Note: This post was written as a guest blog for Vanessa Chase
If you’ve seen the discussions about retention recently and if you are reading this blog, you already know that one of the greatest solutions to really improve those retention rates is called: Monthly Giving.
When working with nonprofits and helping them implement or grow their program, one thing has become really clear: There is not ONE solution for those looking to start or grow their monthly giving, because NO monthly giving program is the same!
This is because NO organization has the same number of donors or is in the same state of donor development. That’s why it’s more difficult to provide the one and only approach for everybody. Rather, the monthly giving program and its growth potential must be tailor made for you!
What I know is that there are benchmarks and expected results of the different media. So, that’s where you should get started.
Preparing Projections for Your Organization: Download the Free handy Monthly Donor Calculator
How fast you can grow your monthly giving program totally depends on your current communication stream, the number of donors, average gifts, and make up of your donor base, the way people donate, your web site, number of email names available, the credit card merchant systems you may have put in place, the web site support you have, in some cases your mission, and more…
That’s why I recommend first testing some media that work well for other organizations. Use those media you’re already using. Use the web. Use the email. Use your thank you letters. The sooner you can convert new donors, the more their retention increases. Simple additions work miracles for your monthly giving program!! If you can add telemarketing, great! You’ll be able to grow faster. But if that’s not part of your mix, consider a targeted mailing and a few email monthly giving appeals.
To look at the potential and long term impact of your program, I developed this handy little Monthly Donor Value Calculator. Simply take YOUR test results and plug in the response rates and average gifts you’ve seen for your tests. That will give you some indication of how your organization’s program can grow. Then, as you add additional media as you grow and have more resources to invest, simply add additional columns and plug in those results.
There’s not one recipe for success other than: Go for it! And go for the solution that works best with your resources and existing infrastructure. The last thing we’d want to do to small to mid-size nonprofits who are already overwhelmed, is add more work!
If you’re interested in learning more about the best media to use to start and grow your monthly donor program and would like to see examples, take a look at https://www.amazon.com/Erica-Waasdorp/e/B00DKAV47A/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
