests, so focus on the donor and what they want to accomplish; and understand that effective measurement of a giving program is about more than just the dollar amount raised, including year-to-year donor retention and number of new donors in a given year.

Allison Gearing Kalill, Vice President for Development and Planned Giving at Bay Path University, leads a team of experts in fundraising, development, and donor relations. Her team took advantage of this training and others like it to learn new and different strategies for their work.  

“At Bay Path, we are fortunate to have over 30 years of combined experience on our philanthropy team. We have built long-lasting relationships to create a culture of philanthropy with our donor-centered organization, and have engaged our donors in the mission of Bay Path through stewardship,” Gearing Kalill said. “Even with that extraordinary experience behind us, the development team is grateful for the opportunity to continuously enhance our skills. Philanthropy procedures change every day, but the philosophy of philanthropy will always mean the voluntary action for the common good. Anyone who is in the nonprofit field should take advantage of all opportunities for growth, including Hot Topics workshops as well as Bay Path's Master of Science in Nonprofit Management & Philanthropy program.”  

“Keep your donors: How ‘extraordinary experiences’ build stronger relationships with donors – and raise more money!” was sponsored by Bay Path University’s Master of Science in Nonprofit Management & Philanthropy program, a fully-online or blended online/on-campus degree program with classes starting every February, June, and October. Learn more by visiting our website.