Should You Have a Donor Account for Monthly Gifts?
I love Next After and its tremendous research and experiments. Focused on online giving, donation pages and emails, Next After provides a lot to learn. If you know that the typical number of people who finish a gift is only 21%, that means 79% do not give, even though they go to your organization’s page to donate. […]
Why Recurring Giving Leads to Better Donor Retention
If you look at the most recent statistics on donor retention, the year 2020 was not great. One reason was that many organizations put a hold on asking for contributions in the first half of the year because they worried about donors not giving. Many continued to be reluctant well into the second half. Hence, […]
Does the Peanut Butter or Jelly Come First in Monthly Giving?
You probably have seen me quote Seth Godin before. His blogs inspire some of mine. It’s a short one so I’ll share his full post on “The Order of Operations” because it’s so important when it comes to monthly giving: “If you put the jelly on before the peanut butter, the sandwich will fail. “And if you […]
Plan for Monthly Donors Helps You To Be Ready for the Unexpected
I’m very excited. Our 13-year-old grandson Kenan is coming to visit for a week. My husband has flown out to Charlotte, North Carolina, to pick him up and accompany him home next week — just to be safe. You probably know by now that I’m an avid planner and preparing for this coming week was […]
Sustainer Giving Is Not the Latest Shiny New Thing
You’ve probably heard some consultants say: “It’s not about the next shiny new thing. Rather, it’s about the basics of fundraising and building relationships with donors. It’s about following the best practices first. Only after that’s done — and only then — can you start looking at some of those ‘shiny new things.’” And I […]
Monthly Giving Will Grow in Popularity in the Post-Pandemic Nonprofit
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been able to do some traveling again — in-person client visits, family visits, fun. Sitting on airplanes and in airports means time to read. I never leave home without a fundraising book to enjoy (along with other books, of course). Recently, I read “The Post-Pandemic Nonprofit: 12 Disruptive Trends Your […]
Book Review of Erica Waasdorp’s ‘Monthly Giving Made Easy’
by Jim Eskin I have to start with a confession: I am a monthly giving convert. As a practitioner, I heard a lot about it at the Association for Fundraising Professionals (AFP) and other professional conferences, and my ears perked up. But when I returned to my development shop, I discussed it with the team and, […]
4 Examples of How Things Can Go Wrong With Monthly Gifts
As you may know, I’ve been scanning and tracking examples of monthly giving approaches and follow ups for years. There are so many wonderful ways nonprofits ask for monthly donors. So many tremendous examples of saying thank you in the most grateful of ways. There’s so much that goes right with monthly giving and the […]
Identify Potential Monthly Donors Using Data
Donor data has always been important in raising funds for nonprofits. It’s literally your ‘gold.’ It provides you with everything you need to keep track of your donors and know most of what there is to know about them. Especially when it comes to outreach to potential monthly donors. Why is this helpful for outreach to […]
A Tribute to Geoff Biddle Who Quietly Provided Crucial Sustainer Payment Support
Last week, I heard some very shocking news. Geoff Biddle, CEO of Payment Solutions, 66, was found shot in his own home. I had known Geoff for many years. We always used to run into each other at fundraising conferences. I still remember Beverly Kempf introducing him to me as the person who was going to […]
