It’s OK If Monthly Donors Start With Low Gift Amounts
One time, on a movie set, Chris Davenport, president of 501 Videos and founder of the Nonprofit Storytelling Conference, noticed a nickel on the floor in a hallway that had a lot of foot traffic. Every other person probably looked at it but decided to walk by, Davenport shared earlier this month during his event’s opening session. […]
10 Things I Learned From 30 Years in Sustainer Giving, Part 4
I’ve shared six of my top sustainer giving lessons so far. Today, I’ll get to the heart of sustainer giving, and probably the hardest lessons for nonprofit leadership. 7. Be Patient and Think Long-Term If you talk to those organizations that are most successful with sustainer giving, they all have a long-term focus. I know […]
10 Things I Learned From 30 Years in Sustainer Giving, Part 2
In a previous article, I shared the first two things I learned during my 30 years of working on sustainer programs. Most of this is not rocket science, but it’s important to keep in mind when you’re looking to grow or retain your sustainers. Here are my next two lessons. 3. Operations Is Your Friend When […]
How Are Recurring Donors Doing in This Economy?
You may know that I used to work at an international nonprofit, where we focused on monthly giving in some seven countries. The number of recurring donors, or committed givers as they call it in the U.K., was the largest. That’s why, to this very day, I still like looking at trends in other countries, […]
Are You Ready to Panic Yet?
Change is inevitable, but nobody likes it — me included. What doesn’t change is that every year around this time, fundraisers are starting to get overwhelmed. Some are even starting to panic. Why? Because the holiday giving season is almost here. And every year, the giving months seem to creep up on us sooner than […]
New Mastercard Regulations Could Harm Recurring Gifts Unless You Take Action Now
You may or may not yet have heard about this. Some of the communication from Mastercard may have gone to your donor base CRM, your payment processor or your finance department. In June, Mastercard introduced new guidelines with specific rules for all subscription payments, which nonprofit recurring gifts currently fall under in Mastercard’s definitions. These […]
What Can Your Nonprofit Do With Just $1?
A few months ago, I went to a conference where they had an actual bookstore. It was great and fortunately I had a big suitcase in which to carry some books home. There, I found a little book called “What Can You Do With Just $1?” written by Teresa Vasilopoulos, the executive director of the WoodGreen Foundation, a […]
The M+R Benchmarks 2022 Are Here: Monthly Giving Up by 24%
One of my favorite statistics were just published: the M+R Benchmarks 2022. Not surprisingly, in the second year of the pandemic with still few in-person events, online giving grew, although not by as much as you’d expect, only 3%. Monthly giving however was the major driver of that growth. It increased by 24%, while one-time revenue […]
The Value of a Monthly Donor Concierge
Some organizations have implemented a special monthly donor concierge, so you may have heard this term before. It offers a fantastic opportunity for nonprofits to build relationships with their monthly givers. Guess what? It also helps keep the person who is the concierge — and thus other staff and volunteers — motivated about the monthly donor […]
Number of Sustainers Grew 44% in Last Five Years
Spring is always an exciting time as sustainer statistics are rolling in. The most recent Blackbaud Target Analytics donorCentrics Sustainer Summit was held earlier this year. You can find the key findings here. The study is based upon 36 big organizations that provided data for their July through June fiscal years from 2017 through 2021. Here […]
