Twenty-five years consulting nonprofits on how to raise money, and I’m still amazed – or, rather, flabbergasted – at how little attention some organizations pay to nurturing donor loyalty. Long-term relationships are crucial to any fundraising program.

The one-off gift is always welcome, of course, but it will not help much to achieve your mandate. It’s the second, third and fourth (and 40th) gifts that do that.

The gifts that come from the same supporters several times a year, year after year. The gifts from donors who remain loyal to your cause.

As I’ve often said, to make donors loyal to you, you must first become loyal to them. They will reward you because they know you care about them – and they know you care about them because of the way you treat them.

Where the money is

The best fundraising programs – whether staffed by one person or a hundred – all take great care to nurture this kind of lasting relationship. They know, of course – and you should, too – that donor loyalty is where the money is.

I was reading a business publication a short while ago and came upon an article about a chef who knew a thing or two about customer loyalty. His ideas were so good that now, whenever I give a fundraising seminar, I always mention this chef when I get to the part on building donor loyalty.

Here’s why: You won’t know it, but when you’re seated in this chef’s restaurant, your waiter is assigning you a “mood rating”. It’s a one-to-10 scale, with 10 being outright bliss, but anything below seven indicating unhappiness. Everyone knows the rating It doesn’t stop there. The rating is then typed into a computer. It is also written on the dinner order and posted on a spool in the kitchen for all staff to see.

Point being? If a customer is unhappy, especially walking in the door, the entire staff knows it, and can adjust their interaction with the person accordingly. “If customers ran into traffic on the way over here,” says the chef, “We need to consider it our problem.” The grumpy customer, then – say, a five or six rating – could be given a complimentary glass of champagne, or a tableside visit from one of the owners, or even a tour of the kitchen.

Do such little things really brighten a person’s mood? Of course they do. (Wouldn’t you want an extra piece of cheesecake?) The chef’s objective for the evening? That no one leave the restaurant with a rating lower than nine. The chef’s overall objective? That the customers become loyal to the restaurant, and return to have dinner there again. And again. And again.

Best customer is loyal customer

Your donors are your “customers” - and really, it wouldn’t hurt to treat them as such. And as any chef would tell you, the best customer is a loyal customer.

Today, especially, building donor loyalty is more important than ever, if only because of the growing level of competition. The competition for charitable dollars is intense, and if you don’t get that gift from your donor, someone else will. Add to this the incredible clutter in our mail and our eMail – at work and at home – and you have a great many forces vying for donor attention.

But when you have a relationship with a donor in which s/he feels loyal to your cause, those other threats become less menacing. And instead of consuming time and energy worrying about the competition, you can instead concentrate on keeping your donor excited about – and engaged in – the various initiatives you plan.

Now that sounds like a better day at the office, doesn’t it? Loyalty in donors can be a powerful thing. You should cultivate it – always.