I was looking back at some questions posed in a webinar I presented recently, and this was one of them: “What’s the most common mistake you see is made when it comes to monthly giving?”
Of course, I’d love to say that most of you are not making any mistakes, but that’s not totally true. After all, we learn from mistakes, and we can make it better. That’s what we must do every day.
The biggest mistake I’ve seen when it comes to monthly giving is not asking.
Granted, it’s not your fault when you are already wearing multiple hats. Especially coming out of a very difficult pandemic year, juggling even more (kids and school, working from home, to vaccinate or not to vaccinate, and perhaps even worse…). Time may be at a premium.
It’s certainly not your fault when your boss or board tells you that now is not the right time to ask even if you know better.
It’s certainly not your fault when your finance person keeps telling you to focus on the short-term.
It’s definitely not your fault if you have an agency or consultant who doesn’t think monthly giving is going to do anything for you. After all, what’s in it for them?
Believe me, I’ve heard sad stories where nonprofits were working with an agency or consultant who was just trying to push them to mail more without a focus on the next step: trying to upgrade donors to give more often, ongoing i.e., monthly donors. Fortunately, that has changed but the thinking is still there.
One of the questions I ask my audience is how often they ask donors to consider a monthly gift. I still see some people say zero. Well, how do you think you can grow your number of monthly donors if you don’t ask? Give donors the opportunity to step up their giving some more. A monthly gift may be what they’re more comfortable doing.
Take a moment today and look at your communications schedule. Where can you fit in a request to give monthly? How often can you add that ask in the mix? I bet you can at least add one email a month, if not more.
Chip away at it. That’s how you grow your number of monthly donors in a consistent way. It all starts by asking.
Originally posted on June 14, 2021 by NonProfitPRO Today.
