Monthly Giving

Please don’t call it Sustainable Giving or call your monthly donors Sustainers.  That makes it sound as if they are helping to keep your organization right where it is.  And that is not the purpose of fundraising.  
We raise funds so our nonprofits can work more effectively, so we can touch more lives, so we can do what we do while having the right resources.

Monthly giving is a wonderful way to bring in unrestricted funds, equalize your cash flow, and connect your donors more tightly to your organization.  It also allows some donors to make larger gifts than they think they can in one fell swoop.

If you don’t already have one, consider starting a monthly giving or recurring gift club.  The first step is to think of a clever name.  Or launch a contest to name the club.  Your donors will love having ownership of this.

Send out an email, put an article in your newsletter, and put it on the front page of your website, telling everyone that you are launching a monthly giving group and want their help to name the group.  Toward that end, you are having a contest—and hope that they will join to name the giving club.  Keep the timeline short—2 to 3 weeks. Provide a dedicated email to send ideas or a specific page where they can upload their suggestions.

Getting members for the recurring gift club is generally done via online appeals, social media, and via your website. You should also offer monthly donations and membership in the giving club on your appeals and your landing page. If you have a large number of records on your database without email addresses, you may also want to consider sending postcards with the URL of the monthly giving landing page.  

Set a minimum monthly rate—I suggest no less than $25/month.  

Here are the basic steps to launch your monthly giving club—or to make your monthly giving more robust:

Step                                                                   

1.     Chose name for recurring gift club                             

2.     Write basic email language                                         

3.     Consider announcement in newsletter/press release/etc   

4.     Every 4-6 weeks, send out an eblast and, if necessary, postcard.  Note you can schedule these in advance

5.     Within 48 hours of receipt of someone becoming a member of the club send thank you and inform them that at the end of the calendar year, they will receive a receipt for the gifts made via monthly giving for that year

6.     Quarterly, send updates about the group:  How many new members or percent of growth during a period of time; how much raised; what activities are happening thanks in large part to their support          

7.     As club members reach milestones reach out beyond the eblasts and talk with them about their gifts.  Many of these people will increase their monthly gifts and/or make one time larger additional gifts     

8.     Outreach to larger monthly givers—when you get a monthly donor at the $80/month and above make a special outreach to thank them, find out what caused them to join this group, and begin treating them as the major donor they are        

9.     Refresh message.  Every three months OR do an entire year using September or October as your “refresh” month write new appeal or simply schedule more appeals for the next time period