We all know the key to long-term relationships with supporters is making sure everyone is happy. By keeping your fundraisers involved and supported, they will feel inspired to raise more money and will be more likely to do events again and again for your cause. Your cost of recruitment will go down and your income will rise.

But how do you know if they’re happy?

Have you asked them?

People are usually very willing to let you know how they feel about something that you’re doing or something that’s happening! But how do you find out about those in-betweeny people – somewhere less contented than they could be, and unlikely to raise money for you again?

Short online surveys are your friends! Send them as soon as you can after the event to capitalise on momentum. Keep them short – only ask questions for the most important things you want to find out. You can always ask people to leave their email address if they are happy to chat further about their experience.

Anecdotal feedback

Often, supporters are much more likely to give honest feedback in a conversation than they would be on a form – especially if they are talking to a charity rep they’ve been working with on their fundraising, or someone from the charity they’ve been speaking to a lot. If you have celebratory events for fundraisers – post-race receptions, for example – make sure any staff there have a means to record any pertinent comments. It could be as straight-forward as everyone having a notepad in their pocket to jot things down as they hear them. Don’t use quotes on anything external-facing without explicit permission, obviously, but these comments collected together can provide a much bigger insight into your fundraising community.

Noticing negativity

Do you have the same ‘itches’ that come up for fundraisers over and again? Forms that are clunky and complicated to fill in; missed emails of event details; supporters not followed up with when they express interest in an event? These are all processes that could be having a big impact on your supporters’ experience, and they can be fixed. Negative comments on social media, or even bad word of mouth among a running or cycling community could seriously hamper your ability to recruit or keep supporters further down the line.

That personal touch

Ultimately, if supporters feel they have a way to talk to you directly in a conversation, they will be more likely to share both positive and less-positive feedback. Make sure contact details for your nurture/care team are front and centre on all communications, from sign up to acknowledgement of remittance. Offer different ways to contact you. Engage in conversation with your supporters on your social media, and sign your emails off with a name of someone from your team. Put a face to a name by having your team visible on social channels and the website. That way, if supporters want to give any information that might be really helpful for your future event fundraising, they don’t have to look too hard to find out how to do that.

Do you know how your eventers feel about you? Tell us your techniques in the comments!