Last week, I presented at the Nonprofit Storytelling Conference. I had never attended this before, but it was a lot of fun. Everybody was extremely engaged, and there was time for some exercises and sharing! I presented a session on the three different types of stories needed for the acquisition, cultivation and upgrading of monthly donors. Each attendee then had some time to choose the type of story they wanted or felt they needed to write...

Recently, Network for Good rebranded its activities focused on recurring gifts and called it subscription giving. And as part of the subscription, you would be wise to give donors certain benefits. It indicated that benefits would make people feel more engaged. Then, at a recent webinar, someone asked me what I thought about subscription giving versus sustainers. So here’s my take on the difference. Sustainers care about your organization and...

A while back, I interviewed Sami Sheehan of Lollypop Farm, a tremendous advocate of monthly giving. When we first talked, we decided we’d be back to discuss another great topic: hidden monthly donors. She’s done a lot of research, especially in the areas of workplace, Facebook and PayPal giving. You and your organization may very well have donors who are giving monthly, but for some reason some donors didn’t tell you they joined as a monthly...

The last week of September = Sustainer month, I organized the first ever virtual Sustainer Workshop. About 40 fundraisers from all over the country, and even some from Canada, participated in the two-day workshop, looking at all stages of life for a sustainer. When I asked the question: ”What is your biggest challenge when it comes to monthly giving?” this word cloud shows it best: Source: Virtual Sustainer Workshop, September 2020, A Direct...

This past weekend, we had to replace a light bulb in our fan. Fortunately, I was able to find the warranty book in my warranty binder. That showed us we needed a special suction cup to get the light bulb out. Well, the big question was: Where was the suction cup to do just that? I vaguely remembered I had put it in a kitchen drawer seven years ago when the fan was installed. So, we emptied two drawers. And guess what: The little suction cup was...

I recently presented a webinar as part of the two-day virtual summit, Nonprofit Changemakers, organized by Top Nonprofits. Afterward, I received the terrific visual (above) of the presentation. The artist really picked up the highlights of my message, and she did it live. One of the questions I always start with is how many monthly donors organizations have now. Then closer to the end, I ask them to write down their goals. Just like there’s...

A few years ago, I had the pleasure of presenting about sustainers with Tina Hudgins, who worked at the International Justice Mission at the time. She shared how the organization typically did a monthly donor direct mail and email invite campaign (including upgrades) in the month of September. And they’ve been doing this ever since. What a great idea! September is early enough in the giving season that it doesn’t detract from activities like...

A few weeks ago, I gave kudos to the post office, printers, mail houses, etc. But what I failed to do was give kudos to fundraisers. I recently spoke with John Jeffries, the founder of the New Canvassing Experience, a face-to-face fundraising agency focused on helping nonprofits find more monthly donors. We discussed how essential or non-essential fundraising really is (or seems to be). Here’s my take: All fundraisers are essential. Let me...

Good thing we have an extra day this week. I had a stack of mail more than a foot high, and I just finished scanning the various appeals I would like to save in a folder to use for training or learning. Let me start with some good news: Many organizations have adopted the best practice of a tick box on the front of their appeal reply form, which is terrific. You should know that I’ve tested this. And in my tests, the tick box did not typically...

One of the most successful approaches to generate new monthly donors is to start with the lowest ask possible. For most, this means starting at $5 or $10 a month, typically dependent on the payment processor being used. I’ve even seen it as low as $2 or $3 a month. “Wait a minute,” you may say. “That’s way too low!” So here are three important things to remember: Monthly donors give what they can right now. They want to help, and a small...

A good friend asked me this question and, as good friends tend to do, I wanted to address this question right away before getting into the busy fundraising season. While I would love to tell you yes — go all out and ask for monthly gifts — the answer really should be: “It depends!” Let me explain with two approaches: First, if you’re sending out email appeals around #GivingTuesday and the last few weeks in December, I recommend you do some...

Monthly donor retention is probably the biggest challenge for nonprofits. In my nearly 30 years of monthly giving experience, I’ve seen three big reasons for this: Nobody feels responsible for tracking monthly donor dropouts and attrition (a fancier word for dropout percentage).  Believe it or not, while you think this may be more rampant in a bigger organization, it’s also a problem in smaller organizations. Unless someone is completely...

Let’s face it–just because you, as a fundraiser, send emails and/or letters to a donor asking them to give monthly, it may not work right away. It might require several calls and emails. It may require some additional ammunition. If you have at least one monthly donor, you have that ammunition.  You have at least one donor who can tell you why they are giving monthly.  And you probably have several more. Start there. Ask your current...

Whenever I talk about monthly giving to a group, in person or via webinar, I often ask people how many of them are monthly donors themselves. Sometimes just a few hands go up, or a few indicate it in the poll if it’s on a webinar. Well, how can you ask someone to give monthly if you don’t know the feeling and the satisfaction it gives you as a donor if you’re not even giving monthly yourself? How can you find out what other organizations are...

An interview with Sami Sheehan, manager of donor engagement of Lollypop Farm, Humane Society of Greater Rochester My favorite part about working with nonprofits is how much we can learn from each other. I learn from their questions every day. I am blown away with how smart people at nonprofits are, and how committed they are to the cause. And how (fortunately) many are really committed to growing their monthly gifts, because they see the power....

What a tremendous legacy John Haydon left us with his book, “Donor CARE: How to Keep Donors Coming Back After the First Gift.” Sadly, Haydon passed away earlier this year. While I never had a chance to meet him in person, we did talk by phone a few times. He had an amazing following with thousands of people attending his webinars and reading his blogs. Haydon’s quest was to explain how to keep donors coming back after the first gift. This is...

If you have a monthly giving program, chances are your processor sends a gift confirmation email every month. What happens when, what the receipt looks like and how much you can control depends on the system. In some cases, the monthly email looks like a receipt. In other cases, you can customize it and add words to the payment information. Sometimes, it’s just a short blip, and it can even come as a text message. In some systems, you can set...

As a fundraising consultant, I’m always learning and researching. I do this by working with clients, vendor partners, databases, payment processors and so much more. I have many answers, but not all. That’s why I enjoy the research and experiments NextAfter does, especially when it comes to donation forms and emails. Even a small change can make a huge difference when it comes to donations and monthly gifts. Of course, every organization is...

Seth Godin’s blog always gives me inspiration. Recently, he wrote about the words I hear so much when it comes to monthly giving: “That’s a great idea!”  Seth says: “…after every good idea, there are at least 100 steps of iteration, learning, adjustment, innovation and effort. But not committing to the 100 steps is a waste of a good idea. The effort and investment and evolution made the difference.” In my experience working with nonprofits,...

This past week, I received several questions from nonprofit organizations about the best tools to use to process monthly gifts. In that same week, I received three emails from vendor partners offering me the latest and greatest on monthly gift payment processing tools. Here’s a breakdown of what I’ve learned so far: Some say they waive fees for the first month. Others give money back. Some say they only charge $0.50 per transaction and no other...

What a difference a simple calculation can make. When I ask the question, “How many monthly donors do you have?” fundraisers typically know that number. But then when I ask how much they’re worth, fundraisers sometimes struggle to answer. Or they only look at the monthly gifts, so it doesn’t seem that powerful. That’s why I created the Monthly_Donor_Annualizer. You can download it as excel. Here’s what it looks like: Credit: Erica Waasdorp, A...

I am an avid coffee drinker — five cups a day at a minimum and one decaf at night. We have a big coffeemaker with a timer, so our coffee is ready when we wake up in the morning. It’s one of those old fashioned multi-cup machines. The slow drip-by-drip process makes it so worthwhile, and it creates the amount of coffee I like. That coffee maker and a recent Seth Godin blog made me think how the drip-by-drip approach is so utterly true when it...

The expression, “Make monthly giving a thing,” came from Cara Schwalbach of One Tail at a Time in Chicago. She and I were scheduled to co-present on monthly giving at an upcoming animal welfare conference, but that was canceled. Cara was going to share her amazing story of how she grew from 200 to 1,600 monthly donors in a few years by literally making monthly giving a thing.  Most recently, she was interviewed by Funraise, and you can watch...

When I first started working in monthly giving 27 years ago, generating monthly gifts and processing their monthly payments was a long and time-intense process. Now if a donor makes a monthly gift online, completes their information and clicks the button, the gift is processed in seconds, real-time. And the payment processor will continue to process that gift amount every month. Acquiring new monthly donors doesn’t have to be a long drawn out...

After seven weeks at home, I finally ventured out — mask on, gloves on — to do some groceries. Just like so many of you, I patiently waited six feet apart from the next person and once one person left the store, the next person could go in. It still feels like the twilight zone to me, but I have experienced this before. Many years ago in the 80s, I visited East Berlin. This was before the wall between East and West Berlin came down. (This...

The M+R Benchmarks research has always been one of my favorite studies, and often one of the very few go-to statistics on monthly giving trends. That’s why I’m really excited that the “2020 M+R Benchmarks Study” is here. It’s very interactive, so you can find the most amazing trends in all things digitally. The M+R Benchmarks studies are based on the results from 201 different organizations and millions of records. Of course, I want...

I hope you’re still doing OK. I haven’t really left the house now for five weeks, except for a few walks in the neighborhood. Frankly, I dream of being able to go to the grocery store or to some store — it doesn’t really matter which. The good news is that our attic is all cleaned up. Now we’re onto the basement and I’m feverishly scanning in pictures. I know that some organizations are still struggling with asking for money at this difficult...

A few weeks ago, Harvey McKinnon published a wonderful new book called “How to Create Lifelong Donors Through Monthly Giving.” I’m tremendously honored to be mentioned in it — thank you, Harvey. I read the book in one sitting. It’s very well written and easy to read. You can probably finish it in just about an hour. Harvey has really made the process of monthly giving very easy to understand, and the book includes too many wonderful nuggets to...

If you asked me how many times I’ve seen the word “pivot” in an email, a webinar or a virtual conference, I simply couldn’t tell you. I know this word from ballroom dancing classes. I know it as part of my excel sheets. But I had never heard it used in conjunction with fundraising. As you may know, I’m Dutch. And even though I’ve lived in the U.S. for 27 years, I occasionally have to look up the meaning of a word, so here’s what I found:...

If the past few weeks are any indication, it’s going to get worse before it gets better. But I’m hoping that we’ll be able to somewhat get back to normal sooner rather than later. I’ve been working from home for over 15 years, so for me personally, that’s nothing new. What is new now is that I’m putting my yoga mat in my office, and I turn on my computer to participate in my barre class, using cans of soup as weights and laundry detergent as my...