Table Of Content“Don’t wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect.
There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step
you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more
successful.”
Mark Victor Hansen
Monthly Giving, The Sleeping Giant
Copyright © 2012 by Erica Waasdorp
Second Edition
All rights to this publication and its contents are reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in an information retrieval system, or transcribed in
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Some of the examples in this book are copyrighted materials. They are reproduced for education purposes only, under “fair use” provisions of U.S. Copyright
law. They are selected by the discretion of the author as they represent principles discussed in the text.
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ISBN: 978-0-9859683-1-1
E-book ISBN: 978-0-9859683-0-4
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For more information, write or call the author:
Erica Waasdorp
PO Box 757, Marstons Mills, MA 02648 USA
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1: Introduction
What Is Monthly Giving and How Does It Work?
Monthly Giving Is Universal But Different
Branding Your Monthly Giving Program
Premiums and Benefits
Targeting for the Best Results
Deciding On Giving Levels
Chapter 2: Copywriter Par Excellence Jerry Huntsinger on Sustainers
Chapter 3: Acquiring Monthly Donors, Direct Mail
Chapter 4: Inbound Telemarketing
Chapter 5: Outbound Telemarketing
Chapter 6: Email, Social Media and Internet
Chapter 7: Using Television to Acquire Monthly Donors
Chapter 8: Face-to-Face (F2F) Fundraising
Chapter 9: Using Texting to Convert Single Gifts to Monthly Donors
Chapter 10: Radio
Chapter 11: Ads, Inserts and Events
Chapter 12: It’s All About Retention Retention
Become Best Buddies With Your IT and Donor Services Staff
Processing Your Monthly Gifts In-house or Outsourcing
Chapter 13: Preparing Management to Look at Monthly Giving Long Term Impact
Chapter 14: Planning for Results
Chapter 15: Getting more Money From Your Monthly Donors
Chapter 16: Trends in Monthly Giving
Chapter 17: A Final Word
About the Contributors
Resources
“For it is in giving that we receive.”
St. Francis of Assisi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I’ve been involved in direct marketing and fundraising for many years. I got to know ‘continuity programs’ in my first
direct mail job at Reader’s Digest in Amsterdam and I became familiar with monthly giving programs at the International
Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) in Yarmouth Port, MA.
It was there I found that sustained giving is a powerful, powerful tool.
At IFAW, I was fortunate enough to be allowed to test a lot and grow the program in several countries in the world. I
could not have done this without the wonderful people there and the local office managers committed to helping me with
data-entry, analysis, programming, systems and the willingness to learn and teach and improve continuously. I’m
grateful to them because running monthly giving programs requires a lot of teamwork and detail orientation and it taught
me that it’s really all about the long term.
I was also fortunate that IFAW was not afraid to share its expertise and as I moved to the agency world in 2000, I was
able to moderate sessions about monthly giving at various conferences. So, needless to say, monthly giving has
become one of my passions.
The idea to write a book came to me at the Bridge Conference in Washington, DC in July 2010, when I was browsing
through the books in the AFP Book store and I noticed there was not much there on monthly giving. That’s probably
because Harvey McKinnon’s book “Hidden Gold” is so good. It really covers the basics and gives many practical
examples and I still think it’s the bible of monthly giving. But since the book was published in 1999, the landscape for
monthly giving has changed (for the better) and more organizations have started programs and grown them
tremendously, especially through media such as telemarketing, the internet, television and Face-to-Face fundraising.
But amazingly, I still come across large organizations that do not have a program in place yet or are just starting out. So
it only seemed fitting to write an update on monthly giving with many practical examples, personal experiences and –
with the help of some monthly giving experts I’ve come across over the years – all the media used these days to
generate more long-term donors for organizations, in the US and around the world.
I’d like to thank the various organizations which have allowed me to share their examples and programs with you.
Finally, I’d like to thank (in no particular order) Harvey McKinnon, Mal Warwick, Daryl Upsall, Jerry Huntsinger, Paul de
Gregorio, Tom Hurley, Geoff Peters, Barbara Fried, John van der Vlies, Simon Pell, Mary Arnold, Jennifer Jones, Steve
Froehlich, Lisa Sargent, Jo Sullivan, Jonathon Grapsas, Nicole Weidokal, Bob Wesolowski, Beverly Kempf, Robyn
Rineer, Julie Seligmann, Adrian Batt, Nancy Noble, Andrew Olsen, Robert and Kevin Ritchie, Sean Triner, Jaap
Zeekant, Ken Burnett, Kay Lautman and so many other experienced fundraisers who have shared their gems of wisdom
over the years. (and please forgive me if I forgot somebody… You have made a difference in my life!)
Thank you to organizations such as International Fund for Animal Welfare, ASPCA, the American Red Cross, CARE,
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, CHAMP Homes, Hospice and Palliative Care of the Cape and Islands (now
Hope Health), National Marine Life Center, Save the Children, North Shore Animal League, Paulist Fathers, World
Wildlife Fund, Stichting Wereld Nood Hulp, Emerge Kinder Fonds, and many others, whose programs I’ve come in
contact with or have personally experienced.
I’m grateful to all the banks and the wonderful people in these organizations who were willing to work with me on that
next improved process, that next letter, download that next file, write reports to evaluate that next idea and more...
This book would not have happened without my wonderful clients who have allowed me to learn and grow their monthly
giving programs, testing new ideas and tweaking campaigns, because some of what we do is trial and error and what
works for one does not necessarily always work for others.
I’d also like to thank my copy editor Patricia Pronovost, my designer Sue Oslund, my promotions director Michaela
Miteva, and my good friend and mentor Dick Miller from Chatham, who taught me, first, the importance, and second, the
process of publishing a book, as I was once his editor. A special thank you goes to Christiane Perry and Barbara
Milligan who reviewed the first draft and gave me their honest feedback.
I’d like to dedicate this book to my mom and dad, who taught me that I could do anything I set my mind to, including
moving to another country and writing a book!
Finally, a huge THANK YOU to my wonderful husband Patrick McNamara and his patience and encouragement in this
process (and of course a special thank you to our two adult sons Patrick II, Brendan and our cats Mientje and Sientje).
“To laugh often and to love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children; to earn the
appreciation of honest critics and to endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in
others; to give of oneself; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed
social condition; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; to know that even one life
has breathed easier because you have lived – this is to have succeeded.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
It’s only the farmer who faithfully plants seeds in the Spring, who reaps a harvest in the Autumn.
B.C. Forbes
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
If you look at the giving pyramid, monthly donors are sandwiched between major and occasional donors. These
contributors, also called sustainers, monthly givers, committed givers, direct debits or specific brand names like
Champions, Circle of Friends and the like, do not generate as much as major donors (not right away), but they will
certainly generate more than a one- or two-time-a-year giver.
These monthly givers are the wonderful, consistent givers that can make a difference in a recession. They are typically
so committed that they will stay with you through thick and thin. Organizations that have run larger programs can show
that some of these donors have stayed with them for more than 10 years and continue on. Just think of the long-term
revenue this generates for your organization! And the good news is, with a little bit of work and some investment, these
monthly donors will perhaps leave you the ultimate gift – the bequest. The other good news is that starting a monthly
giving program is not as time-consuming and personnel resource intensive as starting a major giving program. Most
monthly donors can be generated through some of the ‘old’ proven direct response media methods.
Here’s one example (and believe me, there are many more of these) of how much a monthly donor can be worth to you:
Beginning with a $25 gift in 1983, a generous individual made a total of 279 monthly gifts of $25 or $30 each over a 22-
year period ending in 2005. Unfortunately, that’s when the donor passed away. One year later, the organization
received a $25,000 bequest from its former, loyal donor. The total value of these 280 gifts: $31,250!!! (Warwick, Mal. January
2008. Email newsletter.)
Starting a monthly giving program is like anything else in fundraising: If you don’t ask, you’re not going to get. In most
European countries and even in Canada, Australia and Japan, monthly giving is a very common concept. Not so in the
US (yet), but it’s definitely growing! It’s important to plant the seeds of your program. You can only go up!
And don’t think that you have to be big to get started. The table below shows how even a small program can make a
difference to your bottom line:
This book will give you an overview of the types of monthly donors that exist. You’ll find examples of campaigns not
only from the US, but also from Europe, India and other regions of the world where monthly giving campaigns achieve
great success. That success can be achieved here, once a monthly program is introduced to your donors.
Note that people in other countries may be much more used to committed giving, so results will often be better than in
the US, but I have seen very successful campaigns here and it’s my expectation that this trend will only continue. The
results of these campaigns are based on real examples, but no two organizations are identical. The tools and methods
described may not necessarily apply to your organization. They serve as a road map to follow on your path to cultivate
monthly giving. But trust me, every organization can build a monthly giving program and be successful with it.
Harvey McKinnon already told us many years ago: “Monthly giving appeals not only to younger donors who find it
convenient and easy, but also to older donors, who are more likely to live on a budget. But, regardless of their age,
monthly donors will often give for decades, are more loyal than even the most consistent annual donors, and are far
more likely to leave bequests.”
It’s crucial to start finding these wonderful nuggets of monthly donors in your database for your organization. So, let’s get
started!
What Is Monthly Giving and How Does It Work?
Monthly giving is a program that cultivates an ongoing, committed giving relationship between a donor and your
organization. Monthly givers are those donors in your database who have agreed to support your organization through a
committed gift.
Regular “scheduled” giving typically occurs in three ways:
• Check: the organization sends regular (monthly) reminders.
• Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT): the donor authorizes the organization to have his or her bank transfer money
to the organization on a regular basis.
• Credit card/debit card: the donor authorizes the organization to take the amount from his or her credit card or
debit card.
Building a monthly giving program takes time, patience, and continued investment. Some organizations are only able to
convert 0.5% of their active donors to monthly givers, while others can convert 5% or more. You’ll hear of some who
have been able to convert even 60% of their donors or members. The number of donations given, the level of giving and
the investment in the program determine the ultimate success. Do note that the simplest and cheapest way is to at least
offer donors opportunities to give monthly online. It does not cost you much and it’s the ‘minimal’ way to get started.
Which approach works best for your organization is something you’ll have to test. I’ve seen some organizations that
start off with the check option, send monthly reminders and try converting them to an automatic giving option every
month through a simple insert in those reminders. For other organizations, going straight for the Electronic Funds
Transfer ask works best. For most organizations though, the credit card option seems to be the way to go. It’s the only
way really to generate monthly donors online and donors are much more comfortable giving their credit card information
than any other way.
In most European countries, giving through automatic bank transfers is much more prevalent but in the US, it’s my
experience that credit card monthly donors are the best way to go. We’ll discuss this more when we look at the best
media to use to convert “single” (“one-off”) donors to monthly donors.
No matter which approach you take, to really grow a program, you’ll need to invest some money. It’s a worthwhile
investment! Remember, once you convert someone to a monthly donor, they not only give you more money annually,
but they’ll also be retained at much higher rates. They’re really your most loyal donors and they trust you with their bank
or credit card information, they’re special.
It isn’t only donors who need to get into the ‘groove.’ Getting management and the board in the committed giving mode
may be a challenge, at first. We all know how hard it is to “sell” the importance of acquisition campaigns to management
and the board. Monthly giving is very similar in that it’s definitely a long-term investment.
Monthly Giving Is Universal But Different
At the end of this chapter you will see samples of various organizations in the US, Europe and Australia and the
approaches they typically use for generating monthly gifts.
What do all of these samples have in common? They’re asking for a monthly donation. Where do they differ? In the way
the donor can pay for their monthly donation and how that donation is processed. Just as you think each organization is
different, so every country is different. To give you an example, in 2010, 37% of the donors in the UK were giving
monthly, which made up for 31% of the total giving in that country (Rapidata and the Agitator). In comparison, in the US, less
than 10% of the average donor base is made up of monthly donors (Target Analytics, March 2010).
It would go too far in the context of this book to share every country’s specific monthly giving approaches, but hopefully
this will give you enough basic information to get started and ask local advisors for the rest. What’s important to note is
that the European Union is actively working towards creating the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), which stands for
the payments integration initiative for simplification and harmonization of bank transfers. This is scheduled to go into
effect in 2014. This might make life for those organizations raising funds internationally even easier as it does impact
automatic payments via banks as well. This might also make online banking and international automatic bank transfers
easier and open, but the full impact for international EFTs has yet to be finalized.
Key is that monthly giving really does work universally, but in some countries it just works better than others. That’s in
most cases because they’ve been at it much longer and payment cultures are different. The reality is that there is only
one way for monthly giving to go in US organizations: and that’s UP!
Branding Your Monthly Giving Program
This is the part where a lot of organizations get ‘hung up’ and the introduction of the program stalls. The big question is,
do you need to develop a special logo and name and how does it fit with the mission? More importantly, how does it fit
in with other clubs you already have, like annual fund and major donor levels or legacy societies?
Voila! The monthly giving branding committee is born, meetings are scheduled, rescheduled, communication
departments are brainstorming and spending oodles of money… and the clock keeps on ticking. The more time spent
here, the longer it takes for these monthly donors to start generating more money for your organization!
Would I recommend giving the monthly giving program a special name? Yes. I think it does make the monthly donor feel
special. But on the other hand, don’t go crazy over it! Just spend an hour with a few people and brainstorm a few names
and pick one. Make sure you can easily use it in a sentence – i.e., “You can join as a member of the Champions
program today,” “Will you become a Guardian today?” “Will you join our Circle of Friends?” “Become a Partner of…”
These are all great names to use, but many non-profits successfully use the name Sustainers, too.
As to a logo, again, if you’re doing one, keep it simple. In many cases you can just get away with the name printed
under your organization’s logo. In many cases, there’s not even a special logo developed, rather just the name is being
used. But if you have one, in this day and age of laser printers, you can simply incorporate the logo on your letterhead
and print on demand, so you don’t have to have fancy stock in house. Do remember that donors don’t want you
spending a lot of money on fancy paper stocks and full color pieces etc. Typically the reason why they joined your
monthly giving program in the first place was because they want to help you save some money, so it can be used for
your mission.
The following are just a few examples of monthly giving program logos and in one case, what the donors receive when
they join the program.
Premiums and Benefits
I’ve seen monthly giving programs work very successfully even without a name and a special logo, and without a gift for
joining, but it also depends on what else you’re sending to your donors. In other words, if you generate most of your
donations through some type of up-front give away (like a calendar, bookmark, address labels, cards, also called
freemium), then it would be good to have a special back-end premium for joining the monthly giving program.
If you’re an animal organization, you can think of a little animal key chain or pin or perhaps a little fuzzy toy animal. I’ve
seen tote bags, pins, rosaries, to name just a few. Something that is perhaps less than $5 to make and ship is truly
appreciated. You’ll find more about premiums as we describe the various ways to acquire monthly donors.
What’s important is that what you decide to send should be fitting with the organization and the program and not be
overly expensive. It should, however, be classy and show your gratitude.
If you’re very mission-focused in your appeals and you don’t typically use a freemium or back-end premium, then you
probably will not need anything as an incentive for joining the monthly giving program.
One of the advantages of having a branded, named monthly giving program is that you can easily add some benefits as
well. Ideally, they should not cost anything. For religious organizations this may be easy: you can offer a special Mass
or recognition service. In some cases, just knowing that the donor makes a difference in a consistent way can be
enough of a benefit. You can work into the list of benefits that they’ll receive less direct mail, but instead they’ll receive
more personal updates. If you have a newsletter, you can offer that as a special benefit. Again, keep it simple – pick one
to three benefits and start the program.
I personally think that the minimum you should send a donor who makes a commitment for many years to come is a
personal thank you and ideally a special certificate with the monthly giving program’s name on it (and the logo if you
have one.) Wouldn’t you feel special if you received that in the mail? It costs virtually nothing, but it makes a wonderful
impact. You’ve made a friend for life.
Targeting For The Best Results
Targeting depends on the medium you’ll use to acquire your monthly givers. Typically, those sourced through Face-to-
Face, Direct Response Television and Social Media tend to be brand new donors, so they’re not currently part of your
donor base (also often called house file).
But those generated through direct mail, email and telemarketing WILL be part of your active donors. So, if you’re in the
start-up phase and you need to present the best results possible to continue to get the money to invest in this program,
there are a few proven targeting guidelines. I suggest starting with these and then testing into other groups.
Like with other fundraising, the typical rule is that Recency, Frequency, Monetary Value (RFM) determine results.
Selecting the best prospects for monthly giving follows this rule with one exception: Donors who give $100 right off the
bat are not your best monthly giving prospects, rather, those giving between $5 and $99.99 are. That’s just the nature of
the beast. I know: some organizations want to be ‘greedy’ and think they can skim the cream off the higher end donors
first, but that’s not quite how it works. You’ll find that families or older donors who are on fixed incomes or have limited
resources are more likely to join as a monthly giver than others.
I find the most responsive group usually consists of those donors who have made two gifts in the last six months, at a
level between $15 and $99.99. Having said that, I have seen great results for organizations even with gifts of $5 and
$14.99, so if you can, test that group. Multi-givers work better than single donors, but as you’ll see later on, single
donors also have a lot of potential. If you’re coding your donor segments anyhow, it’s simple to track results by RFM for
monthly giving as well.
One key piece of information to look at is the current average gift for new donors and for existing donors. That will help
guide your selection. If you can, test all 0-6-month donors, break them out by one-time givers, two-, three- and four-time
givers and track where you’ll get the best results. It’s important to ask as soon as possible after they make a gift to join
this special program.
Another important piece of the equation is the typical ask amount of the monthly gift. If you’re an organization who
usually gets $12 as gift from a newly acquired donor, then jumping to a monthly gift of $25 is almost impossible and just
not realistic, unless you have extremely strong benefits.
Just remember: if the average ‘normal’ donor gives 1.5 to 1.7 times a year, even at an average gift of $26, that’s still only
$44 annually. If that same donor becomes a monthly giver at $5 monthly, that’s $60 annually. My recommendation is to
test as much as you can within the media you’re using and try to get as many donors converted to monthly givers as
possible. You can always upgrade them later.
A second important factor in selecting the best group for monthly giving is: look at their payment type. Just remember for
a moment that in the US the hardest “sell” in monthly giving is that the donor has to give their credit card or bank account
information to an organization. That is why, if you know someone has already given a single gift by credit card, it may be
the easiest group to convert. They’ve already trusted you with that important personal information. The other advantage
of going for credit card donors is that their monthly gift can be expected to be slightly higher (usually one to two dollars
more) than monthly donors by bank or check reminder. I have seen cases where selecting donors who gave by credit
card doubled response rates for monthly giving asks. This also works well on the telephone and of course makes online
asks even easier.
Following is an interesting study based upon the level of giving the first gift. The organization asks the donor to join the
monthly giving program in the welcome pack and these are the results. You’ll see that the higher gifts generate better
response rates, but even the $6-$14.99 category is nothing to sneeze at. A very nice response for a new donor welcome
package.
