Donor Incentive Programs

How do I keep a customer for the next 10 years? A topic which came up in a founder group this week. Whether you are starting up or established, each business aims for customer retention. 9/10 executives believe their customers are becoming more loyal. Only 4/10 customers agree. That gap comes straight from PwC's 2025 Customer Experience Survey. It's where businesses bleed revenue. At HomeServe, our whole model was built on keeping customers for at least 5 years. Here's the playbook: 1. Get them on a membership. A subscription changes the relationship from transaction to commitment. McKinsey found members of paid loyalty programmes are 60% more likely to increase their spend with a brand. Free programmes manage half that, and work hardest in year one. Half of all membership cancellations happen in the first 12 months. 2. Make the product brilliant. Then prove it. Outstanding satisfaction is a number. Measure it relentlessly so you know exactly what customers think, not what you hope they think. PwC found 32% of people will walk away from a brand they love after one bad experience. 3. When something goes wrong, fix it fast. Speed of recovery matters more than the mistake itself. A problem solved brilliantly can create more loyalty than no problem at all. 4. Keep enhancing and evolving the product. Loyalty is rented, never owned. Every renewal is a fresh decision. The product someone buys in year one should never be the product they hold in year ten. Your competitors improve every year. 5. Introduce customers to your other products. A customer with two products is far stickier than a customer with one. At HomeServe, someone might start with plumbing cover. Then add electrics or boiler cover. Each product made the next easier to sell and the relationship harder to break. That’s why banks fight so hard for that second account. 6. Give them something extra. A tale as old as time: Wiggle put free Haribo sweets in every parcel. Cereal brands used to put toys in the box. And now, Huel has sent every new customer a free t-shirt since 2015. You now see them in every gym. A freebie became free advertising. People who feel they got a good deal come back. 7. When someone leaves, find out why. Then act on it. Every cancellation is free market research. Ask the question, log the answer, look for the pattern. If the reason is affordability, the customer hasn't rejected your product. They've rejected your payment structure. Offer another route. A cheaper tier or a pause instead of cancellation. Monthly payments through Klarna have made this simple. Don't lose a ten-year customer over a problem you could have solved. Research shows a 5% point improvement in retention can lift profits by anywhere from 25% to 50%. What’s kept you loyal to a brand for five or ten years? For more ideas on how to build and scale a business, subscibe to my newsletter: https://lnkd.in/ergDQtiK 

9 Things Nobody Tells You About Running a Membership Program 👀 After running The Trusted Voice as membership program for 4+ years, here's what most 'gurus' won't tell you: 1. Messy action is better than perfect inaction. Members who dive in and start (even imperfectly) are more likely to stick around than those who wait for the 'right time.' 2. Your launch isn't the hardest part - keeping members engaged is. The real work starts after they join. 3. Not everyone will participate - and that's okay. Some of your most loyal members are silent observers. 4. Content perfection isn't the goal. Consistent, helpful content beats flashy production every time. 5. Tech hiccups happen. Having a simple "backup plan" saved me more times than I can count. 6. Your best ideas will come from member questions, not your content calendar. 7. Community magic happens when you step back. Let members support each other. 8. Membership pricing isn't just about value - it's about attracting the right people who'll contribute positively. 9. The "I'm not worthy" feeling never goes away. But seeing members succeed makes it all worth it. Running a membership changed my business model completely. It's less about one-off sales and more about sustainable growth.

Screaming Eagle has not accepted a new name onto its mailing list since the year 2000. The Napa cult winery produces 500 to 800 cases a year. The wait for a place, when one finally opens up, is estimated at ten to twelve years. Members pay north of three thousand dollars annually for a three-bottle allocation, and those same bottles trade on the secondary market for $2,500 to $3,500 apiece. The winery does not offer tours. It does not offer tastings. The entire economic engine of one of the most valuable wine brands on earth is built on saying no to almost everyone who wants in, for a quarter century and counting. Most CMOs would call this a marketing failure. It is the opposite. Every consumer brand has a group of customers who would tell their best friend about you tomorrow without being asked, and most brands do almost nothing to formalize the relationship. They send those customers the same email everyone else gets, ship them the same product everyone else buys, and treat them as if they were indistinguishable from a one-time purchaser who showed up on a discount code. This is one of the most expensive mistakes in consumer marketing. The fix is a super fan program, and it works in every category we power at AnyRoad: spirits, sports leagues, toy brands, CPG, hospitality, beauty. The architecture is identical across all of them. The math is staring everyone in the face. A 5,000-member program at $400 a year is $2M in highly retained revenue that does not depend on Meta, retail, or distributor relationships. A 20,000-member program at $600 a year is $12M nobody can take from you. And the real prize is not the recurring revenue. The real prize is lifetime loyalty, which compounds at rates most CFOs have never had to model because they have never seen one. Most brands won't do it. The ones that do are building something nobody can take from them. Full piece in this week's Roadie. Link in the comments.

How we received a £975,000 gift through legacy giving. I remember being in the office when someone said they'd like to give the proceeds of their house sale in Devon to the international aid agency I used to work for. Someone nearly fell of their chair when they said the amount 😂 It was so generous I will never forget it 😇 And it was such an encouragement to our team because we'd been working locally building strong relationships with our supporters for many years. No other charity had the presence on the ground that we did. That's why the gift came. So how can you increase your legacy giving? 🤝 It’s personal. Talk to your donors. Some interesting research from Remember a Charity found that if you spend just 45 minutes talking to each of your donors they will actively consider leaving you a gift in their Will. I think that leaving something in your Will feels very personal and significant. If you feel that the charity actually knows who you are and a bit about you and your involvement, you’ll be much more likely to take the time to specifically remember them in your Will. ☺️ Normalise it. We know that people tend to do things that are perceived as “normal” and done by other “people like me”. But most people aren’t even aware of legacy giving. So mention it from time to time in your regular communications, without an ask. For instance, in your regular news updates could you mention that: “this project was able to get off the ground thanks to a gift left in somebody’s Will (ask the family if you could even name them…)? 🙌🏼 It’s about passion. When you do come to ask, the research I mentioned above also found that using a question like: ‘Many of our customers choose to leave a gift to charity in their Will, are there any causes you are passionate about?’ was much more inspiring than a straight ask. More people asked this way left a charity gift in their Wills, and they left twice as much! Aside from the “normalising” effect, this question makes you reflect on your life, what you stand for, what you want to invest in and be remembered for. 🤓 Be specific. Why do you need your supporter to leave a gift in their Will? What will it actually achieve? Why can’t you do without it? Your message needs to be personal, tangible, connect with their passion for the charity and be satisfying emotionally. Thinking about what will happen when you’re gone is a weighty subject, and you want to know that the preparations you make will really leave a positive legacy and make a difference. What are your thoughts and tips on legacy giving? #fundraising #legacy #team #charity

If I had to rebuild nonprofit impact reporting from scratch today, I wouldn’t start with glossy annual reports. I’d start with: Timing. Because most nonprofits don’t lose donors due to lack of results. They lose them due to lack of memory. Here’s exactly how I’d rebuild donor reporting so it sticks: 1. Respect the 72-hour rule Cognitive science shows memory fades after 3 days. If you wait 3 months to share impact, donors forget the emotional spark that led them to give. Don’t let the moment slip. • Send an update within 72 hours. • Even if it’s raw or imperfect. • Tie it directly to the donor’s gift. Momentum beats polish. 2. Micro-updates, not mega-reports Stop saying: “Wait for our end-of-year report.” Start saying: “Here’s what your gift did this week.” Short videos, quick photos, a 3-line story. Your donors want to feel progress, not sift through 20 pages. 3. Make impact a habit, not an event The best donor journeys are built like fitness routines. Consistent, bite-sized reps, not sporadic marathons. Do this instead: • Weekly “impact snapshots” • Monthly behind-the-scenes notes • Quarterly deep dives (not the other way around) Build rhythm. Build trust. 4. Anchor updates to emotion, not just outcomes Data fades fast. Emotion lingers. • Instead of “We planted 5,000 trees”… Say: “Meet Lucia. She’s breathing cleaner air today because of you.” Stories keep the trigger alive. 5. Create recall moments If you want donors to give again, bring them back to their first spark. • Replay the video that moved them. • Send the photo that made them act. • Use the same language that triggered their gift. Remind them why they cared in the first place. Delayed reporting doesn’t just cost attention. It costs retention. In 2025, donor communication should feel less like PR. And more like a memory anchor. Not an annual report. A living reminder. Comment “retention” and I’ll send you our playbook on how to do all of this using LinkedIn. With purpose and impact, Mario

Points don’t build loyalty anymore. We’ve watched kids earn digital badges, redeem rewards, and move on without remembering who gave them.  The transaction is too shallow to stick. Experiential loyalty programs work differently.  They create memories. When kids can test, play, or co-create with a brand, the connection lasts longer than any discount or freebie.  They don’t just “collect” points; they belong to something. The most effective programs we’ve built have: - 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐥-𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬 tied to the reward (events, challenges, access) - 𝐂𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 that feels like a journey, not a punch card - 𝐒𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐟: kids share what they 𝘥𝘪𝘥, not what they earned Loyalty today isn’t earned through repetition.  It’s earned through meaning. If the program doesn’t make them feel part of something bigger, the points won’t matter.

Most nonprofits thank donors once. Top-retention organizations thank them seven times in seven ways. Donors who feel “seen” renew at two to three times the rate of those who only get a receipt. A simple shift: Replace “thank you for your gift” with “Here’s what you made possible this month.” Personal impact reporting increases second-gift likelihood by up to 80%. A youth mentorship nonprofit I supported started sending “micro-updates” every 30 days—one photo, one sentence, one win. Their donor churn dropped by 21% in a single quarter. Stewardship isn’t fluff; it’s ROI. What’s one small stewardship habit that’s made a big difference for your donors?

15,000+ loyalty program members. Only 800 were actually engaged. That's the harsh reality Sarah faced when she called us at Vajro. She's the founder of a premium skincare brand, and she was bleeding money. "We're spending thousands on points and discounts, but customers still leave after two purchases." I've heard this story way too many times. Sarah was making the classic mistake: treating all customers the same. But here's what the data revealed → 60% of her revenue came from just 20% of customers. These weren't just buyers. They were SuperFans. So instead of chasing the silent 14,200, we focused on the passionate 800. Here's exactly what we built: → A mobile app that gave SuperFans VIP access → Personalized product recommendations based on purchase history → Early access to new launches through push notifications → One-tap reordering of their favorite products The results after 6 months? Those 800 SuperFans increased their average order value by 40%. Their purchase frequency doubled. But here's the real win: they started bringing friends. SuperFans don't just buy more. They become your marketing team. While competitors were still blasting generic discount emails, Sarah's SuperFans were getting personalized experiences that made them feel valued. The lesson? Stop trying to activate everyone. Start by activating the customers who already love you. Your SuperFans are waiting. The question is: are you ready to give them the experience they deserve?

I analyzed 100+ loyalty programs in the last 30 days. Most brands still run loyalty like it’s 2009: Earn points, get a discount, repeat. The top 10%? They’re using loyalty to change behavior- not just reward it. If I were Head of Loyalty at a $10B+ brand today, here’s exactly what I’d do to build a program that drives LTV, repeat purchases, and real retention: 1. Stop Giving Away Loyalty - Make Them Pay for It Costco, RH, Barnes & Noble. When customers pay upfront, they buy in - literally and psychologically. Forget free points. Paid memberships = commitment, retention, higher LTV and emotional sunk cost. 2. Make Loyalty Required, Not Optional - Integrate Directly into Payments Starbucks preloads!!! When rewards are embedded in how people pay, behavior shifts faster, and for longer. This is probably the biggest opportunity in loyalty right now. 3. Forget Delayed Points - Instant Gratification is More Important Immediate dopamine beats theoretical future savings. Slow accumulation = slow engagement. Instant offers = repeat behavior. The 2nd purchase matters more than the 10th. 4. Make Loyalty Emotional, Not Transactional REI, North Face, Sephora. Customers want to belong, not just save. Identity, community, and shared values are outperforming cashbacks and discounts in driving long-term loyalty. Loyalty isn’t just a discount strategy, it’s a brand strategy. 5. Invest in Status + Experiences, not Generic Perks This isn't just theory – with companies like Rapha and Lululemon offering loyalty members exclusive product drops, community events and behind-the-scenes experiences. Lean into waitlists and exclusive product drops. Less financial. More status + psychological “being in the club.” 6. Reward Engagement, Not Just Transactions MoxieLash, Pacifica, Lucy & Yak. UGC. Reviews. Referrals. Loyalty now means participation. The modern flywheel starts before checkout - and lasts far beyond it. ~~ Bottom line? If your loyalty program is still playing a game from 15 years ago, your customers are going to find better options. Today, the best brands in 2025 aren’t just rewarding loyalty- they're engineering it. PS: We analyzed 100+ programs across QSR, retail, travel, and fintech. Next week I’ll share the Top 30 loyalty programs leading the way. Stay tuned🙏

I’ve Long Wondered Why More Banks Didn’t Follow BofA’s Rewards Playbook PNC just announced TotalRewards, a new relationship‑based loyalty program spanning banking, lending, and credit cards 👇. - Tiered rewards structure based on combined deposit and investment balances (Silver/Gold/Platinum) - Enhanced credit card rewards, savings rate boosts, and fee‑avoidance tied to relationship depth - Cash rewards on certain lending products (mortgage, home equity, auto), not just rate discounts - Automatic Silver‑tier status for eligible military members, regardless of balance 💡 PNC game changer. If the TotalRewards structure looks familiar, it’s because it closely mirrors the Bank of America Preferred Rewards framework, long held up as the gold standard in enterprise bank loyalty. It is also a reminder that these programs take years to design, test, pilot, and roll out. By the time TotalRewards launched, Bank of America had already evolved its approach with BofA Rewards, extending entry level membership regardless of balance. The takeaway is not criticism. It is how quickly the competitive bar can move relative to bank build cycles. That said, this is still a meaningful step for PNC, which prioritized building something durable for the bank and meaningful for customers. 💡💡Cash rewards on lending. Most banks express lending benefits through rate discounts or fee reductions. PNC’s decision to pay some of that value in cash, specifically for auto and home equity loans, makes the benefit more visible and positions lending as an active contributor to loyalty. PNC isn’t replacing rate discounts but is adding cash rewards on top, enhancing the value for customers without changing the underlying economics. 💡💡💡Recognizing the military. Automatically granting Silver status to military members is uncommon among large banks. Rather than offering parallel fee relief, PNC embeds recognition directly into its rewards hierarchy, signaling relationship value. It will be interesting to see whether this becomes a visible part of PNC’s marketing or remains a quieter design choice.