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Is There Room for Monthly Giving in Your Fundraising Appeals?

Earlier this week, a copywriter friend of mine asked a great question. And I’m sure many of you are struggling with this same predicament. Here’s her question:  Often a strategy calls for including so many offers in one direct mail fundraising appeal — the basic ask, maybe a matching gift, sometimes a push for monthly […]

How a Birthday Call Can Make a Difference

Happy Birthday

If you’ve not yet read the book “Hooked on a Feeling” by Francesco Ambrogetti, I can highly recommend it. I started it, expecting all kinds of feelings to be described, and I was ready to read all about great storytelling, tugging at the heartstrings messaging, etc. Instead, the book is filled with lots of great research on […]

What’s the Most Common Monthly Giving Program Mistake?

I was looking back at some questions posed in a webinar I presented recently, and this was one of them: “What’s the most common mistake you see is made when it comes to monthly giving?” Of course, I’d love to say that most of you are not making any mistakes, but that’s not totally true. […]

Find a Way to Address a Monthly Donor’s Hesitation

At this time, many people are looking to find out when they can possibly get vaccinated against COVID-19. I live on Cape Cod, an area with many older residents — many who have been struggling. Many of these older residents do not have access to the internet, so registration online is difficult. They do have […]

A Monthly Giving How-To: Should You Ask for Monthly Gifts at Year-End?

A good friend asked me this question and, as good friends tend to do, I wanted to address this question right away before getting into the busy fundraising season. While I would love to tell you yes — go all out and ask for monthly gifts — the answer really should be: “It depends!” Let me […]

A Monthly Giving How-To: The Drip-by-Drip Approach

I am an avid coffee drinker — five cups a day at a minimum and one decaf at night. We have a big coffeemaker with a timer, so our coffee is ready when we wake up in the morning. It’s one of those old fashioned multi-cup machines. The slow drip-by-drip process makes it so worthwhile, […]

Good News About Monthly Donors…

I hope you’re still doing OK. I haven’t really left the house now for five weeks, except for a few walks in the neighborhood. Frankly, I dream of being able to go to the grocery store or to some store — it doesn’t really matter which. The good news is that our attic is all […]

2020 Monthly Giving Intentions

To start the year and decade off right, I thought I’d share 20 ideas and intentions to help you grow your monthly donor program to the next level. No matter what your current number of monthly donors is, you can always use more. No matter what your current overall communication schedule is, you should be […]

Asking Monthly Donors for an Extra Gift — Is It ‘Creepy’?

As it’s almost Halloween, I thought I’d discuss the “creepy” topic of asking monthly donors for an extra gift this giving season. Remember this post from a few months ago? I described the biggest reason why sustainers give monthly — it’s because they care about your mission. So knowing that, why on earth would you NOT […]

Try Something New With Your Monthly Donors

Fundraisers are fascinating. Sometimes, they want to try something new and forget about proven approaches and channels. Other times, they are too afraid to even consider something new. I get it. If you’re worried that you’re not going to make your goals, you’ll put on the brakes. If you think that your donors might get […]