MWD BLOG

It’s the most wonderful time of the year – the fundraising season ramping up to the December 31 deadline for gifts that are tax-deductible for 2017. Most organizations simply want to bring in the most revenue possible during this time of year. However, it will pay off long-term if fundraisers consider the long-term value of the donors who make gifts at year end, and make efforts to bring monthly donors on board.

During Year End, you can anticipate a bump in monthly donors. Most people who become monthly donors at year end will do so organically on your main donation form. At other times of year, organizations need to ask people directly to become monthly donors in order to convert this level of new sustainers.

One Mal Warwick Donordigital client, Corporate Accountability, is doing an especially fabulous job of promoting monthly giving at year end and throughout the year. Corporate Accountability stops transnational corporations from devastating democracy, trampling human rights, and destroying our planet. Additionally, they have been able to increase online giving as a percentage of overall digital fundraising to 42% (for giving up to $1000) and have increased monthly giving revenue by 53% over the prior year.

Here’s how they’re promoting monthly giving during the year end fundraising period: getting as many people as possible to their donation page via a great year-end matching gift offer, promoted in email, mail, social media and online advertising—and attempting to convert them to monthly giving once they’re there.

1. The most important way to increase monthly giving during year end is to ensure the donate button on the website is unmistakably easy to find. The majority of donors will be making online gifts via this button, regardless of whether they are receiving your emails, your retargeting online ads, or any other promotion from you. Don’t make them take one moment longer than necessary to find it.
   
   Why is this the most important thing to do? The huge volume of people on the website. So, make sure you have your house in order on your main donate button first. Corporate Accountability recently underwent a website design overhaul and accomplished this:
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. The next most important thing you can do to bring in more monthly gifts during year end is to optimize your main donation form for monthly giving. This means that monthly giving should be promoted side-by-side with one-time giving if possible. In the Corporate Accountability form, we’re using tappable buttons with a nudge next to the monthly giving button encouraging people to choose a sustaining donation.
   
   
   
   
3. Finally, Corporate Accountability is following up with recent one-time gift donors and inviting them to be monthly donors. For first-time donors, they will receive the three-message welcome series after their first gift, which culminates in a sustainer gift ask. For repeat donors, they will receive a sustainer ask one week after their single gift (after receiving a thank-you email—and they will also receive a mailed acknowledgement). This monthly giving ask includes a matching gift offer to further incentivize donors.

The weeks immediately following a single gift are the most opportune time to invite someone to become a monthly donor—once they have been thanked for their initial gift, of course. Here’s an example of Corporate Accountability’s triggered email:

Here are some other ideas to keep in mind for current monthly donors and monthly giving recruitment at this time of year.

1. Don’t forget to invite your current sustainers to make an additional gift at year end—and do to thank them for their current monthly gift when you ask.
2. A monthly giving upsell lightbox can increase your monthly giving conversion rates. This pop-up on the donation form that is served if you make a one-time gift has been shown to increase monthly giving by 2% to 10%.
3. If you are asking directly for a monthly gift at year end, be sure to drive prospective sustainers directly to a dedicated monthly giving donation form. [CAI example]
4. Add a monthly donor checkbox to your direct mail response form. A great place to put this soft ask is underneath the ask string on the response form.
5. Finally, consider running a dedicated monthly giving campaign early in the year—to try to convert all those recent one-time gift donors from year end into monthly donors.

We hope Corporate Accountabilty’s success will motivate others to continue pursuing monthly givers, even during the year end time period. What are your plans for monthly giving this year?