Monthly giving programs are an invaluable source of reliable revenue for nonprofits. Your supporters can also benefit from a well-run monthly giving program because providing automatic donations reduces data-entry on their end. Plus, your monthly giving program can often be the starting point for promising long-term relationships between your organization and your supporters.

However, a successful monthly giving program doesn’t happen overnight. Between thanking donors and setting up your monthly payment software, recurring giving programs require detailed oversight to reach their full potential. While it might require an initial investment to get fully up and running, monthly gifts can empower your nonprofit to make far-reaching financial decisions by using predictable revenue streams.

Fundraising marketing is an investment of its own, and recurring donors provide long-term value to your nonprofit. While you should never neglect attracting new donors, a well setup monthly giving program can help make the most of new supporters by converting them into recurring donors. To help your nonprofit get started building out this key program, here are a few key practices used by successful monthly giving programs:

Identify Potential Monthly Donors
Optimize Your Donation Form
Regularly Thank Your Donors

Effective monthly giving programs rely on a combination of nonprofit technology and personal donor stewardship. This allows your nonprofit to streamline administrative tasks while collecting key data about your supporters without ever losing that human touch that caused supporters to connect with your nonprofit in the first place. Let’s get started.

Identify Potential Monthly Donors

Some of your monthly donors will decide to join your recurring giving program on their first donation. However, many potential monthly donors are likely already in your system as annual contributors. Leverage the donor data you have collected to find supporters who have the following characteristics of potential monthly giving candidates:

Regular contributions. Donors who give regularly to your nonprofit have made an investment in your cause, even if they aren’t currently doing it on a monthly basis. Look for annual donors who have supported your nonprofit for several years. These donors are likely familiar with your cause and are already used to donating routine gifts.
Large to moderate sized donations. Large and moderately sized donations signal that a supporter wants to make an impact to help your organization. These donors also have the capacity to give, and can likely be encouraged into growing their annual donation by dividing it into smaller monthly contributions that add up to a larger gift by the year’s end.

Once you have identified donors with both of these characteristics, start reaching out to them about how they can get more involved in your nonprofit. While they are likely already invested in your nonprofit’s success, ensure your nonprofit has a positive and meaningful relationship with them before launching into a discussion about how they can grow their contributions.

Make sure your nonprofit has a donor recognition program in place, so your donors are used to positive communication from your nonprofit. Doing so also increases the chances that these donors will feel a more personal connection with your nonprofit before making your ask to join your monthly giving program. Then, be sure to regularly thank your recurring donors once they do sign up for your giving program.

For many of these donors, your monthly giving program will grow their donations but in a manageable capacity based on their previous gifts. For example, a donor who gives $200 a year might consider switching to giving $20 a month, increasing their annual contribution amount by $40.

Optimize Your Donation Form

An optimized donation form can often be the difference between a new monthly donor and an abandoned contribution. Make sure your page makes it easy to opt into your monthly giving program. For instance, something as simple as a checkbox for donors to join your monthly giving program can improve your recurring donation rates.

Make sure your nonprofit has the proper software in place to support your monthly giving program. Regpack’s guide to recurring billing software recommends finding a payment processor that can handle automatic repeat payments at custom time intervals, including one-time, monthly, and annual donations. This means your supporters will be able to contribute regularly without re-entering their information for each gift.

Once you have a secure payment processor, optimize your donation form to increase conversion rates and encourage increased giving. Here are three optimization strategies that can improve your nonprofit’s donation page:

Offering suggested giving amounts. Suggested giving amounts are possible donation amounts provided by your nonprofit that donors can use over entering a custom amount. Displaying lower recurring suggested giving amounts alongside higher one-time donations can encourage supporters to consider signing up for your monthly giving program. Suggested giving amounts not only show the difference between one-time and recurring donations, but also have the potential to raise your average donation amount by informing supporters how much an average one-time donation is.

Making it mobile friendly. Many of your donors will access your donation page through their phones. Pages not adapted to mobile can alienate these supporters, losing contributions and making your nonprofit seem behind the times technology-wise. Improve your mobile page by using software that adapts automatically to mobile screens and enables you to customize what page elements appear on different devices.
Keeping it short. Long donation forms can lead to page abandonment where donors second guess their contribution, then exit out of the page before completing their gift. You can avoid this by asking only necessary questions relevant to the donation process. Also consider finding a form that uses conditional logic. As this guide explains, conditional logic helps keep your form short by asking only relevant questions based on the user’s previous answers.

Also, never forget to brand your donation page. Doing so helps create a consistent experience for your donors and reassures them that the form they are filling out is connected to your nonprofit’s website. Or, consider finding a payment processor that can be embedded into your nonprofit’s donation page, ensuring supporters can donate straight from your website.

Regularly Thank Your Donors

According to 360MatchPro’s fundraising statistics report, over 90% of nonprofits stop acknowledging recurring gifts after three months. Given that monthly donors are one of your nonprofit’s most reliable sources of revenue, make sure your nonprofit is in that remaining 10% that continues to show appreciation throughout your donors’ relationship with your nonprofit.

You can say thank you in a variety of ways, including both small, low-cost solutions and more resource-intensive investments. Some popular ways to show your appreciation include:

Personalized messages. Personalizing messages to address each supporter by name, reference their previous support, and past donations is one of the most basic things your nonprofit can do to help supporters feel acknowledged. For example, if a supporter made a notable contribution to a previous campaign, referencing the impact of their donation can help demonstrate your nonprofit’s appreciation.

Donor spotlights. You can help your donors feel special by giving them a little spotlight in your community. Reach out to your notable recurring donors to offer them a spotlight in your newsletter, blog, or social media posts (or all three!). These spotlights would include a photo, a summary of what their support has achieved, and words from the donor about what your nonprofit means to them. Be sure to ask permission before highlighting supporters because while some donors may appreciate the chance to show off to their family and friends, others prefer to keep a low profile online and may feel uncomfortable receiving the attention.
Donor walls. Donor walls are an investment that immortalizes your donors and their contributions in a physical monument. Many nonprofits erect donor walls to honor major donors who have made significant contributions either to a specific project or over the course of their lives. While you likely can’t include all of your monthly donors on your donor wall, you can create one to recognize your top monthly donors. Research your options to get inspired and find a donor wall option that makes sense for your nonprofit.

Thanking donors not only encourages them to stick with your monthly giving program, but also to consider increasing their gift in the future. For instance, moderate monthly donors are strong candidates for future planned giving as they have a demonstrated investment in your nonprofit, but likely can’t give in huge amounts at once. Cultivating these relationships long-term can have significant pay-off down the line.

Wrapping Up

Monthly giving programs allow your nonprofit to earn consistent revenue throughout the year, while also opening the door to deepening relationships with supporters. Get started with your monthly giving program by ensuring that you have the software ready to handle recurring gifts, then start reaching out to supporters to build strong, long lasting relationships.

This post was contributed by Asaf Darash, Founder and CEO of Regpack. With extensive experience as an entrepreneur and investor, Asaf has built 3 successful companies to date, all with an exit plan or that have stayed in profitability and are still functional. Asaf specializes in product development for the web, team building and in bringing a company from concept to an actualized unit that is profitable.