“Checking In” After the Start of the Pandemic

When COVID forced the world to largely shut down, nonprofits struggled with how to communicate with their donors. One large nonprofit decided to conduct an interactive Donor Conference Call to “check in” with donors and determine how they were doing and what they needed.

01

Audience

The audience included 80,000 donors, including high potential value, mid-level and major donors.

02

Objective

The COVID pandemic had just started. One state after another had shuttered businesses, restricted travel by the public and in some cases, prohibited people from going outdoors. Nonprofits weren’t sure what was the appropriate way to reach out to donors. Synergy advised them to conduct conference calls in order to speak to donors directly, to check in on them, and to hear what they had to say.

03

Results

Synergy dialed out to over 60,000 supporters, inviting them into the call.
Over 5,400 attendees joined, with 1,100 of them remaining engaged for the entire 35-minute program.
We surveyed donors to find out how they were doing
We offered supporters the opportunity to ask questions of the nonprofit Senior Leaders.
133 donors raised their hands.
The overwhelming majority told us they were “OK” and asked us what they could do to help.
The host directed them to the nonprofit’s website.
The speaker directed them to the website. Over $11,000 in donations were received through the website that evening.
Additionally, two large estate gifts were committed the following day.

After hearing so many donors tell us they were OK and that they wanted to help, we advised our clients to move forward with their fundraising boldly and unapologetically!