At a recent list serve, someone asked about how best to track initial and subsequent recurring gifts. There are two ways to do this. Note that your finance/accounting/bookkeeping folks may have a different approach, so it’s important to involve them in any decisions you make about this. As recurring gifts have no end date, so this is not like your typical major gift pledge where you get big amounts over a limited period. Recurring gifts are...

Donor advised funds are all the craze lately. Now is the time to motivate those donors who want to optimize their tax deductions this year to consider a gift from their donor advised fund. Or, if they don’t have a donor advised fund set up yet, they may wish to consider it. Did you know that you can already set up a donor advised fund for $5,000 minimum? You don’t have to be a millionaire to start, but it’s a guaranteed tax deduction of $5,000...

  During the recent Virtual Summit for Nonprofit Changemakers , Ashton Rodenhiser did this wonderful visual overview of what I talked about for 45 minutes. Mind you, she had only heard me speak once before with a different monthly giving focus. It’s truly amazing how she can capture the essence of the session.  If nothing else, print out this little graphic and put it on your bulletin board. It’s a quick overview of why and how easy...

Recently, Cause Vox launched the 2021 Pledge Now, Pay Later Study. It was based upon an online survey amongst 400 American individuals, across a wide range of demographics, including age, education level and income. As you know, I love studies and statistics, especially pertaining to recurring gifts, so I was intrigued. Insight No. 1 of the study confirms why I am passionate about recurring gifts: “Donation installments would lead to increased...

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...

I love Next After and its tremendous research and experiments. Focused on online giving, donation pages and emails, Next After provides a lot to learn. If you know that the typical number of people who finish a gift is only 21%, that means 79% do not give, even though they go to your organization’s page to donate. Yet, you can do something about it, or, should I say, prevent that outcome. Recently, Next After — in collaboration with Fundraise...

by  Jim Eskin I have to start with a confession: I am a monthly giving convert. As a practitioner, I heard a lot about it at the Association for Fundraising Professionals (AFP) and other professional conferences, and my ears perked up. But when I returned to my development shop, I discussed it with the team and, regrettably, didn’t demonstrate the needed leadership to make a robust and serious commitment to make things happen as they should...

Today I wanted to start your week off with a little music. It’s been a very loooooong year, and as many of you are about to wrap up your fiscal year, you might need some encouragement to keep pushing. Let me share with you one of my all-time favorite songs with you: “Wake Up Everybody.” I found it by accident. A few years ago, my husband and I attended a big local charity event. It was the No. 1 event to be seen at, held just before...

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...

As I’m sure you can imagine, I receive questions about how best to grow monthly donor programs all the time. One of the first things I do is look at the organization’s website. How easy is it to find the monthly giving option? How easy is it to find the donation page to begin with? Some website designs have these little horizontal lines (I call them ‘hoobies’). Here is one example: Yes, it looks cool and modern, and you may know that this is...

You may know that I’ve been working in monthly giving for almost 30 years now. I’ve now written two books on monthly giving.  My second book, “Monthly Giving Made Easy,” is due to hit Amazon and e-book outlets any minute. All in all, I believe there are now six books in total on the topic of monthly or regular giving, as they call it in other countries. Much has changed since Harvey McKinnon wrote the book “Hidden Gold”...

Recently, I shared statistics from large organizations here and here.  Now, it’s time to look at what smaller nonprofits are doing when it comes to monthly giving. I was excited to read the “Small Nonprofit Fundraising Benchmark Report,” published by Network for Good and the NextAfter Institute based upon 2019 data and 2020 surveys. This report publishes the key findings based on a survey of 1,222 nonprofit employees and an analysis of donation...

Every year, Blackbaud’s donorCentrics Sustainer Benchmarking group meets and evaluates information on recurring gifts. This year was no exception. Face-to-face/door-to-door fundraising, also known as canvassing, came to a screeching halt during COVID-19. For organizations that picked those strategies back up again in late 2020, the good news is the number of sustainers is up and retention rates are also up. Let’s take a look at the growth...

Credit: Concord Leadership Group “The Surprising Gift of Doubt,” written by Marc Pitman of Concord Leadership Group, is a book that’s not just about nonprofit leadership. It can be applied to leaders in any situation, especially if you, as a leader, need some re-grounding or refocus. And who doesn’t need that during this ongoing pandemic? Even if you’ve never taken a leadership class, this book gives you, in easy bites, some of the key...

A few weeks ago, The New York Times published an article on automatic upgrades of monthly gifts and the number of upset supporters when that happened. This is scary stuff and could have a very negative impact on other nonprofits looking to grow their monthly donor programs. I’m going to leave politics out and look at that practice as a whole. Here is my take: Automatic upgrading is a bad idea, period! There are several reasons: It makes for a...

I love subscriptions. I have for years. I started out my direct mail and fundraising career working on subscriptions and loyalty programs. Subscriptions are great! And they certainly have and continue to have a huge impact on recurring gifts. They’ve allowed people to become much more comfortable paying for things automatically. They’ve opened up automated giving to younger donors. But in my view, that’s where it ends. Why? Just look at this...

While I was doing some research, I came across this interesting study.  Brightback’s research is more aimed at the commercial subscription world, but a lot of what happens there can be applied to monthly giving for nonprofits. What I find interesting is the shift to an online/digital model.  Take note: Online consumers expect the experience to be convenient and relevant. While I’m not a tremendous proponent of having online donor accounts,...

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...

This is always an exciting time of year as donor base providers and analytics groups release their giving trends from the prior year. We are continuing to see so many changes. Not many were prepared for this disaster. And many, especially smaller organizations, almost froze when the shutdown happened. Many assumed that their donors did not have the funds to help, so they did not ask at a time when it was most crucial to ask donors for help....

At this time, many people are looking to find out when they can possibly get vaccinated against COVID-19. I live on Cape Cod, an area with many older residents — many who have been struggling. Many of these older residents do not have access to the internet, so registration online is difficult. They do have access to the phone, though, so as a result, they’ve just started a special COVID-19 hotline with a person answering the phone at the other...

Recently, I was on Facebook Live with a colleague, and we were discussing some tips for growing monthly gifts. The question of why so many nonprofits are still hesitating about introducing monthly giving to their donors came up. It’s still a real mystery to me. It made me think of my childhood. My mom and dad always told me and my siblings (I’m the oldest of four): “Eat your veggies. They’re good for you!” They always came up with different...

Over the holidays, I took some time to finish a few books in my stack of fundraising books to read. Trust me, I learn something every time, and I’ve been raising funds for years. Cover image of “10 Simple Fundraising Lessons” by Jim Eskin | Credit: Amazon Jim Eskin wrote a book on simple fundraising lessons, and it’s a great little gem for a few reasons: It’s short and sweet, and you can read it in less than one hour. Who does not...

At this time of year, I like to look back over the past year. It’s certainly been very different than any other year. For every single one of us. For me, 2020 meant minimal travel, more webinars, more screen time, more appeals, more emails, more writing and working harder than ever before. I’ve been busy and fortunate to support wonderful fundraisers like you, so I’m very grateful to you. Together, we are all trying to make a difference. Here...

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...

You know I’m all for small monthly gifts, but two years ago I became intrigued with donor-advised funds, especially after I received some DAF-focused email newsletters from Jack Doyle from Amergent. I highly recommend reading them. Based on Fidelity’s “2020 Giving Report,” the number of donors who have a DAF has almost tripled over the past 10 years, and more and more Millennials have opened an account. When I did the research to see what was...

Just a short blog this week, because I know you’re very busy–the biggest giving month of the year is just around the corner! Just a few more emails. Just a few more thank you letters. Just a few more… (you fill in the blanks). Just a few more weeks, and then the weirdest of weird years is over. I’m amazed at the generosity of donors. I’ve seen and heard tremendous stories of donors coming to the table in the past few months: $2,000 when...

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...

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...

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...