Monthly Giving

As someone who’s been working with and on monthly donor programs for almost 30 years now, the order of operations comes up a lot. It often creates a pause or a stop in the growth of monthly donors. Of course, we’re only human and, as fundraisers, we often tend to focus — and agonize — about things that are least important. But they’re easier. They make us feel we’re more in control...

If you look at the most recent statistics on donor retention, the year 2020 was not great. One reason was that many organizations put a hold on asking for contributions in the first half of the year because they worried about donors not giving. Many continued to be reluctant well into the second half. Hence, many donors who gave in 2019, never gave in 2020...

For many of you, this, too, may be a good time to sit down and take a moment and look at the plan for the fall. Sometimes all it takes is writing something down and putting it somewhere you can see it. Nothing happens magically, but just putting it on your to-do list will make it much more likely to happen...

Sustainer giving is not the latest shiny new thing. Instead, it should already be part of your fundraising strategy as it will permeate all your giving and all levels of donors. It will help you keep your lights on. It will help you with your operating revenue. All it takes is a little bit of time to focus on it. So, if you’re looking to grow your monthly donor program, make sure you’re looking at it as an important thing that can be very exciting and fun to work on, just a little bit at a time...

At first, I thought that Erica’s approach to monthly giving sounded too good to be true. But after the two webinars, several delightful conversations and reading her new book, "Monthly Giving Made Easy," I’m convinced that it definitely is that good and that easy!...

Recently, I read "The Post-Pandemic Nonprofit: 12 Disruptive Trends Your Nonprofit Must Master" by Jeremy Reis. I like how Jeremy broke up the book by: who we are, how we operate, how we grow and where do we go from here?...

There’s so much that goes right with monthly giving, and the results are showing. But every now and then, I see some goofs. I’m sharing these mistakes because I hope you will not make them in your organization. Let’s look at four examples of how things can go wrong...

Today I wanted to start your week off with a little music. It’s been a very loooooong year, and as many of you are about to wrap up your fiscal year, you might need some encouragement to keep pushing. Let me share with you one of my all-time favorite songs with you: "Wake Up Everybody"...

I was looking back at some questions posed in a webinar I presented recently, and this was one of them: “What’s the most common mistake you see is made when it comes to monthly giving?” Of course, I’d love to say that most of you are not making any mistakes, but that’s not totally true...

As I’m sure you can imagine, I receive questions about how best to grow monthly donor programs all the time. One of the first things I do is look at the organization’s website. How easy is it to find the monthly giving option? How easy is it to find the donation page to begin with?...