Recruiting and Converting New Monthly Donors (Part 5 of 6)

This is part 5 in a 6-part series on monthly giving programs for nonprofits.

Read Part 1 – Benefits of Monthly Giving Programs

Read Part 2 – Planning a Successful Monthly Giving Program

Read Part 3 – Launching a Monthly Giving Program

Read Part 4 – Keeping Monthly Donors Engaged

Launching a well-crafted, robust monthly giving program is an important step for nonprofits, but it is not the endpoint. Too many nonprofits fall into the trap of launching a monthly giving program, then leaving it to wither and die. But the post-launch phase of a monthly giving program is when buy-in from staff and key leaders really makes a difference. Continually working with leaders and staff can help make monthly giving part of the organizational culture. Here are some tips for creating a plan to keep your nonprofit’s monthly giving program alive and growing:

1. Monthly Giving as Part of an Overall Outreach Strategy

Make monthly giving front-of-mind for all those who interact with donors and who are involved in creating marketing materials. Your website, social media sites, brochures, event programs, and newsletters should include a short paragraph highlighting the benefits monthly giving provides.

Initiate a way for staff to celebrate gaining new monthly donors. Consider ringing a bell or playing a certain chime or tune when new members join the monthly giving program. Making the program’s success a shared accomplishment helps generate the organizational support monthly giving needs to thrive.

2. Measuring Results and Refocusing Energy

Once the monthly giving program is live, it’s important to review the results at 3-month, 6-month, and 12-month checkpoints. Measure your initial results and analyze which approaches are most successful for your nonprofit. Find out what works and what doesn’t work and tailor your efforts to match what the data tells you. It’s important to establish goals and a plan for achieving the goals. Your beginning response can provide a basis for making goals that are both realistic and challenging. As you strive to achieve those goals, use the data to test and retest the affects of your efforts.

3. Periodic Appeals to Garner Support

Once or twice a year revisit your donor list and repeat the process of identifying monthly giving prospects, and use that list to send targeted email and/or direct mail appeals to monthly giving prospects. Re-employ volunteers to conduct follow-up by phone as much as possible.

4. Convert While They’re Hot.

It is never too early to invite donors to join the club. Presence of mind is a great motivator. You don’t want to scare people off, but a friendly, subtle invitation is appropriate. After a donor makes a one-time online donation, have a message on the confirmation page and/or confirmation email. Thank them for their support and ask if they would like to make this a recurring gift in the future.

Cultivating a monthly giving program and a base of committed, sustaining donors will provide a multitude of short-term and long-term benefits for your non-profit.

Learn more about how MoonClerk helps nonprofits accept recurring and one-time donations online.

Our next and final posts in this series will be a list of additional resources on monthly giving programs.

Photo by Flickr User islandjoe