This post first appeared on the Donor Perfect blog.
Many nonprofits struggle with the decision to make the move and ask for monthly gifts.
Here’s what I hear from organizations when I ask them about their monthly donor program:
- “I need one time gifts.”
- “I can’t focus on monthly gifts right now. They’re too small to concern myself with.”
- “I only have so little time. Why would I worry about small donors?”
- “It’s all about the net and monthly donors don’t contribute to the net.”
- “It’s expensive to ask for monthly donations and takes too long to see the return on investment.”
And my all-time favorite: “We tried it once, a few years ago. It didn’t work.” When I asked them what they did, they told me they sent 100 letters and they asked for $50 and $75 a month. If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that’s simply too high for the average monthly donor.
So, let me demystify all of these monthly giving myths really quickly:
Monthly gifts are totally worth it!
If you look at some organizations who ‘get it’, they see the tremendous power and value. They raise MORE money!
It’s a new year and do you know what most of these organizations are doing? They totally took over the home page of their website and are all about asking for monthly gifts.
Just think of it this way: if your average donor gives $35 when you send an appeal and you can convert them to give $10 a month, that becomes $120 a year.
You just tripled that donor’s value! Even if you’re an organization that gets $65 when you send an appeal or email newsletter, converting that same donor to give $10 a month, is still doubling the donor’s value. If you know that the average monthly gift right now is $24 a month, that means $288 a year! How’s that for contributing to your net?
Don’t worry. Many donors will still give to your appeals as well, so you’re not losing out on one-time donations, but you’re upgrading them to higher levels.
Isn’t that what fundraising is all about? And remember, these monthly donors are more likely to leave you in their will! One of my clients currently has 30,000 monthly donors, generating half of their revenue and last year 75% of their legacy income came from monthly donors!
Research shows that the typical monthly donor gives two to three times the value of a one-time donor.
So, what does this mean for you and your need to get one-time donations? Don’t change what you’re doing now in your direct mail program, but simply add a few monthly donor asks online. Virtually no expense. Positive impact on your net.
How about this: Maybe you’re considering doing something around Easter or Earth Day or another world giving day for your particular type of cause.
I dare you to take an email appeal you’re planning to use to ask for one-time donations and make a version where you’re just linking to the monthly donor page instead of the one-time donation page, send it and see what happens.
As a Donor Perfect client, you already have the tools to accommodate monthly gifts.
With DonorPerfect’s Online Forms (WebLink), it only takes 5 minutes to create a recurring gifts page.
Be sure to test it to make sure that everything works okay (including the thank you emails) and then link to it from your email. These donors have given one-time donations, so asking them to convert to give monthly is not going to hurt anything.
You may have many donors who would love to help you more, but they just can’t write the big checks.
Well, monthly donations are really a win-win for them and for you. They can give $10, $15 or perhaps even $24 or $50 a month and contribute a lot more to your ‘net’.
As you’re getting more comfortable asking in your emails, try adding an ask in your direct mail appeals. Stay tuned for more on that in future blogs.
What do you have to lose by trying a few online asks in this new year?
I’d love to know how you did. Donor Perfect is here to help you grow your monthly donors, your donor retention rate and your ‘net’ for many years to come.
Erica Waasdorp is a DonorPerfect Expert and can be reached right here. She also started #MonthlyDonorMonday tips, so just go to www.adirectsolution.com to sign up.
