My intention in this series is not to provide a detailed “how to” for building a monthly giving program.  Rather, the goal is to point you to resources I believe will prove of help and value.

Here goes.

Setting Goals. 

When it comes to setting goals for a start-up monthly giving program keep it simple.

A simple goal-setting suggestion comes from veteran Canadian fundraiser Fraser Green.  I’ve always admired Fraser’s ability to simplify the arithmetic of fundraising in a way most fundraisers, CEOs and boards can understand.

Here, from a recent post by Fraser is a summary of his strategy for doubling an organization’s revenue with fewer donors.

• “Move 10% of your donors to monthly giving.
• Persuade about 3% of your donors to upgrade their giving to the $500 level or higher
• Get 5% of your donors to include you in their wills. “

There are lots of tools to help you with the goal-setting process.  For example, to help figure out how many monthly donors you’ll need to get to Fraser’s recommend goal of 10% download Erica Waasdorp’s Monthly Giving Calculator.

Getting Started

You don’t need a big staff to build a successful monthly giving program.

And you sure don’t need a sophisticated IT department to handle the processing involved in monthly giving. That’s passé.  Passé or not, when I ask folks why they aren’t into monthly giving many cite the fear of inadequate record and processing systems as the greatest barrier.   We’ll deal with the record-keeping/IT “barrier” in Part 3.

What you do need is the willingness to get a grasp on the basics and then start with a basic program knowing that you can expand later as results warrant greater investment and sophistication.

So, do yourself a favor and while you wait for the arrival of Erica Waadorp’s Monthly Giving: The Sleeping Giant  that you hopefully ordered yesterday,  download this little e-book –The Monthly Giving Starter Kit  that Erica authored for the software firm DonorPerfect.

Here, from that Starter Kit, is a short checklist of the essential steps:

• Organize Your Donation Processing Options. I’ll deal with this critical step in Part 3 of this series. Fortunately, it’s simpler than most folks think.

• Determine Who to Ask and When to Ask. Donors who just gave ae the best prospects for monthly giving. But, frankly, you can acquire monthly donors almost any time. As Erica notes: “There is no bad time to ask and you can ask as often as you want.”   You may also want to see if you can improve giving or the size of gifts from  younger donors through use off a monthly giving program.  See the Boomerang blog post Monthly Giving: The Key to Big Gifts from Young Donors by Tony Smercina of Pursuant.

• Determine How to Ask and How Much to Ask. Erica recommends using the donor’s normal giving channel as the channel for acquisition of the monthly gift.  If she’s an online donor, go online.  If a direct mail donor invite him by mail.  Some rules of thumb for asking amounts according to Erica: “Never go lower than $5 or higher than $10.  Goal is to bring in the maximum number of monthly donors.  You can upgrade them later.

• Thank, Inform and Recognize. New monthly donors need to know what to expect.  What will you send them (tax receipts, progress reports? etc.)? Will they be invited to special events, receive special recognition?  Of one thing, I’m certain. You can’t take their money, process their credit card or bank debit each month, and do nothing in return other than keep them in the dark.  They’re donors, not mushrooms.

Erica’s advice.  Keep it simple and affordable.

NOTE:  For an excellent summary of steps you should consider in thanking donors –monthly and otherwise–download this free e-book , The Art and Science of Retaining Digital Donors by Steve Shattuck   of  Bloomerang.

• Set Up a Good Reporting/Tracking System. Monthly givers are valuable and deserve detailed attention. Some CRM systems provide special reporting functions for upgrading monthly donors, tracking their payments, and alerting you to non-payment.

Whether you rely on your CRM or set up a manual system keeping track of the transactional behavior of monthly givers is not only time well spent, it’s a ‘must’.

• Join Your Own Program. Before you go live, test everything, double check consistency of website content with other content, and make sure links work and be sure it’s easy to find the monthly giving option on your site.

Then…send a personal email to the CEO, CFO, board, staff and volunteers to get the ball rolling.

I’m sure as you review this checklist lots and lots of questions will arise.  Check out the Recurring Giving section of Erica’s website .  It gives you answers to key questions you should be asking and answering for your organization.

Questions such as: What to Do If Your Monthly Donor Doesn’t Want to Give Online … or When Is Not a Good Time to Upgrade a Monthly Donor? …or How Long Does It Take To Set Up A Monthly Donor Program from Soup to Nuts?   On the “How Long…” question Erica says it’ll take you about a week!  Even assuming you have to add two or three more weeks to allow for time-wasting internal meetings this is a tiny investment in time for a program so valuable.

Tomorrow we’ll tackle the “Great Payment/Record-keeping Barrier” where monthly giving programs are concerned.

Roger