A Monthly Giving How-To: Make It a Thing

By Erica Waasdorp

The expression, “Make monthly giving a thing,” came from Cara Schwalbach of One Tail at a Time in Chicago. She and I were scheduled to co-present on monthly giving at an upcoming animal welfare conference, but that was canceled.

Cara was going to share her amazing story of how she grew from 200 to 1,600 monthly donors in a few years by literally making monthly giving a thing. Most recently, she was interviewed by Funraise, and you can watch this half hour webinar with Cara right here.

You can quickly tell how much she loves monthly giving (like me!) and how committed she is to it.

As she will tell you, too: It doesn’t have to take a lot of money or a lot of time. It just requires a focus. A priority.

This is probably the biggest challenge for many organizations, but it doesn’t have to be. The more you make monthly giving a thing, the more monthly donors you’ll generate.

I get it. With live events canceled for the foreseeable future, nonprofits are now trying to learn new peer-to-peer platforms, new ways to offer virtual events while some have to learn “old school” channels, like direct mail and telefundraising, for fundraising and outreach.

If you can fit in doubling or, better yet, quadrupling your focus on monthly gifts, you’ll be in such better shape than ever before — just like Cara shares in her interview.

What does it take to finally make monthly giving a thing in your organization?

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Monthly Giving

Erica Waasdorp Author's page

Erica Waasdorp is one of the leading experts on monthly giving. She is the president of A Direct Solution, a company serving nonprofit organizations with fundraising and direct marketing needs, with a focus on monthly giving and appeals. She authored "Monthly Giving: The Sleeping Giant" and "Monthly Giving Made Easy." She regularly blogs and presents on fundraising, appeals and monthly giving — in person and through webinars. She is happy to answer any questions you may have about this great way of improving retention rates for your donors.

Erica has over 30 years of experience in nonprofits and direct response. She helped the nonprofits she works with raise millions of dollars through monthly giving programs. She is also very actively supports organizations with annual fund planning and execution, ranging from copywriting, creative, lists, print and mail execution.

When she’s not working or writing, Erica can be found on the golf course (she’s a straight shooter) or quietly reading a book. And if there’s an event with a live band, she and her husband, Patrick, can be found on the dance floor. She also loves watching British drama on PBS. Erica and Patrick have two step sons and a cat, Mientje.