Many nonprofits are considering ways to upgrade their recurring donors to higher levels. I’ve written in the past about best practices for getting recurring extra gifts and upgrades, but here are a few different approaches you can use with your recurring donors.
Ask your monthly donors for a straight upgrade. Ideally, segment your donors by source of sign up as that may be how they’re most likely to upgrade. Of course, you’re not able to do this for face-to-face acquired donors, but direct mail recurring donors may be more likely to upgrade by mail, those who were called may be more likely to upgrade by phone and those who came in online may be more likely to upgrade by email.
Ask your monthly donors for an extra gift. You can ask your monthly donors for an extra gift, especially at the end of the year, for giving days, for a special project, for a match or in your newsletters.
Ask your recurring donors to consider switching to Electronic Funds Transfers, such as automated clearing house (ACH) transfers, direct debit payments and e-check payments. The fees for donors who give by bank account are lower, but the biggest benefit of converting donors to ACH is their retention. No more credit cards that expire or decline. Donors are much more loyal to their bank than their credit cards.
Let’s focus on four diverse ways to find ACH donors or convert credit/debit card recurring donors to give automatically from their bank accounts. This is truly the cat’s meow of recurring giving. Your organization or your system may call it something different, but I’m going to refer to it here as ACH.
1. Ask for ACH at Recurring Donor Sign-Up
Offer the option on your direct mail appeal reply form and test preselecting direct debit on your online form, if possible. You can include a short message about how this is a popular and most reliable option.
Ask the donor to provide the first month’s check, a voided check, or, better yet, their bank account and routing number information. The latter is best just in case the donor does not have any checks available. Note that in the mail you will need to get a signature from the donor.
2. Ask Donors to Switch to ACH During the Year
I have seen impressive results when a special letter or email aimed at recurring donors asks the donor to consider switching to ACH as that means fewer fees and thus more money to support an organization’s mission. You can use the switch approach by mail, phone and email.
You can also consider asking for the switch in your upgrade appeal. If a recurring donor upgrades their gift and switches to a higher retaining payment method, that’s an even bigger win.
It’s crucial to learn the process that makes it easiest for your system. I typically recommend creating and linking to a new online form. Then close the old recurring gift in your system and list the reason for closing as “conversion to ACH.” If you offer a donor portal, the donor may be able to make that switch but ensure it triggers an alert so you can track the results of your switch appeal.
3. Ask Donors to Convert to ACH in Your Retention Messages
It may sound counterintuitive but when you’re sending retention messaging (via mail, phone, text or email), such as asking the donor to update their information because their card expired or declined, include a request to switch to ACH. This way, the donor’s gift keeps on giving for many years to come.
4. Ask Donors to Switch in Check Statements
If your organization has a check statement program, where you must send monthly reminders asking for a check, consider asking donors to switch to ACH every time you send a statement. Use the savings you’d generate by not having to send those reminders as an extra motivator. Use testimonials from donors who have made the switch and find it much easier.
Of course, with all of these, please confirm for the recurring donor that they’ve made the switch to ACH and make sure their former recurring gift payment method is not being charged by accident. You also must keep stewarding these donors like you’ve been doing. And if you do, you’ll not only keep more recurring donors, they’ll also generate more money, allowing your organization to keep more unrestricted money to use for your mission.
