In not for profits, the connection between the customer, supporter (eg donors, volunteers and community fundraisers) and employee experience is paramount to the success of your organisation.

That’s because they are often the same person or organisation - at the same time or over time.

Connection between customers and supporters

Customers often become supporters when they benefit from the services provided by the not for profit and particularly after a ‘moment of truth’ eg getting a positive prognosis or gaining employment.

Parents and carers who are customers are often the greatest supporters of not for profits as they ‘experience’ the service through the customer – their offspring or spouse.

The ultimate connection is when a customer leaves a Gift in their Will - which we know is on average a multiple of other types of donations.

Family members or friends often become supporters when someone close to them is a customer and has benefited from the services provided by the not for profit, often as a way of feeling they are helping or doing something constructive, often in a period of trauma.

The most successful supporters draw on the experience of customers when fundraising by using stories of customers that they have experienced themselves (obviously with the appropriate privacy caveats). These personal stories are much more compelling than a general statement about ‘supporting those in need’.

Connection between employees and supporters

I can think of alot of examples where volunteers have become employees which gives the organisation a pool of potential employees who are already engaged with the organisation, know how it works and the culture. Kind of like try before you buy for both parties.

Just the other day I was talking to an employee in a not for profit who had asked her friends and family to sponsor her in a running event, and I bet can you guess how successful her campaign was!

Connection between customers and employees

You know its like when you are a customer and dealing with an employee who obviously isn’t engaged with the organisation. Not good! At least until we all get taken over by robots, employees are the ones who are delivering the experience to customers so there is no point having a great experience for customers which is a poor experience for employees eg having to navigate poor systems or manual solutions - please don’t let them be your ‘human duct tape!’

Take away action

Connecting supporter and customer experience is important as we know that a driver of supporter experience is the impact it has. Design and deliver an experience for supporters which brings them closer to the customer experience and shows the impact they are having, and you will create advocates.  

Wherever ever possible, have your customers, supporters and employees in the same CRM. That way, you can identify where the connection is and use that to create the aspirational journey and the ‘next best conversation’ for customers, supporters and employees.

Let me me know if I can help.