Monthly Giving

Exercise regularly. Easier said than done. If you’re concerned about your donor retention and donor experience, let’s look at the best three fundraising exercises to help you do just that...

By now, you’ve all heard of the GDPR. It stands for: The General Data Protection Regulation. GDPR is a regulation law in the European Union on data protection and privacy for all individuals within the EU and the European Economic Area...

By planning ahead and thinking which organizations donors would like to support with a small monthly gift now allows them to give themselves a little vacation at the year end when life gets busy. They’re feeling good now, and they’ll feel good when they receive their thank-you letters and subsequent warm/fuzzy communications from the organizations they support...

I’m still on a sustainer “high.” I just came back from a fabulous “Sustainer Day,” organized by the Direct Marketing Association of Washington. In just four fast hours, nonprofits and service providers shared trends, best practices and ways they’re working to bring in new sustainers and improve monthly donor retention...

Well, what you're asking your monthly donors to do when they sign up for a sustainer program is to trust you. When they fill out that form and hit “submit,” it’s usually straightforward. You send an automatic thank-you message and a subsequent follow-up email confirming the donor’s commitment as a sustainer...

… You’d think that every organization by now would be convinced that there are donors who are interested in supporting your organization by joining a sustainer program… You’d think that tremendous feeling of excitement that these wonderful sustainers generate would permeate your organization. Well, unfortunately, that’s not always the case.

You’ve heard me say this before: ”Assign a driver!”—if you’re serious about growing your nonprofit sustainer program. Just one driver who pulls it all together and who makes sure the car keeps running and is being maintained to keep on running for a very long time...

I’m not talking about the latest soccer game. I’m not even talking about the online dating service, although, in a way, we fundraisers could be considered trying to “date” and then “marry” our donors. No, what I’m talking about is that wonderful, glorious “challenge” you offer, which you can use to “entice” other donors to make a gift...

It’s August—that means thunderstorms; perhaps even a hurricane. Weather issues mean flight delays. Waiting. And waiting some more!  You may not get to your destination today. Or if you’re on your way home, you may not get there until much later. You can get upset about it, but ultimately, it’s all about being safe.  But what does a flight delay mean for your monthly sustainers and for you as an organization?...

I just got back from a tremendous few days in the Washington D.C. area, and I learned a lot about monthly sustainer programs. First, I was privileged to attend the Professional Face to Face Fundraisers Association meeting, where some 75 people listened to speakers on the latest trends in face-to-face sustainer fundraising...