Too often, the pressure to raise money now obscures any strategy toward long-term, sustainable fundraising. But the brilliant thing about these four pillars is that when in place, they accomplish both, focusing on present impact and future engagement potential.

These pillars emerged as the common threads from analyzing thousands of donor communications, including experiments where one or more elements were intentionally removed. Here's what we’ve learned:

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Personalize the Experience

Content has always been judged on conversion, but that’s only part of the story. Relationships are nurtured over multiple pieces of content, and the cumulative impact builds trust, drives retention, and increases giving over time.

• Trends suggest that first-time donors receive ~10 touchpoints before repeating their gift.

Many organizations use Fundmetric’s video engine to deliver personalized videos. While video is always a strong performer, adding true personalization is transformational.

• Emails with personalized details receive double the engagement compared to non-personalized ones.
  
  
• Personalized videos were watched all the way through more than 95% of the time.

That’s the magic of using real personalized data like giving amounts, dates, or designations to craft communications that are both relevant and human.

In the past, personalization meant tough tradeoffs. You could record custom videos for each donor that were personal, but unsustainable. Or, default to “Dear Supporter,” which was efficient but forgettable. Neither option scaled well.

Today, you don’t have to choose. With the right tools, you can stay authentic and scale, delivering personalized experiences without the heavy lift.

Speak to What They Can Do for You

When crafting messaging around giving levels or donor benefits, it’s easy to slip into listing perks. Try flipping the perspective: think not about what your org can do for them, but what they can do for your org (and obviously that means the mission).

This isn’t about ignoring donor recognition but about anchoring the message in impact rather than incentives.

This subtle but powerful shift reframes the donor as a central agent of change. It makes the message about their role in the mission, rather than the mission itself. This reframing drives connection, deepens commitment, and turns transactional moments into relational ones.

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Make Donors Feel Part of Something Larger

Personalized data helps people feel seen. But making them feel part of something bigger is what gives their giving meaning.

Many of today’s most urgent problems feel overwhelming, but if giving feels like pouring money into a black hole, donors disengage. But when they see that they’re not alone and that others are standing with them, they’re more likely to stay.

That’s the power of aggregated impact. Think: You + 347 others funded 50 life-saving MRIs this month. That’s specific. That’s tangible. That’s motivating.

It’s important to keep this messaging intentionally highly specific, showing that a movement exists and that the donor is an essential part of it.

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Donors Need to Understand Their Impact

Even when results are hard to quantify, imperfect but transparent communication matters more than silence. Final outcomes are important, but progress, especially when paired with learning, is just as powerful. Referencing impact reports and progress dashboards can deepen this sense of collective momentum. 

• 68% of people who received a personalized impact report gave again within 30 days. 

Some donors are inspired by how many students were awarded scholarships. Others are moved by the creation of a research program that was seed funded by donors . Both are valid, and your communication can reflect that when your audience segments and communication aligns.

Real impact stories often involve:

• Setbacks and how you adapted
  
  
• Insights gained through trial and error
  
  
• Contextual understanding of complex issues

If you have learned something about how a program can be more effective and have implemented changes, walk your audience through those learnings and the progress being made. 

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Transparent and Efficient

Progress-focused messaging is powerful and even more effective when paired with transparency and efficiency.

Transparency isn’t just accountability. It’s a willingness to be open about what worked, what didn’t, and what you learned along the way.

Seeing insight and improvement drives engagement, and interest in the organization’s journey. That can lead to more people opting in to stay informed about where that journey will go next, and an interest in staying to walk it with you. Sharing your process, not just your actions, builds confidence that their investment is generating meaningful returns.

What Efficiency Really Means

Too often, efficiency is misunderstood. Think less cutting, and more optimizing.

✅ Efficiency Is:

• Resource Utilization: How well an organization utilizes its resources to produce an outcome.

• Doing more with less: Maximizing output while minimizing input.
  
  
• Avoiding waste: Using only what’s needed, be it time, energy, or dollars.
  
  
• Cost-effective outcomes: Achieving quality results without unnecessary expense.
  
  

❌ Efficiency Is Not:

• Cheapness at all costs: Sacrificing quality for minimal savings isn’t efficient, it’s shortsighted.
  
  
• Cutting corners: Work that leads to errors ultimately wastes more resources.
  
  
• Focusing on tasks, not goals: Local efficiency doesn’t matter if it undermines your broader mission.
  
  
• Neglecting systems thinking: A “fast” team process might create burdens downstream for others.
  
  

• Team-level optimization without strategic alignment: Everyone might be “busy,” but not productive.
  
  

In essence, efficiency is about sustainable, high-impact resource use, and being a good steward of constituent trust and internal capacity alike.

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Each pillar is powerful on its own, but they’re strongest when working together. When you personalize a constituent's experience, celebrate collective action, show progress, and communicate with transparency and efficiency, you can build long term support that scales sustainably.