Written by Mary Rybakova for Chatfuel This year’s GivingTuesday will be the most important one in history. For one thing, 2020 has been a tumultuous year for the world. It’s left us all in need of nonprofits and their essential work now, more than ever. But at the same time, the economic downturn caused by the pandemic has meant that many nonprofits are struggling to fundraise. They need support to continue accomplishing their...

What a week we’ve had! I try to never talk politics, so I will certainly not start now. But watching the electoral vote thermometer move, it made me think about the approach you would be wise to take when it comes to monthly gifts. Bit by bit, you’ll go forward. You’ll grow your monthly gifts. You’ll move the needle. Especially if you’re a small to mid-size organization, your number of sustainers are not going to grow by leaps and bounds.  More...

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, 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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

A quick introduction: Sustainers are a big part of today’s subscription economy and we’ve seen tremendous growth in the past few years, as this chart from the DonorCentrics™ Sustainer Benchmarking Study shows. We’re still not at the level I think we should be at, but I guarantee that those organizations focused on growing their sustainers over the past few years were able to breathe a lot easier during the recent pandemic. Let me start with...

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...

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...

As we’re all slowly moving back to what is now considered “the new normal,” nonprofits are still struggling. When can they get back to the office? Who is going to pick up the mail? How can they send out thank-you letters? Some nonprofits haven’t missed a beat. Some had to step up their service levels to even higher levels than before. They kept working with other essential businesses — like printers, letter shops, post offices — to get their...

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...

I love hearing from nonprofit organizations that share how they’re doing with their monthly giving campaigns. Earlier this week, a nonprofit shared its socially-distanced monthly giving video interview with me. It launched the video the day before #GivingTuesdayNow, and it already generated 20 new monthly donors. While it took a bit of time to create the video, the cost was virtually nothing, and it’s now there to be shared for quite a while. I...

A few months ago, I taught the “Recurring Revolution” training for members of The Fundraisingology Lab, by Moceanic. It was a lot of fun. Several members responded to a question about how best to keep their monthly donors. One of those members was Natalie Lanoville from Jewish Family Services  in Vancouver, Canada. I was impressed with her response. I talked with her some more so I can share some of her great experiences and approach. Natalie...

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...

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...

First, let me start by asking: I hope you’re doing okay?  I hope your event cancellations; the staying at home; the working from home; with or without kids who now must be homeschooled; and perhaps worries about parents or other family members aren’t driving you totally crazy. Take good care of yourself and give yourself a break. Then, let’s spend a bit of time looking at some of the ways you can make up for the lost revenue from those events...

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...

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,...

This is a time when everyone feels overwhelmed, with email inboxes exploding with nonstop news of the pandemic and the pressure of having to homeschool kids who might not want to be homeschooled. Many fundraisers are trying to figure out how to work from home in the middle of all the family distractions. And then, of course, there’s the worry about how to make up for the fundraising difference with postponed events, or in some cases, canceled...

There I was, sitting on a plane on my way to a presentation. But when I landed, I found out the committee had just canceled the meeting. Not the end of the world, so I made the best of it, did a bit of sightseeing, practiced social distancing, and got caught up on some work and some books. Of course, it’s all about being safe and staying healthy. That’s the number one priority, and I totally understand. But it made me think about what happened...

This is probably one of the most common questions I get whenever I’m presenting a webinar or an in-person session or workshop: “How do I best recognize, thank, cultivate and retain my monthly donors?”  That’s why I’ve put together some common best practices. Of course, every organization is different, but most of these are very easy to implement. They don’t cost a lot of money and certainly they don’t take up a lot of your time. The more you...

OK — there’s no official monthly donor retention day (yet), but I think it’s time we started one. After all, with Daylight Savings Time, St. Patricks’ Day, World Wildlife Day and so many other special days on the calendar, why not create yet one more special day? Except, it should not be a special day! If you’re serious about your monthly donor program, every day should be a monthly donor retention day. When should that day be? Well, that...