Let me start off with wishing you and yours a happy and healthy new year! I hope you had a wonderful holiday season. I also hope you had some time to relax, in between working with donors and systems to try to optimize the donations coming in by the end of the year. I took a few days to catch up on some movies we had missed and to reflect on what worked well and what didn’t work so well last year. Rather than new resolutions, I resolved to...

My husband Patrick and I got married 13 years ago, just after Thanksgiving. That first year, I started the annual Christmas newsletter tradition. For each month, it’s a simple picture and a few lines of what my husband, his two boys and I did, and I mail it to friends and family. Nothing professional looking, created in good ol’ Publisher. That first year, I worried that people might think it was too much of a “bragging” letter, but then they...

The push is on. It’s year-end, so time to bring in as much money as you can to support your cause. With or without #GivingTuesday campaigns, I bet you have at least a few messages prepared to go out in the next few weeks asking your donors and those on your email list for money. You’ve hopefully dropped that appeal in the mail and your social media messages are flying! While I already support some 30+ organizations with monthly gifts, I...

As you’re getting ready for  your year-end campaigns, I hope you’ll make one resolution: include your monthly donors in your thank-you messaging. What does that mean? It means creating a tiny variation of your  email, saying, “Thank you for your monthly gifts. You make a difference!” It means including your monthly donors in your thank-a-thon before the end of the year. It even means including your monthly donors in your special-match messages,...

I just read this from Seth Godin’s blog: “…years from now, your future self is going to thank you for something you did today, for an asset you began to build, a habit you formed, a seed you planted. Even if you’re not sure of where it will lead, today’s the day to begin.” It made me think so much of monthly giving, I just had to share it with you. But first, let me tell you that I’m so grateful to my military family members and friends for all...

As I attend conferences and presentations lately, I find I’m starting to be one of the “older hats” when it comes to fundraising experience. Some of my colleagues are starting to retire or slow down. The same applies for leaders and colleagues in nonprofits. I’ve seen major changes over just the past few years, but it’s a good reminder to get back to basics. Don’t worry, I’m not going to slow down any time soon, but I am concerned. Because I...

As you’re growing your number of monthly donors over time, it’s important to consider how you should include your monthly donors in your year-end giving. Of course, every organization is different, but it’s important to remember one thing: Unless you promised your sustainer that they would not hear from you in any way shape or form or if the donor asked you to suppress them from any future communications, these wonderful committed donors will...

Exercise regularly. Easier said than done. If you’re exercising regularly, that’s wonderful. I was always too busy and not doing much until I heard about barre classes near my home. I really had no excuse not to! Now, I’m there at least twice a week, and I feel great! I just know it helps improve the retention of my health and well being. Well, if you’re concerned about your donor retention and donor experience, let’s look at the best three...

By now, you’ve all heard of the GDPR. It stands for: The General Data Protection Regulation. GDPR is a regulation law in the European Union (EU) on data protection and privacy for all individuals within the EU and the European Economic Area (EEA). But do you know what started the GDPR process? It was one older donor who committed suicide after she got totally overwhelmed by the many appeals for money—in the mail, by phone, on the streets. You...

You probably know by now that I’m a huge planner. Planning is actually part of the fun for me. Every year around this time, my husband and I look at our calendar to see when we can get away in the winter. It’s just a short trip to another part of the country. Typically it’s Arizona, but now that our youngest lives in Las Vegas, it’ll be a Vegas/Arizona combo. We live in Massachusetts, so it’s crucial to get away from the snow and dreary...

I’m still on a sustainer “high.” I just came back from a fabulous “Sustainer Day,” organized by the Direct Marketing Association of Washington. In just four fast hours, nonprofits and service providers shared trends, best practices and ways they’re working to bring in new sustainers and improve monthly donor retention. Steve Froehlich from ALSAC/St. Jude finished the day by sharing his personal experiences and challenged us to look at trends in...

As you may know, I travel a fair amount.  And when I do, I typically travel light and bring my bag on the plane. But when I fly somewhere to present a workshop, I need my “props,” extra handouts, etc.  So, I check my bag and hope the bag gets to the destination the same time I do. And I must admit, especially with weather delays, I’m waiting nervously at baggage claim, hoping and praying my bag made it! I know that the airlines have been doing...

… You’d think that every organization by now would be convinced that there are donors who are interested in supporting your organization by joining a sustainer program. … You’d think the tremendous feeling of excitement that these wonderful sustainers generate would permeate your organization.  Well, unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Sometimes, it’s the “financial folks,” “the bean counters” who are holding things up. They...

You’ve heard me say this before: ”Assign a driver!”—if you’re serious about growing your nonprofit sustainer program.  Just one driver who pulls it all together and who makes sure the car keeps running and is being maintained to keep on running for a very long time.  So, when I mentioned this at a recent conference, an attendee asked me: ”What are the top characteristics someone needs to manage a sustainer program?”  That’s such a great...

I’m not talking about the latest soccer game. I’m not even talking about the online dating service, although, in a way, we fundraisers could be considered trying to “date” and then “marry” our donors. No, what I’m talking about is that wonderful, glorious “challenge” you offer, which you can use to “entice” other donors to make a gift. The amount raised is typically matched by a generous donor or a group of donors, and it helps you raise even...

It’s August—that means thunderstorms; perhaps even a hurricane. Weather issues mean flight delays. Waiting. And waiting some more!  You may not get to your destination today. Or if you’re on your way home, you may not get there until much later. You can get upset about it, but ultimately, it’s all about being safe.  But what does a flight delay due to weather or worse—a hurricane, a fire, a flood—mean for your monthly sustainers and for you as...

I just got back from a tremendous few days in the Washington D.C. area, and I learned a lot about monthly sustainer programs. First, I was privileged to attend the Professional Face-to-Face Fundraisers Association meeting, where some 75 people listened to speakers on the latest trends in face-to-face sustainer fundraising and how one nonprofit tweaked its retention to higher levels. Spoiler alert: account updater and credit card processes had a...

I was born and raised in the Netherlands where electronic bank payments, or direct withdrawals, were a way of life. Believe it or not, even credit cards there were required to be paid off every month, automatically, from your bank account. Things have changed there, but also here in the U.S. Now, the question, “can monthly giving via direct withdrawal work here?” has a much more powerful “yes” answer than ever before. While it’s still not quite...

I still come across many organizations that are actively trying to grow their monthly giving program, but they’re not sure who’s “running the show.” Nobody feels responsible. People wait until someone comes up with the next idea. Some think they only need to be focused on one aspect of monthly giving. Nobody is taking control of the whole process. Until those self-driving cars become a reality, just like with a car, you must have a driver. And...

This problem doesn’t just occur with monthly donors, but with all donors. That last step, finishing the donation is the key. But often, the donor clicks through. They’re ready to make a gift, but for some mysterious reason, they leave. They never finish the donation. What can you do? Should you just let that donor go? I say, not necessarily so. I say, use that opportunity to get feedback from your donor to help you improve future donor giving....

You’ve probably heard about the latest trend in donors, called rage donors. In a way, these have been around for years, but they used to be called “disaster donors.” Donors were often called “episodic” donors. Donors who only give at the moment of disaster, at the moment of “rage,” when something is really “hot” in the media, and people feel totally compelled to do something about it. And if there’s an organization, a group of individuals or...

Now is the time to celebrate your monthly donor wins.  As this is the new fiscal year for many organizations, make sure to celebrate your wins in number of monthly donors over the past year. Of course, this all started with your goals. Goals will be different for different sized organizations. You have wanted to generate your first 25 monthly donors. You may have wanted to break through the first 100. Maybe your goal was to get to the next...

As you may know by now, when it comes to monthly giving, I’m all about making things easy and simple for both monthly donors and the organizations. So when I start working with an organization on growing their number of monthly donors, we first look at the online donation forms to see what’s already in place. And that’s sometimes where the big pause comes… I call it the “stopper,” “the donation preventer” or the...

At a workshop last week, I asked the question: “Are you giving monthly to your own organization?” I was expecting everybody’s hand to go up. But boy, was I unpleasantly surprised! Out of the 52 people in the room, only eight people raised their hand. Fortunately, a few days later at another presentation, it was almost the whole room. So, my first recommendation if you’re looking to grow your number of monthly donors is to join your own program...

There it was: a text and an email message from my credit card company. Someone was trying to use my card in a different state! I had traveled there the week before and stopped at one of those travel plazas to fill up my car. Maybe that’s where it happened. How on earth somebody got ahold of my card information from my wallet and worse—was able to use it—is beyond me. Something must have set off this alert because the credit card was not...

Donors are fascinating people; and monthly donors, at times, even more so. If you’ve been following me for a while, you’ll know that one of my recommendations is to invite your monthly donors to events. Some may wish to attend, and, even if they don’t come, it will make them feel special. But at times, you give a donor a finger, and they’ll want your whole hand. Here’s an example based upon a recent question during one of my monthly donor...

It’s graduation time! It makes me think back of our boys graduating from college, who are now college alumni. Our youngest son went to Cape Cod Community College for the first two years and then graduated from Belmont University in Nashville. It’s a great campus, a terrific school and a great city to live in and visit. While he’s been on his own for a few years, he’s moving around a fair bit, and we receive his Belmont mail here at the house....

As you may know, Penelope Burk does some tremendous research on donors thinking and behavior. From her 2017 report, I was particularly pleased to see the tremendous move from donors with the focus on monthly giving, especially for younger donors. I reported on this before. As a follow up, Penelope recently wrote a blog about what donors are thinking, especially pertaining to disaster giving. Disaster donors are slightly different from other...

I never think of myself as a pack rat; but when it comes to fundraising, that’s exactly what I had become. So this past week, I took some time to go through old magazines and boxes of direct mail and, in particular, monthly giving samples. Sustainer trends and research; extra appeals and sustainer upgrades; thank you letters; stewardship newsletters; sustainer reminders; conversion packages. I still have a few more to scan in, but if you’re...

The other day, one of my clients mentioned that she has been giving $10 a month to an organization for three years. She signed up on the street, and that was that—no phone call, no thank-you letter, no email, no newsletter, no anything. Well, after this had been going on for three years, she called them up and said: “Enough is enough. While $10 a month is not a big amount, it’s all I can afford right now. I’m going to cancel because, clearly,...