EvolveFundraisingFor development teamsRequest information
Donor acquisition

How to Attract More Donors: 12 Proven Strategies for Nonprofits and Associations

Donor counts have fallen five years running. Here are 12 data-backed strategies to attract new donors and keep them, including where AI helps most.

By EvolveFundraising editorial team · Published · Updated

Summary

To attract more donors, widen the front door and fix the back door at the same time. Make it easy for people already connected to you (members, event attendees, volunteers, customers) to give for the first time, then convert that first gift into a second one within 90 days. Organizations that only chase new names keep losing most of them: fewer than one in five first-time donors give again the following year.

Key takeaways

  • Start with people who already know your work.
  • Connect acquisition campaigns with a first-donor welcome.
  • Improve the giving experience before increasing traffic.

To attract more donors, widen the front door and fix the back door at the same time. Make it easy for people already connected to you (members, event attendees, volunteers, customers) to give for the first time, then convert that first gift into a second one within 90 days. Organizations that only chase new names keep losing most of them: fewer than one in five first-time donors give again the following year.

Below are 12 strategies, ordered from fastest payoff to longest-term investment.

Why is it harder to attract donors now?

The sector is raising more money from fewer people. According to the Fundraising Effectiveness Project, dollars grew 5.0% in 2025, but donor counts fell 3.6%, the fifth straight year of decline. The growth came almost entirely from major and supersize donors.

That concentration is a risk. A shrinking base means every lost major donor hurts more, and there are fewer mid-level donors coming up behind them. Broad acquisition is no longer optional.

1. Start with people who already know you

Your warmest prospects are already in your database: members who have never donated, event attendees, volunteers, past grant applicants, newsletter subscribers. They know your work and trust you with their data. Pull these lists first and give them a specific, modest first ask.

For associations, this is the single biggest untapped pool. Post 4: How to Turn Members Into Donors: A Fundraising Guide for Associations covers how to turn members into donors.

2. Give people a reason to give now

Generic "support our mission" appeals underperform. Tie each ask to a concrete outcome ("$50 funds one scholarship application review"), a deadline, or a match. Matching gifts work because they double the donor's impact and create urgency.

3. Fix your donation page before you spend on traffic

In the 2026 M+R Benchmarks study, nonprofits converted about 1.6% of website visitors into donors. Small improvements to your page multiply every campaign:

  • One page, few fields, mobile-first.
  • Suggested amounts tied to outcomes.
  • Monthly giving offered prominently, not hidden.
  • Card, ACH bank transfer and digital wallets accepted.
  • No surprise redirects to a third-party site.

4. Make monthly giving the default path for new donors

Recurring donors stay far longer than one-time donors. M+R's 2026 study found monthly gifts were 27% of online revenue for the average nonprofit. A first-time donor who starts monthly doesn't have to be re-acquired next year. Post 6: How to Build a Monthly Giving Program That Keeps Donors for Years is a full guide.

5. Show up where people now search: AI assistants

About half of U.S. adults now use AI chatbots, and information searching is the most common use, according to Pew Research Center (2026). When someone asks ChatGPT "which nonprofits help veterans find jobs in Ohio," you want to be in the answer. Clear program pages, cited outcomes and FAQ content make that more likely. Post 10: How Donors Find Nonprofits in ChatGPT and AI Search (and How to Show Up) explains how.

6. Use GivingTuesday and year-end as acquisition events

GivingTuesday 2025 drew $4.0 billion from 38.1 million U.S. participants. These moments bring first-time donors in volume. Plan the follow-up before the event, not after. Post 9: Year-End Fundraising Checklist for 2026: GivingTuesday, New Tax Rules and AI has a week-by-week checklist.

7. Turn your events into donor pipelines

Every registrant is a prospect. Add an optional gift at registration checkout, follow up attendees with an impact story within a week, and track which events produce the most first-time donors.

8. Recruit peer-to-peer fundraisers

Ask board members, loyal donors and members to fundraise for a birthday, milestone or challenge. Each one introduces you to a network you couldn't reach through your own list.

9. Thank first-time donors fast and personally

The FEP Q4 2025 report calls converting a first gift into a second "the most consequential unsolved problem" in fundraising. A thank-you within 48 hours, a welcome series over the first 90 days and a second ask tied to what their first gift accomplished all move that number. Post 8: Donor Stewardship That Scales: Thank-Yous, Receipts and Automated Journeys covers stewardship workflows.

10. Let AI find the prospects you're missing

Predictive scoring can rank everyone in your database by likelihood to give, upgrade or lapse, using signals you already hold: giving history, event attendance, membership tenure and email engagement. Teams then spend their time on the 50 people most likely to say yes. Post 5: Predictive Donor Analytics: How AI Finds Your Next Major Gift explains how predictive donor analytics works.

11. Personalize at scale with AI, carefully

Generative AI can draft appeals, segment variations and thank-you notes in minutes. The 2026 Nonprofit AI Adoption Report from Virtuous and Fundraising.AI found 92% of nonprofits now use AI in some way, but only 7% report major improvements. The difference is building AI into repeatable workflows connected to donor data, not one-off chats. Posts 2: AI for Fundraising: A Practical Playbook for Nonprofits and Associations and 7 show how.

12. Put every relationship on one record

You can't attract donors you can't see. When members live in one system, event attendees in another and donors in a third, your best prospects hide in the gaps. A single record showing membership, events, purchases, volunteering and gifts lets you spot the engaged member who has never been asked to give.

How to measure whether it's working

MetricWhat it tells youHow to calculate
New donors per monthWhether acquisition is growingCount of first-ever gifts in the period
First-year retentionWhether new donors stickNew donors last year who gave again this year ÷ new donors last year
Overall retentionHealth of the whole baseDonors last year who gave again ÷ donors last year (sector average: 43.3% in 2025)
Cost per new donorAcquisition efficiencyAcquisition spend ÷ new donors acquired
Monthly donor shareRevenue predictabilityMonthly donors ÷ active donors

How Evolve Fundraising helps you attract donors

Evolve Fundraising is built on the same platform as EvolveAMS, so donors, members, event attendees and volunteers share one record. That makes your warmest prospects visible on day one. The AI assistant builds segments in plain English, drafts appeals from each person's history, and helps you see who is most likely to give next. Online giving supports card, ACH and recurring gifts, and every gift posts to your general ledger with its fund designation.

Frequently asked questions

What is the fastest way to attract new donors?

Ask people already connected to you, such as members, event attendees and volunteers, who have never given. They convert at far higher rates than cold audiences.

How many first-time donors give again?

Fewer than one in five. FEP data for 2025 put new-donor retention at about 19%, versus about 59% for repeat donors.

Does AI help with donor acquisition?

Yes, when it's connected to your donor data. AI is most useful for finding likely donors in your existing database, personalizing appeals and speeding up thank-yous.

What is a good donor retention rate?

The sector average was 43.3% in 2025. Anything above 50% is strong; first-year retention above 25% is well above average.

Should small nonprofits focus on acquisition or retention?

Both, but fix retention first. Acquiring donors you then lose is the most expensive pattern in fundraising.

Grow your donor base on one platform. See how Evolve Fundraising connects every relationship: Request information from EvolveFundraising.

Sources: AFP / Fundraising Effectiveness Project Q4 2025; M+R Benchmarks 2026; GivingTuesday 2025 results; Pew Research Center, Americans and AI 2026; Virtuous and Fundraising.AI, 2026 Nonprofit AI Adoption Report; new/repeat retention rates via Bloomerang's summary of FEP Q4 2025.

Sources and further reading

  1. Fundraising Effectiveness Project afpglobal.org
  2. 2026 M+R Benchmarks mrss.com
  3. Pew Research Center (2026) pewresearch.org
  4. 38.1 million U.S. participants givingtuesday.org
  5. 2026 Nonprofit AI Adoption Report virtuous.org
  6. Bloomerang's summary of FEP Q4 2025 bloomerang.com
AI and fundraisingAI for Fundraising: A Practical Playbook for Nonprofits and AssociationsAI for fundraising means using machine learning and generative AI to find likely donors, personalize outreach, automate stewardship and answer questions about your data. Almost every nonprofit now uses AI somewhere, but very few get real results from it. The difference is whether AI is connected to donor data and built into repeatable workflows, or used ad hoc in a chat window.Association fundraisingHow to Turn Members Into Donors: A Fundraising Guide for AssociationsAssociations turn members into donors by asking at the moments members already feel connected to the profession: when they join, renew, register for the annual meeting, earn a credential or win an award. The most effective associations give members a cause tied directly to the field (scholarships, research, workforce development, disaster relief for members), route gifts through a 501(c)(3) foundation so they're deductible, and see every member's engagement and giving on one record.Online givingHow to Build a Monthly Giving Program That Keeps Donors for YearsA monthly giving program turns one-time donors into supporters who give automatically every month. It is the most reliable way to stabilize revenue and lift retention: in the 2026 M+R Benchmarks study, monthly gifts made up 27% of online revenue for the average nonprofit, and about 71% of new monthly donors were still giving after 12 months. To build one, you need a name and a clear promise, a donation page that makes monthly easy, a conversion plan for existing donors and a system that recovers failed payments.Campaign planningYear-End Fundraising Checklist for 2026: GivingTuesday, New Tax Rules and AIA strong 2026 year-end campaign comes down to five weeks of work: clean your data in early November, launch GivingTuesday on December 1, run a three-touch December appeal, push hard December 29–31, and thank every donor within 48 hours. This year has one new twist. For the first time since 2021, donors who don't itemize can deduct charitable gifts, and almost none of them know it yet.AI and fundraisingHow Donors Find Nonprofits in ChatGPT and AI Search (and How to Show Up)Donors increasingly ask AI assistants questions like "what are the best charities supporting veterans in Texas?" or "which professional association offers scholarships for nursing students?" To appear in those answers, your website needs clear, specific, well-structured pages that state who you serve, what you do, where, and with what results, backed by facts other sites can confirm. This practice is called generative engine optimization, or GEO. It builds on good SEO rather than replacing it.

Back to all articles