When Catholic Relief Services (CRS) faced a shrinking donor file, the team knew digital advertising would play a key role in reversing the trend. But they also recognized that acquisition alone wasn’t enough – retaining new donors and re-engaging existing ones had to be part of the solution.
CRS built a data-driven retention strategy that blended established channels like Meta and Paid Search with emerging tools such as peer-to-peer texting. This integrated approach significantly improved our ability turn first-time givers into repeat donors and long-term supporters.
In this session, we’ll share how CRS used the data already at hand to identify key opportunities, the challenges we encountered along the way, and the lessons learned that attendees can apply immediately to strengthen their own retention efforts.
Learning Objectives:
• Participants will learn how to align their retention strategy with their acquisition efforts from day one – ensuring new donors are primed for long-term engagement
• Participants will learn how to leverage data to identify simple, high-impact opportunities for improving donor retention
• Participants will learn actionable ideas on how to develop an omni-channel approach to donor retention & improved donor loyalty
