How to develop donor personas for your nonprofit

Understanding who supports your mission is one of the most powerful advantages in modern fundraising. Donor personas—audience profiles that nonprofits create—are central to that understanding. These profiles represent groups of supporters, including their behaviors, motivations, preferred methods of communication, and motivations to give.

These profiles make fundraising more strategic, helping you shape messaging, outreach, and programs that resonate with the right audience. Below, you’ll learn:

• Why donor personas matter
• How to gather the information needed to build them
• How to put them together using our template
• How to integrate them into your fundraising strategy

Why understanding donor personas is important

Donor personas make your fundraising more personal and strategic. When you know who your supporters are, why they give, and what their communication preferences are, you can move beyond one-size-fits-all outreach and tailor your messaging and approach. Personas help you decide which channels to prioritize, how often to communicate, and what success looks like—whether that’s repeat gifts, more volunteers, or stronger event participation.

This level of personalization fuels deeper donor engagement and better long-term retention. Supporters who feel understood are more likely to give again, share your mission, and increase their involvement over time. With clear personas, you ensure every message reaches its ideal donor at the right moment in their journey.

6 ways to get to know your donors

Nonprofits can build donor personas using qualitative and quantitative research, blending real conversations with giving history and data from your customer relationship manager or CRM. Here are six ways to better understand your supporters.

1. Interviews and conversations

Talking directly with existing donors, new supporters, volunteers, and potential donors is one of the best ways to gather insight you won’t find in data alone. These conversations can happen over coffee, on a call, on Zoom, or at events. The goal is to listen and learn.

Interviews help uncover motivations, personal values, and emotional drivers behind giving. You might ask:

• What inspired you to give?
• How do you choose which organizations to support each year?
• How do you prefer to hear from the nonprofits you care about?
• How can we improve how we share updates?
• What would make giving feel even more meaningful?

Use your donor database to pull a mix of voices across donor segments, not just your most active supporters. What you learn forms the foundation of a smarter fundraising strategy built on real motivations, real preferences, and real people.

2. Surveys

Surveys offer a fast way to gather broad insight from your donor base. They help you collect demographic information (like age groups and location) and psychographic insights (like values and motivations), giving you a clearer picture of what influences giving behavior.

Survey results can also validate assumptions about your current donors—like whether Millennials prefer mobile giving or peer-to-peer fundraising. When paired with giving history or donor database trends, surveys reveal patterns you may not see otherwise.

You can distribute surveys through:

• Social media polls or stories
• Email links to a short questionnaire
• Mail-in forms for donors who prefer print
• QR codes or quick check-ins at events

Surveys are ideal for reaching large donor segments at once and helping you understand supporters more deeply to engage them more effectively.

3. Focus groups and feedback sessions

Focus groups let you hear from multiple groups of donors at once. In small discussions of 6 to 12 people, you can compare perspectives, explore motivations, and surface concerns or ideas that might not appear in one-on-one interviews.

Aim for a diverse mix to get a full, 360-degree view of what supporters value. Use CRM filters to pull participants based on:

• Demographics or giving history
• Years involved with your organization
• Volunteer activity or campaign engagement

A blend of longtime donors and newer supporters often sparks the richest discussions.

Focus groups are also great for testing messaging. Share draft language, visuals, or calls to action (CTAs). You can also ask what feels clear, inspiring, or confusing. The feedback you gather helps you build donor personas grounded in real reactions.

4. Donor database analysis

Your CRM is one of your strongest tools for understanding donor behavior. Reviewing the data you already have helps you see who gives, how often, and what keeps them engaged.

Look for patterns in:

• Giving history and length of involvement
• Donation frequency and average gift size
• Interest in volunteer opportunities or events
• Peer-to-peer activity and response to specific donation forms

You may notice clear segments. For example, monthly donors, seasonal givers, or those who respond most to peer-to-peer campaigns.

Use these patterns to develop a donor profile for each group. The clearer the profile, the easier it is to plan targeted fundraising efforts that motivate that persona.

5. Behavioral data and engagement patterns

Behavioral data shows how donors interact with your nonprofit online. By tracking digital touchpoints, you can see what captures attention, what drives action, and where supporters naturally engage.

Useful metrics to monitor include:

• Email opens and clicks
• Activity on social media platforms
• Website behavior and top pages
• Virtual or livestream attendance
• Peer-to-peer sharing and participation
• Online donation trends

These insights help you understand different donor groups’ online presence and how they respond to your fundraising campaigns. Some may skip emails but respond to posts on Instagram or TikTok, whereas others may donate only after seeing impact stories or peer-to-peer shares. Recognizing these patterns lets you meet donors where they already are.

The more you learn from donor behavior, the easier it is to design campaigns that feel relevant, well timed, and personal.

6. Prospect research and wealth screening

Prospect research helps you identify new supporters, whereas similar wealth screening methods can show which current donors may have the capacity to give more or deepen their involvement. By reviewing wealth indicators, professional background, giving history, and philanthropic activity, you can spot potential major donors and individuals who are ready for a stronger relationship with your organization.

When paired with other insights, like communication preferences or past engagement, you can create more targeted outreach. For example, someone with a history of giving large gifts may appreciate personal updates, direct conversations, or invitations to leadership-level opportunities.

This approach keeps you from guessing where to invest time and energy. Instead, you can focus on donors most aligned with your mission and most likely to help it grow.

How to develop your donor personas

Once you’ve gathered insights from interviews, surveys, CRM data, focus groups, and engagement patterns, you’re ready to build your donor personas. These profiles act as fictional “characters” based on real donor behavior, representing supporters that share similar motivations, communication styles, and giving habits.

To build your donor personas:

1. Group donors by shared characteristics: Look for patterns in donation frequency, preferred channels, interests, and values.
2. Identify what motivates each group to give: Find out what excites them. What impact do they care about most?
3. Note their communication preferences: Learn if they respond better to email, social media, mail, or events.
4. Give each persona a name and description: Include personal context to paint a full picture of who they are and what they care about (like “works in marketing at a B-Corp,” “has a young family,” “volunteers with animals on the weekends”).
5. Add behavioral clues: Look at how each persona donates, whether monthly, annually, during campaigns, through peer-to-peer fundraisers, or after stories that touch them.

Here’s what a persona might look like:

• Persona name: Meet Jasmine
• Age: 24
• Location: New York City
• Background and interests: Jasmine is social, busy, and always connected. She works in a creative field, walks dogs as a side hustle, and plays pickleball with friends on weekends. She enjoys discovering new restaurants, sharing photos on social media from her day, and keeping up with trends on TikTok and Instagram. Most of her social life happens online or in spontaneous small-group hangouts. She values community and experiences over formality.
• Motivations: Jasmine wants to help in ways that feel tangible and immediate. She’s most inspired when she can see the impact of her gift—real stories, real people, real outcomes. Causes involving animal welfare, youth programs, and community wellness resonate with her. She’s more likely to give when friends are involved or when she can take a simple action that feels meaningful.
• Communication preferences:
  • Instagram and TikTok content
  • Short, visual emails
  • Occasional text messages
• Giving behavior:
  • Small monthly giving rather than large one-time gifts
  • Responds best to impact-driven updates and photos
  • Likely to participate in peer-to-peer fundraising with friends
  • Donates when stories feel personal, urgent, or shareable
• Other important notes: Jasmine is a connector. If she believes in something, she’ll bring her network with her. Keep messaging bite-sized, visual, and easy to pass along. She may not read long newsletters, but will watch a 20-second video that shows exactly how her support helps. Supporting her socially can widen your donor base.

You can use this template to create your donor personas:

• Persona name
• Age
• Location
• Background and interests
• Motivations
• Communication preferences
• Giving behavior
• Other important notes

How to use donor personas to turn insight into action

Donor personas matter most when applied. They help shape everything from messaging and donor journeys to team coordination and campaign planning. Here are four ways to activate using donor personas.

Tailor communication and messaging

Once you build your personas, you can tailor outreach to match each group’s motivations. Different supporters respond to different styles. For example, what motivates a new donor may not resonate with a long-time constituent. When you speak to each persona directly, donors feel understood and more connected to your mission.

Start by shaping messaging around three things:

1. Communication preferences: Do they prefer social media, email updates, phone calls, or direct mail?
2. Motivations: Are they moved by impact stories, community programs, or measurable results?
3. Age and engagement habits: Do younger donors respond on social platforms, whereas others prefer print or in-person touchpoints?

Then, segment outreach across specific channels:

• Email updates and thank-you’s
• Impact-driven content on social media
• Direct mail appeals or printed newsletters
• Personalized phone calls for high-touch outreach
• Event invitations or face-to-face connection

You can also customize donation forms to highlight what matters most to each persona, like monthly giving, volunteer involvement, or program-specific impact. The right message, delivered in the right way, increases engagement and strengthens long-term giving.

Create donor journey maps for each persona

Each donor persona can also have a donor journey. A journey map shows how a supporter moves from prospective donor to recurring giver, and how you guide them along the way. The goal is to understand what donors need at each stage to respond with the right message, CTA, or opportunity to engage.

A simple donor journey often includes:

• Awareness: This is how someone discovers your mission, like through social media, word of mouth, or an event.
• First action or donation: This could be a visit to your donation page, a small first gift, or a sign-up for email updates.
• Nurturing and building trust: This could include using welcome emails, impact storytelling, and invitations to volunteer or attend an event.
• Deeper engagement: This is how you get donors to return to give again, support a specific program, or sign up for monthly giving.
• Long-term loyalty: This involves getting a supporter who donated last year to return this year, sometimes growing into a monthly giver or major donor.

As you map these stages, use donor data to guide decisions: where donors first connect, what messages inspire action, and which touchpoints lead to repeat giving. You might find that one donor persona responds best to impact updates, whereas another becomes more engaged after volunteer invitations or personal thank-you messages.

A strong journey map helps improve retention, deepen relationships, and make every interaction feel intentional.

Leverage your fundraising tools

Donor personas are most powerful when paired with the right fundraising tools. GoFundMe Pro helps align your strategy with each persona’s preferences, making it easier to reach supporters where they’re most engaged and in ways that reflect what motivates them to give.

You can tailor your outreach and engagement by using:

• Customizable donation pages for direct giving
• Peer-to-peer fundraising for socially connected donors
• Livestream fundraising for digital-first audiences
• Social integrations for supporters active on social media platforms

GoFundMe Pro also integrates with major CRMs, making it easy to categorize donors by persona type for personalized messaging and segmentation. With these integrations, you can track data points like engagement, giving history, average gift size, and event attendance to refine your outreach over time.

When technology supports your strategy, your messaging becomes smarter, more relevant, and more effective.

Engage your team

Donor personas are most effective when your whole organization uses them. Create a simple playbook for each persona so staff can reference how, when, and where to engage them and what messages will resonate most.

Make sure your fundraising team, marketing staff, and volunteer coordinators understand each persona clearly. When everyone speaks to the same audiences in similar ways, fundraising appeals, event invites, and outreach become more consistent and effective.

To stay aligned, encourage your team to:

• Use shared persona names and descriptions.
• Compare results after campaigns or events.
• Track which messages perform best.
• Revisit personas as donor behavior shifts.

With shared language and common guidelines, every supporter touchpoint feels strategic.

Develop donor personas to increase impact

Donor personas give nonprofits a clearer understanding of their target audience and how to reach them in ways that lead to stronger engagement and better retention over time. And when you pair donor personas with modern tools like GoFundMe Pro, your outreach becomes more personalized, efficient, and impactful.

Start with 2 to 3 donor personas rather than trying to build them all at once. Over time, you can update and refine them as your donor base grows and you collect more insight.

If you’re ready to raise more, engage more deeply, and create fundraising that feels more personal, explore how GoFundMe Pro can help you bring a persona-driven strategy to life.

Copy editor: Ayanna Julien