I recently worked with a human services nonprofit who did two recurring donor appeals a year by mail. In the past, they tended to select only their 5+ givers and exclude those donors who had given one, two, three or four gifts in the past year.
They sourced these recurring donor prospects from donor appeals that mailed monthly. They included a monthly giving tick box on the back of the reply form, but nothing else.
This organization also did telemarketing and for those campaigns, after we started working together, they tested including donors who had given only 1, 2, 3, 4 gifts. That worked well.
The organization also started testing a monthly donor ask in their welcome kit (following their thank you letters), with the focus of getting the second gift as soon as possible. In addition, new donors received a thank you call with a request to consider a monthly gift. That too worked well.
Why? We looked at the cost per sustainer by channel and set caps by channel. If you can generate a new sustainer for $150, that’s still cheaper than $300 to $400 for Face-to-Face fundraising.
Especially for organizations that have historically used direct mail as one of their main acquisition channels, monthly donors can be converted by mail as well.
Looking at the actual cost per sustainer, you may re-look at the segments you’re using in your monthly donor appeals.
I still see organizations that wait too long before they ask their donors to make a monthly gift. Just think about this: if you know that the retention rate of new donors is about 19%, and most donors only makes 2 to 3 gifts a year, waiting till a donor makes those 5+ gifts can take 2 to 3 years!
Yes, multi-givers are absolutely the prime target group for monthly giving. But, if you’re only asking for a monthly gift twice a year, it may take you a long time to reach your donors with the offer. Many of those donors may get used to waiting to give until you send them that donor appeal. They may not be willing to consider a monthly gift that late in the game.
During my 30+ years of recurring giving experience, I’ve tested adding in the payment type to a selection of 1 time and 2+ givers and that worked really well. I’ve tested removing those donors who had been asked a number of times for a recurring gift and that too worked really well. And now of course, you can add models and AI to the mix and that too can work well. (My experience is that the earlier criteria are more critical though!)
Just think about this. If you wait 2 to 3 years to ask a donor to consider a monthly gift, how much money are you leaving on the table?
If the average monthly gift is $25 a month, that’s $600 to $900 more you could have generated from just one monthly donor! Multiply that and your potential is endless.
Look at what you’re doing online. Many of you are successful converting donors to give monthly during the welcome email series.
Next After, Neon One and others have done studies that show that the best time to convert someone to give monthly is early on in the relationship. The first three months are critical.
If you can convert a new donor to a monthly donor, you’re tripling their retention rate and really boosting their lifetime value.
I know. Some organizations are concerned about the possible negative impact a monthly gift ask may have on their one-time revenue. This organization I mentioned did too until we correctly calculated the cost per sustainer.
They could not believe their eyes. Those monthly donor appeals made money by generating one time gift revenue and converting monthly donors at a cost per sustainer of MUCH less than a digital ad, face to face or TV.
For every single segment, including the 1,2, 3, 4-time segments! So not only did they generate monthly donors earlier in the game; they also generated more of them for much longer.
As a reminder, once a donor starts giving monthly, you can still ask them for extra gifts in your donor appeals! You’re not robbing Peter to pay Paul. Your monthly donors are amazing and you’re of course amazing at building a great relationship with your sustainers.
So why not test converting 1, 2, 3, 4-time donors to recurring at your organization in addition to your 5+ multi-givers? What do you have to lose by asking them early in the game, improving retention rate and growing your monthly donor program to boot!
We have a finite time to get the critical second gift from a donor, preferably a recurring gift and creating that feeling of belonging sooner than later.
I absolutely love this quote from Neon One in their 2026 Recurring donor study because it says it all.
“The people who will support your work with a sustaining gift are some of the most passionate,
committed, resilient people you will encounter in your time as a fundraiser.
“They’re ready to support you.
Now you just have to let them do it. “
– Neon One 2026 Recurring Donor report
What are you waiting for?