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...

I am an avid coffee drinker — five cups a day at a minimum and one decaf at night. We have a big coffeemaker with a timer, so our coffee is ready when we wake up in the morning. It’s one of those old fashioned multi-cup machines. The slow drip-by-drip process makes it so worthwhile, and it creates the amount of coffee I like. That coffee maker and a recent Seth Godin blog made me think how the drip-by-drip approach is so utterly true when it...

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...

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,...

I recently traveled across several time zones, and it’s amazing how it impacts you — your body, your mood, your sleep pattern and your ability to concentrate. They say it takes one day to recuperate from a one-hour time change. So, with Daylight Savings Time around the corner, we’ll lose one whole hour, 60 minutes, 3,600 seconds. The good news is that the adjustment will be on a Sunday for most people, but the Monday morning after the clock...

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...

The decision to add monthly giving to your annual fundraising plan is probably one of the most important ones you’ll ever make. It’s probably also one of the best you’ll ever make. Now if it were two decades ago, it would have been a costly one. But now, with the internet, email marketing, social media and the numerous ways giving has been made easy, adding monthly giving has become a ‘no brainer’. Adding monthly giving to your fundraising plan...

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...

I still come across nonprofits that have virtually no sustainers. Why? Because they weren’t pushed to do it, or they didn’t know that they could do it. Sadly, some organizations had the bad luck of agencies and consultants not thinking that monthly giving was a “big deal.” Some worried it would take away from their direct mail numbers and revenue. It made me think of the movie “Pretty Woman.” Do you remember the scene where Julia Roberts needs...

Did you know that 50% – 60% of your nonprofit’s direct mail results comes from whom you are mailing to? Target audience is crucial, and segmentation is just as important. But, to determine the best target audience for your nonprofit’s direct mail, you first must determine the goal of your appeal. For Any Nonprofit Organization There Are Only Three Ways To Grow Your Overall Fundraising: You must bring in new donors to keep supporting your...

To start the year and decade off right, I thought I’d share 20 ideas and intentions to help you grow your monthly donor program to the next level. No matter what your current number of monthly donors is, you can always use more. No matter what your current overall communication schedule is, you should be able to fit these into the mix. No matter how many donors you have, you can always apply these tips. Virtually, all of these are low in cost;...

If you haven’t started focusing on monthly and sustainer giving yet, think again. At the start of the new year, it’s a good time to take a fresh look at this tremendously sustainable way for donors to make a difference to your organization in ways that are most comfortable for their budget. When I ask monthly donors the question, why they like giving that way, most indicate they like to support the organization. They care about the mission....

As you’re going into the next decade, it might be a good time to take stock of some old ideas that can be new again. But how do you find those old ideas? Go back to some of your old packages and emails, and retest them. See what happens. When I worked at Reader’s Digest in Amsterdam several decades ago, we took two approaches that worked over and over again: We had a huge stock room of samples of prior campaigns. And every seven years or so,...

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...

As it’s almost Halloween, I thought I’d discuss the “creepy” topic of asking monthly donors for an extra gift this giving season. Remember this post from a few months ago? I described the biggest reason why sustainers give monthly — it’s because they care about your mission. So knowing that, why on earth would you NOT give your monthly donors the opportunity to make an extra gift? You’re doing them a favor by asking them to make an even bigger...

This is one of those recurring questions I get whenever I present on monthly giving, so it may be time to address it again.  Organizations often “agonize” about the name for a monthly giving program. Many are holding up the launch of it. Do yourself a favor: Don’t delay. You can always recognize donors later! Before you start thinking about names (and possibly stalling the start of the program), consider this: On your online form, your...

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...

You probably know by now that monthly giving is not a one-shot deal. It’s a matter of “chipping” away at it. And if you’re a golfer, you know, it’s those chip shots that can make all the difference. With monthly giving, it’s all about consistency. It’s about a continued and committed focus. It’s about finding ways to build in a monthly giving ask wherever you possibly can. There are numerous (almost endless) online opportunities, but don’t...

As I’m getting ready for my second cataract surgery this week, it has started to dawn on me the tremendous eye-opening results I’ve already experienced from the first one. For me, going to the beach and swimming in the ocean was never an option, because I wouldn’t be able to find my spot unless there was nobody else there. Snorkeling was not possible, because I simply wouldn’t see anything. Now hopefully all that will be possible. I may have...

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...

This article was written by Michael W. Kahn and posted by Nacha on July 18, 2019.   It’s a nonprofit no-brainer:  Encourage recurring donations through ACH/EFT. “Those organizations that have been doing this, that started with EFT early on, they get it,” said Erica Waasdorp, founder and president of the fundraising consulting firm A Direct Solution, and author of “Monthly Giving. The Sleeping Giant.” She works with...

At a recent client meeting in Richmond, VA., we were discussing ways to grow the organization’s monthly donor program. I asked the question: “Do you know the lifetime value of one of your first monthly donors?” Her answer was astounding: $10,000! Can you just imagine? A small donor who has been giving so much on an ongoing basis! Right now, the average recurring donor gives between $24 and $36 a month—that’s $288 to $432 per year! Just think,...

What Was A Monthly Giving Program Like Before Computers And The Internet?  It existed but it was a lot harder! The channels used were mail, phone and in-person. When I first started managing a monthly giving program, now many (26+) years ago, nonprofits’ websites didn’t exist! Emails were just used for internal communication and even that was still very new. Cell phones were only used in cars and nobody had even heard of smart phones. Computers...

If you have some monthly donors now, congratulations. Please allow me to share some recent statistics with you on why these small recurring donors are so powerful: Average monthly gift between $24 and $36, that’s between $288 and $432 a year! Typical way monthly donors pay: 80% credit card, 10% EFT/ACH, 10% other (PayPal and checks, where the organization sends reminders by mail). So, retention rate is much higher than the typical 45% retention...

This past week I heard the expression “Drink Your Own Kool-Aid” several times, so I wanted to explain why it’s especially important when it comes to monthly giving. Let me start with the Wikipedia definition: “Drinking the Kool-Aid” is an expression commonly used in the United States that refers to a person who believes in a possibly doomed or dangerous idea because of perceived potential high rewards.” If your boss or board still...

One of those fundraising mantras I’ve heard over the years is: If you ask for advice, you’ll get money. If you ask for money, you’ll get advice. I’ve also heard that sometimes you should take responses to surveys with a grain of salt. What people say and do is different sometimes. Well that may be true, but like anything, it all depends on what the survey is for. Here are a few things to consider: Your monthly donors are already supporting you....

I love Netflix. It helped us do away with cable TV 10+ years ago. Now we live stream our favorite movies on our “older” TV. We still get Netflix DVDs in the mail, and we choose our favorite shows to binge-watch when we’re in that binge-watch mood. We’re in control of what we watch, and there’s always something on. Netflix is just one example of that overall subscription culture that has grown a lot over the past few years. For example, DVDs,...