I’m an avid scanner of mail samples. I’m particularly intrigued by how organizations approach the monthly gift option on their reply forms. If you’re at all interested in growing your number of monthly donors, planting the monthly giving seeds on your appeals has become a best practice. Granted, you’re not going to get oodles and oodles of new monthly donors, but it’s a start at no extra cost.
Recently I came across this example. I’ve blanked out the organization’s name as most of what they do is great, but I recommend one more final important tweak.
Let me break down the elements for you. On the front it said:
To support [Nonprofit Name] on a recurring monthly basis, please see reverse side.
So far, so good. It’s great to get people to complete their information on the back, especially if you have a small reply form. That is totally fine.
Then on the back, it had the options for one time and monthly. It said:
Please start my monthly gift of $_______/month on the card below ($10/month minimum).
This is still fine. I realize that some nonprofit systems require that $10 a month minimum although if you can take a smaller gift amount or if you don’t have to mention minimums at all, even better.
Then the donor can choose to complete their credit card information or choose EFT. Great! If you can get donors to consider sharing their bank account information, super.
Next to the monthly gift choice, there’s another tick box. But let me share with you how it reads:
Please start my monthly gift of $______/month via bank account transfer. (This is the best option for [Nonprofit Name].)
This is where it gets a lot less relevant to the donor. It’s about the nonprofit. Yes, I appreciate that it is the best option for you as the organization, but I recommend you change the wording slightly to make it more relevant to the people, animals, clients or constituents the donor can support.
How about saying something like: “Your gift will work harder for …” or “Your gift will go even further …” or “Your gift will help even more people, animals, clients, [fill in the blanks] ….”
Great job offering the bank account option though! And offering the donor the choice to do so by completing their bank account information or including a voided check is also very nice.
Add just this one small tweak and it will make it all about the donor and how they can make their gift do more with a simple selection of using their bank account. What do you think?
Originally posted on September 20, 2021 by Nonprofit Pro.
