The best way to achieve sustainability as a nonprofit – monthly donors. There are plenty of experts and data out there showing that having a monthly donor program is perhaps the best way to guarantee the future of a nonprofit. Being able to have the same donor give to your organization each month, even if just a little, has so many benefits: Retention: we know that holding onto a current donor is so much more cost effective than trying to find a new donor. Whereas the average donor who gives once a year has a 42 percent chance of giving again the next year, the monthly donor is nearly 90 percent likely to give next year. It’s easy for the donor: It’s all about the cash flow – to give a large gift once a year means that a person has to have that money in that snapshot of time when it’s time to give. It’s much easier to give smaller amounts more frequently, and, more importantly, donors are less inclined to cancel their giving after completing a year’s worth of giving. The trick may be, instead, getting your donor to upgrade your gift. More on that later. They tend to give even more: Donors who spread their gifts out over 12 months of the year will “average up” their giving. Say a donor plans on giving $500 over the course of the year. Rather than pay $41.66 cents each month, many donors will round it up to $50 a month. That’s an extra $100 to the charity. And remember, they tend to continue to give once the new year begins without asking. It’s money you can count on: Monthly donors are predictable and stable. Very rarely do you have to remind them to give, unlike your larger once a year donors. You can actually budget with monthly donors. It’s worthwhile to develop a monthly giving program. How? That’ll be my next post.
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