“Difficult things we do quickly. The impossible takes a little longer”
–David Ben Gurion
Today I’d like to focus on what I consider the most crucial part of any monthly giving program, small or large, called Retention. After all, the beauty of generating monthly donors or sustainers is that they are supposed to stay with you for a very long time and they’ll generate lots of revenue to support the mission of your organization.
So, once you bring in monthly givers, it’s crucial to treat them with the utmost professionalism and courtesy, since you hope to maintain this relationship for a very long time. Treat them well and they’ll become your most loyal supporters.
Become Best Buddies with your IT and Donor Services Staff
I was very fortunate to learn a very important lesson early on in my direct marketing career and it has absolutely stuck with me. Whenever you develop a campaign, make sure you sit down and discuss it with all departments that are impacted. It’s absolutely crucial and it WILL make your life a lot easier, trust me! It may be a little bit strange at first but I highly recommend trying it!
The fulfillment and back-end procedures are probably the most difficult part of setting up any monthly giving program, but in my opinion, this can be a really fun experience and it’s certainly the most rewarding. You cannot go it alone! You’ll need to ‘befriend’ a lot of people (and departments) within your organization to make it happen
Depending upon how you manage the ongoing charging of credit cards or EFTs through the banks – whether in-house or externally – it’s crucial to realize that you’ll need to get the full support of your computer systems (IT) staff and your donor support staff. And if you have outsourced your caging and data-entry process, make sure to involve your colleagues there, as well. (Caging means sorting, opening response mail and process payments.) Finally, and a lot of people forget this, do sit down with your designer and agency to make sure that the monthly giving ask is included the right way, consistently, in everything that’s produced and in every medium being used.
A lot of larger organizations have multiple departments and sometimes the person in charge of the monthly giving program is not always included in initial discussions, which means that the monthly giving ask becomes an afterthought. That approach is not going to work as well!
Your IT staff are crucial too, especially if you’re working with a proprietary database, where you have to come up with some special reports for monthly giving or you’re introducing a new program. Your IT people may view their role in the organization differently and may not readily wear ‘marketing hats,’ but they still want to help. It’s up to us to share the importance of the monthly program with them and show how their work can help the program look even better.
In my experience, the Monthly Giving Fundraiser probably touches most other departments within the organization and sometimes even on the outside, And it’s absolutely essential to involve as many people as possible from the get-go, so the campaign will go the way you want it to go.
The organizations which are most successful with monthly giving are all totally committed to their program(s). They’re willing to communicate with all levels and all departments across the organization to make it the best program it can be!
Make sure you send a “Thank you” letter for joining right away
It all starts with a “thank you” letter for a new monthly giver, welcoming him or her into the program. Ideally, you include a special phone number and email address to contact if the person has any questions or would like to make changes. The letter can really be very simple. Also, if you promised to send a special gift for joining the program, include that if possible. Some organizations include a little informational flyer about the program as well.
If the donor joins the monthly giving program online, he or she should immediately receive a thank you via email. I suggest you still send them a thank you letter via snail mail and add a little personal note. Remember, just because they joined as a monthly donor does not mean you should not cultivate them.
Some organizations use premiums as a thank you for joining and they work. In my opinion, the absolute minimum you should send a donor who makes a commitment for many years to come is a personal thank you letter or card and ideally a special certificate with the monthly giving program’s name on it (and the logo if you have one.) It costs virtually nothing, but it makes the donor feel really special. And I would do the same for those donors joining your program online.
Think through the process with credit card and bank
Make sure someone cross-checks or is responsible every month to verify that the amount that was supposed to come in from each source, is actually coming in (and on time.) Verify the number of rejects or declines and make sure you update the donor’s record as their money did not actually come in. Make someone responsible for the whole process from start to finish, even if this means that this becomes an IT function. I recommend that the ultimate responsibility always lies within the fundraising department. It’s your program and your revenue!
It’s still easier and more cost effective to retain a sustainer than to have to generate a new one. A little donor relations goes a long way. Make sure that everybody realizes the tremendous value of a sustainer over the long run – they’ll stay with you for years and years. If the relationship is handled well, they may even leave your organization in their will. All of a sudden, this $5-a-month donor has become a major donor. So, do treat him or her as such!
From a recent study, it appears that close to 30 percent of US credit card holders change cards each year. This can be because of a card expiring, a card switching banks, losing a card, or a variety of other reasons. It’s really important to try to get the revised information before the sustainer credit card expires so you don’t have a break in service.
Use a program to send emails to the credit card donor, when their card is about to expire to get their most relevant card. It’s a good time to reach out and tell the donor the difference they make. And, believe it or not, this is often a great time to ask for an upgrade!
Bank rules are different. A donor can either call the organization to stop the transaction or they can call the bank. The organization will only find out by reviewing the reject report they receive after the EFTs have been run. In some cases, however, the bank is just not able to draw the money because there’s not enough in the account. They will often retry in a few days but the payment may still fail. Your organization will need to develop a procedure. Will you send the donor a reminder to request the missed payment or will you just let it go and hope that there will be enough money next time?
When it appears that the donation was rejected for an unknown reason, I recommend sending out a so-called bank reject letter followed up by a phone call. That way, the donor has the chance to respond. Here’s an example.
“As you currently send us your gifts via AutoGiving through your bank, we wanted to let you know that it appears that your bank was not able to complete your membership withdrawal for the following reason: (fill in description)
“I have enclosed a special reply form for you to give us your updated information. Please return it in the reply envelope provided. I hope you enjoy the way AutoGiving works for you, knowing that every penny goes toward carrying out our mission. Thank you again.”
Ideally, follow up the letter by phone and perhaps by email if you have the email address. You may find that a lot of donors are not comfortable providing you with the information over the phone or by email. Unfortunately, there are too many ‘scams’ going on. You may even wish to give donors your phone number and ask them to call you back, so they know you’re a real person with a legitimate organization.
Once you lose a sustainer, it can be hard to get him back, so prevent him from dropping off in the first place. If someone writes to stop giving as a monthly donor, call and ask him why. You can be amazed at the real reason why they did. Depending upon your total number of monthly donors and the number that may drop off every month or every quarter, it’s very worthwhile planning a lapsed monthly donor telemarketing campaign, email or direct mail approach. The more personal you can make this outreach, the better it is.
So, while acquiring new sustainers is crucial to any organization, it’s even more crucial to fulfill their needs and keep them going and giving.
