Creating a relationship with donors that is customized to their experience makes donors feel heard and valued in their donation experience. Figuring out what your donors want, however, tends to be easier said than done. Journey mapping is one way to clear away the clutter and focus on individuals.

During a session at the Bridge to Integrated Marketing and Fundraising Conference in National Harbor, Md., Jessica Lewis Feader who at the time was with consultant hjc in Toronto, and Vivienne Chartrand of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), presented “Revolutionizing Relationships with Journey Mapping.” Some tips they shared were:

• Creating a positive customer experience is essential in a market where products, services, and pricing are so competitive. Customer experience is the last remaining sustainable differentiator.
• Applying the customer lifecycle model to a non-profit customer experience model informs future planning and organizational alignment.
• Donor survey responses and CRM data allow you to create a donor persona, a hypothetical person representing a group of donors, and map their journey to see what works and what doesn’t. Potential journeys could be shifting a middle-level donor to a repeat donors, or an emergency donor to a monthly donor.
• While this method might not “crack” some of the journeys to find a perfect solution, it does start a conversation leading to greater understanding.
• Involving representatives from many different departments while journey mapping leads to a cross-departmental understanding of the donor experience.
• This technique can be best utilized around annual planning time when it is easier to take insights and build them into the budget.