Unlock Stronger Results With Data-Driven Donor Insights
By Tara Singh, Director of Digital Media
Understanding the human behind the gift is where powerful digital strategy begins. Each donor – whether new to your Rescue Mission or a longtime supporter – has unique motivations that deserve to be honored.
At BDI, we use donor persona backed insights to cut through the noise, build trust and reach the right people, at the right time, with the right message from the start.
Read on to see how we use donor persona research to strengthen campaigns and engagement.
How We Build Personas
We partner with Basis Technologies to develop detailed, directional personas for our nonprofit partners. This allows us to streamline media buying across channels and tap into deeper audience insights.
Example in Action: Rescue Mission Donor Directional Persona
Through Basis’ insights from MRI-Simmons, we gain a richer understanding of audience behavior, values and media habits.
What makes MRI-Simmons insights so powerful?
- National Survey Data: In-depth data on consumer demographics reveal how people think and what motivates them
- Behavioral Analytics: Detailed insights reveal how audiences interact with and consume media and make purchasing/giving decisions
- Probability Sampling: Ensures that a diverse audience pool is selected that represents a broad donor population
- Redraw Sampling: National samples are redrawn annually to capture true diversity over time
Turning Insights Into Strategy
All of this allows our digital team to get a deeper understanding of the behaviors, preferences and needs of your ideal nonprofit prospects and donors in specific regions. This localized understanding helps us craft messaging and media placements that are timely, relevant and personalized.
And by using MRI-Simmons data, we can refine our media strategies even further – gaining insight into the types of media audiences engage with, how often they engage and the best times to reach them.
But we also know that once those ads are live, ongoing review and adjustments to tactics and audience targeting are crucial to keep performance strong.
Here is an example of our research on donor persona behaviors when it comes to media consumption.
Example in Action: Video and Audio Usage
From Insight to Impact
Persona development and research help your nonprofit connect with the audience – your current and future donors – on a personal level. It’s essential to focus not just on donor demographics or giving history, but on motivation. That’s where true connection happens.
In a recent article, my colleague Nicole Ige-Hutto sums it up perfectly:
“The most effective nonprofit personas are motivationally based – rooted in the donor’s why, not just the what… Done right, personas become tools your whole organization can use to align creative, media and messaging around what donors actually care about.”
When you take the time to understand who your donors are – and why they give – you’re not just improving ad performance and the buyers’ abilities to find those audiences. Knowing donor personas allows us to curate personalized donor journeys. These relational touchpoints help inspire long-term donor loyalty and can contribute to boosted retention.
Your nonprofit is building trust, deepening relationships and laying the foundation for long-term loyalty and impact. That’s the power of putting research-driven personas to work in your digital strategy.
If you’d like to learn more about how we’re using this approach to drive better results, feel free to reach out to me directly at tsingh@bdiagency.com.
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