A few years ago, I had the pleasure of presenting about sustainers with Tina Hudgins, who worked at the International Justice Mission at the time. She shared how the organization typically did a monthly donor direct mail and email invite campaign (including upgrades) in the month of September. And they’ve been doing this ever since. What a great idea!
September is early enough in the giving season that it doesn’t detract from activities like virtual galas, Halloween, #GivingTuesday or year-end giving. It’s also early enough so that you can recognize your new monthly donors with a year-end appeal and get an extra gift. And you can include your new monthly donors in a special Thanksgiving, holiday or Christmas card, as personalized as possible.
Finally, and this is important because I know how busy you are as a fundraiser, most of the planning can take place in the summer when it’s typically a bit quieter.
As you know, there really is no bad time to ask for monthly gifts, but as you could read in a recent blog, you might wish to pull back a bit in those past two to three months to optimize one-time gifts and then go back full blown monthly in January.
So with the number of special days popping up on the calendar, I’d like to declare September = Sustainer Month.
Let’s take over the homepage. Let’s have every email ask for monthly gifts. Let’s send out a special invitation, followed up by a phone call.
And if you still need convincing or if you’d like to know how to grow your monthly giving program, there are a number of training opportunities, supported or organized by yours truly. All have slightly different angles or approaches and speakers, so all very exciting. Just check out my training calendar at www.adirectsolution.com
Closing soon: “Virtual Sustainer Workshop” on September 29 and 30
Will you join me and help me declare September = Sustainer month? Because the reality is: “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is now!”
This blog was originally posted by NonProfitPRO on September 21, 2020.
