Take Action Right Away to Improve Your Monthly Donor Retention

Over the past few weeks, I’ve presented numerous webinars on monthly giving. I’ve also had lots of conversations with organizations asking them about their challenges with their monthly donor retention.

And the No. 1 problem is expiring credit cards. When that happens it’s really important to remember the following: The donors did not call you to cancel their commitment! They want to continue giving monthly!

They may have just received their new card and don’t realize that their monthly gift doesn’t continue unless they give you the updated information.

Use everything in your power to get that update as soon as possible, so there’s no lapse in payment.

So, make it easy on the donor and remind them to give you that update. And make it easy on yourself.

Talk to your donor base and online processor, and see if they can set up account updater for you. The cost is literally peanuts and your monthly donors continue without a problem. Right now, you’ll look at capturing about 25 percent to 30 percent of expiring cards that way.

Pick the same date each month that works best for you to sit down and review what’s going on. Some systems will tell you which cards are about to expire, others will not tell you until the card expired or declined. Then have your plan of action ready.

1. Send a letter with reply form and reply envelope.
2. Send an email with a link to monthly donor page to update and/or phone number (especially if you can’t include the update link, as not every system makes it that easy to do yet or requires a manual update process).
3. Make a phone call and try to speak to the donor live and leave a message if you can’t reach them.
4. Repeat the above. If you have account updater, try it again next month as there can be a time lag.

And to make your life a bit easier, I’ve created a little phone script to use as part of my brand new “Monthly Donor Retention Play Book.” See below.

Credit: Erica Waasdorp

You have to do all of the above to be able to reach the donor in every way possible. Then, see what happens.

Don’t wait to send the letter till you get them on the phone or receive a reply via email. You don’t want to miss any payments. You may not have phone numbers for everybody. You may not have emails for everybody.

And always track the impact by annualizing the donor’s revenue. How much could you stand to lose every year if your monthly donors drop out. How much annual revenue did you just keep by getting the donor’s updated information? If you look at it, that way, it’ll be totally worth a few stamps and some time to chase, and your monthly donor retention rates will flourish!