Recurring (Gifts) Dream

Make it as easy as possible for people to respond. Depending on the purpose and resources within your organization, you should consider sending a small thank-you gift and letter to donors after they join the monthly giving program.

While many prospective donors can relate to a special name for the monthly giving program, it is absolutely not necessary to be successful. If you can come up with a catchy name for your program, that is great, but again, don't fret about it. Brainstorm with a few people, come up with a name, and go for it (and don't look back). As long as the program name fits with the organization's mission, prospective donors will be receptive.

But what of existing donors?

The above explores the conversion of new donors to monthly givers, but many readers may ask, "What can we do with our existing donors?"

If you are still trying to "prove" to management that a monthly giving program is right for your organization, start with the best-responding group: zero to six-month donors who gave at least twice or more and preferably have given by credit card. Test an ask for monthly giving via credit card and see what happens.

If your organization's mail program is heavy (i.e., once-a-month appeals), test a monthly giving ask on a small and targeted portion of your housefile appeal and see what happens. Consider that a monthly giving ask may have a slight negative impact on the single donations coming from that appeal, so be sure to budget accordingly. This applies even more if you consider a special invitation appeal to join the monthly giving program in addition to other appeals.

A final suggestion is to always use annualized amounts to present revenue for your monthly giving program. This gives a more accurate image of the results of your efforts. The reality is that these monthly donors will give for many more years than that, but this method helps make it understandable for the boss!