If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, thank you!
You’ve probably heard me ‘preach’ about monthly donors and how it’s still astounding that so many people are catching on really slowly on the tremendous value of monthly donors. Unfortunately, there’s not that much research (yet), because most monthly donors are reported in the annual appeal revenue and not always segmented out or tracked separately.
The good news is that this is changing. Let me share two great pieces of statistic to share with you.
Take a look at this recent chart from Blackbaud’s Target Analytics Sustainer Benchmarking study . Based upon organizations that have 4,000 monthly donors (sustainers) or more, the research has focused on their monthly donor programs for a while. Pretty impressive, right? .
Recurring gift revenue per donor more than 2x that of a median single donor in 2015
Give more and retain longer. Worth 4x as much as single donors over 5 years
Source: Target Analytics
I absolutely love what this research shows. Not to mention the 94% plus retention rate. That’s double the national average of all nonprofits. Are you catching my drift here? Who says it’s not time to start a monthly donor program? If you wish to raise more money, this is a great way to do it.
My second piece of terrific research is based upon the Individual Donor Benchmarking study by Third Space Studio, who surveys those organizations that raise 2 million dollars annually or less.
The value of monthly donors is even more impressive at $754 per year. On average the organizations have 14% of their donors giving monthly. That’s tremendous!!
Just think about it, what would your numbers look like if you had 14% of your donors giving monthly?
Finally, let me tell you this. One of my clients has 30,000 monthly donors, that’s 20% of their donors who gave in the last year. Last year, 75% of their legacy revenue came from monthly donors. Wait! Legacy revenue from small regular donors? Absolutely! They really care about your organization. They love your programs. They have committed to you for the really long term.
I’m not telling you to give up on your major donors. No, not at all. What I am asking you is to take another closer look at those many small donors you have in your database. Then, take a little time to ask them to give monthly and you’ll be following in the foot steps of those other organizations.
That’s why I’m starting the #MonthlyDonorMonday ‘movement’. Take a few minutes every Monday to consider ways to look at your monthly donor program and to do just one thing to grow it. If you’re really motivated and wish to take over your home page on that day, super. If you’re ready to send out your monthly donor email appeal or direct mail letter, super. You’ve heard me say it before: the more you ask, the more monthly donors you’ll get. Those organizations that really focus are really able to grow their program.
You probably already have everything in place for #GivingTuesday. Now, it’s time everybody catches the #MonthlyDonorMonday bug.
These two pieces of research tell the story. Those organizations that commit to growing their monthly donor program and focus at least some resources on growing that group of donors to bigger levels, will see the tremendous impact. You’ve probably heard me say it: Major donors create the splash, monthly donors create the pond. What do you have to lose by testing a few email appeals and by focusing a few minutes every Monday on creating your organization’s pool of ongoing donors, supporting your terrific programs and services to your clients, people, animals, patients, etc.
So, are you ready for your #MonthlyDonorMonday ?
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