You may now know that I’m a Dutch immigrant. I just celebrated my 25th anniversary being in this beautiful country! I still remember Apr. 10, 1993, when I flew from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Boston Logan via Bangor, Maine, where we had to stop to refuel because Logan was closed by fog. It was a tremendous feeling when I was able to walk in with my immigration papers. (I became a U.S. citizen in 2008, by the way.) Credit: Erica Waasdorp So, it...

The Merriam Webster dictionary defines Commitment as follows: a promise to do or give something. A promise to be loyal to someone or something. The attitude of someone who works very hard to do or support something. Wow, that’s something isn’t it? Monthly donor commitment isn’t necessarily easy. It’s hard work. There are two different kinds of commitment in monthly giving: organization and donor. The organization must be committed to the...

During a recent webinar, someone asked me a question. His finance people told him: “For $5 a month, it’s really not worth the effort. The finance charges are killing us.” This is another one of these monthly donor myths I’d like to debunk right away. My answer of course was this: “Yes, offering the $5 a month option to donors is totally worth it!” Here are 10 reasons why: You’re truly showing donor care.  No gift is too small. Your donor can...

Over the past few weeks, I’ve presented numerous webinars on monthly giving. I’ve also had lots of conversations with organizations asking them about their challenges with their monthly donor retention. And the No. 1 problem is expiring credit cards. When that happens it’s really important to remember the following: The donors did not call you to cancel their commitment! They want to continue giving monthly! They may have just received their...

Nonprofits never cease to amaze me. Sometimes in a good way. Sometimes in a not so good way. This is one of those sad case studies. I spoke to an organization recently, and its executive director told me they wanted to grow their monthly donor program—at least, that’s what he said at first. They have some 500 sustainers who are worth more than $500,000, so they are very high average gifts. Because they’re limiting recruitment by in-person...

If you’ve been following the weather, you may know that it’s been a rough few weeks, especially in New England. In Massachusetts, we were hit by our second Nor’easter within 10 days; and this last one was really bad. Snow was falling at one to two inches an hour, and the many downed trees caused power to be out for 99 percent of our area. Emergency shelters were open for days. Some cellphone services went down as well, so many people had no way...

Monthly giving is a huge untapped revenue source for so many nonprofits. I am still trying to wrap my head around the vast potential monthly donors offer. If you have 300 monthly donors – just how much overall revenue would these 300 lovely people be contributing to your cause each year? Let’s run the numbers: If each of those wonderful donors gave the average amount of the typical monthly gift – they would be giving $24/month. That’s really...

As you know, weve been talking about monthly donors for the past few weeks. And you may have seen my Facebook Live interviews here and here with monthly giving guru Erica Waasdorp. It’s been tremendously fun and exciting to get lots of feedback and questions from attendees. Here is another guest post from Erica – responding to many of the questions we are receiving from our attendees. It’s not too late to join the Monthly Donor Intensive with...

A few weeks ago, Michael Rosen published the post “How to Get Last Year’s Donors to Give More this Year.”  Guest blogger Joe Garecht shared some great advice for increasing giving. However, the post did not specifically address the issue of monthly giving. That led to a reader comment. Larry Little, President of Guardian Angel Basset Rescue, raised some important questions: Our revenues are in the $300k range but approximately 30% of that comes...

I’ve been working with monthly donor programs for more than 25 years now. Wow, so much has changed. Monthly giving has become so incredibly easy to set up and organize. And yet, whenever I teach a webinar or give a presentation, fundraisers tend to glom onto the “hard parts” right away. And that’s where in many cases it stops. Please, do yourself a favor. Simplify your life and that of your donors. Take what you’re already doing now in your...

Monthly giving programs are becoming more and more popular revenue sources. If you want to nail your own monthly giving strategies to ramp up your nonprofit’s revenue, then join our Monthly Giving Intensive with Erica. You’ll get two jam-packed webinars, slides and handouts full of tips and specific strategies for building a robust, profitable monthly giving program. Erica will also give a live Makeover session of monthly giving materials.  You...

This was a tough week for me. I got home from a trip and then got hit by this terrible cold. Boy, I haven’t been this sick in years! I’m finally starting to get over it, and it’s been going around like crazy. What I realized as a sick “donor” was that, because my monthly gifts are coming out of my account automatically, I didn’t have to worry about my mail; but I was still supporting the organization I care about. And you, as the organization,...

Metrics! When I moved from a big international nonprofit to the agency side almost 18 years ago now, my then boss Tom Hurley quickly taught me these very famous words: “It depends!” As a consultant, those are great words to have in your tool box, especially working with organizations who are looking for certainties and proven ideas. And of course, we’d never recommend somebody to try something that had not already been tested by others. But,...

Earlier this week, I was talking with a client about their newsletter. It’s mailed to their monthly donors as a cultivation piece, with wonderful stories about how their gift has made a difference. It also goes to their active and major donors. The communications department creates the piece, and, of course, it looks absolutely amazing! But it is probably also going to mail a week or more late. The review process involves numerous people inside...

“If you don’t have a monthly donor program yet, you’d be wise to make that part of your plan for next calendar year and perhaps even sooner than that.” People often ask me why you should focus on this now? Well, if last year’s Harvey hurricane disaster is any indication: Monthly donors provide sustainable revenue, no matter what happens. Their gifts keep coming in, rain or shine! In essence, it’s an extra insurance policy for your...

“If you can’t fly, then run. If you can’t run, then walk. If you can’t walk, then crawl. But whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.” — Martin Luther King, Jr. I love this quote because it’s so very true, especially when it comes to sustainers—no matter where you are in your monthly donor program. If you have a small number of them, you always want to be moving toward growing that number: to the next 50, to the next...

Last week, NonProfit PRO organized a webinar called “Effectively Managing a Monthly Giving Program that Exceeds the Thousand-Sustainer Mark,” sponsored by CharityEngine. The organization featured was the Wounded Warrior Project, and the focus was on how they acquired sustainers and then managed those sustainers (the back-end). It was exciting to hear from such a big organization, and it brought me back to my days of managing a large sustainer...

Hard to believe, but it’s been almost 25 years since I became a fundraiser, working for a large nonprofit, managing its monthly donor program. At the time, the development department consisted of someone responsible for donor appeals, another for acquisition of new donors and someone for major donors. Everybody was responsible to raise a certain amount a year. In those days, monthly donors “touched” the other departments, as we were only...

Now you’re in the middle of evaluating your appeal results, it’s up to you to make sure that the donor feels good about their giving experience—no matter what the amount. I recommend pulling in some extra people, volunteers and board members to make thank-you phone calls. Put some extra effort into sending out the thank-you letters pronto. And make sure you’re ready to send out tax letters well before the end of the month. If you’ve been...

As a fundraiser and donor relations professional, you work hard every day to make sure your donors feel important. You know like no other that all donors need to feel appreciated, no matter how much they give or how often they donate to your organization. That’s why I’m still amazed at how difficult this seems to be, especially as organizations grow. Especially if there are multiple “cooks in the kitchen.” Often decisions are made...

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We had a great time with my family, the turkey and all the trimmings. On Black Friday, I sat down behind my computer and made donations to some 20 organizations. The same amount for each. Some I already donate to monthly, and some I only give to this time of year. To process the 20 donations, four used PayPal, and two used Stripe, NetCommunity, Donor Perfect Weblink, Classy or Network for Good. Then...

St. Nick (or Sinterklaas as we called him) was part of my tradition growing up in Holland. Dec. 5 was when we received our gifts as kids. The night before, we’d put our shoe with some straw and carrots for St. Nick’s white horse in the corner of our living room. And he and his little helper black Pete would come and drop our gifts near our shoes. Here are two links to the explanation of this tradition. here or here. As we got older, we’d draw...

  Every year, the military base theater near us (Joint Base Cape Cod) organizes the annual Christmas tree lighting. It’s a fun event, with hot cocoa, peppermint sticks and a short visit of Santa, of course! As a military spouse myself (married to a 32-year Airforce veteran), we love our little theater, and this event is always a lot of fun. It’s so wonderful to see the little kids and adults enjoy themselves. The tree lighting is followed...

I’m so excited! I just received “The 2017 Burk Donor Survey Report,” and this year’s study has a huge section on sustainers—comparing this year’s donors’ answers to ones from 2012, when they last had this major focus on monthly gifts. The top reason why donors want to give monthly is because it assures nonprofits of stable funds, immediately followed by: “More convenient for me,” “It reduces cost of fundraising,” “It’s a way to budget my...

  We know that video gives a major boost to open and click-through rates online. So, why not use it to your advantage and invite other donors to join your monthly donor program? Look at your current monthly donors—even if you have just five of them. Call them up, and ask them if they’re willing to share why they’re giving monthly. Then ask them if they’d be willing to say this on video. You don’t have to have a huge budget to make a video...

Originally posted in NonProfitPro Today on September 5, 2017 First of all, let me add my thoughts and prayers to those who lost their home and everything else after Hurricane Harvey. And I know we’re not out of the woods yet, with other storms coming near. Fortunately, there are many wonderful experienced organizations on the ground to help the victims. And, of course, fundraising activities have ramped up. People are literally walking in the...

Previously posted by NonProfitPRO Today on August 14 At the recent Bridge Conference, I enjoyed several wonderful sustainer sessions. During one of those, someone asked about the automatic sustainer upgrade process some nonprofits are apparently using. My hair immediately started standing up straight! What happened to being donor-centric? Automatic sustainer upgrades are really all about the nonprofit, but frankly, if you’re offering this,...

Originally posted by NonProfitPRO today on August 21, 2017 Over the past few months, I hope I showed you how monthly giving has become so much easier for nonprofits to organize and then actually start. That’s because so many payment processors and donor bases now have built-in tools to create giving pages, add the recurring/monthly option and capture new monthly donors without a lot of jumping through hoops. Having said this, if you’re still...

First appeared on NonProfitPRO Today on August 7, 2017 My first experience with a hurricane came in August of 1991, when “Bob” hit Cape Cod. I was actually still in the Netherlands, but I watched video of my then future in-laws wade through chest-high water near their beach house. Power was out for many days. Life came to a screeching halt. Other hurricanes followed later:  Andrew, Katrina, Sandy just to name a few. As a Red Cross PR volunteer,...

Originally posted on NonProfitPRO Today, July 10, 2017 Whenever I do a webinar on monthly donors, I am always happy to follow up to provide answers to questions that may have gone unanswered during the short time we were “webinaring” together. One of the questions that came up was:  Is generating monthly donors more difficult for a local nonprofit, compared to a larger national organization? The best answer is: You will not know...