Sustaining Your Sustainers: Taking Your Monthly Giving Program to the Next Level

It takes heart, care and consistent attention to craft a successful recurring-gift program. We are getting better at acquiring and converting significant portions of our donor files to this convenient method for making a more lasting impact on our missions. This is a great leap and should set us up for greater success — unless it is done without thinking about where we'll be and what we'll do when we land! It's time to adjust to the "new normal" and its attendant pros and cons. The potential for increasing revenue is tremendous, once we realize that a new business model is required to properly steward, retain and upgrade these donors.

Mary Toropov is an account director at DMW Direct Fundraising.