How to Create Lifelong Donors through Monthly Giving

Table of Contents

PART 1: Monthly giving—why you’ll love it        
Chapter 1: The challenges you face
Chapter 2: The essence of monthly giving
Chapter 3: Always answer the phone at 8:37 P.M.
Chapter 4: Why you are losing donors?       
Chapter 5: Arguably, your most important fundraising consideration—lifetime or long-term value (LTV)       
Chapter 6: The magnificent seven   
Chapter 7: Will it work for you?        
Chapter 8: Is your organization ready?       
Chapter 9: Who will join your program?
Chapter: 10: What’s in a name?
Chapter 11:  How to collect your recurring gifts    
Chapter 12: Convert check or credit card donors to electronic funds transfer
Chapter 13: Eleven gentle steps      

Part 2: Mastering the techniques
Chapter 14: How much should you ask for?             
Chapter 15: The most loyal sustainers        
Chapter 16: Blondie was right—“Call me”
Chapter 17: Email—a cost-effective way to acquire sustainers  
Chapter 18: Thanking sustainers    
Chapter 19: How to incorporate monthly giving into your website        
Chapter 20: Recruiting sustainers at events            
Chapter 21: How to start a sustainer program at an event            
Chapter 22: Social media—test it    
Chapter 23: Two-step isn’t just a dance      
Chapter 24: Looking people in the eye        
Chapter 25: The bees need you         
Chapter 26: Emotion and involvement       

PART 3: How to increase the value of sustainers
Chapter 27: How to use premiums effectively        
Chapter 28: How to find twenty thousand sustainers       
Chapter 29: When a donor joins your program      
Chapter 30: Your communications strategy            
Chapter 31: Your most important task        
Chapter 32: How to upgrade your sustainers         
Chapter 33: Should you make additional appeals?              
Chapter 34: Some of your sustainers can write large checks        
Chapter 35: Success is all about retention
Chapter 36: The hidden goldmine in your cancellations

PART 4: The barriers you will face, and how to conquer them           
Chapter 37: How to avoid failure
Chapter 38: The enemy is . . .
Chapter 39: The final gift—legacies
Chapter 40: What’s your legacy?

Excerpt

This article is excerpted from Harvey McKinnon's book, How to Create Lifelong Donors Through Month;y Giving, ©Emerson & Church, Publishers. To obtain reprint permission, call 508-359-0019 or email us.

You Absolutely Need a Monthly Giving Program, and Here’s Why

Chances are you have to persuade others in your organization to embrace a monthly giving program.  The first reason alone—more money—should convince them. But, as you know, rational thinking doesn’t always prevail. Some in your organization will object because they want to focus on major gifts, not invest in a new program. Or they think using monthly giving will only raise a small amount of money.

To help you address these objections, I’m going to detail seven compelling reasons why a strong monthly giving program will provide you with more security, and improve your impact:

Reason #1: You raise more money

Sustainers will give you two to four times more money annually than they would by making single gifts. For example, if you convert a one-time $50 donor into a $15-a-month donor, your organization realizes nearly four times more money ($180 versus $50).

Reason #2: You develop a more positive relationship

One reason you may face attrition is that your relationship with supporters is based on repeated asks: “Can you give us another gift?” Some organizations are great at stewardship, but the majority of donor interactions involve asking for more money, rather than offering authentic gratitude and sharing the impact of the donor’s gift.

If a friend calls every few weeks to ask you to buy lunch, it can negatively impact your feelings toward the individual. Soliciting donors ten to twenty times a year can produce the same effect. When giving is automatic, however, you can focus on strengthening the bond because you don’t repeatedly ask.

Reason #3: Monthly donors give for more years

Sustainers stay active for more years than single-gift donors, as dozens of monthly giving audits prove. Sustainers can easily be worth ten times as much over a lifetime of giving.

Reason #4: You can rely on sustainers 

Monthly giving helps you plan better because it provides stable, predictable income. It is close to recession-proof; we’ve seen very few cancellations, even during hard economic times.

Reason #5: You lower your costs

The public’s perception is that the lower fundraising costs are, the better. Recurring giving lowers your expenses. You don’t have to send monthly donors every appeal—therefore you save in design, printing, and postage costs. That adds up to a lot of money when you have thousands of regular donors.

Reason #6: Your income will grow over time

A $15-a-month donor gives $180 a year. Each year you should ask them to increase their monthly pledge a bit (upgrading). A $5 upgrade is 33 percent more money each year. So even if your program is not adding net sustainers, income will increase.

Reason #7: Convenience

When I wrote Hidden Gold twenty years ago, I claimed that donors find monthly giving more convenient. A few years later, Rosemary Oliver at Amnesty International surveyed sustainers to discover why people join. She discovered that “9% joined Amnesty’s monthly giving program to stop torture, while 51% said they became a sustainer because it was convenient for them.” I knew that convenience played a big factor. I didn’t understand how much.

Your donors appreciate the convenience of automatically paying their Netflix or utility bills. Businesses have embraced the “subscription economy” because it’s profitable. In some countries, people don’t use checks. All payments are automatic, online or via cell phones.