Does your nonprofit have a strong monthly giving or membership program? If not, you’re missing out! Establishing or boosting a nonprofit monthly giving program can provide much-needed recurring funding and positively impact your organization’s financial goals. Monthly giving programs provide consistent, year-round funding to meet overhead costs such as rent or mortgage, employee salaries, and more.
Let’s walk through the steps of launching a nonprofit monthly giving program as one powerful fundraising strategy toward your nonprofit’s goals.
What We’ll Cover:
- Communicate a Clear Purpose for Monthly Giving
- Develop a Catchy Name for the Program
- Establish Recurring Giving Donation Tiers
- Offer Incentives and Thank You’s for Monthly Donors
- Personalize Your Monthly Giving Program
- Target Specific Donors for the Monthly Giving Campaign
- Track Recurring Giving with Nonprofit Fundraising Software
- Develop a Growth Plan for the Monthly Giving Campaign
- Utilize Testimonials to Promote Monthly Giving
- Get Started with Donor-Friendly Donations Software that Supports Monthly Giving Campaigns
Communicate a Clear Purpose for Monthly Giving
One of the most essential foundations for a strong monthly giving program is communicating a clear purpose for the campaign. Why should people give monthly? Pinpoint a specific and ongoing service, effort, or other aspect of your organization that needs consistent financial support. Let your supporters know you need support to cover these recurring expenses. These expenses vary by organization and could include providing school supplies, community programs, food to feed the homeless, or other efforts.
Develop a Catchy Name for the Program
After specifying the efforts the nonprofit monthly giving program will support, develop a campaign identity to create a brand for your monthly giving program. Choose a campaign name that will be easy to promote online and face-to-face. Creating a memorable name and a play on words with the effort that it supports is ideal so that it becomes easy to mention at events, volunteer efforts, or other opportunities where you speak with your donors and supporters.
Establish Recurring Giving Donation Tiers
Once the giving campaign’s name is established, decide on the recurring donation tiers or levels that donors can choose from. Typically, these levels might include $20, $50, $100, and $250.
To establish ideal donation tiers for your constituents, review the history of prior donors and analyze supporter demographics. Such details can include the average donation amount before the donor becomes a major gift donor or the average donation per month. These can help determine realistic donation tiers to establish for the nonprofit monthly giving program.
Once the donation tiers have been created, it is helpful to associate each tier with a breakout of certain costs that the donation supports. For example, $20 can feed five homeless individuals, or $50 can support an after-school program for ten youth in need each week. Painting the picture of donors’ impact when they support the monthly giving program helps establish trust and transparency for the program.
Offer Incentives and Thank You’s for Monthly Donors
Offering incentives for your recurring gift program reminds donors that their support is appreciated. These can be tangible gifts, VIP treatment at your nonprofit fundraising events, private events, or invitations to exclusive visits to your programs. If your nonprofit monthly giving program supports youth or school children, ask them to write a personalized thank you letter to the supporters. A thank you letter from your board members or volunteers will also work.
Personalize Your Monthly Giving Program
Another helpful strategy for retaining donors in your monthly giving program is personalizing their donations. For example, if their donation helps support a particular person in need, let them know the name of the person they’ve helped and their impact on that individual. A humane association can offer sponsorships and let donors know the name and information of the dog or cat that their donation supports.
Target Specific Donors for the Monthly Giving Campaign
Previous donors are a great place to start when deciding who to target for your monthly giving program. Analyze your organization’s donor history, paying special attention to the following:
- Which donors have donated more than once?
- Which donors have donated the most but are not considered major gift donors?
- Which supporters have attended your events more than once?
Once you have a list of potential monthly giving donors to target, establish the methods for reaching out to them. This can be in a personally written email, a handwritten letter, a phone call, or discussing the launch of the nonprofit monthly giving program at the next volunteer effort or event.
While this list is the preliminary target of your initial prospects of monthly giving donors, remember to promote it on a larger scale. This can include social media promotion, postcards or letters, newsletters, and other channels.
Track Recurring Giving with Nonprofit Fundraising Software
One of the most pivotal steps in developing a successful nonprofit monthly giving program is utilizing fundraising software to track donor activities, program growth, and more. Robust donation software should have the following features:
- Recurring donor management
- Real-time reporting of donations and data management
- Secure and encrypted credit card payment processing
- Mass communication with donors within the database
- Option to customize and brand the program website
- Auto-generated donation receipts, meeting IRS and CRA guidelines
- Log in for your donors to update their profile and credit card information
These features are all available for FREE with DoJiggy Donations.
Develop a Growth Plan for the Monthly Giving Campaign
Once the initial steps have been taken to successfully launch the nonprofit monthly giving program, understand the annual growth goals of your program. Break it down by how many more donors are needed to meet your annual budget and growth. Then, further break it down into monthly or quarterly goals. Plan heavier promotion and outreach during peak holidays, seasons, or notable times, such as back to school, Thanksgiving, and especially the end of the year. Your year-end appeals letter is a great way to promote monthly giving. Promote the program on your nonprofit website homepage during these promotional periods and create newsletters about the monthly giving program. This goes hand-in-hand with placing a link to the monthly giving program within the website menu.
Utilize Testimonials to Promote Monthly Giving
The power storytelling plays in nonprofit fundraising is strong and can be told from both sides of the organization. Reach out to supporters with well-established relationships to ask why they are monthly donors and share their stories on your nonprofit website. Everyone has different reasons for supporting the cause, and sharing their reasons can offer experiences that relate to prospective monthly donors. On the other hand, talk to beneficiaries of the monthly giving program and learn how funds have positively impacted them. Both sides of the story can powerfully influence prospective donors.
These steps are a great start to laying down the foundation for building your nonprofit monthly giving program. Beginning with defining your giving program campaign, laying out the details of your monthly giving program then continuously doing outreach and promoting your campaign. With these steps in play, you’ll be able to start seeing the growth of your donor base for your monthly donation program.
Get Started with Donor-Friendly Donations Software that Supports Monthly Giving Campaigns
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