I must admit I didn’t totally come up with this line on my own. It’s based on an email from Chewy, the company that delivers my cat’s litter and food to my front door. No more carrying heavy bags home from the pet store. I love it. The subject line said: “Reorders so easy your pet could do it.” Our cat, Mientje, jumps on my computer table all the time. Maybe with a bit more training, he could definitely do it! And it made me think about monthly...

Every nonprofit wants to attract younger donors. That’s why it’s very exciting that monthly giving is so appealing to these younger donors. Why? Because they can support those organizations, they care about in a very easy way with a small amount that absolutely fits their budget. Easy and small are the key words here. Easy because they can make a gift from their credit card, their bank account, and more and more from their digital wallet like...

As you may know, I’ve been scanning and tracking examples of monthly giving approaches and follow ups for years. There are so many wonderful ways nonprofits ask for monthly donors. So many tremendous examples of saying thank you in the most grateful of ways. There’s so much that goes right with monthly giving and the results are showing! But every now and then, I see some goofs. I’m not going to name names, but you probably know who you are...

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you know that I don’t typically recommend sending monthly thank-you letters to monthly donors. Instead, I suggest you send one thank-you letter when they join, and in that, you explain that from now on, they’ll start receiving updates on how their gifts are making a difference. Also mention that they’ll receive a tax letter in January with an overview of all their gifts. I know many of you are...

Over the holidays, I took some time to finish a few books in my stack of fundraising books to read. Trust me, I learn something every time, and I’ve been raising funds for years. Cover image of “10 Simple Fundraising Lessons” by Jim Eskin | Credit: Amazon Jim Eskin wrote a book on simple fundraising lessons, and it’s a great little gem for a few reasons: It’s short and sweet, and you can read it in less than one hour. Who does not...

During the final days of the year, I was able to catch up on some presentations that had been sitting in my inbox. I was excited to hear Noah Barnett’s intro and the presentation by Viktoria Harrison, the co-creator of charity: water on the Virtuous Summit. It was, of course, tremendously inspiring for a monthly donor advocate like me. If you didn’t get a chance to attend the virtual summit, please check it out here. Viktoria’s presentation is...

By now, you probably know I love to organize. I have hundreds of direct mail and monthly giving examples scanned in. And over Christmas, I scanned in a huge box of family pictures. It’s all part of the downsizing and simplifying process my husband and I are going through. I must say, it’s tremendously liberating! As part of all this scanning and organizing, I gathered a huge stack of address labels, note cards and calendars. I will not have to...

You know I’m all for small monthly gifts, but two years ago I became intrigued with donor-advised funds, especially after I received some DAF-focused email newsletters from Jack Doyle from Amergent. I highly recommend reading them. Based on Fidelity’s “2020 Giving Report,” the number of donors who have a DAF has almost tripled over the past 10 years, and more and more Millennials have opened an account. When I did the research to see what was...

This guest blog was written by Jeff Brooks and posted by moceanic. The Thanksgiving holiday (this week in the US, last month in Canada, with other nations and cultures celebrating similar holidays at different times) is a special time for fundraisers. Because we live on thankfulness. Being thankful is good for you. It improves your personal life. It strengthens relationships. It’s smart in business… But for us fundraisers, it’s a foundational...

Last week, I traveled to Europe to present a training on sustainers for an international group based in the Netherlands. Socially distanced and masked, of course, as the rules and lockdowns are even stricter than they are on Cape Cod. The good news is that I was able to visit my 86-year-old mom as well, and I spent some time with my family. During the sustainer training, a couple of things we spent quite a bit of time on was: The best ways to...

Recently, several organizations asked me for help in making the case to provide an easier donation-processing experience for their donors. Especially during these difficult times, an extra investment may be hard to swallow and even harder to “sell” to leadership and the board. That’s why it’s really important to find all the ammunition you need to make the case. Keep track of donor anecdotes like this: Have any donors reached out and shared...

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...

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...

I just bought my 2021-day runner filler. Yes, I’m still one of the ‘old fashioned’ people who uses a paper planner. It just helps me get organized during chaos and writing things down helps me remember! I sure hope that next year will bring some more travel again. Because that’s what I love the most. Talking to people who attend an in-person sustainer workshop or who come listen to a presentation. Hearing what some of their questions are. Don’t...

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...

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...

First, I hope you’re doing okay? Are the kids getting used to being homeschooled? Are you getting used to working from home? Perhaps you worry about your job. Perhaps you worry even more about how your nonprofit is going to survive this worldwide coronavirus pandemic disaster! When you started the year, you knew your plans were solid. So many events. So many direct mail appeals. So many email newsletters and e-newsletters. So much social media,...

Every year in February, my husband and I escape from the cold (and usually snow) and go to Phoenix for some sunshine, a little bit of golf and pickleball, and a drive-in movie. My husband is a private pilot, and he absolutely loves to fly. He is on cloud nine every time he goes for a flight. And every time we go on our trip, he realizes how people in some parts of the country are so lucky. They can fly (almost) 365 days a year and maybe miss...

I just wrote an ebook on how monthly donors provide important unrestricted revenue nonprofits need to support their operating costs. If you’re using terms like annual fund or annual appeals to identify your operating revenue, please realize that monthly gifts are typically part of this. Monthly donors support your annual fund. Monthly donors support your ongoing operating needs and your mission. One of the questions fundraisers immediately ask...

As you know, I do a ton of blogging and presenting on monthly giving. I talk to organizations about their monthly donor programs all the time. But I haven’t been able to solve the biggest monthly giving mystery: “What’s holding organizations back to start or grow their monthly donor program?” I’d love to find out from you what you think it is, because I’ve not yet been able to answer that question. I can guess at some of the reasons (or...

Last week, I was talking to a prospect about how to best set priorities when it comes to monthly giving. She wanted to know how crucial it is to only focus on monthly giving compared to other activities. They had fewer than 5,000 donors to work with. They have a small staff and a separate communications department that’s not that fundraising focused, which, in my experience, is (sadly) very typical. A few months ago, I started talking to an...

As we’re getting ready for Thanksgiving, I wanted to talk about something not often talked about:  how nonprofit clients move from one fundraising agency or consultant to another, and how this can be a smooth transition or a difficult one. I’m very fortunate that I was recently asked to start working with an organization where its “old” agency was extremely gracious, supportive and forthcoming with any and all information. It made the...

This past weekend, I spent several hours going through the stack of direct mail packs I had  received in the past two weeks. I reviewed each one, identified organizations I’d like to donate to and then I scanned in those that could help give me some new ideas for year-end giving appeals for organizations I work with. Every year around this time, I talk to nonprofits, struggling to decide if they should send out a direct mail appeal at year-end....

I’m not going to write about monthly donors for a change. Instead, now is the time to get as many one-time gifts, which will help feed your monthly donor program next year. The year-end appeal season is here. The clock is ticking… The mail pile is growing… The inbox is overflowing… The question is: How do you stand out from the crowd? The second question is: Must you stand out from the crowd, or is it more important you get my attention at the...

There are many opportunities to generate monthly donors, if you’re willing to use them. I’ve given you several options in past blogs, but here is one of the BEST ways to make a real splash and generate a substantial number of new monthly donors in a very short period. It’s by using a MATCH.  It literally sets your program on fire! A match is a special gift you’ll receive if you reach a certain fundraising goal.  A match will help motivate...

Last week was a tough week. My father-in-law passed away after five days in hospice care and three weeks of going in and out of the hospital with an infection. Before that, he was quite healthy and very much with us. He told the most amazing stories of his World War II fighter pilot flights in Germany and France, especially as a young airman. He lived to be 95 — a very full and incredible life — serving our country for more than 40 years. And...

If you’ve been following me for a while, you know I’m always looking for ways to help you convince your boss or board that it’s time to put a bit of time into generating more monthly donors. Time is really all it takes now, because the tools are already there. You just have to make the monthly gift option easy to find and start directing your donors to go there. You may also know that I always recommend annualizing the value of monthly gifts....

I hope you were convinced from one of my earlier blogs that direct mail for nonprofits is still the most effective way to generate donations from your existing donors and generate new donors. The next question you might ask yourselves then is how often and how can you best reach out to your donors, so they’ll be most likely to respond. Let’s Start With How Often You Can Reach Out To Your Donors, So They’ll Continue To Love You. It’s always one...

Take a look at this beautiful Word Cloud. It’s based on the answers to an exercise we recently did in a sustainer workshop. (Thank you, Cameron Popp, for organizing the exercise). I certainly think the outcome is fascinating. Because what you see is that the most important reason why people give monthly is because they care about the mission. They want to help! It’s less about the convenience. And nowhere does it say that a donor gives monthly...

At the recent sustainer workshop, we asked people present about their biggest monthly gift challenges. You see that staff is a big challenge, along with prioritizing sustainers over donors and getting new monthly donors (acquisition). I was surprised to see that retention for this group was less challenging. It’s important to note that the sizes of monthly donor programs, time length sustainer programs in place and experience levels of...