The Good, The Bad, The Ugly of Monthly Giving
Like so many other Americans, I tend to make the majority of my charitable gifts at the end of the year. It should be easy; I can look at what I did last year and see If I want to do the same, add some other organizations, delete one, increase or decrease my giving. But here’s the rub: Many of the organizations I give to, I do so as a monthly gift.
Monthly giving is a fabulous way for an organization to smooth out those bumps in the road. You know, the times the grants don’t come in, or the contract payment is on slow. Or whatever your stream of revenue is has slowed to a trickle. That’s the good.
The bad is that it often means that year after year after year, your donors give you exactly the same amount, never increasing—even to keep up with inflation.
And the ugly? Well, I think that is a two-fold problem.
The first is that some organizations simply roll over your giving every year (until your credit card renews!). See the bad for why that matters. But more insidiously, not all organizations do that. Some want you to opt in or out of another year. But too often, I as a donor, have no clue which organizations those are. And that is because nonprofits are really really really bad at reaching out to their annual donors in ways the donors can see and feel that they are being seen.
This leads to the other ugly of monthly giving. Too often, a nonprofit gets a monthly donor, says thank you—and the donor never, ever hears from them again (except, of course, on their credit card statement).
What are you thinking people?
Making sure you are reaching out to your monthly donors in personal ways is so important. Let then understand how important their monthly gift is—and how more could be accomplished with more. Even $5 more a month can make a big difference.
More important than increased monthly giving is getting monthly givers to think about making additional—perhaps major—gifts.
Fundraising, remember, is built on relationships and you don’t have a relationship just because someone makes a monthly gift. You build that relationship by engaging the monthly donor and getting to know them better. What do they really care about? What projects of you might they feel compelled to support?
With your limited time and resources, how can you do that?
First, segment your list into:
new donors;
those who have been with you more than 2 or 3 years
those who have been around for 5-10 years. If your monthly giving hasn’t been around that long, don’t worry. Start with your newest donors.They are the most likely to be lost in the shuffle.
Send each and every one of them a welcome email, saying how thrilled you are that they have chosen to become a monthly donor. Share with them some of the successes of your monthly donor group. For example, we started asking donors to become monthly donors 6 years ago. In our first year, we had 3 monthly donors. Today, we have over 400. It is thanks to people like you that we have been so successful. More to the point, however, your support helps us to….and then share stories! Show them their their support matters.
But don’t stop there, every quarter (at least!) send them a personal note—from you, from a board member, from a program officer, or—if appropriate—from a client. Tell them how important their giving has been and what it has helped to accomplish. And, of course, regularly—every two years or so—ask them to increase their monthly gift. And, when appropriate, ask your monthly donors to consider making an additional special gift to support a project or program at a much higher (up to 10 times what they are giving annually) level.