Nonprofit donor retention is a hot topic these days. Small but mighty Nonprofit teams are under more pressure than ever to nurture and retain donors, build donor pipeline, and raise support for life-changing missions. But the nonprofit donor landscape is shifting: there are more and more causes calling out for attention. Here are stories of a 3 small non-profit teams that are using personalized stewardship to make their donors feel like one in a million.
The Nonprofit teams we work with never fail to inspire us with their creativity and resourcefulness.
And what makes their work even more impressive is that many times these Nonprofit “teams” are just one person, maybe two. They wear all the hats. They are a jack of all the trades.
They make magic happen. It’s super inspiring.
Recently, we named three small but mighty Nonprofit teams as 2025 EverTrue Innovators. These folks have figured out how to truly personalize donor communications to show every donor how much they are loved and appreciated.
With limited resources, these folks are accomplishing awesomeness like 74% open rates, 77% donor retention, and uncovering new six-figure gifts.
Pro tip!
Donor retention increased as much as 65% when they received a ThankView after making a gift.
1. Build momentum from your events
At the California Academy of Sciences, signature events punctuate the year and play a big role in building culture and support from donors.
The team wanted to find a way to build on the excitement immediately after the event – so they decided to send fun, personalized video to event registrants immediately after the event.
Natalie Kramm, a one-person powerhouse, became the maestra of meaningful moments.
With an iPhone and eye for for fun, Natalie captured in-the-moment “thank you” messages from board members and Academy staff that she then (quickly) edited and sent out to event registrants via ThankView.
The videos were unpolished, authentic, and so fun. They saw open rates well above 70% (amazing) and received lots of heartfelt responses from donors.
At a time when inboxes are crowded with tons of messages that aren’t really written for us, a personal video message goes a long way. Here are some tips from California Academy of sciences that any nonprofit team can use.
- Capture videos of “thanks” from staff & volunteers during the event. Keep them unscripted and joyful!
- Don’t overthink the video edits. There are great free tools that make it easy (Natalie uses Splice). Our donor video tool, ThankView, makes video editing a piece of cake and lets you add fun themes, music, intros and outros, etc.
- Send out the videos to registrants and attendees ASAP after the event. You only have their attention for so long!
And, don’t forget: Personalization is everything. Here are two ways to double email open rates.
2. Use your volunteers to broaden impact
Is there any Nonprofit team out there that feels they have enough folks on their team to do all that they want to do?
We’ve never met one.
The Nonprofit champs we work with have learned how to make miracles happen with the limited resources they have.
Tara Maritzer at the Habilitas Foundation knew that she wanted to celebrate donors who had given consistently for many years. She wanted to send loyal donors a personalized video of “thanks” – but she knew she couldn’t record all those videos alone.
Using the “video request” feature in ThankView, Tara assigned committee leaders and board members to help with recordings. She provided volunteers with a rough script, donors’ first names, and their gift milestones – and then she let them do the rest.
The result was that Habilitas Foundation team sent over 90 personalized to celebrate loyal donor milestones, regardless of gift size. By making use of volunteers, the team saw:
✔️ 77% donor retention
✔️ 18% increase in giving
✔️ Countless emotional responses—especially from smaller donors who are often overlooked
3. Make your donors feel like they are "in the room" with you
As Jenny Ray, Executive Director of Development at Miami Jewish Health says, “Every time you communicate, you want your people to feel moved.”
Jenny is one of a three-person team that walks the walk of trust-based philanthropy and authentic storytelling.
Recently, they put their vulnerability and sincerity into a giving day sent to all folks in their database to show the impact that their upcoming Give Miami Day would have on the patients of Miami Jewish Health.
They shared the video via ThankView and the replies (and the gifts) poured in.
One donor used the “Share video” feature in ThankView to send the video to her children. It opened up a conversation about generational giving and what it would look like to have a family legacy at Miami Jewish Health.
Video is a super-sharable medium; the perfect way to communicate impact with donors and inspire them to spread the word themselves.
Try these today: Personalized stewardship strategies for every stage
Following the lead of these award-winning Nonprofit teams, here are a few personalized stewardship moves you can put into practice today to boost donor retention at your organization.
Celebrate first-time donors by sending a welcome video from your Executive Director or beneficiary. Follow it up with a handwritten card with impact stats.
Acknowledge recurring donors with a monthly update video series and surprise and delight them with postcard sharing a testimonial from a beneficiary of their gift.
Send lapsed donors a “We miss you” video from a program staffer, sharing how their past gift made a real difference.
Steward major gift prospects by sharing a personalized tour or behind-the-scenes video that makes them feel like a VIP.
If you are part of a small but mighty Nonprofit team (maybe you ARE the team), there are tech tools that can help you make all of your awesome work even more awesome. We are admittedly biased in our suggestions, but you might want to check these out to see if they’re a good fit for your org.
- ThankView: Video creation, editing, personalization, and reporting
- Pledgemine: Personalized direct mail, built for nonprofits
- Balance and Impact: Finally – user-friendly, visual, on-demand fund accounting & impact reporting that donors LOVE.
Related resources
Want to read more about boosting donor retention at your Nonprofit organization? Check out these related resources.
- This small team of 2 uses videos to steward a donor base of 100,000
- One monthly video to all donors is low cost, high impact (donors love it!)
- Do this one thing to boost donor retention rates
- Check out these two ways to double email open rates
- When is the right time to invest in new tech? Here are 5 questions to assess your team’s readiness.