What to Do When Your Agency Doesn’t Want to Ask for Monthly Gifts
Sadly, I still hear about direct mail and digital agencies and consultants that don’t see the value of monthly giving. A friend of mine, a nonprofit fundraiser, sent me this email recently: “My agency is against monthly giving. We asked for it to be added in house appeals, and the agency says, ‘We’ll test it […]
How to Honor Recurring Donors on Their Birthdays
May is my birthday month, so I’ve been tracking what’s coming into my mailbox and email inbox from friends, family, businesses and nonprofits. Birthdays are very powerful opportunities to recognize your recurring donors, yet not that many nonprofits do this. In my mind, birthdays and anniversaries are dates that should be part of your monthly […]
Best Practices for Recurring Donor Receipts
Last year, proposed Mastercard regulations and deadlines for subscription provided quite the scare for nonprofits. One of the regulations would have mandated providing recurring gift receipts every month — at least online. Another regulation would have required making it easy for the donor to find contact information on those receipts, in case the donor wanted to cancel or […]
10 Things I Learned From 30 Years in Sustainer Giving, Part 5
As a fundraiser, your life is not easy. There are days when you wonder why you’re doing it all. There are days where you’re just Zoomed out. You can’t possibly think about yet one more event, one more direct mail campaign, one more Giving Tuesday or other giving day campaign. The stress is huge. There […]
10 Things I Learned From 30 Years in Sustainer Giving, Part 3
I hope you’re enjoying this list of things to focus on when it comes to sustainer giving. So far, I’ve shared four things I’ve learned. Some I had to learn the hard way but certainly they can benefit any and all fundraisers. Here are lessons five and six. 5. Challenges Are Opportunities A prime example […]
What I Learned From 30 Years in Sustainer Giving
I recently had the pleasure to present a keynote at Sustainers Day, organized by the Direct Marketing Association of Washington. It was a packed house, filled with nonprofits of different sizes and sustainer experiences. I always learned that rather than a how-to session, a keynote was meant to be inspirational in nature. So, I reflected on […]
Add a Monthly Gift Ask to Your Welcome Email Series
At a recent conference, I finally had a chance to meet some of the NextAfter folks in person. We talked about “The Nonprofit Recurring Giving Benchmark” study from NextAfter. It’s now a few years old, but I have a sneaky suspicion that the organization is working on something new and I can’t wait! Its research on digital activities is […]
8 Tips to Help Clear Up Confusion Around the Pending Mastercard Regulations
If you’re tired of reading about the new Mastercard regulations, you’re probably not alone. A great thank you to The Nonprofit Alliance that helped get the extension to March 21, 2023 and clarified that nonprofits do not need to send postal receipts if they do not have a donor’s email address. But there was still a ton of […]
Does Your Nonprofit’s Anniversary Count as Special?
One of my copywriter friends asked me this question: “My client’s organization is having a milestone anniversary. How can I use a sustainer program to leverage donations?” Recently I discussed the use of special days to promote recurring gifts or for stewardship. However, typically, anniversaries are not really donor-focused. The donor doesn’t really care too much […]
Monthly Giving Continues to Be Strong Among Older Donors
As prices go up and inflation is a reality, are you worried about what’s going to happen with monthly donors? I’m right there with you. That’s why I was excited to see Enthuse’s “Donor Pulse Report: Summer 2022,” based on a survey of 2,008 donors in the United Kingdom. General economic trends are remarkably similar, so it’s a good […]
