Advice On Monthly Giving
Heaps of practical advice on monthly giving programs in this exchange between Lisa Sargent and Jo Sullivan.
Jo grew ASPCA’s monthly giving program from 9,.000 donors to 140,000 in the span of ten years. That qualifies as success in my book!
Jo talks about cultivation of monthy donors, who and when to invite, whether to make additional appeals … all the questions I’ll bet you have.
Thanks for passing this along, Lisa.
Tom
One response to “Advice On Monthly Giving”
Behavioral Science Q & A
Thanks so much for raising this. Yes, capturing donor information can be helpful for stewardship like newsletters, thank-you letters, impact updates. But how you ask matters. Forcing full data capture introduces friction that can significantly depress conversion, many donors may simply abandon the process. Beyond the friction itself, required fields also shift the emotional experience […]
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Unlike holidays that everyone already knows, Giving Tuesday is a created event. Many donors recognize the name but not the exact timing, so referencing it becomes a helpful cue. It serves as a reminder and taps into social norm activation (“everyone’s giving today”), which boosts response. However, we still want it paired with the mission, […]
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When a subject line leads with the match (“Your gift matched!”), it risks triggering market-norm thinking: the sense that giving is a financial transaction rather than an act rooted in values, identity, and care. This shift reduces intrinsic motivation and, over time, can weaken donor satisfaction and long-term engagement. It also makes the email indistinguishable […]
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There’s no evidence that QR codes suppress mid-value giving; all available research suggests they either help or have no negative effect. In fact, behavioral and usability research consistently shows the opposite: reducing friction at any point in the donation process increases completion rates and total response. And that has nothing to do with capacity and […]
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What you’re experiencing is very common. Resistance often isn’t about capability, but about motivation quality. If board members feel pushed into fundraising, that triggers controlled motivation (low quality motivation) i.e. obligation, guilt, or fear of judgment, which often results in avoidance. Instead, we need to create conditions for volitional motivation (high quality motivation) by satisfying […]
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That’s a really thoughtful question, and you’re not the first to raise it. Many of our clients have been cautious about placing the ask at the very end. To address their concern, we’ve tested both approaches, and the results are clear: when the ask comes last, even if that means it appears on the second […]
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Tom:
Monthly giving is also a big factor in the fundraising programs of International NGOs in Japan. The “Monthly Pledge” program of the Japan Committee for UNICEF must be one of the world’s most successful and profitable monthly giving programs. Started in 1995, it may by now be approaching 200,000 monthly givers contributing an average donation not of 3 or 4 Euros, but of Y 2,500 per month. With today’s exchange rates, that is slightly more than $25 per month and therefore probably raises some $50 million plus per year.
Why do Japanese like to donate on a monthly basis? Probably because, like their European counterparts, they have been paying their bills with automatic funds transfers for many years, and are blessed with a postal banking system in which practically everyone holds an account. Another factor is the high level of trust that Japanese have for their institutions, including their banks, in spite of recent mishaps.
How were all these monthly donors recruited? Mainly thanks to a very aggressive and well-funded Direct Mail program that UNICEF began in 1992, that has since generated some 2 million one-off donors. Other Japanese charities have followed, but because UNICEF started doing this so many years ago, none have been able to reach the numbers that are possible if you are the first charity on the block to try it.