The BIG List of Donor Benefits, Perks, Incentives, and Ways to Show Donors Your Appreciation (150+ ways)
Securing sustainable fundraising is one of the biggest challenges nonprofit organizations face.
Nonprofits need every tool possible to entice donors to join and then stick around for years.
Especially when it comes to individual donors, donor incentives or benefits can be a great tool.
To help you ramp up your fundraising faster, this provides an overview of 150+ donor benefits that organizations have successfully used.
What Are Donor Incentives?
Donation incentives are benefits that nonprofits offer to potential donors to both encourage and recognize their contributions. Donor benefits are often tied to donation levels, with greater perks offered for larger and longer-term commitments.
Donation incentives are often used for fundraising efforts such as events, capital campaigns, and monthly sustainer programs. Sometimes, donor benefits are physical items or swag, such as a brick with a donor’s name at a new building or a seat and a meal at a gala event. But often, donor benefits are built on more intangible incentives, such as publicity opportunities.
When designing your donor incentives program, you’ll want to get creative. You might even consider collaborating with other nonprofits in your region or issue area to investigate whether you can offer benefits to each other’s donors. And remember, donor benefits are as much about retention and appreciation as they are about providing perks.
Also, remember that timing matters. As much as possible, try to thank donors very quickly after the gift… within 48 hours. This helps reinforce the message that every gift is valued.
How to Inventory Organizational Assets for Donor Incentives
The first step in designing donor levels and benefits for your organization is understanding what your nonprofit uniquely has to offer donors. It can be helpful to kick this off with an internal planning process to examine your organizational assets and access so you can translate them into benefits. For example, assets could include:
Your organization’s reputation – There may be prestige and reputational benefit for donors by simply being affiliated with your organization. There’s also a legitimizing effect of being a part of a nonprofit organization.
Audience size, breadth, and depth – If your organization has big lists, lots of traffic to your website, blog, or social media pages, or big crowds at events, there are many ways to turn this into a donor benefit.
Creativity - Consider resources unique to your organization, including the ability to create art, music, poetry, dance, etc. Does anyone on your team carve, knit, sew, or create t-shirts or fun food?
Knowledge - Does your organization have subject matter expertise, research, polling, or case studies that potential donors would benefit from having access to?
Experiences – People love getting to do something unique, interesting, and valuable, even more than they like “things.” Research shows that donors often don’t want the organization to spend money on free merchandise. It is seen as wasteful overhead.
Connections - Does your organization have relationships with lawmakers, celebrities, or newsrooms that would interest potential donors?
History - Simply being around for a long time brings a level of cachet and may mean you have access to historical wisdom, knowledge, and records.
Files – Is your organization the holder of the official record of something? Do you have historical documents or news clippings of major events in your files?
Convening authority - If you convene coalitions, conferences, or other thought leaders this can be a powerful asset that creates trust and a reputation as being an essential player in your sector.
While some of the items on this list may not seem like perks at first glance, they are all ways to make donors feel special or connected. A creative fundraiser can make any of these assets sound attractive to donors.
7 Categories of Donor Benefits to Consider
Once you’ve mapped your organization’s assets, you can begin to build out donation levels and benefits. Most incentives fall into one of seven major categories:
Publicity
Recognition and appreciation
Program-related perks
Events
Access to assets
Access to community
Personal touch and other miscellaneous ideas
1. Publicity Donor Incentives
Many sponsors and donors value recognition for their support. Sometimes the recognition is transparent and transactional, such as sponsorship from a company’s marketing budget.
In other cases, both the nonprofit and its donors want to send a message that the organization has broad and deep support. Potential donors often look for these signals of community support (everybody’s doing it) to make the decision that they would be in good company if they donate.
For events, ongoing series, or recurring celebrations, consider the following options for publicity:
Mention the donor on the event web page.
Mention the donor on a dedicated webpage for a certain number of days.
Mention the donor in the footer of all web pages for a month or longer.
News release mentioning the benefactors.
Ask a feature writer or columnist to do a piece on the donors (human interest).
Write a dedicated blog post about the sponsorship.
Write a dedicated blog post about the donor’s journey toward supporting the organization.
Mention the donor in emails directly about the event they sponsored.
Mention the donor in emails year-round relating to the program they supported.
Mention the donor in a dedicated email blast or several. For example, this could be quarterly emails dedicated to sponsors who give the org $10K or more. These need not look like a commercial. Consider creative options like a video interview with the donor about the mission.
Feature donors in your email newsletter, such as a recurring “spotlight” section where you lift up the generosity of donors.
Mention the donor in the footer of the email newsletters for a month or all year (patron status).
Provide membership cards. Some people like being card-carrying members of a group.
Create a set of screensavers and background images. For inspiration, check out one that I sell. You could give away Zoom backgrounds with messages like: “Ask me about my favorite nonprofits,” or “Ask me where this background came from? Hint: It’s the XYZ Soup Kitchen.” You can have fun engaging your supporters and board members in coming up with these designs and designing them for free on Canva.
Posters are a great way to show off the name or logo of donors at events or around your facility, house of worship, soup kitchen, community center, etc.
Create small posters for sponsor businesses to show off that they are giving back and sponsoring your org, team, project, or campaign.
List donors in your organization’s annual report, and potentially feature major donors with photos and bios.
List donors in flyers, pamphlets, or other print materials.
Create a permanent community impact or commemorative wall using tiles or bricks with donor names.
Create a more temporary community impact or donor recognition wall that exists on a whiteboard, chalkboard, foam core, or other material that you display in a lobby or other space several times a year.
If your organization has a podcast or radio show, thank donors on your show or invite them as guests.
If your organization has a stream live on Instagram, YouTube, Vimeo, or Facebook, etc., go live and thank donors or feature them in conversation.
On your social media pages, “pin” or prioritize acknowledgments to donors or messages from donors.
Using attractively designed images, feature shoutouts to donors on social channels like Twitter, Linkedin, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, Clubhouse, etc.
Feature donor images and quotes in social media advertising.
Many of us are familiar with local businesses sponsoring local sports teams. The team gets t-shirts that show off the sponsor’s logo but are still made to look like jerseys or regulation outfits. Is there something like this you can try?
2) Donor Benefits that Emphasize Recognition and Appreciation
Recognition is all about going beyond the acknowledgment letter to thank your donors and emphasize how much their gift means to your organization. These types of donor benefits are especially suited for major donors, sustainers – meaning those who have given at least three years in a row, or donors who helped with a high-stakes campaign. You might consider different ways to thank donors who establish matching gifts, put the organization in their will, help with a capital campaign, or do something else especially meaningful.
Personal thank you letter or phone call from the founder, executive director, board chair, or other leadership powerhouses.
A digital member badge that can be shared on social media. These are icons or image overlays that you add to your profile picture the same way people do to declare they voted, donated blood, or got vaccinated. People love showing off that they are involved in important causes.
Hand-written note from a person served by the organization.
A phone call to the donor from a person impacted by the nonprofit.
Give the donor a custom welcome packet. This can include the history of the organization, testimonials, ways to access important documents or files held by the nonprofit, stories of impact, personalized swag, a welcome letter, or more.
Give the donor a plaque or award.
Name an award after the donor.
Name a scholarship after the donor.
Name an event after the donor.
Name something in your building after the donor, like the conference table, the kitchen, the boardroom, or even a vestibule!
Certificates of appreciation (printed). These can be framed, laminated, and turned into a bookmark or placemat, or even shrunk to be on a set of coasters.
Certificates of appreciation (digital). These can be formatted as Zoom backgrounds, sharable tiles, images, or memes online, a Facebook cover image, or something small donors can place in their electronic signature
Using QR Codes you can send someone a unique QR code that they can place anywhere (resume, electronic signature, LinkedIn profile, Slack profile, etc.) that when scanned takes people to a page with the certificate, the organization, calls to action for the nonprofit, a donate button for the nonprofit so the donor gets credit for the gift, and images of the donor at the organization’s events.
Send a video or audio “thank you” through social media or email.
With new technology called “voicemail drop,” you can place a voicemail in a donor’s voicemail box without ringing their phone. It is less intrusive but still delivers a “touch” to a donor from someone at your nonprofit.
Send a recorded voicemail to donors as a text message or as an automated dialing program. This may be used as a surprise benefit.
Send fun cards using Felt.
Create a donor appreciation page on your website that exists year-round. Promote the page in your electronic signature link and have all staff and board members consider doing this. You can also promote the donor appreciation page in staff members’ auto-responder email messages or as the generic response to the info@ general email inbox or all general email inboxes.
Reach out to acknowledge donor milestones (weddings, engagements, births)
Thank donors on the anniversary of their gift, directly tying it to a win or impact. Do this without making an ask for additional support.
Send a pack of Lifesavers candy to the donor as a cute way of saying how much they are lifesavers. Shout out to Get Fully Funded for the idea.
Snap a photo of the donor while at your facility or event and frame it and send it to them (also from Get Fully Funded.)
Swag or merch: pins ranked by bronze, silver, and gold based on giving level.
Swag or merch: mugs, shot glasses, swizzle sticks, cozies, towels.
Swag or merch: shirts, tanks, hats.
Swag or merch: keychains, thumb drives, bracelets, magnets.
Swag or merch: calendars, printables, planners, notebooks.
Swag or merch: duffels, tumblers, water bottles, satchel, totes.
Swag or merch: handmade item by someone helped by your charity. For example, a carved, sewn, painted, or drawn item by a regular volunteer or service recipient.
Swag or merch: pick and design swag that directly relates to your charity. If you are a dog rescue nonprofit, can you create doggie poop bags that are sustainable and have your logo on them? If you are with a job training program, maybe you make a bookmark that is focused on job interview tips. If you represent an educational or social justice charity, maybe giveaway specialty decks of cards featuring important people from history. These exist already!
3) Program-Related Donor Perks
You can also look to your organization’s own programs and mission-related activities for donation incentives. While it might seem ordinary from the inside, our nonprofit’s work may be fascinating to donors or may have hidden value. For example:
If your organization has a speaker’s bureau, mention donors in your remarks or slideshow presentations.
Mention donors on signs or in remarks at lobby days, river clean-up days, etc.
Mention donors at different times and places during any festivals you host.
As a way of appreciating a donor and making them feel connected, you can seek their input or participation in processes, such as giving away scholarships, grants, awards, prizes, etc.
Plug donors’ skills directly into your organization’s work.
Do you have a rehearsal, warm-up, or set-up process before an event? As a donor, I once was allowed to watch the male lead in “Beauty and the Beast” get into makeup and costume. It was super cool. Do you have something similar to offer possibly through a partnership with a local art collective or other nonprofit?
Invite donors to an intimate post-show, post-lecture, or post-keynote “talk-back.”
Seek donors’ input during strategic planning or any community landscape assessment. There are likely many opportunities during the year when donors could offer feedback on programs and branding.
Seek donors’ input while making major decisions, with some caveats of course. You don’t want donors to think they are decision-makers, but you do want them to feel like they are included in the success of the organization. Be careful with how much access you promise donors.
To stay accessible and relevant to your stakeholders, hold listening sessions during the year. You can use prompts to elicit the pros and cons of the organization or seek input on program expansion or get input on the organization’s website. The gesture sometimes matters more than the information gathered.
Give donors the opportunity to observe your programs in action. Show the work, don’t just tell. You can also invite them to observe your community research as it happens (polling, focus groups, town halls).
Let donors touch your work directly. Can donors participate in building, feeding, clothing, digging, writing, driving, or anything else you do? Consider unique and fun opportunities during the year to participate directly in your impact.
More than “observing,” but less than “touching” is “interacting.” For example, your organization works with the land, animals, water, science, or more specific elements, like at a petting zoo, or a no-kill animal shelter, or nature preserve, give donors access if appropriate.
Invite donors, at their own cost, to join you on excursions, site visits, field trips, expeditions, nature walks, or other travel needed to achieve the mission.
Is your organization rebranding or creating a new program, logo, event, or adding staff? Create “stakeholder input” opportunities for donors.
Provide free access to trainings or programs that normally have a fee.
Provide access to calls or events with subject matter experts or thought leaders.
Give access to password-protected content, for example, checklists for camping with kids or sample lesson plans for outdoor educators.
Offer concierge registration or check-in (no lines) at any event or service.
After a campaign, event, or awesome thing you did, send donors clips and art, and photos from behind the scenes and at the event or completion of a campaign.
You can create a new benefit for donors simply by choosing to use language about their donation that deepens their commitment. Hear me out. Use warm values-based language and feelings in your messaging. “You will help our democracy when you…” or “These funds will raise the sophistication of our entire sector.” People like to consume information that validates good feelings about themselves. Showing donors that they are part of something bigger than the charity is a tactical move that not only explains a donor benefit but also helps them stay engaged.
Does your organization do in-person or online trainings? Can you adapt the training for donors as a group teaching session? For example, maybe four times a year you share a customized (or standard) version of the training just for funders.
A dog assistance charity in Michigan sends first-time donors four letters over the course of the year following the journey of a dog through certification. If the donor hasn’t given by the end of that year, they are invited to renew. First-time donors over $5k to the charity are also invited to name a litter and sent a framed photo and electronic copy.
4) Event-related Donor Incentives
Nonprofits of every type hold events that can be transformed into donation incentives. Whether it’s an annual gala, a local community program, or a national webinar to release new research, these events offer opportunities for donor perks. Some ideas:
Allow a major donor to introduce your keynote speaker at your gala, conference, or special event. Donors love the proximity to special guests but they also appreciate your trust in letting them have the microphone.
Sponsors or major donors, whether they are in attendance or not, can share a pre-recorded video on stage.
Much like a donor recognition wall for year-round support, you can create something specific, spectacular, and branded just for an event. This is an opportunity to get creative.
All print material produced to promote the event or used at the event is another opportunity for donor recognition.
Use events to make announcements of donations that happened earlier in the year or have no relationship to the event. Year-round gratitude is key.
Offer access to a lounge before or after events with seating, beverages, and networking opportunities. Maybe the talent or keynote drops in to say hi.
Any event you have, allow donors to come 30 minutes early for dedicated time with staff, board, speakers, and other donors.
Offer surprise drawings and contests during the year.
Provide donors with advance notice of free and fee-based events, giving them early access to tickets or reservations.
Offer signage recognizing donors at free events.
Reserve better seating for donors at free events.
Let donors upgrade their seats or section at free or fee-based events.
At free events, give donors a shout-out from the microphone or on-screen.
If you have activities at events (photo booth, step, and repeat, silent auction) see if there is something special you can do for donors. For example, time with the founders, executive director, board chair, or the keynote in the photo booth.
At galas or cocktail hours, offer donors the ability to distribute something on-message. For example, a donor could call out their favorite program, event, or service via a postcard, at the microphone, or on-screen.
5) Access to Assets as a Donation Benefit
Your nonprofits may have incredible assets that are intriguing to donors. For example, this could include a historic building, access to experts, innovative technology or data, or historical archives. Some ideas to leverage these resources are:
Offer a tour of your building, space, or event venues.
Offer a virtual tour of your building or events or activities for donors who can’t come in person.
If there is a building clean-up or fix-up day, you could invite donors. Throw in some beer, pizza, and music, and you can even make it a party.
Offer early or personalized pre-release access to reports or research.
Offer early access to a new logo, branding, design, or program launch.
Create an invitation-only Facebook group, Slack group, or other online community.
Provide family and/or lifetime memberships to your programming. When a donor joins an organization like a museum, you could extend the membership to the entire household.
Give donors the chance to share their membership and perks with a friend, such as during a set month each year. Alternatively, you could let donors gift a short-term membership to a friend at a discounted rate, giving new prospects a taste of the great donor benefits you offer.
Sometimes a nonprofit has access to world-class chefs, celebrities, artists, architects, or well-known lawmakers. Consider inviting donors to participate in meet-and-greets.
Offer discounts on program-related products, services, or events.
Offer discounts at your gift shop, on merchandise, or at local supporter businesses, such as a nearby coffee shop.
Is your charity hyper-local or super cozy with a particular industry? You could give donors a discount or membership card that gives them perks or discounts at area businesses like the most popular ice cream place in town. Or, if your charity involves music appreciation, maybe a membership to your nonprofit could come with a discount on purchases or a subscription to an industry magazine or music store.
Provide quarterly donor updates or briefings about the organization and its work.
Offer donors private use of a room, stage, dance floor, ballroom, or meeting space.
Give donors a subscription to your newsletter (even if everyone gets it, you can still list this as a perk).
Provide access to exclusive digital content. This could be a range of things – such as online courses, Youtube videos, music lists, playlists, podcast episodes you have been on, guest appearances on radio shows you recorded, news clippings, etc.
Open up your library of content to donors. Some organizations have an impressive body of work, blog posts, books, white papers, policy analysis, talking points, swipe files, samples, templates, checklists, infographics, and much more. If some of it is behind a paywall, you can give donors free premium access.
If you have physical space you charge people to use – such as museums, archives or galleries – you could give donors unlimited access or offer special extended hours.
For performances, you could give donors access to the Director’s box or other special seating.
Provide physical gifts, such as an autographed casting sheet from a show, performance, or special event
Give free a subscription to your magazine or print newsletter with exclusive interviews, content, features, and updates.
If appropriate, you could offer access to subject matter experts on your staff or non-staff experts.
Invite donors to attend meetings with the executive director and/or board. These could be small group sessions with other donors or one-on-one meetings.
Host private special events with outside speakers, briefings with the executive director, or meetings with staff experts such as a lobbyist or frontline worker.
Give donors a dedicated personal liaison who can answer questions about your work, activities, or other topics year-round.
Invite donors to a happy hour with your staff.
6) Access to Community as a Donor Benefit
One of the least appreciated parts of nonprofits is that we strengthen bonds and a sense of belonging and purpose. Whether extroverts or introverts, many people get involved in nonprofits to build relationships, fellowship, or a sense of community. Don’t underestimate the power of human connection, even if it’s virtual. People with strong relationships live longer. We are literally saving lives when we create community and relationships.
Ideas to channel your nonprofit’s community into donor benefits include:
In messaging, emphasize that: “You will be part of a community of givers, who care, like you do, about this organization and its impact. Throughout the year you can connect with other donors and funders and the people we serve (artists, students, activists).”
Consider inviting qualified donors to join your board (which is an opportunity to govern), a board committee (which is an opportunity to help lead), or a giving circle (which is another opportunity to raise funds).
Share special invitations to observe or participate in group events, offsites, happy hours, or other social or programmatic gatherings.
Provide access to interesting subject matter experts, such as monthly calls with your scientists, attorneys, or artists.
Create a virtual VIP lounge where people can gather monthly. This could be for drinks, presentations, salons, trainings, wine tastings, food education, games, or just virtual fun. There are a growing number of free, and pretty cool, online meeting rooms that change the dynamic of how you network. Check out SpatialChat and ReSlash.
7) Other Ways to Provide a Personal Touch for Donors
The following perks don’t fit neatly in the benefit categories above, but can still help create a personal touch for donors. For example:
Show gratitude with a personalized video from the executive or development director.
Try a “Love Actually-style” approach where you make large poster boards (that you can reuse anytime) and thank the donor with a sweet note. Put your own unique flair on this fun tactic from a hugely popular movie.
Offer something fancy, such as a wine tasting + gossip virtual or in-person gathering.
Ask board and staff members from all over the region or country or the world to send notes or videos that can be easily strung together for a personalized thank you to donors.
For major donors, you could create a “design your own experience” where the donor works with the staff to cultivate the access or perks they like.
If you are a 501(c)(3), don’t forget to tell donors about the tax benefits of giving to your organization.
Offer certain donor levels voting rights at annual meetings or for winners of competitions your nonprofit hosts.
Consider providing surprise benefits you don’t list in donor materials.
Alternatives to Donor Levels and Benefits
While the practice of creating donor benefits is not controversial, that doesn’t mean it’s the only or the best method. Some organizations decide not to offer donor incentives. For these groups, providing perks to some supporters and not others raises questions of equity – people with money get more stuff.
Luckily, you can structure your perks so that everyone involved with your nonprofit gets the same benefits, but maybe donors get them sooner or delivered personally. You can even use the space on your website and other materials where you would normally describe your donor benefits to educate donors about why you have chosen another approach.
“Thank you for considering a donation to help us do this incredible work. We know you care and that you want impact. So do we. That’s why we’re a perfect match. Many nonprofits offer benefits to donors. We don’t. This isn’t an oversight. It is our strategy. We have decided that this doesn’t align with our values. We want our energy to be focused on impact instead of creating elaborate transactional perks. All the perks of your gift go to the people we serve! We want you here because you care. You want us here because we care. We’re glad you agree. Please consider an even more generous gift because of our principled stance. We are kind, inclusive, and transparent with all our stakeholders. That’s how it should be.”
Another argument against donor benefits is that the time and energy creating, reviewing, tweaking, and fulfilling them is time not spent on other things.
Regardless of the critique, many believe that donor incentives work. Are donor benefits a “necessary evil” of fundraising? No. Are they a tool with tradeoffs? Yes.
I am a huge believer that the best plan is one that doesn’t sell your soul, that doesn’t create lots of work, that does create joy, that is more about the gesture than things, that makes you stronger for doing it, that isn’t classist, that is fun, and builds your organization. So choosing the right donor incentives is as much about how it benefits your nonprofit as it is about how it benefits your donors.
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