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...

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...

  During the recent Virtual Summit for Nonprofit Changemakers , Ashton Rodenhiser did this wonderful visual overview of what I talked about for 45 minutes. Mind you, she had only heard me speak once before with a different monthly giving focus. It’s truly amazing how she can capture the essence of the session.  If nothing else, print out this little graphic and put it on your bulletin board. It’s a quick overview of why and how easy...

What’s the first nonprofit you think of with a huge sustainer program? Did you guess your local public broadcasting station? Probably not. But yet, most public TV and radio stations are leading the pact when it comes to sustainer giving. They started asking for monthly gifts many years ago. If you look at the most recent Blackbaud Luminate online Benchmarks Report 2020, public broadcasting stations receive 52.6% of their online revenue from...

Last week, my husband and I took a trip, ultimately leading to visit our kids and grandkids. We flew to Norfolk, Virginia, and then drove down to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, to visit the Wright Brothers National Memorial. My husband is a private general aviation pilot, so this national park was high on his bucket list, and it did not disappoint. The park ranger did a great job telling the Wright brothers’ story and the evolution of their...

I’m an avid supporter and reader of SOFII, as it has some tremendous free stuff, like fundraising examples, articles and case studies from all over the world. I especially like the articles on retention, loyalty and, of course, recurring giving. Over my almost 30 years of fundraising, I’ve always been impressed by the many studies, especially those on donor loyalty, the donor experience and donor retention, done in the U.K. I recommend this...

I love fundraising book recommendations and, as you probably know by now, I love reading (and writing) fundraising books. So here is a review of the book “Green Green,” published by Civil Sector Press, written by Canadian David Love, who has been raising funds for more than 51 years. Incredible! Congratulations! If you’ve been fundraising for a while, you may have come across David’s name or perhaps his daughter Jen Love of Agents...

If you look at the most recent statistics on donor retention, the year 2020 was not great. One reason was that many organizations put a hold on asking for contributions in the first half of the year because they worried about donors not giving. Many continued to be reluctant well into the second half. Hence, many donors who gave in 2019, never gave in 2020. If you’re a nonprofit that lost donors due to a decrease in outreach, you now need...

Donor data has always been important in raising funds for nonprofits. It’s literally your ‘gold.’ It provides you with everything you need to keep track of your donors and know most of what there is to know about them. Especially when it comes to outreach to potential monthly donors. Why is this helpful for outreach to potential monthly donors? For segmentation purposes, which then leads to personalization in email messaging and direct mail...

Monthly giving is not hard. It doesn’t require much investment at all, and a little bit of time and effort go a long way. I hope this will help you change your mindset, and you’ll find that monthly giving truly is very easy. Why? Because you already have the tools in-house. Because you already have the channels. You are already sending letters, sending emails, using social media and you’re probably also making phone calls. All it takes...

Recently, I shared statistics from large organizations here and here.  Now, it’s time to look at what smaller nonprofits are doing when it comes to monthly giving. I was excited to read the “Small Nonprofit Fundraising Benchmark Report,” published by Network for Good and the NextAfter Institute based upon 2019 data and 2020 surveys. This report publishes the key findings based on a survey of 1,222 nonprofit employees and an analysis of donation...

Every year, Blackbaud’s donorCentrics Sustainer Benchmarking group meets and evaluates information on recurring gifts. This year was no exception. Face-to-face/door-to-door fundraising, also known as canvassing, came to a screeching halt during COVID-19. For organizations that picked those strategies back up again in late 2020, the good news is the number of sustainers is up and retention rates are also up. Let’s take a look at the growth...

Credit: Concord Leadership Group “The Surprising Gift of Doubt,” written by Marc Pitman of Concord Leadership Group, is a book that’s not just about nonprofit leadership. It can be applied to leaders in any situation, especially if you, as a leader, need some re-grounding or refocus. And who doesn’t need that during this ongoing pandemic? Even if you’ve never taken a leadership class, this book gives you, in easy bites, some of the key...

A few weeks ago, The New York Times published an article on automatic upgrades of monthly gifts and the number of upset supporters when that happened. This is scary stuff and could have a very negative impact on other nonprofits looking to grow their monthly donor programs. I’m going to leave politics out and look at that practice as a whole. Here is my take: Automatic upgrading is a bad idea, period! There are several reasons: It makes for a...

Have you noticed? Lately, when you order something through Amazon, you get an email with a picture of the item showing up in front your door. This happens as you’re hearing the delivery truck’s engine rev up to leave. Is that cool or what? I call that instant gratification. Often, until I open the package, I don’t even know what’s inside. There’s the surprise effect, like: “Wow, this came fast! I only ordered it yesterday.” As nonprofits, you...

Nonprofit PRO just published its “2021 Nonprofit Leadership Impact Study” and while I like what I’m reading there, it’s still not quite where I’d like it to be. Or should I say, where it really ought to be to make and keep nonprofits sustainable. One of the conclusions from the report is:  nonprofits need to improve relational fundraising and work toward recurring giving and monthly programs. The study shows: 41% of nonprofits believe their...

For the past few years, my husband and I have been escaping to the sunshine for a week or two. We discovered the Phoenix area as one that typically sees great weather in February/March. With COVID-19 and our vaccine shots, we had to juggle our schedule, so this year we arrived in Phoenix during spring training. On a Saturday afternoon! Definitely not the best time to arrive! The lines for the car rentals were out the door and we could see the...

When I was reviewing my monthly gifts for the year, I realized that I hadn’t given monthly to several organizations since May. I call this a soft cancel. I didn’t mean to stop giving monthly, and I didn’t take action to stop. I had received a new card at the time, but things were very busy. I simply didn’t take the time to sit down and contact the organizations. Of course, part of me also wanted to see what happened. Sadly, in many cases,...

While I was doing some research, I came across this interesting study.  Brightback’s research is more aimed at the commercial subscription world, but a lot of what happens there can be applied to monthly giving for nonprofits. What I find interesting is the shift to an online/digital model.  Take note: Online consumers expect the experience to be convenient and relevant. While I’m not a tremendous proponent of having online donor accounts,...

This is always an exciting time of year as donor base providers and analytics groups release their giving trends from the prior year. We are continuing to see so many changes. Not many were prepared for this disaster. And many, especially smaller organizations, almost froze when the shutdown happened. Many assumed that their donors did not have the funds to help, so they did not ask at a time when it was most crucial to ask donors for help....

I’ve seen the following happen several times in different ways. Donation platforms and donor base companies merge. A community foundation providing donation form support for organizations decides it is not their focus any longer. Nonprofits have to scramble and find a payment processor and the best forms to use quickly. And now with the GoFundMe announcement, what will organizations do if they just transitioned not too long ago? According to...

Recently, I was on Facebook Live with a colleague, and we were discussing some tips for growing monthly gifts. The question of why so many nonprofits are still hesitating about introducing monthly giving to their donors came up. It’s still a real mystery to me. It made me think of my childhood. My mom and dad always told me and my siblings (I’m the oldest of four): “Eat your veggies. They’re good for you!” They always came up with different...

This past weekend, I read the second book by the Veritus Group principals Richard Perry and Jeff Schreifels: “It’s Not Just About the Donor.” This was written during COVID-19, and one chapter is especially focused on fundraising during a crisis. You may ask, why would someone like me who typically only deals with small(ish) and monthly donors want to spend two hours reading this book on major gifts? Credit: Veritus Group Because small donors...

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...

During this holiday season of giving, especially based on the recent success of #GivingTuesday, you can clearly tell there is something magical about using a match. Successful fundraisers have used matches for years and continue to use it. Why? Because it works! Nearly all of #GivingTuesday emails I received before, during and in the days following included some type of a match. Most matches were straight amounts. Some matches were small. Some...

#GivingTuesday results were way up compared to last year. Who said donors are not generous? The best spot to see it all together is GivingTuesday Data Commons, fed by some 60 contributing partners and 40 global data labs. I know all are feverishly tallying results and creating infographics and more,  so definitely stay tuned for more results as they become available. I of course am most interested in any trends on monthly giving. So I was...

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...

Just a short blog this week, because I know you’re very busy–the biggest giving month of the year is just around the corner! Just a few more emails. Just a few more thank you letters. Just a few more… (you fill in the blanks). Just a few more weeks, and then the weirdest of weird years is over. I’m amazed at the generosity of donors. I’ve seen and heard tremendous stories of donors coming to the table in the past few months: $2,000 when...

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...