Originally posted on The Eight Principles Last year, I attended a workshop at the International Fundraising Congress in Noordwijkerhout, the Netherlands, about creating memorable donor journeys. I really enjoyed the session and I was looking forward to implementing it with some of my clients, especially focused on monthly donors. So, over the past two months, I worked with a client mapping out their monthly donor journey. This religious...

Posted on June 15, 2017 by ngEngage In the second installment of the Blackbaud Institute’s Sustainers in Focus series—research-backed best practices for marketing, promoting, soliciting, and fulfilling a sustained giving program—Best Practice # 1 was to ask new donors to give on a monthly basis. Monthly giving almost sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? Why on earth would a donor who has no relationship with you yet trust your organization...

First published on NonProfit Pro Today on June 12, 2017 I just came back from presenting a workshop on monthly donors to a group of nonprofits in Michigan. One of the questions asked was the one on how to best market monthly donor programs to existing donors, especially for small organizations with limited funds and limited time. If you asked me this question four years ago, I would have answered, “Yikes! That’s a tough proposition.” But now,...

A few months ago, I started promoting #MonthlyDonorMonday. All I ask of you is to focus one half hour every Monday on your monthly donor program. Of course, you’re totally welcome to do more, but if nothing else, start with half an hour. You can read a MonthlyDonorMonday tip. You can test your web site. You can see what other organizations are doing. You can create a monthly donor page. You can start working on a monthly donor plan.  You...

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, thank you! You’ve probably heard me ‘preach’ about monthly donors and how it’s still astounding that so many people are catching on really slowly on the tremendous value of monthly donors. Unfortunately, there’s not that much research (yet), because most monthly donors are reported in the annual appeal revenue and not always segmented out or tracked separately. The...

Last week I talked about upgrading your monthly donors, a very important part in growing your program. Today I’ll go back to something that’s even more important with any monthly donor program: Retaining your monthly donors. Like anything with fundraising, the rule of thumb is: If you can keep a monthly donor, that’s still cheaper than bringing in a new one. To calculate how you’re doing with your program, we use the...

  One of my clients recently asked me what’s the best time to upgrade monthly donors. The answer is, as soon as possible, but not too soon! If you have had a program for a few years and you’ve never upgraded your monthly donors, NOW is the time because you’re long overdue. If you just started your monthly donor program in the past year and you’re thinking of upgrading, be cautious. I know of organizations that are...

This post was also published in Network for Good.   5 Big To-Dos for Monthly Giving Programs One of my favorite breakfasts is the Big-To-Do at Friendly’s. French toast, scrambled eggs and bacon well-done! I’m getting hungry just thinking about it! While this is not breakfast, it’s even more important to ‘enjoy’. So, if you’re serious about your monthly giving program, make sure that you follow these 5 big To-Dos.   Big To-Do 1: Ask...

I was talking to someone recently who was very concerned. And I can see why. Virtually every time a donor goes online to make a donation to an organization, he or she sees the word Recurring. Many organizations have simply added the word: “Make this gift recurring” message to their online donation form. That’s what their online forms or donor base system’ allowed them to use. But, do donors really know what that word...

I’ve been working in direct marketing, fundraising and monthly giving for a very long time. And of course, I ran into problems. One of the things I learned early on though is that sometimes it’s really important to make sure that you solve the problem where the problem needs to be solved. In other words, sometimes, it looks as if something is causing the problem, but when you analyze it, it’s really caused by something else....

If your answer is YES, I am serious about your recurring giving program, then you MUST: 1. Evaluate your current processes. 2. Project what you can expect, in terms of number of new recurring donors, existing, types of gifts and projected revenue. 3. Decide if you’ll be able to manage the processing in-house or if you should decide to outsource. This is the third in a series of blog posts addressing each and every one of these areas. In...

If your answer is YES, I am serious about your recurring giving program, then you MUST: 1. Evaluate your current processes. 2. Project what you can expect, in terms of number of new recurring donors, existing, types of gifts and projected revenue. 3. Decide if you’ll be able to manage the processing in-house or if you should decide to outsource. This is the second in a series of blog posts that will address each and every one of these...

  I just came back from a conference, attended by some 1,700 people and I’m so excited! There were 4 (yes, four) sessions on monthly giving aka sustainers!! More and more organizations are finding that ‘sustainers are retainers’. Thank you Dan Allenby for this great word cloud. Many donor base systems are adding monthly giving options to make your life as a fundraiser easier. And research is growing. For example:...

Bon giorno, You may wonder, why I am writing about history all of a sudden? Because I just came back from a terrific but short trip to France and Italy… Something we’d planned for a while and it was finally happening! We saw where our World War II veterans stormed the Normandy beaches and helped liberate our European fellow men and women. And we saw so many amazing (and old) things, one can only be full of awe!! The most impressive...