Donor Segmentation: How to Move Beyond Lists and Build Better Donor Experiences
Most non-profits segment…or do they?
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: most organizations don’t actually segment; they sort their donors into lists. In donor relations, we often sort our lists by giving level, ZIP code, campaign, alumni class year, event attendance, and more. Those lists are useful—they help organize data and pull reports—but if our goal is stronger donor relationships, the groupings we use only tell part of the story.
Imagine three donors who each gave $250 last month. One made their very first gift. One has faithfully given $250 every year for the last decade. One quietly reduced their gift from $1,000. Same amount; three different stories, three different stewardship opportunities, yet they would all pull on the same report as part of one segment.
Today, we are going to challenge how we think about segmentation and offer a more intentional, behavior-based approach to engaging with our supporters.
Traditional Segmentation Isn’t Wrong. It’s Incomplete
If we think about what we currently use for segmentation, I think we would all agree it has only accomplished part of what we set out to do. Gift agreement, geography, giving frequency, etc., all provide valuable information. These data points help us understand what happened. However, relationships aren’t just built on past actions. Relationships are built on understanding and trust. Today’s donor experience requires us to answer a different question with all of our work: What should happen next?
Instead of asking:
How much did they give?
When did they give?
What campaign did they support?
Ask:
What motivated this gift?
What behavior are we trying to encourage next?
What experience does this donor need?
Traditional segmentation only describes the past. Intentional segmentation helps shape the future.
Sorting vs Segmenting
“The purpose of segmentation is not to organize your database. It is to influence donor behavior.”
Sorting organizes information. Knowing how much a person gave, whether they attend events, and where they live is still important for identifying the right group of people for the work we are doing. But it can’t be the only thing we use. Data should guide the work, not define it. Segmenting in its true form designs experiences. A great example of this is first-time donors. It does not matter who a donor is, where they are located, or how much they give to our organization. It is their first monetary action, and we want to craft an experience that helps them learn about our organization, trust that we will do what we say we will, and want to give again. The experience we design helps to ensure the next gift happens.
Every segment needs a job. If a segment doesn’t change how you engage with donors, ask yourself whether it needs to exist at all.
Static Segments vs Dynamic Segments
Some important details about segmentation are key to building better segments—especially the difference between static and dynamic. Traditional segments such as major donors, alumni, parents, and volunteers are considered static segments. Static segments are stable characteristics that don’t change often. Dynamic segments are defined as what is happening in the relationship right now. These characteristics evolve as donor behavior changes. Examples of dynamic segments:
Giving Behavior
First-time donor
Made second gift
Newly upgraded or decreased gift
Giving frequency
Consecutive years
Recurring gift enrollment
Re-engaged donor
Lapsed gift
Engagement Behavior
Volunteer activity
Event attendee
Survey completion
Email or social media engagement
Website visits
Giving Day Ambassador
Milestones
Milestone gift anniversary
Milestone consecutive years
First event
First volunteer experience
A way to think about the difference between static and dynamic: static segments tell you who is in the room. Dynamic segments help us understand what each person may need while they are in the room.
Five Questions Every Segment Should Answer
This is a lot to wrap our minds around. Let’s discuss the way to start crafting your intentional segments by walking through the five questions every segment should answer.
Question 1: What behavior brought this donor here?
The answer to this question is what we typically ask our segments when defining who we are engaging with. Are they here because they are a first-time donor? Did they increase their gift? Or decide to volunteer? Whatever the behavior is, it is important to know what it is. But we can’t stop here.
Question 2: What behavior are we trying to encourage next?
This question is what defines our segment’s job. Are we wanting to build confidence in a first-time donor? Do we want to reconnect so we don’t lose a relationship? Whatever the behavior, we want to ensure the donor segment makes sense given the behavior. If we try to encourage too many behaviors at once, engagement is dead on arrival.
Key reminder: The next action is 9 times out of 10 NOT another gift. We have to think through everything between giving actions!
Question 3: What barrier might prevent that next step?
This is a question that the segment won’t answer directly. However, who comprises the segment will provide the answer. If you have a list of donors who have only mailed in gifts over the last five years and plan to send them a giving day card with a QR code to give online, you can’t expect large engagement, because the behavior doesn’t fit the group. It could come across as irrelevant, since they only give via mail. When a donor feels a communication is irrelevant, it becomes a barrier. Other barrier examples include: too many clicks to complete the action, poor timing of engagement with the supporter group, or too many choices that put the recipient in decision paralysis. There are many barriers to engagement, and we need to understand the group we are working with to determine what barriers may exist and whether we can overcome them.
Question 4: What experience should happen next?
This is the donor relations professional’s time to shine! How many times have we been looped into a communication, and the conversation is: We want to send this out; who should receive it? When, in reality, it should be: If we send this communication out, what experience should follow to ensure it aligns with the donor’s relationship with us? So many times, we focus on who has an active email address or mailing address, when we should first determine the experience we want our donors to have. The experience could mean receiving a phone call, a handwritten note, or no experience at all, because that is what the donor needs right now. The goal is not always more, but intentional.
Question 5: How will we know the segment worked?
Before we deliver anything, we must know what success looks like. And success is more than clicks! What success looks like will depend on the designed experience, and what we expect to happen next. If the intention of our engagement is to have donors fill out a survey, success isn't just a certain percentage of respondents who complete it. Success will also include comparing the number of clicks to the number of completed surveys to ensure the abandonment rate is low. Defining success before launching is a strategy we use for our largest projects, but we forgot this key component for our small engagement opportunities.
Now that these five questions have become the framework for intentional segmentation, we can have a consistent process in our work to:
Test → Measure → Learn → Adjust
This allows us to have an ongoing donor-experience improvement rather than a one-time database exercise.
Start Small
Don’t redesign your CRM overnight. We want to take this one snack bite at a time. This isn’t about perfection, and you shouldn’t expect it to transform your entire organization immediately. We are going to build our snack with:
One audience: Which audience do we want to focus on?
This might be the time to choose an audience you have struggled with or haven’t engaged with in a while.
One desired behavior: What do we want to happen next with this audience?
Identify one barrier: What would cause this audience to not take the desired behavior?
Design one intentional experience: What will we do differently in our engagement based on the answers above?
Identify one metric of success: What will we measure to determine success?
From here, we test. We will try out our snack-sized experiment, measure the success, adjust, and test again. Once we feel good, we will expand our snack bite into multiple appetizers, then a full meal, and eventually into the five-course experience, where we’ll land in the future.
Test → Measure → Learn → Adjust → Expand
Behavioral Segmentation Planner
Let’s do this in real time. Below is a simple segmentation planner you can use to sketch your plan. I filled this in with a first-time donor example:
Audience | Current Behavior | Desired Next Behavior | Potential Barrier | Experience to Design | Success Metric |
First Time Donor | Made first gift | Engage with impact communication | Feels like an ask before impact; messaging doesn’t resonate with giving intent | Impact drip campaign with different styles of impact communication | Clicking the Call To Action |
Use this planner before creating any new segment. Remember, every segment should have a purpose, and every purpose should have a plan. If you can’t answer all five questions, don’t move forward!
Conclusion
Every donor interaction teaches us something. Every email opened, event attended, gift not made, phone call answered, they are all clues. Data helps us see the behavior; behavior helps us understand the relationship. Intentional segmentation helps us decide what the next experience should be for our donors.
The organizations that thrive won’t simply have the biggest databases. They’ll be the ones that listen to what donor behavior is telling them, and intentionally design experiences that strengthen relationships. The goal was never better lists. The goal is better relationships.
Ready to put intentional segmentation into practice?
Knowing you need a more intentional approach to donor segmentation is one thing. Finding the time and capacity to actually do it is another.
That’s where we come in.
DRG’s fractional support provides you with experienced donor communications professionals without adding another full-time role to your team. We can help you identify your key donor audiences, build a communications plan, and craft messages that feel more relevant, personal, and intentional.
Written by Liz Menne
Liz Menne is a customer and supporter experience expert who believes strong stewardship and thoughtful systems can transform donor relationships. With a career spanning higher ed, tech, and nonprofit strategy, Liz brings a unique blend of operational savvy and donor-centered thinking to every project. She currently serves as Customer Success Manager at Awarded and consults with clients through the Donor Relations Group. A PMP-certified project manager, Liz has a track record of building efficient, engaging solutions that free up time for what really matters: deepening connections and driving impact. She’s also a proud University of Miami double alum and the kind of person who never says no to a good cup of coffee, especially in great company.
