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Now Is an Exciting Time to Ask for a Monthly Gift Upgrade

upgrade

If you have a sustainer program that’s been around for a few years, you must consider upgrading them at least once a year. And while you may be hesitant, now is an excellent time to consider asking for an upgrade. Everything has become more expensive — food, pet food, gas, utilities, etc. Hence, operating your nonprofit has […]

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 […]

How Can You Solve the Long Term vs. Short Term Struggle?

Spoiler alert: It’s not by doing more social media. It’s not by running more events. It’s by focusing on asking your donors to upgrade, to make monthly gifts and leave gifts through their will. It’s all about asking your donors to give more money, more often, ongoing. It’s getting long term results by doing things now. Why is this important? Because the latest trend […]

How to Raise More by “Upgrading” Your Monthly Giving Donors

Fundraisers sometimes tell me: “I don’t want to convert my donors to monthly giving, because then I can’t ask them to give more!” Well, that’s an absolute myth! The best real-life example of monthly giving came from a story in my son’s university magazine. A donor made a $1,000,000 gift to support campus expansion. Do […]

How Netflix Subscribers Are Different From Monthly Donors

I love Netflix. It helped us do away with cable TV 10+ years ago. Now we live stream our favorite movies on our “older” TV. We still get Netflix DVDs in the mail, and we choose our favorite shows to binge-watch when we’re in that binge-watch mood. We’re in control of what we watch, and […]

3 Best Year-end Approaches for Monthly Donors

As you’re growing your number of monthly donors over time, it’s important to consider how you should include your monthly donors in your year-end giving. Of course, every organization is different, but it’s important to remember one thing: Unless you promised your sustainer that they would not hear from you in any way shape or […]

If You Let ‘Bean Counters’ Call the Shots, Your Sustainer Program Could Suffer

… You’d think that every organization by now would be convinced that there are donors who are interested in supporting your organization by joining a sustainer program. … You’d think the tremendous feeling of excitement that these wonderful sustainers generate would permeate your organization.  Well, unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Sometimes, it’s the “financial […]

Top Characteristics Needed to Successfully Run a Nonprofit Sustainer Program

You’ve heard me say this before: ”Assign a driver!”—if you’re serious about growing your nonprofit sustainer program.  Just one driver who pulls it all together and who makes sure the car keeps running and is being maintained to keep on running for a very long time.  So, when I mentioned this at a recent conference, […]

8 Reasons to Start a Nonprofit Monthly Giving Program NOW

One of the key annual fundraising strategies I recommend you add (or rev up) this year is monthly giving. It’s one of the best ways I know to move the needle in improving your mid-level giving program, and to also serve as a pipeline to acquire new donors, upgrade current donors, and influence major and legacy giving. To […]

Can Monthly Giving Through Direct Withdrawals Work?

I was born and raised in the Netherlands where electronic bank payments, or direct withdrawals, were a way of life. Believe it or not, even credit cards there were required to be paid off every month, automatically, from your bank account. Things have changed there, but also here in the U.S. Now, the question, “can […]