Be forewarned, this is a sad story… but it can have a good ending! As you know from the Fundraising Effectiveness Project, based upon 2015 data, the typical donor retention rates were 46%, which is why monthly donors are so important as monthly donor retention rates are much higher. The good news is that more and more nonprofits have started a monthly donor program. And as monthly donor programs mature, upgrades, reactivations and...

One of the neat things about the internet is that it’s really made asking for monthly donations so much easier. Especially after they’ve just done something else. There are so many success stories. Where to begin? Let’s start with your auto-responder. Say, you’re an advocacy organization and you do ask people to sign your petition. Did you know that you can use the auto-responder after they signed the petition not only...

This blog post was also published in Direct Marketing Advents, the publication of the Direct Marketing Association of Washington, DMAW. If you’ve seen or heard me present about monthly giving before, you know that I always recommend the following first step of running a monthly giving program: Put one person in charge! (Note, If you’re a large organization, the above guideline could be expanded to: put ONE department in charge, but it will make...

This blog was written for and published by Pamela Grow at Simple Development Systems  Thank you, Pamela for being a great colleague. She introduced me to the webinar phenomenon and I’ve not looked back since! So, when she sends me a question, it’s a great opportunity to give back. So, one of her clients recently asked her about Monthly giving pop-ups and how they work (or do not work) and what the negative or positive impact could...

In the past year, this organization in Washington, DC had steadily started losing 500 monthly donors each month. At the same time, its acquisition efforts were only generating 250 monthly donors a month, so the program was in a steady and rapid decline. Something had to happen! The Director brought in A Direct Solution to review the program and try to turn it around. And that’s exactly what we did! One big problem in the past year was beyond...

This youth organization in Colorado reached out to A Direct Solution to ask for help with its first email appeal asking its donors to join their newly developed recurring donor program. Our first recommendation was to develop a special targeted page so we could link the email directly to this page. Our second recommendation was to find a donor to provide a challenge gift.The organization found a generous donor who was willing to put up a $5,000...

When A Direct Solution started working with this organization, serving individuals with disabilities, the organization had some 5,500 donors. It had historically mailed two direct mail appeals a year and two hard copy newsletters. Then the organization hired a new Director of Development. With a small staff, she was tasked to considerably grow the donor base and its fundraising budget. A Direct Solution was hired to help accomplish this. We...

Monthly giving now is EASIER to set up than it’s ever been! I’ve been managing monthly giving programs for a very long time! (for more than 2 decades!). We started by using direct mail and telemarketing. DRTV and face-to-face were still in its infancy when it came to monthly donors . And can you believe it, email appeals did not exist!! Nobody had heard of i-phones, mobile giving or social media. Up to just a few years ago, it was much...

This post was prepared as a guest blog for Michael Rosen.  How can Nana Murphy make you a better fundraising professional? This is a post based upon the session I attended at the recent AFP International conference in Boston. Thank you, Michael, for sharing this post with your audience. The session I attended was called: From Ireland with Love, presented by Denisa Casement, CFRE, Head of Fundraising, Merchants Quay Ireland, Dublin,  Lisa...

If you’ve seen or heard me present, you know that I stress the importance of making one person responsible for your monthly donor program, no matter what size the organization is! As you’re the fundraiser, this is most likely going to be YOU. Now, that does not mean that you have to do everything but it’s absolutely ESSENTIAL that one person oversees all of the moving parts and is held accountable. That sounds like a huge...

Did you know that monthly donors give 42% more than one time donors? And that 64% of donations come from women? Here’s an interesting infographic  by Maximillion, thank you Linda Parker for sending it to me! I’d love sharing this with you because bosses and boards still like to see those statistics before making the decision to move forward.  It’s important to realize these statistics and take action. And it’s important...

This was published as a guest blog for  AndrewOlsenCFRE  who is launching a new series focused on the biggest fundraising mistakes nonprofits make. To kick off this series, I asked my friend Erica Waasdorp, author of Monthly Giving. The Sleeping Giant to share her thoughts on the biggest mistakes nonprofits make when it comes to monthly giving. Her guest post is below:   “I see nonprofits make two major mistakes that really prevent them...

Here are the Top 3 take-aways from Ring, Ring, what’s that retention tool doing in my living room? session At the recent Bridge Conference, held in Washington DC National Harbor, I presented a session with Nick Stavarz, Synergy and Anna Averling of the American Bible Society on the use of the phone in improving donor retention. Here are the top 3 take-aways from this session: 1. Telemarketing is one of the most successful and versatile tools in...

This post appeared as a guest post for DonorPerfect What metrics will convince your board to start a monthly giving program? If you’re like a lot of organizations, boards (and sometimes other bosses) drag their feet on starting a monthly giving program. They worry that the metrics are not compelling enough to warrant investing the time, money and people. After all, monthly donors are just small donors, right? Yes, but here’s the great news: the...

This was just published as a guest blog in Tom Ahern’s email newsletter… Thank you Tom. I am deeply humbled. In nonprofit labor relations news… You’re fired until you have a solid monthly giving program launched… Do the easy math. Then get to work. Cash gifts are a drink of water. Monthly giving is a forever spring flowing 5 times faster. Two names mean “monthly giving expert/guru/evangelist” amongst...

Monthly giving now is EASIER to set up than it’s ever been! I’ve been managing monthly giving programs for a very long time! (for more than 2 decades!). We started by using direct mail and telemarketing. DRTV and face-to-face were still in its infancy when it came to monthly donors . And can you believe it, email appeals did not exist!! Nobody had heard of i-phones, mobile giving or social media. Up to just a few years ago, it was much...

Some of you may know I’m Dutch, so occasionally, I put on my Dutch hat… Here’s a Dutch expression that pertains to monthly donors especially: “He who does not honor the small, is not worthy of the big”. Sadly, I still come across too many large organizations  who poo-poo the impact of a monthly giving program for them. They don’t seem to care about the many, many small donors they have and how they could...

Some of you may know, I’m the US Ambassador for the International Fundraising Congress, one of the most amazing and inspiring conferences in the world!! On May 21 and 22, the Resource Alliance will organize 2014 Fundraising Online, a webinar event, which is totally FREE, just to share some of the amazing speakers you may enjoy at the IFC. I’m really excited because part of Fundraising Online is a great webinar on my favorite topic:...

You may have read Pamela’s recent post, called The Dark side of nonprofit monthly giving. Pamela Grow and Joe Garecht are two colleagues of mine who are tremendous advocates for monthly giving… In fact, I’ll be presenting a webinar as part of their monthly giving e-course soon. Thank you! It’s still absolutely astounding to me to see how even large organizations are struggling with this ‘no-brainer retention...

A guest post with Michael Rosen… Michael Rosen says… This week, I have invited Erica Waasdorp, a self-proclaimed “philanthropoholic,” President of A Direct Solution, and author of the best-selling book Monthly Giving: The Sleeping Giant. Erica explains why nonprofit organizations should have a monthly donor program, explores trends in monthly giving, and provides plenty of useful how-to tips all in a mercifully brief, 131 page book....