Sustainers, from a different angle
At the end of September, DMAW organized its first Sustainer Week. It consisted of a session every day, totally focused on sustainers (of course), from a different angle. As someone who is totally committed to recurring giving, I’m really excited about the DMAW and the education committees with such a sustainer-focused approach. If you too are a sustainer aficionado you may have attended sessions in the past during the Bridge conference, sustainer pre-Bridge workshops, then Sustainer Day, Sustainer World and now Sustainer Week. In an earlier...
read moreAre There Links Among Donor Budgets, DAF Gifts and Recurring Giving?
Did you know that Americans who include monetary charitable giving in their annual budget gave nearly seven times, on average, than those who do not budget at all? That’s the outcome of the online survey of more than 2,000 U.S. adults conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of Vanguard Charitable, a nonprofit that administers donor-advised funds (DAFs). This study reminded me of two things: Recurring giving is extremely convenient for those donors who are on a fixed budget or who want to plan their giving. Recurring donors give typically at...
read moreHow a Birthday Call Can Make a Difference
If you’ve not yet read the book “Hooked on a Feeling” by Francesco Ambrogetti, I can highly recommend it. I started it, expecting all kinds of feelings to be described, and I was ready to read all about great storytelling, tugging at the heartstrings messaging, etc. Instead, the book is filled with lots of great research on the impact on donors’ feelings and subsequent giving behavior through what some may think are little things. One such little thing is the impact of the birthday call. One of my clients is a religious organization with an...
read moreWhy Donor Testimonials are Important
Whether you want to call it social proof, a testimonial — it doesn’t really matter. Donor’s love hearing from other donors. It helps give them that “extra” little push or nudge if you will. This works in major gift fundraising. This works in general fundraising. It especially works with recurring giving. If someone tells why they’re giving monthly, that will help motivate others. It will also help you as the fundraiser in developing and tweaking your recurring giving messaging. You can use it on the website. You can use it in...
read moreHow Do You Track and Record Recurring Gifts?
At a recent list serve, someone asked about how best to track initial and subsequent recurring gifts. There are two ways to do this. Note that your finance/accounting/bookkeeping folks may have a different approach, so it’s important to involve them in any decisions you make about this. As recurring gifts have no end date, so this is not like your typical major gift pledge where you get big amounts over a limited period. Recurring gifts are counted when received, so only actual payments are measured in the account system. Track Actual...
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