At the end of September, DMAW organized its first Sustainer Week. It consisted of a session every day, totally focused on sustainers (of course), from a different angle. As someone who is totally committed to recurring giving, I’m really excited about the DMAW and the education committees with such a sustainer-focused approach. If you too are a sustainer aficionado you may have attended sessions in the past during the Bridge conference,...

Whether you want to call it social proof, a testimonial — it doesn’t really matter. Donor’s love hearing from other donors. It helps give them that “extra” little push or nudge if you will. This works in major gift fundraising. This works in general fundraising. It especially works with recurring giving. If someone tells why they’re giving monthly, that will help motivate others. It will also help you as the fundraiser in developing...

Over the years, I’ve worked with nonprofits of all sizes — small, midsize, large — when it comes to monthly donors. A few of those smaller organizations started out earlier this year with 15 monthly donors. Now, a few months later, they are at 65 by introducing just a few additional ways to generate new monthly donors. An extra button and a small match made all the difference for one. A few emails and a message in the nonprofit’s newsletter...

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...

When an international fundraising legend like Ken Burnett writes a book, I stand up and listen. And having met Ken personally at numerous international conferences, I’m proud to have a signed copy! This new book, “The Essence of Campaigning Fundraising” was published by the White Lion Press in June. It includes a cool-looking USB drive that includes the 52 exhibits and 199 web links to which the book refers. Proceeds will go to SOFII, a...

I must admit I didn’t totally come up with this line on my own. It’s based on an email from Chewy, the company that delivers my cat’s litter and food to my front door. No more carrying heavy bags home from the pet store. I love it. The subject line said: “Reorders so easy your pet could do it.” Our cat, Mientje, jumps on my computer table all the time. Maybe with a bit more training, he could definitely do it! And it made me think about monthly...

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...

Every nonprofit wants to attract younger donors. That’s why it’s very exciting that monthly giving is so appealing to these younger donors. Why? Because they can support those organizations, they care about in a very easy way with a small amount that absolutely fits their budget. Easy and small are the key words here. Easy because they can make a gift from their credit card, their bank account, and more and more from their digital wallet like...

You probably have seen me quote Seth Godin before. His blogs inspire some of mine. It’s a short one so I’ll share his full post on “The Order of Operations” because it’s so important when it comes to monthly giving: “If you put the jelly on before the peanut butter, the sandwich will fail. “And if you try to spread the peanut butter on the plate and then add the bread, it will fail even worse. “Like so many things, the...

I’m very excited. Our 13-year-old grandson Kenan is coming to visit for a week. My husband has flown out to Charlotte, North Carolina, to pick him up and accompany him home next week — just to be safe. You probably know by now that I’m an avid planner and preparing for this coming week was no different. We sat down and mapped out plan A and B if something happened with the flights. Then we planned out what Kenan would be doing every day. My...

As you may know, I’ve been scanning and tracking examples of monthly giving approaches and follow ups for years. There are so many wonderful ways nonprofits ask for monthly donors. So many tremendous examples of saying thank you in the most grateful of ways. There’s so much that goes right with monthly giving and the results are showing! But every now and then, I see some goofs. I’m not going to name names, but you probably know who you are...

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...

I was looking back at some questions posed in a webinar I presented recently, and this was one of them: “What’s the most common mistake you see is made when it comes to monthly giving?” Of course, I’d love to say that most of you are not making any mistakes, but that’s not totally true. After all, we learn from mistakes, and we can make it better. That’s what we must do every day. The biggest mistake I’ve seen when it comes to monthly giving...

Sometimes, fundraisers ask me: “What’s the cost per sustainer?” Let me explain a few different types of cost. 1. What should you expect to spend to acquire a new monthly donor? The answer is: It depends. And it’s all over the map because it depends on the channels you’re using or the combination thereof. Let’s take a look at three examples. Credit: Erica Waasdorp The email example above assumes that the cost for the email program is all put...

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...

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...

Based on a colleague’s recommendation, I ordered the book “From the Ground Up: Digital Fundraising for Nonprofits,” written by Brock Warner, CFRE. It’s a great little gem with all the basics anybody and everybody could need for digital fundraising. Online advertising, social media, welcome emails, payment processors, Google Analytics and so much more. Credit: Brock Warner, CFRE In two sittings, I was able to learn all the basics I needed...

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,...

I just finished going through all of the donations I made last year to prepare for my taxes. I use two credit cards and a banking account for my monthly gifts, so it was a little bit of a process. First, thank you to those organizations who sent me a tax letter! That was helpful. When I was reviewing my gifts, I thought about those organizations I didn’t feel an affinity with any longer. Or I didn’t feel they were making me feel special. Some I...

As a follow up to the recent free webinar ‘7 Reasons why you should start a monthly donor program NOW’, we’re happy to share the answers to some of the questions we didn’t have a chance to answer during the webinar. These are very short answers of course. But feel free to contact me at erica@adirectsolution.com if you have any additional questions or join her in one of the upcoming advanced monthly donor webinars. Question: Do You Recommend...

By now, you probably know I love to organize. I have hundreds of direct mail and monthly giving examples scanned in. And over Christmas, I scanned in a huge box of family pictures. It’s all part of the downsizing and simplifying process my husband and I are going through. I must say, it’s tremendously liberating! As part of all this scanning and organizing, I gathered a huge stack of address labels, note cards and calendars. I will not have to...

2020 is over, and I know nobody is sad about that whatsoever. In my drive to organize, I came across last year’s 40 nonprofit trends for 2020. Those were created well before any of us had ever heard of COVID-19, a pandemic, coronavirus or ever imagined having to wear a mask daily. So, I thought it prudent to look back and highlight a few trends that certainly came true, but very differently. Some in a good way, because it helps nonprofits be...

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...

First, let me start by telling you that my focus has been monthly giving for many years. To set the stage, let me give you some facts: Monthly donors make small gifts now (on average $24 a month although some organizations are seeing lower monthly gifts, others are seeing higher monthly gifts, depending upon their type of nonprofit). Monthly donors are not the big check writers. (Yes, there will be exceptions but not typical). Monthly donors...

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...

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...

A while back, I interviewed Sami Sheehan of Lollypop Farm, a tremendous advocate of monthly giving. When we first talked, we decided we’d be back to discuss another great topic: hidden monthly donors. She’s done a lot of research, especially in the areas of workplace, Facebook and PayPal giving. You and your organization may very well have donors who are giving monthly, but for some reason some donors didn’t tell you they joined as a monthly...

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...

The last week of September = Sustainer month, I organized the first ever virtual Sustainer Workshop. About 40 fundraisers from all over the country, and even some from Canada, participated in the two-day workshop, looking at all stages of life for a sustainer. When I asked the question: ”What is your biggest challenge when it comes to monthly giving?” this word cloud shows it best: Source: Virtual Sustainer Workshop, September 2020, A Direct...

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...