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Don’t Ever Give Up on Monthly Giving Programs!

Last week, my husband and I took a trip, ultimately leading to visit our kids and grandkids. We flew to Norfolk, Virginia, and then drove down to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, to visit the Wright Brothers National Memorial. My husband is a private general aviation pilot, so this national park was high on his bucket […]

Everything You Need to Know to Master Monthly Giving

Book Review by Jeff Brooks: Monthly Giving Made Easy by Erica Waasdorp I’ve been recruiting monthly donors for organizations for more than 30 years. I thought I was an old pro at it because I’ve found a whole lot of ways of telling donors that monthly giving is a great idea. Then people started asking me […]

Create a Magical Experience To Grow Recurring Donors

I’m an avid supporter and reader of SOFII, as it has some tremendous free stuff, like fundraising examples, articles and case studies from all over the world. I especially like the articles on retention, loyalty and, of course, recurring giving. Over my almost 30 years of fundraising, I’ve always been impressed by the many studies, especially those […]

Shouldn’t Giving Be All About the Donor?

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 […]

Are you ready to take a Sustainer-Forward approach?

First, I’d love to give a huge shout-out to the DMAW as an organization that has had a Sustainer-Forward approach for years. The DMAW has offered special sustainer tracks during the Bridge conference, sustainer pre-Bridge workshops, then Sustainer Day, Sustainer World and now Sustainer Week, coming up the week of September 27th. If you’re looking to […]

Give Now, Pay Later

Recently, Cause Vox launched the 2021 Pledge Now, Pay Later Study. It was based upon an online survey amongst 400 American individuals, across a wide range of demographics, including age, education level and income. As you know, I love studies and statistics, especially pertaining to recurring gifts, so I was intrigued. Insight No. 1 of the […]

Book Review: ‘The Essence of Campaigning Fundraising’

When an international fundraising legend like Ken Burnett writes a book, I stand up and listen. And having met Ken personally at numerous international conferences, I’m proud to have a signed copy! This new book, “The Essence of Campaigning Fundraising” was published by the White Lion Press in June. It includes a cool-looking USB drive that includes […]

Monthly Giving So Easy Your Pet Could Do It

I must admit I didn’t totally come up with this line on my own. It’s based on an email from Chewy, the company that delivers my cat’s litter and food to my front door. No more carrying heavy bags home from the pet store. I love it. The subject line said: “Reorders so easy your […]

Do You Need To Send Donors Monthly Receipts?

A fundraiser asked me this question: “Do you need to send monthly receipts to monthly donors?” My answer is: Ideally, no. There is no need to send monthly receipts to monthly donors. The ideal situation is that you send some other updates to them instead. That way it’s much less about the transaction and the […]

Ease of Monthly Giving Key for Baby Boomers and Gen Xers

Every nonprofit wants to attract younger donors. That’s why it’s very exciting that monthly giving is so appealing to these younger donors. Why? Because they can support those organizations, they care about in a very easy way with a small amount that absolutely fits their budget. Easy and small are the key words here. Easy […]