Best Practices in Monthly Giving – Q & A with Erica Waasdorp
Monthly giving programs can be a wonderful way to ensure your fundraising program sustains throughout the year. Although the concept of monthly giving is not new, the onset of subscription-based services, online giving programs and multiple digital tools make it easier than ever to provide this option to your donors. We spoke with Erica Waasdorp, the […]
Monthly Donors: What to Do When Things Go Wrong
Of course in your organization, nothing ever goes wrong with your monthly donors. But what would you do if something did? Would you hide? Would you stick your head in the sand and let someone else handle it? Or would you consider your donors and confess? The reality is that most of your donors will […]
Alert: Segment Your Monthly Donors, and Do It Right
As I’m working on my presentation for the Bridge Conference on “Flip or Flop,” what has worked and what hasn’t worked in monthly giving, I came across a few examples of what not to do. I’m not going to name names, but let me just say that all three examples come from big organizations. All three organizations […]
How Small Recurring Gifts Lead to the Ultimate Gift
If you have some monthly donors now, congratulations. Please allow me to share some recent statistics with you on why these small recurring donors are so powerful: Average monthly gift between $24 and $36, that’s between $288 and $432 a year! Typical way monthly donors pay: 80% credit card, 10% EFT/ACH, 10% other (PayPal and […]
One Third of Nonprofits Do Not Ask for Monthly Gifts…
When I teach webinars aimed at growing monthly giving programs, I typically do some polls. One of the questions I have asked is, “How often do you ask your donors to give monthly?” The sad reality was that 35% said they never asked. My obvious response is, “How do you expect to grow your program?” […]
How to Grow Your Monthly Giving Program from Good to GREAT
If you’re looking to grow your monthly donor program to the next level, there are many things you can do and it’s easier than you think! Let me give you a quick recap of who monthly donors are. The typical monthly donor is not the big check writer. He or she is often on a […]
How to Raise More by “Upgrading” Your Monthly Giving Donors
Fundraisers sometimes tell me: “I don’t want to convert my donors to monthly giving, because then I can’t ask them to give more!” Well, that’s an absolute myth! The best real-life example of monthly giving came from a story in my son’s university magazine. A donor made a $1,000,000 gift to support campus expansion. Do […]
Drink Your Own Kool-Aid…Start Monthly Giving to Your Own Nonprofit
This past week I heard the expression “Drink Your Own Kool-Aid” several times, so I wanted to explain why it’s especially important when it comes to monthly giving. Let me start with the Wikipedia definition: “Drinking the Kool-Aid” is an expression commonly used in the United States that refers to a person who believes in […]
The # 1 Fundamental of Monthly Giving
I’m so excited… Because monthly giving is becoming more and more popular! Systems keep getting easier and easier. More organizations have seen the ‘monthly donor light!’ But yet, so many organizations are slow to come on board. With just a little bit of training, you too can start your monthly donor program and grow that […]
How to Keep Your Monthly Donors—Track. Act. Keep. Repeat.
A few years ago, I joined 20 organizations as a monthly donor with a credit card that was going to expire one month after joining. I purposely did this to see the actions nonprofits took and how long it would take them to do so. The sad reality was that only two of the organizations […]
