Ep 301 | Monthly Giving Programs 101 with Katherine Lacefield

nonprofits to engage in? I think that one of the biggest things that nonprofits have to deal with is the lack of consistency in their finances, especially when we know that the biggest time of year for funds to come in is at the end of the year, and then what do we do for the rest of the year? There isn't that consistency that allows them to have more stability in their programs and

their deliverability, and then in their operations. And the second thing that I feel a lot of nonprofits come to me with problems with is we don't have any open ended operational funds. They tend to have these big grants, but that are either earmarked for certain costs and that don't cover their general operating expenses. And that's where I feel individual gifts, which are usually just here, take my money and do what you

need to do. Well, we want more of those, but we want those on a stable, recurring basis, which is where I believe that monthly giving programs is the best way to get more stability, and thus more sustainability as a nonprofit. Sami Bedell-Mulhern: Yeah, and I think agree with everything you just said. And I think for me, the thing that nonprofits shy away from is they're like, well, if two. Much work just for a $10 a month or a $30 a month gift. And so they like immediately.

They're just like, well, that's not worth my time. And so what would you say to that right off the bat? Well, when we look at the difference in costs of acquiring, let's say a donor, versus a recurring donor, that one time gift that the donors may be giving you, yeah, maybe they're gonna give you $100 okay, you're like, yeah,

that's 10 times more. But how much did it cost you to get that donor to give, versus a $10 a month or once it's set up, other than your transaction fees and, of course, stewardship, which you would also be doing for your other donors. You it's just automatic. So it's actually been proven that it can be five to 20 times less expensive to retain an existing client slash donor than to constantly acquire new ones. So we have to think about

it in the long term perspective of retention. There's been a new study out, I believe it was by a neon one, where they were doing a study on recurring giving, and they showed how recurring monthly donors are likely to stay, on average, up to eight years with your organization. So it's not just $10 a month that you just acquired. It's $10 a month. So that's 120 times eight. So you're getting into the almost $1,000 from having

acquired one donor. So we have to think about it in the long term, from an acquisition, acquisition versus retention perspective, the cost as well as the fact that it gives you that stability year long, which is very necessary for most nonprofits, Sami Bedell-Mulhern: oh my gosh, to have that cash flow coming in

every single month. And knowing that you can kind of expect to have something coming in every month is so critical when you're in those lulls between, like you said you're in giving, or like your big fundraising gala, like, it's so critical, and I don't know the stat, but I believe it's still current that your monthly donors are also more likely to give an additional gift at some point throughout the year, likely at year end, on

top of their initial contribution. Yes, because most of the time because they've made a commitment by making these maybe smaller monthly gifts, which are a lot easier for them to manage. But once again, statistically, it has been shown that these monthly donors will actually give more on an annual basis in total than if they were just giving one time annual gift. So we have to think about it from over the year, not just in that one time

transaction. And yes, like, why not? If you're building up this amazing campaign where you are looking for a one time gift, why not solicit your monthly donors of like, thank you so much for your support. We have this great project coming up, and we're coming to you first because we know how much you care about our

work. We're doing this new campaign, and we need to raise an extra $10,000 can we count on you to make an additional gift at this year end to really spark this project and get it off its feet? I feel like these people have shown a commitment. They've shown an engagement in your cause. Why not ask them for an additional gift?

Sami Bedell-Mulhern: Yeah, 100% okay, so let's talk about actually crafting your monthly giving campaign, because I don't think it's enough to just go out and say, Hey, will you be a monthly donor? We kind of need to create an experience around it. We kind of need to create its own specific story. So how do we maybe want to start crafting what our monthly giving program looks like before we even start reaching out to

donors? Yes, because I completely agree. If you just have it as an option on your giving page, and you don't have any special story around it, it's not it's not going to be as attractive if you have those two of like one time gift versus monthly. Of course, most people will just go towards the one time gift. If it's not marketed properly, like any marketing slash fundraising campaigns, you have to make it more attractive. So what I usually do is, first of all, you're going to create a

separate monthly giving page for monthly donors. So when you're doing a monthly giving campaign, you're not redirecting people to your regular, typical donation page, which has both options. You're just going to have the option of monthly giving for that campaign, your general page can have both great but if

you're launching a monthly giving campaign. Have it only available to give monthly number two is, I would recommend giving your monthly giving program a name like a cute even like cheesy name I've seen like best friends of one of my clients. It's like the democracy builders, something that makes people feel like they're part of this exclusive, special club. You want to really make them feel special, because these donors are going to most likely be one of your biggest sources

of income and stability. So you want to treat them more more exclusively. You want to give them a sense of exclusivity. So naming your campaign, and then, of course, before you launch it, I'd recommend strongly thinking about your stewardship strategies. So thinking about, how are you going to build your

relationship with these monthly donors? Because if you just launch it and then you don't follow up with any retention, then yeah, these people are going to also stop donating monthly as much as your one time donors are going to stop because you're not building that relationship. So maybe even if it's just about setting up an email that's already set up for

the next. Year, where every two months, let's say, or at least, ideally every month, these donors are receiving an email that says, Thank you, something that I actually am watching a monthly giving podcast this week as well, which we can talk about later. But my guest shared an amazing thought, and I actually implemented that with one of my clients recently, where a lot of donation platforms have the option of an a monthly receipt for monthly donations, and of course, you can also get the

annual receipt. Why not go into that automated system that already exists for your monthly donors and customize and personalize that receipt on every month so that every time someone makes a donation, their receipt is actually an opportunity to share a story of what you've done this month, or

what their monthly donations went to. So yes, you're sharing the receipt of like you've donated, but you're also sharing a story which will really reinforce the reasons why they're giving Sami Bedell-Mulhern: well, but now they'll say, Well, we don't want to communicate with them too often, because if we remind them of their gift, then they're likely to stop giving. So that's what I hear all the time. So we're just going to kind of let

them go, and we're not going to share stories of impact. We're just going to kind of, you know, we've got them now, so we're just going to kind of, kind of let that happen, kind of what, what would be your feedback to that? Of course, I consider that super unethical in the sense of that mental process, but I've heard it also so I know it's a thing. I think that as a nonprofit, for our donors, we do have a some form of due diligence that we need to

send them information on what we're doing. I believe that to be a strong nonprofit, to have long term donors, you do need to communicate with them. Of course, that might turn into a few of them that will unsubscribe, but if they're unsubscribing, it's because they didn't want to give at that

point. But on the opposite, what we've seen in practice is that nonprofits who invest in building relationships with their donors, that actually creates a sense of community, which actually reduces the likelihood that they're going to be quitting. So of course, if you don't message them for months and then suddenly you send a blast of like, by the way, and be like, Oh yeah, donating to them. Haven't heard anything from them, then yes, they're much more likely to

quit. But if, from the get go, you say, for example, every new donor, monthly donor we get, we're going to send them a little postcard with our with our logo that says, Thank you, with a cute little story handwritten the the commitment that they're they've already made. You've just like, stamped it like we care about you. They're much more likely to stay with you than quit because you sent them something.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern: Yeah, I agree with that. And also, I think you and I talk with nonprofits all the time about stewardship and and it's surprising how few organizations are doing it well. So it's not even just that it's the right thing to do, but it's also going to help build that trust so much faster, because they might, they might say, okay, yeah, we'll give to like, three different organizations at this amount and

just kind of see what happens. But if you do what you just said and kind of touch base with them, stay connected, they're more likely to continue to give to you because you are treating them well and staying in touch, versus other organizations where most are not doing that, most are not taking care of their donors in the way that they should. No and it allows you to stand out as a nonprofit that cares. And I'm already hearing people saying, Yeah, but we don't have the time, we don't have the

resources. I get it. I can already hear people like, well, this is good for great, big organizations. I'm like, there's things you can do, even as a solo Ed, because those monthly donors are gold, and you want to keep them, give yourself an hour or half an hour every week to individually reach out to one of your monthly donors, send them an individual, personalized email. Thank you so much, Sarah. We're so glad to have you on board. I'd love to hear what made you become a monthly donor

at our organization, like, how did you hear about us? Build a relationship half an hour a day where you just reach out to one or two of them. There's also a lot of automation, and I'm sure, I'm sure you can share with this as well, of their systems that you can create to make it so that it's not as time consuming.

Having an automated email series that welcomes your donors and has emails that will be distributed over a year in advance allows you to at least have some touch points with your monthly donors without you having to deal with it on a monthly basis. There's even, if we're talking about like, sending out cards. There are companies like letter labs, for example, that if you send them a list of you can even have an

automated process, which I think is amazing. But you can also just send them a list of your monthly donors, and they will take care of shipping out these handwritten cards to your donors, for as low as, like, two or $3 a pop, like, it is so much more accessible nowadays, as long as you know which tools to use and you create the system. Of course, it's the creation of this system that takes time, but once it's there, it'll work for you.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern: Yeah, so good. I also like. Take recording videos and sending them out, because I think a lot of people aren't doing that, and that only takes two seconds for you if you have kind of a script, and if you do need to further automate it again, there are AI tools that can help kind of automate the names and make it personalized. So I agree with you that excuse of we don't have time is not something that should matter anymore. You just need to put some thought into

the process. So those resources that you shared are great. Okay, so if we have our kind of we've got our name, we've got our experience, we know how we're going to steward donors. I think it's so important that you have that that end piece done before you even launch. How or what are some strategies for how we can even get this in front of people, how we can ask people to join what have you seen work well with kind of growing our monthly donors?

So there's a couple things. So I have a couple examples. I've worked once where I was doing street fundraising, where we just always started our conversations of asks, with asking for a monthly donation, because we would say we almost don't want your one time gift. We are only exclusively looking for monthly donors right now. Why? Well, then you'll be able to explain the reasons, and you'll get people that are much more likely to want to commit and stay long

term. So there is that way of just making it for a while for a specific campaign of pushing monthly donations as like, the only, slash, best way of supporting your organization. Number two is, if you do have a list of existing donors, but you're you don't have any monthlies, why don't you segment out your your donor database and look at who's been donating relatively recurrently every year for a few years, and start by targeting them. Hey, we've noticed that you've been with us

for. Then you can put the number of years, five years. And we are so grateful for your for your support, we actually are launching a new program, which is the best way for us to allow to invest in our programs on a monthly basis. We would love to have you be part of our democracy builders. And then you can really target these people that you know they're not going to be surprised that you're asking. Like, monthly giving is not a like, what is this new thing? I've never heard of it.

Subscriptions and monthly payments is the way our economy rolls nowadays. It's the norm. You pay your rent, monthly, your electricity, your phone bill, your apps. How many apps are you paying $5 to do the face yoga like this is the new way people it's a thing. So I think I've done face yoga. It's amazing. It's amazing. It works so well. Sorry, but yes, I think that

people will be able to not be surprised. And if you feel less comfortable asking everyone of just targeting however, I believe in just why not invite everyone to join your program? As long as you have a proper case for support of why donating monthly works, then you're much more likely to do it. I'll give you a little case study of that I did with my client during the year end giving. Instead of focusing on only one time gift, we segmented it into those who had been giving a certain

amount. So we had different levels of priorities, and the priorities one and twos that had given a certain amount annually, which was much more than a 15, $20 a month donation, we targeted them with a specific ask of instead of making your usual one time gift, this year, we would invite you to join our

monthly giving program. And just with that campaign, there was maybe, like two or maybe three or four emails max that we we sent throughout the month of December, we confirmed about 13 to it was either 13 or 15 monthly donors for almost a total of $500 a month. Like that's for a small organization, for a shelter, for one campaign that's $6,000 a year, that's gonna be coming in regularly, that we can steward from 13 people. Like, that's a very easy first way of starting your program.

Sami Bedell-Mulhern: Yeah, well, and I think it's interesting, because I think it's a shift. You know, I was almost thinking of the question I was gonna ask you next was, like, how can we, you know, we're in, you know, I think this episode is launching in April, in or March, anyway, whatever we're in the beginning of the year. And so kind of thinking about how a strategy like this can actually make your year end giving easier, if you

start to think about your What, what's your year end nugget? And how can we maybe start to target the people that gave at year end to be monthly donors now, so that they're maybe more easily able to plan out their gift over time, and then maybe still give an extra gift at your end, and also then kind of do what you just said at your end, because there'd be like, about six

months apart, right? So how can we kind of use this campaign to almost steward some people now at the beginning and also catch those people at the tail end who didn't take us up on that the first time around? So this is all about the importance of segmentation and knowing your database. So what I often recommend to people when they're, let's say, doing it. A specific campaign of acquisition of new donors. Your welcome series, the last email should be

an invitation to join your monthly giving program. So it could be a couple months after making their one time gift, they donate it. And you can even make it a segment of anyone who's given $500 or more, maybe they won't get the monthly donation ask. You're going to be stewarding it towards major

giving. For example, if that's your I don't know what the categories are in your organization, but let's say, but you can segment of sending those emails to specific people so that, almost like offhandedly, you might get people that are going to start like joining at your monthly giving program throughout the year, and then you can segment those out at the year end campaign. You're not going to be targeting, targeting

your monthly donors in the same way. So once again, having a proper CRM that allows you to segment your donors into different things, and then allows your mailing system to know who to send which emails to. There's all these workflows that you can do that if they become a monthly donor, they

won't receive these emails afterwards. I just set one up, actually, for the Australian Animal Protection Society, where it was just such this web of like, if yes, if no. And I was like, it was kind of busy, but once it's set up, like everyone that's going to be joining their mailing list is going to get solicited for one time gift, and then a couple months later

they're going to get the monthly donation ask. So that way, it's working for you in the background, without you having to stress too much, and exactly like you said, you're also building up knowledge and recognition of the fact that there's a monthly giving program so that maybe they're not ready now, but you're planting the seed so that maybe at your end, you're gonna have yes your regular asks. But also a little

like, Hey, this is the really the best way to support us. And also, one last thing about that is having a goal, either in dollar amounts or in number of members that you're really putting a value on. Let's say we were looking for 25 new best friends, like we really want to grow a group of friends this year. And would you be one of our new best friends that joins

the program? So we did that for one of our clients, and they're we're still working on it, but we had a lot of people rejoin, and now we just surpassed our goal, which was also $500 a month. I think we're at 600 now. So it's just about putting it forward, making objectives and making your case of why this is the best way to support you. Sami Bedell-Mulhern: Well in the piggyback off of that, you know, you could also use that as a limited time offer or a limited

amount of space. So maybe your organization is one where there are additional perks or benefits that you can provide to your monthly donors, and I know you consult your tax people and whatever, before you kind of start to put all this together. But like you know, maybe, for example, if you are a museum, a nonprofit museum, and you can give people early access or

discounted tickets or whatnot. There's also an opportunity to create a monthly donor program with limited access, so we only have 20 spots for these specific perks until the doors open again. I mean, this is a tactic and a strategy that a lot of us use in the online space, not necessarily the nonprofit. But I think there's ways that you can be creative, in the way that you almost create FOMO around, like you want to be a part of this, because this is an elite, special group of people and

still hit your goals. Yeah. Another way of like, if you don't necessarily have any like, tangible things that you can provide, you can always say the first 50 people who joined the program, let's say, if you're just launching a new one, the first 50 people will be are like pioneers, and they will be forever considered the pioneers of the monthly giving program, even if they stop their donations. So that way they'll have recognition, and you're just building up this excitement

of like, do you want to be part of our first 50? Or offering a certain perk for those first 50, so that you're still allowing other people to join, but not with the same benefits. So there's, there's so many ways, and I love what you brought up this example of like, what they do in like, the digital world, not necessarily nonprofits, is that the nonprofits are not taking advantage of a lot of the strategies that are still available to them, as long as you do it properly and

ethically. There's no problem behind that. If, let's say, one of my clients, they had. So they're a shelter, but they also have what they call op shops, or like thrift shops, and they also have a vet clinic and a grooming clinic, and so they can offer, let's say, 20% off. As long as you're a member, you get to be for 20% off our services. Why not?

Sami Bedell-Mulhern: Yeah, no, that's so good, and it just also increases the likelihood that that existing member will refer other friends, family, colleagues, to also kind of join the cause, because they're getting treated well, there's something in it for them, which I know for nonprofits, we're very much focused on the work that we're doing, but we have to remember that donors give because of their own what's in

it for them, whatever that might be. And so I love that idea of really just making it so personal and so on brand, on mission, like it's focusing on their mission, right? Like, come

do these things, but, but they, but they get something out of it that's going to encourage people to refer so I want to make sure we touch on this before we kind of wrap up in that paying

attention to. Your monthly donor retention, I think is extremely important, not only just to manage your cash flow so you can kind of understand what to expect for future projections, but also just to maintain and manage because I think sometimes we can get very wrapped up in the benefits of the of and the follow up and the stewardship of our monthly donors, and sometimes we need to take a step back and say, Well, do they really care about this, or is this something we really care

about, like, how is the program actually working, and donor retention is kind of one of the great stats for that. So how can we kind of track that? What should we be paying attention to with regards to the numbers of donors, or the dollar amounts as it relates to the health of our monthly giving program, and how we might want to make decisions moving forward. So of course, I think one of the biggest thing is like, how many are like, how long are your

donors staying as part of your program? You can also look at how many are leaving your program and what's the length of time that they stayed with you, but also having a qualitative information around what are the reasons? So following up with your monthly donors with a thank you not like a Why did you stop like? Don't be, you know, don't be mean. But one of the recommendations, actually, in my own podcast episode where we talked about is, why don't would you send them a thank you card,

even if they're leaving like, or a thank you email? Thank you so much for your support. You've been with us for three years, like this is what you've allowed us to do, so you're still thinking and recognizing and then maybe having a slight little like, we'd love to hear your thoughts on our program. If there's anything we can improve, we really want your feedback. And it just explains, like, which part of the retention did

they like? Do they would they want more? And it's kind of like a survey type thing where you're just asking people for their feedback, you might get people or just, like, hit reply, or you can say, like, I'd love to, like, have a 15 minute coffee chat, whatever makes sense for you, but having some form of, like, exit survey slash quick questionnaire that your donors can share feedback with you on, maybe there was, well, we didn't

really receive any communications from you. Or maybe it's just a personal issue, but taking the time to build those relationships, you also need to continue the relationships, even if they want to leave as a monthly donor. That doesn't mean that they won't come back. Doesn't mean that they won't continue as a one time donor, or it doesn't mean that they won't continue being an ambassador for you in public amongst their own network and community. So I think those

are some things to keep on tracking. But from a numbers perspective, I would say, of course, how many new people are joining? How long do they stay? What are the reasons why they leave, and just generally, their satisfaction levels? Sami Bedell-Mulhern: Yeah, because we've had clients before that. Have done that survey just like you said, and what they found was they were able to get more of them back, because sometimes they say, Oh, well, we're just, we just need to take

a pause. Okay, well, when can we follow up with you again? Like, in three to six months? And then they come back and so, but if you don't have the conversation, you'll never know. And then, to your point, they're gone and lost, lost forever, and that's all your hard work. Like, that's too Yeah, into the abyss. And that's so sad, because you work so hard to maintain them. I love

this. It's such good tangible strategies to think about. With regards to our monthly giving campaigns, if there was something else that you might want to share with listeners, just about how they can what they should think about, or what they should really have prepped before they really jump into this so that they can have the best success possible. Like, what else might you want to share that I haven't asked?

The one thing I would say that is missing in a lot of nonprofits, it's they don't have confidence in why people would want to donate to them monthly. If you don't believe if you're like, Oh, well, why would they want to donate to us on a regular basis? Then you need to double check yourself of well, then there's a problem. If you don't believe yourself that you are worth a regular monthly donation, then

there's a problem with your mission. So definitely check building up your case for support of why, and believing in it and in your messaging, believing, of like, this is really the best way. And second of all, don't wait to be perfect. I think I have a lot of nonprofits that wait for it to be so perfect, if you don't have a whole workflow with automations like that, doesn't mean you shouldn't launch it. I'm just giving the best practices or to make it more

worth your time. But if you don't have it automated, okay, do your best, launch the program and then improve it as you go along. So don't wait to be perfect. And third of all, the last thing I would say is have fun with it. I find when it's funny and you're enjoying it, I'll give a very concrete example of what this looked like in real life. I was doing phone fundraising back in the day, where phones were to like phone

people not like text, you know. So I was calling people that had either stopped their donations or credit cards stopped working, whatever reason they were no longer giving, that was my job to follow up with them. I didn't start with like, Hey, your monthly donation stopped. Like, no, build a relationship. We would joke around how we always had the name of their animals, usually on their donation form. So we were like, like, oh, How's

Mr. Pickles doing? Like, we would build a relationship. And I would just say, hey, we, you know, we noticed that you're. Your monthly gift is no longer working. We just want to double check with you if our information on on file is up to date. And just like having the confidence that they'd want to join back, not like, I'm so sorry to bother you, like, no, just assume in your mind that they will continue and have fun with it. So what I would say is questions like, All right, so

what's your favorite number? And they're like, What? Why? I'm like, I don't know. What's your favorite number. They'll say seven. I'm like, Okay, well, right now you're giving 15. What would you say if we increase it to 17? Because now you have your special favorite number in there, and you'll be reminded every month of why you're donating. You know how many times that has worked? Like a lot, surprisingly, because if they're no longer thinking of it as dollars, or thinking of it as

a symbolic number. Emotionally, it's an emotional funny thing. Or, like, how many dogs do you have? Okay, how about we do it for, like, one extra dollar for each dog? Or I do a lot of animal examples, because that's what I worked in. But making it into a fun experience that it's like, I'm excited about this is gonna make it much more fun for the donor on the recipient end to be living this experience. And when they hang up the phone, they're not going to feel like, oh, just got, I just got had,

you know, they're gonna be like, Oh, that was so much fun. Like, and then they're gonna be able to share that experience with others. Like, what I would always tell my fundraisers is, if you can't leave your conversation knowing at least two to three personal things about the person where they work. Do they have kids? Do they have animals? Like then you didn't do your job of building a relationship with your donor before making the ask? Sami Bedell-Mulhern: Yeah, I love the have fun piece, and I

think that's crucial. We have a client in the animal rescue space. They have a sanctuary, and they get really creative with their animals names. So they have like, El Salvador llama and like, they just have, like, all these crazy names, right? So what they do is they created like Pokemon cards, oh my God, for each of their animals. So they're like

characters. And so they send those out to donors. So like, each month they could get a new card with a different animal that talks about, like, you know, this is who the animal is, and this is their name, and this is their personality, and this is how like, passively, like, this is how much it costs us each week to, you know. So like, they're getting this really cool thing, and also staying on mission, and also knowing, like, how much it costs to operate just for that one animal. So

they could choose to make another gift. There's no ask, but they could choose to make another gift if they want to. But it's super fun brand for them. So I poke him on cards like them all, I can just imagine, like, yeah, when you're set, like, you can get, like, the exclusive, like, gold card when you're like, a train, Yeah, amazing. This Sami Bedell-Mulhern: is great. So have fun with it. Yeah, yep,

I love that. Okay, well, I think hopefully if you've been listening still, if you're still listening, then you're definitely on track with I need to start a monthly donor program. So start putting your ideas together. Collaborate with your team. Have fun with it. Don't do this in a silo, because I will tell you that doesn't work. You need to. You need to have some collaboration around this experience. Ask some of

your key donors, right what they might want. But Catherine, I know you have so many more things to share about this topic. So if people want to connect with you and learn more from you and how you support nonprofits as well, how can they do that? I'm very, very active on LinkedIn. It is my platform of choice. So definitely look me up. It's Catherine Lacefield on LinkedIn, if not on my website, just because dot consulting, you'll be able to find a lot of my

resources. My own podcast, just because podcast where I share a lot of knowledge as well on fundraising in general, not just monthly giving. So definitely look me up there. I often have resources. There's also my newsletter where I share regularly either tidbits of information or resources that you can use to help with your fundraising. Sami Bedell-Mulhern: Love that, and we will link all of those up at thefirstclick.net/301. Thank you so much for being here

today. I really appreciate your time. It was so much fun. Let's do this again. Sami Bedell-Mulhern: Big thank you. Thank you to Katherine for joining me today. I would love for you to hop on over to YouTube at Digital Marketing therapy and drop in the comments. What your biggest takeaway is? What strategy will you implement? First, I'm really grateful that she's here to share all of her goodies with you and so many more collaborations with her to come. But for now, make sure you

subscribe wherever you listen. Grab the show notes and additional resources at the first click.net/ 301, and leave us a review. Let us know how we're doing, and let us know if there's any topics that we can provide for you that would help you in your fundraising journey, or if you have a guest expert that you know would be perfect for the show. And you can do that at Hello at the first click.net, for now. Thank you so much for listening, and I will see you in the next one.