I was once asked to conduct an audit of a dozen animal rescue websites to see common fundraising missed opportunities. Time and time again, I encountered the same issue:
There was no monthly giving program.
Why the fuss, Katherine?
The reality is, most nonprofits are short on resources, and struggle to cover recurring operational costs. Establishing cost- and time-efficient, sustainable fundraising strategies isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s a priority.
What if I were to tell you that, according to recent reports, monthly donors give up to 50% more on average per year? Or, that they stay an average of nearly 8 years with a nonprofit instead of under 2 years for non-recurring donors? Or even better, that it is more than 5 times less expensive to keep an existing donor than to acquire a new one?
If I’m getting my numbers right, it would cost a nonprofit much less to get donors who give more and for longer if they were to invest in monthly giving. So why are so many nonprofits not getting on board the monthly giving train?
The most common « mistakes » I see nonprofits make are:
- The lack of a monthly giving option or program on their website.
- Burying or hiding the « Give Monthly » option as a toggle switch or worse, a drop-down menu on their giving page.
- No presentation or description of the added value of being a monthly donor.
Let’s break down how to fix these common mistakes.
Building your monthly giving program
Your goal is to create a community around your monthly giving, going from a checkbox to a program. Here are three steps to get this started:
1. Get to know your donors
Before launching your program, know your audience. You can conduct a survey of your donors to gain a fuller picture of their demographic profile, their motivations in supporting your organization, giving habits, etc. Or, you can have one-on-one conversations with your most loyal donors to get a sense of who they are. Bonus, these conversations are a great segue into an invitation to join your program!
2. Give your program a name and personality
Based on your donor analysis from the previous step, you should have an idea of who your average donor is. Are they spontaneous, or do they take time to make decisions? Are they on the silly side, or more serious? You want your monthly giving program to speak to your donors and make them feel like you are speaking to them, not to everyone.
I’ll give you an example.
Colombianimals brings free spay/neuter campaigns to low-income communities in Colombia. The founder, Natalia, gathers a team of international volunteers to make these happen. On the very first day of the campaign, we all found ourselves at a tattoo shop getting the same marks we put on the animals to symbolize that they were spayed or neutered. What does this say about the type of people who volunteer and are most invested in Colombianimals’ work? That we are all crazy enough to get matching tattoos.
Fast-forward to when we were thinking up a monthly giving program name, we knew it had to inspire that same feeling of community and commitment the volunteers shared. “The Snip Snip Brigade” idea was born. This name has a personality: it is silly, a bit out there, but it also speaks directly of the mission and those who support it.
The lesson here is that you want a name that calls to your donors and makes them want to be part of that community. I want to be part of the Snip Snip Brigade. Wouldn’t you?
3. Setting up your monthly giving page
The biggest mistake I see when people launch their monthly giving program is not creating a separate page. A “monthly” toggle switch is not a program.
Imagine you are one of your donors. You read an inspiring story that invites you to join a monthly giving program. You click, and get redirected to a plain donation form, which says nothing about the program at all. Where is the inspiring messaging I was just reading? This experience is confusing and breaks the momentum. In this scenario, many will instead make a one-time gift or forget about it completely.
Now, imagine if they got redirected to a page dedicated to your monthly giving program, with copy that reflects what they just read, keeping the inspiration going. The only option on the page? Give monthly. Now they feel they’re at the right place.
Let’s take the case of Animals Need Me, a small Albanian animal shelter without an established monthly giving program.
Let’s break down how we implemented the three steps for a successful program:
- Get to know your donors: Animals Need Me’s donors are more conservative but emotionally driven. They are mostly volunteers or tourists who have witnessed firsthand the stray animal problem in Albania. They are more sensitive to dog-related requests and respond well to calls for food and medical aid.
- Give your program a name and a personality: The name was simple, “Best Friends of Animals Need Me”, referring to dogs being Man’s best friend but also symbolizing loyalty and long-term commitment. Our messaging focused on their existing relationship with the shelter and how this was the natural next step in their support of the organization.
- Setting up your program online: When setting up their online giving strategy, we built a separate page to join the Best Friends program on Donorbox, with suggested monthly amounts and their actual impact, copy specific to the campaign, and objectives focused on the sustainable and long-term impact of recurring giving.
It worked. Within 7 months, we had converted 10% of their email list to monthly donations, and are now covering over 15% of the shelter’s monthly costs with this program alone.
Building your program isn’t magic; it’s strategy. Stay tuned for the next articles in this series that will focus on how to acquire and steward your monthly donors.
Want expert support to build your monthly giving program? Book an exploration call with Katherine of Just Be Cause Consulting today.