Monthly Giving

If you’re an organization that has had monthly donors for a while, you’ll know that some of your monthly donors can and will stay with you for decades! Of course that in part depends on their age when joining. Typically, I’m seeing that those donors continue to give monthly for 5 years to 7 years...

Two decades ago, Human Rights Campaign introduced “Partners,” our new monthly giving program. But we did so much more than that—in large part, unknowingly. We didn’t just create a program. We embarked on a journey to create an organizational culture. A culture of sustained giving...

In one of the webinars I present on monthly giving, one of the polls is: “How often do you ask someone to become a monthly donor?” The answer in some 50 percent of cases is not at all. Twenty percent say once a year and others more often than that—maybe twice or three times...

If you’re just starting out or if you’re in the growing stages of your monthly donor program, here is my number one recommendation: Put someone in charge! If you do this now, it will avoid “finger pointing” or worse—decreasing programs—later...

Whatever you do, keep it manageable and affordable for yourself. And make sure that the donor is okay with you recognizing them in the ways you promise them you will. Once you create these promises, you can start listing it whenever and wherever you promote the program...

One of the toughest challenges in our sector is getting donors to give time and time again—to get one-time donors to become repeat donors. Perhaps it’s showing donors the impact that the organization is making or having a mission powerful enough for donors to want to be a part of the organization. Perhaps simplifying the…

Simply put, monthly giving is one way to help your retention metrics grow. It’s certainly not the only way you should be trying to retain more donors, but it certainly helps. And, as most organizations have realized by now, monthly giving is not just for the organizations that can tie their mission to a monthly cost or a service provided, etc...

Monthly giving is the lifeblood of many nonprofit organizations, but it’s no easy task to pile up sustainers. It’s even tougher when you’re championing a less-than-sexy cause—say, drug policy. But that didn’t stop Drug Policy Alliance and Sanky Communications Inc. from combining for a remarkable monthly giving campaign...

The donor made a $5,000 pledge, payable at $100 a month. She stopped giving, and the organization said nothing! This is an amazing story of ignorance and neglect. Ignorance in that a good fundraiser should know better. Neglect in that this good donor seriously was abused in this relationship...

The frequency of giving from a pair of donors, two elderly sisters living together near Seattle, surprised me. The donor relationship had started as a one-time gift in response to a television show we had produced. It then segued into a monthly pledge, which increased over time. In the midst of all that regular giving, there were other one-time gifts, some $100, others $500...