Monthly giving is more important to non-profits than ever before -- especially for online fundraising programs. Your monthly donors are your most loyal audience, leading to higher lifetime value and retention compared to one-time donors. It’s no wonder that the percentage of online giving from monthly donors is increasing rapidly year over year.

But how do you create and cultivate a healthy monthly giving program? There are three core elements of a strong monthly giving program that must be present and optimized for an organization of any level. Below we’ll outline these elements and provide some tips and examples from our client, KQED Public Media, who just surpassed 100,000 monthly donors!

1: Monthly Donor Recruitment

Many monthly donors will opt in organically, so the best place to start monthly giving promotion is the homepage of your website and your main donation page. For those who don’t choose monthly giving initially, we recommend a monthly upsell lightbox, which appears when a donor makes a one-time gift:

Once your organic monthly donor recruitment is in place, it’s time to make a more concerted recruitment effort with a dedicated monthly giving campaign. This is typically a monthlong push across multiple channels (email, web, advertising, texting, telemarketing and sometimes direct mail). Consider incentivizing monthly giving with a matching gift offer and corresponding goal and deadline, or a premium.

2: Monthly Donor Retention

Now that you’ve recruited some monthly donors, how do you keep them? The most important part of monthly donor retention can also be the simplest: acknowledge them and report back on how their support is funding your mission. Acknowledgement can come in many forms, from a welcome email thanking them for their monthly support, to a survey asking for their feedback on your programs. Intermittent cultivation emails reporting back on your monthly donors’ impact have also been proven to increase retention.

Beyond cultivation, the other key element of monthly donor retention is stop-loss. Make sure your donor services contact info is easy to find and check for expiring cards in advance. Proactively contact monthly donors who are expiring via phone, mail and a triggered email series. Depending on your payment processor, there are also a number of automatic card updater solutions available that are worth the investment.

3: Monthly Donor Upgrades

Since monthly donors are among your most dedicated supporters, it’s important to provide regular (but not constant) opportunities for them to lend an additional hand. When asking for increased monthly gifts, treat it as a special touchpoint with a specific campaign goal. We also recommend including monthly donors in solicitations for one-time gifts during your cornerstone fundraising campaigns. Make sure to always reference their monthly giving and thank them before asking for an upgraded gift.

Would you like help building your monthly giving program? Get in touch with Mal Warwick Donordigital!

 

Nick Garcia, Senior Account Executive at Mal Warwick Donordigital, has worked in nonprofit fundraising for over 10 years, with experience ranging from direct response to event planning and data management. He has coordinated multichannel fundraising campaigns for KQED Public Media, National Alliance on Mental Illness, and many more. An east Bay Area native, Nick graduated with a degree in Business Management from San Francisco State University.