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Fundraising Tuesday: 3 Ways to Ask for Monthly Donations

October 12, 2021 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

There’s every reason your nonprofit should ask donors to make monthly donations. Monthly donors:

Give more. As Sarah Fergusson points out, “Many moderate donors make great candidates for your monthly giving program. For instance, a donor who gives $100 per year may not have the capacity to become a major donor who gives upwards of $1,000 annually. However, they might be able to give $10 a month, increasing your nonprofit’s yearly earnings by $20.” Multiply that by a lot of $100 donors and it adds up!

Keep on giving. Monthly donors rarely become lapsed donors. They renew from year to year. According to Network for Good, Monthly giving programs typically enjoy retention rates over 80% after one year and 95% after five years.

Make additional gifts. People who give monthly donations are among your most loyal supporters. So, as Amy Eisenstein says, “Donors give at modest levels for recurring gifts and at much higher levels for special, occasional projects.”

Contribute a huge amount over a lifetime. Consider this information from monthly giving expert Erica Waasdorp:

Right now, the average recurring donor gives between $24 and $36 a month—that’s $288 to $432 per year! Just think, if they keep giving monthly for 5 years, that’s $1,440 to $2,160. Starting to get really interesting, right?

And that’s not even considering that people who give monthly donations are the most likely group to leave you something in their will!

How Do You Ask for Monthly Donations?

Let’s say you’re convinced that asking donors to give every month is a good thing for your nonprofit–but, you’ve never done it before. How do you begin?

A quick look at my mailbox give us three different ways to ask.

In the postscript

My wife and I support RESPOND, an organization based in Somerville, MA working to end domestic violence. At the end of a fundraising appeal, Jessica Brayden, the CEO of RESPOND, asked us:

P.S. Have you thought about becoming a monthly donor? The sustaining support we received from our monthly donors throughout the Covid-1i pandemic has given us the flexibility to meet the changing and growing needs of survivors. Visit respondinc.org/donate to get started!

What’s great about using this method is that people read postscripts. The P.S. is often the first thing donors look at in your appeal letter–after their own name! So, if you use the P.S. to make it quick and easy to sign up for monthly donations, chances are you will get them.

On a buckslip

You’ve seen those little extra enclosures that some nonprofits tuck into their fundraising appeals, right? The technical term for that piece of paper is a buckslip. It’s called that because historically, it was the size of a dollar bill. No matter what size it is, it can make you big bucks–if you use it to ask for monthly donations.

That’s what Greater Boston PFLAG did. The buckslip they enclosed with their fundraising appeal is 8″ x 5″, it’s entitled OTHER WAYS TO GIVE, and it includes too many things to my mind: Employer Matching Gifts, Bequests, IRA Charitable Rollover, to name a few. But crucially, it tells me:

Monthly Giving

Your monthly gift to Greater Boston PFLAG provides reliable support for our year-round work to create a safe, inclusive, welcoming society for LGBTQ+ people. Check the relevant box on reverse side to give monthly. You can cancel at any time.

In a separate appeal

Does your nonprofit have long-time, loyal supporters? The kind you know will give every year, or twice a year, without fail? These are people who care about your mission. They may be actually looking for more ways to support what you do!

A special appeal letter may be just the right approach to ask these dedicated supporters to start giving monthly donations.

Planned Parenthood took just that approach to ask my wife and me to become monthly donors. Look at what they did:

Used an unusual size envelope (so it wouldn’t look like regular mail)
Printed this message on the front of the envelope: “Your Exclusive Invitation Enclosed”
Explained the program in a letter that called us “supporters who have demonstrated an extraordinary commitment.” (Gee, they noticed!)
Included a separate note from the President and CEO
Branded every piece of paper with the words “Monthly Giving Program”–even the reply envelope!

If a donor is giving for the first time, or the second, it’s possible you might want to take a softer approach. The postscript or the buckslip might introduce them to the idea (and some people will accept that introduction right away).

However, if you know that Rona and Dennis Fischman (or a donor on your list) stands with you, has your back, and is in it for the long haul, you should ask them directly to start giving monthly donations. By asking, you are recognizing–and deepening–the special relationship they already have with your nonprofit.

Fundraising Tuesday: Which Deadlines Move Donors to Give?

April 6, 2021 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

When you’re raising money for your nonprofit organization, how important is to set deadlines?

That depends. Who are the deadlines for: you, or your donors?

Nobody Gives to the Man on the Moon

Let’s say you’re planning a fundraising campaign and you have internal deadlines to meet. You need to raise $25,000 by a certain date or your Board will have tough decisions to make about this year’s budget.

Will your donors care about your deadline?

Probably not.

Your deadline might matter to a few of your most loyal, most well-informed donors. Maybe. To all the rest, the organization’s timeline and budget are as impersonal and far from their concerns as the man on the moon.

Because those items have nothing to do with the reasons why they give.

When Donors Decide to Give

You give to other organizations besides the one you work for, right? Think of the reasons why you give before you ask others to give. According to Carrie Saracini of Network for Good, those reasons might include:

You believe in the mission. “I know there is a need for the nonprofit’s mission in my community and I know it does good work.”
You trust the organization. “I believe the nonprofit will use my gift to stabilize or expand programming.”
You get to see the impact of your gift. “The nonprofit communicates about the impact of giving by sharing program outcomes.”
The organization has a personal connection to your cause. “I know someone who benefited from the nonprofit’s work.”
You want to be part of something. “I want to be associated with the organization and its brand.” (meaning what it stands for, not its logo!)
The organization has caught your attention. “I see the organization online and on social media.”
You benefit. “I want the tax deduction.”

Let me ask you: Do any of these reasons sound like you, when you decide to make a gift? I’ll bet they do. Perhaps more than one rings a bell.

But notice: not a single one of the reasons that people give has to do with the nonprofit’s internal deadlines!

Pick Deadlines that Mean Something to Donors

Here’s the worst possible way to use calendar dates in your fundraising appeal, “We need to to balance our budget by the end of our fiscal year.”

Because “we” meaning the nonprofit puts the donor on the outside.
Because “we need” takes no account of the donor’s needs.
Because “fiscal year” is as impersonal and off-putting as a tax bill.

Here are some better ways to use deadlines to motivate donors.

When there’s an urgent need.“For example, if a fire devastates a neighborhood, the residents need food, shelter, and first aid immediately,” Allison Gauss of Classy points out.

During a meaningful season. Many Muslims give during Ramadan, Jews during the High Holy Days, and Christians around Christmas. Knowing people’s holidays can help you catch them in the right mood (and know when not to interrupt!)

When the donation will fund a specific, time-limited program. Scholarships for summer camp have deadlines built in, and you use that to urge donors to give NOW.

When the Donor Sets the Deadline

For the best way to use a deadline, you have to know more about the donor personally.

Back when I worked at the local anti-poverty agency, every year like clockwork we’d receive a gift from a man whose late wife had worked with our agency. It was important to him to keep her memory alive at a place that had meant a lot to her.

That donor (and sometimes, his friends and families who also sent donations in her memory) got a personal note from the Executive Director. Every year. And the anniversary of her death became a time to reminisce about her. Every year.

It’s not only memorial gifts that are tied to the calendar. Gifts in honor of someone’s wedding, anniversary, birthday, graduation…all these have specific dates. For some cultures, Valentine’s Day is a good time to honor people they love; for others, it’s Mother’s Day.

With a little prompting, your donor may use the happy occasion to become a fundraiser herself. You’ve seen all those birthday appeals on Facebook, right? And usually, those donations are not limited to a specific program of yours. They’re unrestricted funds, which means that every dollar goes further.

If you know the time of year that matters to your donor, you can ask them to give, and to ask others to join them in giving, exactly when they want to be generous, themselves. They may even thank you for the opportunity!

Just make sure it’s their deadline. Not yours.

TY Thursday: Best Ways to Thank Donors in 2018

February 8, 2018 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

Every donor you keep is a treasure. It costs more to find a new donor than to retain a previous one. The more often a donor gives, the more loyal they become to your cause and the greater the lifetime value to your organization. So, saying thank you all throughout 2018 is not just a good idea. It’s money.

Need ideas to show your donors some love? Here are 14, just in time for Valentine’s Day, from Sandy Rees.

What makes a good thank you? Here are 5 easy steps to great acknowledgments, courtesy of The Donor Guru, Lynne Wester. (And also, check out my checklist for the ideal thank-you letter.)

If you prefer to look at a template, Network for Good offers this one to adapt to your donors’ needs.

Give up the spotlight! Don’t talk so much about your organization.

If you focus on gratitude, if you focus on love, if the focus is donor-centric, there’s something in it for the donor, they’re going to go, “Wow, that was really nice” (as Claire Axelrad tells us in this video from Bloomerang).

Ann Green is right: Even if someone donates online, she should get a thank you by mail or phone. If you haven’t sent a thank you letter to your year-end donors, do that now! http://ow.ly/h2L730hSWQS

Now, remember these wise words from Tom Ahern:

Thanking someone promptly for a gift is just good manners: the bare minimum. Thanking is necessary, not sufficient. It does not equal “donor-centricity.” Thanking alone will not lead to better retention nor any predictable increase in future support.

Actions thank louder than words. Check out my guest post for John Haydon and at the end, you’ll find five ways you can thank donors like you mean it.

Besides saying thank you to renewal donors, you could also welcome new donors on board.

And the next time you ask for money, include the words Thanks in advance–especially if you’re asking by email! (A tip from our friends at The Agitator.)

Thanking donors makes you happy, so do yourself a favor and start putting these great thank-you tips to work today.

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Fundraising Tuesday: 3 Ways to Ask for Monthly Donations