You probably know by now that monthly giving is not a one-shot deal. It’s a matter of “chipping” away at it. And if you’re a golfer, you know, it’s those chip shots that can make all the difference.
With monthly giving, it’s all about consistency. It’s about a continued and committed focus. It’s about finding ways to build in a monthly giving ask wherever you possibly can. There are numerous (almost endless) online opportunities, but don’t forget about your offline options.
If you’re sending appeals in the mail and you’ve not already done so, consider adding a simple tick box to your appeal.
If you’re worried it’s going to impact your one-time gifts, by all means, test it first. If you’re more committed to building your number of monthly donors to higher levels, you can safely add that tick box without testing it.
Can you expect to get boatloads of new sustainers from it? It depends on the type of appeals you send out. It depends on the number of appeals you mail to your donors.
I know of a big organization that gets thousands of new sustainers from new donors right off the bat. Other organizations get fewer than 10, but it gets new monthly donors every time they send an appeal.
You may not even get any at first. Slowly but surely, you’ll start seeing some people ticking that box and filling out their information. It doesn’t cost you much or even nothing! it could be a simple laser variation so you can target it to perhaps your lower end donor versions first.
There are many different ways you can do a tick box, but here’s just one example:
Front of the reply form right below the one-time ask line | Credit: Priests of the Sacred Heart
Back of the reply form | Credit: Priests of the Sacred Heart
I always recommend making sure to get that signature and having donors confirm it, so you know the monthly donor is really committed. And if in doubt, always contact the donor. You have nothing to lose but everything to gain.
So use what you have to generate monthly donors, no extra cost. Even if it doesn’t bring in many at first, just keep at it, and you’ll see it’ll start happening! Just remember, one monthly donor is worth between $288 and $432 on average a year! So adding a tiny tick box can pay off big.
