How to Grow Your Monthly Donor Program Without Breaking the Bank

So welcome to how to grow your multi donor program without breaking the bank. So just a quick introduction about me, you may have seen my name come up

associated with the monthly Read More

associated with the monthly giving starter kit, and the monthly giving marketing kit. Those are some free resources that DonorPerfect has provided and you will get the link in the email that follows today’s webinar. I also read the book monthly giving the sleeping giant and I’ve been doing monthly giving for 25 years I’ve been doing direct mail for 35 years, or more. So I’m pretty old hat at this. So I wanted to start off right away with a poll just to get a feel for how many monthly donors you have now. So if you just want to click on your screen, so is it less than 50? Is it between 50 and 100, between 105 100 between 500,000 Or maybe even more than 1000 monthly donors. So just to see who is in the room.

Because it’s really, really been growing lots of interest in monthly giving obviously. So very exciting. And don’t imperfect has really been leading the way in a lot of new developments that we’re going to talk about later as well. So all right, just a couple more seconds here.

All right. So next is some big ones. Alright, I’m going to close the poll. And if for some reason you can’t get in the poll, just like use your questions box to answer the question. That’s just fine as well. So alright, so it looks like 62 thirds of you have less than 50 monthly donors. That’s great start. And then 14% between 50 and 100. And then 3% has more than 1000 monthly donors. That’s awesome. Great. Good. So just a quick refresher, for those who are still in the starting phases like who are these monthly donors? Well, they’re typically small donors. These are not your big cheque writers. This is not your next major donor program. These are small donors that are most likely already in your donor base. They’re the little nuggets that we’re going to try to find for you. They’re going to be all over the map. They’re young, they’re older, their families, they’re widowed. But they’re going to be really, really committed to your organization. And they’re going to provide you with that revenue, that you need that sustainable revenue that you want to support your programs. Now, why is it so important to really, really look at growing your multi Donor Program. Because of these statistics, you’ve probably heard about the AFP Fundraising Effectiveness study that was done every year. And the most recent statistics show that the donor retention rate is 46%. That means that if you had 100 donors last year, only 46 of them are going to give again this year. Now the good news is that if you can convert as many donors to give monthly, that donor retention rate goes up to 90% or more. So you have just doubled the donor retention rates. The other big reason why so many of you are jumping on the bandwagon for monthly donors is because they are going to give you more money. Look at this statistics, single gifts $58 right now. So in other words, a donor might make a donation to your year end appeal gives on average $58. Well, once they convert to give monthly, they’re gonna give you $23 A month $276 a year. So that is three times more money, almost four times more money than what you’re getting now. So it’s very, very powerful. Now, where do these monthly donors fall? They’re in the middle of your donor pyramid. They’re obviously giving more money than your appeal donors. But the other exciting statistic is that they are seven times more likely to leave you in their will.

I have a client, they have about 30,000 monthly donors. Last year 75% of their legacy income came from their monthly donors. So again, very, very powerful. So how do you grow? We’re going to look at creating the promises. What are we going to do to recognize these multi donors, we’re going to look at preparing

You have the tools, you just have to utilize them, we’re going to start asking, we’re going to look at retaining those monthly donors that you have, especially for those who have 1000, or 500 More monthly donors already, so it’s really important to retain them. And then later, we’re going to upgrade them, because we can absolutely upgrade them to higher levels. So let’s start with creating the promises. That also means how are we going to recognize those monthly donors. So the first recommendation I make is that you want to name your program.

Don’t fret over it, don’t spend months thinking about what the program should be called. But just go sit in room and brainstorm with a couple of folks, some staffers, maybe a couple of clients, maybe a couple of donors even saying, Look, we need to find a name that we can live with for 20 plus years or more, that is going to fit with a loyal monthly donor program. And then you’re going to move on. So this could be something you do literally like this afternoon. So name your program, because it will just make it easier to recognize this group of monthly donors. The next piece is you want to look at your system. And you want to make sure that you write your thank you letter, your thank you email, your auto responder, that that’s all ready to go. And of course, a lot of systems are very, very different. But if you’re using the web link system, you see on the bottom right here, this is an example of a receipt that comes out of the system when a donor makes a monthly donation. And then the second piece is the auto responder email that you’re going to create and make that as warm fuzzy as possible. Again, what are you going to promise in that that the donor is going to receive? How are you going to recognize them, in this case, this auto responder says, you will be receiving an official acknowledgement letter in the mail, keep it for your records, very grateful. And then follow that up with a thank you letter, a hard copy thank you letter. So no matter how a monthly donor was generated, always send a hard copy thank you letter in the mail,

it will not get lost people will have something to hold on to. And again, you can make it as warm fuzzy as you’d like that to be

put in there. Also a contact name, contact phone number, and a contact email. So that way, if the donor has any questions, they have everything right there. Then

once you have these monthly donors in the door, you do not need to send them a thank you letter every month.

But what I recommend is that you create a tax letter that you sent out in January. And all that needs to have is a total amount of donations that they’ve made to all of your programs. So you create that tax letter. And again, make it warm fuzzy, you put a personal note on it, and send it out in January. So you can make that promise in when a monthly donor join saying, Hey, you’re going to receive a tax letter, we’re not going to send you monthly thank you letters, because again, the donor doesn’t want you to to waste a stamp. They want the money to go to support your services and programs that you offer the children, the animals, the clients that you serve.

Think through what are you doing right now that you could offer these monthly donors. And it may be something that you’re already doing for a major donor. We’ve just seen like they’re gonna give you closer to one and $50 a year. So they’re getting up there in value to your organization, right? So think about what can I promise like, here’s an organization, and they have a special pavor that they normally charge $150 for, but they’re going to offer that as a way to recognize these monthly donors. So again, here’s an example of some of the promises an easy way to make your gift monthly. Again, it’s it’s obviously not a tangible benefit, but it’s still a benefit that you can offer the knowledge that your donation is put to work immediately. And again, you say your credit card or debit card will serve as receipt. So these are just a couple of examples of promises that you can make. And I would keep it simple. Don’t go

are crazy over it again. But just make sure that whatever you’re going to promise you can actually fulfill. And then you’re going to make sure they whenever you have monthly donors, you need to recognize them as a special segment. Now in order to make that easier is you’re gonna give it a special flag in your database. And you’re gonna give it ideally, as well a special segment in your email list. So that way, you can do very, very special things. So again, think through how are we going to how we’re going to handle that, how are we going to recognize them. And whatever you do is, the more personal you can make it, the better off you are. So for example, what I recommend is, if you’re sending on an appeal letter,

use that group of monthly donors and add a personal note to it, or have a board member write a personal note, just out of the blue, doesn’t that make you feel special. So again, just think about what you can do within your organization that can make them feel special. And by all means, make sure that you keep communicating with these donors. Now, you may be sending them appeal letters now. So they are already in your database, they’re used to some of your communication. So don’t stop, please keep communicating with them, because they really, really care about your organization, Otherwise, they wouldn’t be giving you their credit card or their bank account information. So that’s the piece on the preparation and promises the recognition piece. The next piece is the preparation of the back office. Very important to think that through before you really start launching and marketing a multi Donor Program. Because the more you prepare, the more successful you’re going to be. So key is looking at your system. And I literally work with with organizations, and we map out their process. So what happens, a new monthly donor comes in the door, who is going to enter it? How’s it going to get in? When is that thank you letter going out? What’s next? What are they going to receive? What were they on that communication schedule? What’s their first next appeal that they’re going to receive? Are we going to put them in the annual report. So just like map that out? And it will be very, very clear for everybody that looks at it, right? So create that system is really important. I’m going to do another poll. And my question is like, which donor base system are you using? And I’m, I don’t know if it’s going to be 100% DonorPerfect. But it looks like not it’s not. So that’s interesting, because the donor base is obviously an A major part of your system. And Sam, I’m happy to answer if there was a specific question right now while people are voting.

Oh, sure. There were a couple that came in, sort of related to when you had mentioned sending an email as a thank you would you recommend that in addition to a handwritten letter, or in replace of the handwritten letter? No, in addition? Yes, yes. So if donors building online, most of the systems will actually generate an auto responder that comes up right away and then some generate an email that comes out that looks very similar to the auto responder, but you can make that as warm fuzzy as possible. And, you know, like, some people might still be using PayPal, which which is not bad, but I mean, it’s not a receipt. It’s not an autoresponder it’s not an email, so it’s not warm, fuzzy. So, if that’s the case, you need to make sure that you make something a little bit more warm fuzzy that has the information that donor needs in it.

But yeah, the the hardcopy thank you letter is is an important one. Again, it makes people feel special. Oh, they actually sat down if you can do a personal note on it even better. Alright, so I’m going to close the poll. All right. So it looks like Yes. 70% are perfect 9% razor’s edge and then 20% Other so I’d love to find out to what other systems you’re using. You know, you can just type that into your questions box. Great.

Great. All right. So

when it comes to your system, and your especially your your website, your donation page, peace

You know, if you’re doing a perfect user, you’re probably familiar with this. So what I recommend is, if you have a one time donation page, always add the monthly option to it. Again, it’s not an hard ask if you will, it’s not like very much in your face, it’s not necessarily what the donor initially thinks to do. But if the monthly recurring donation option is there, they may consider doing that, like, yeah, I never thought about it. But I can do $15 a month, right. So have that option on there. And then of course, you’re going to create a monthly only page. And here is an example as well. So this has a lot of different pieces already on it, just dollars per month, you can make a big difference $5 A month. So you have specific amounts in this particular organization can do that. So again, you help the donor set the price, $5 a month provides groceries for a family in need. And then you have the different option. And the reason why I want to recommend that you have a monthly donor only page, because it will make it easier in your marketing.

And you can also then direct to it from your website. And we’re going to look at that.

And remember, we talked about those promises. So if your donation page sits on your website, and you have space next, when to add those promises to it, by all means it’s right there added to it. The next thing is that you want to ask for the right amount. And again, organizations asked me that and say, Well, what should I be asking for? I’m thinking $50 a month. And then I say, Well, I’m thinking that is too high. So you want to consider the donor and say to them, Look, no gift is too small, ask small get high response.

Again, you want to give the donor the feeling that they can make a difference, even if they can’t write the big check. So here’s an example. food for the poor $3.65 feeds one child a month $18 feeds five children a month. 3650 feeds 10 children a month. So those are in a small amount that they start with. And it will help you generate new monthly donors, a lot of people are going to really give what they are comfortable with. So what you can also use, and this has been working for many, many, many years, works every time is look at when you’re sending an appeal to those donors who give less than $100. So if you segment them out in your appeal, look at those donors who give you less than $100. What is the typical average gift

and then take 1/3 of that as a starting point to ask and volunteer donors. So in other words, if your typical average gift is $50, that might have been a stretch gift, they might only be able to do that at your holiday year end timeframe. But if you want to convert them to give monthly start with $15 a month, that’s 1/3 of the 50. Right? So, and again, I always recommend that you do have multiple donation options. So the first ask could be the 1/3 of the gift. The second ask is the 2/3. And the third ask is the third ask amount is the amount that you’re getting now for your one time donation. So some people might actually say yes, I could do $50 a month. But you don’t want to alienate those people say, Look, I’m just not, I’m not comfortable with that. So so if you don’t show it, people may not necessarily choose to do it. And don’t worry, this is another statistic shows $24 A month is the average monthly gift. But it does depend on what type of organization you are. You can see it here environmental organizations they might only get if they’re sending out an email, they’re only getting $60 a month, international relief organizations get a higher amount. I work with religious organizations, a lot of them are giving smaller amounts like $12 a month. So it’s really all over the map. But $24 is an average amount a month.

So you’ve thought through what you’re going to ask for you’ve created your donation pages, you’ve got your systems in place. And again, we’re going to look at that a little bit more

You’re, and you’ve got, you’ve created those promises, you’re now ready to launch, you’ve got your thank you letters written, everything is ready to go, you don’t have to worry about that anymore. The more you ask, the more you grow.

But you have to make it easy for the donor, you really want to put monthly giving front and center, the more you ask, the more you are going to get. This is not something like you’re doing once and then that’s it, you really want to do it on an ongoing basis.

So what if you looked at your organization, and you know, what’s coming up what you’re going to talk about on your website? What if

someone like say, the month of May or the month of September, you’re saying, Look, I’m going to take over the homepage, I’m going to be totally all over this monthly donor program. Here’s an example this organization, they do a phenomenal job with their monthly giving, they’re always always asking, so in the month of September, they take over the homepage and say become a freedom partner $24 or more a month, you can take a stand join today. So this is on their homepage all month doesn’t cost you much at all right. So again, you have to make it easy for the donor to see and find.

We’ve created a one time donation with a monthly giving option. We’ve also created a monthly giving only page. So now that we have that, we can click through that from our homepage, right, donate now, monthly giving. And again, if you have a named program, you can add another tab there with the name of your program. So make it easy to find you really want to the donor shouldn’t have to look for it. Here’s another way of doing it, donate now, monthly giving and then their high end sand dollar circle. And then you click right through to that it’s really front and center in this case, put it first this is another organization where they have monthly donation for a single donation. And they actually offer PayPal, almost as a fifth credit card. And I see more and more organizations are actually doing that because a lot of donors are comfortable giving by PayPal, so so that’s just something to consider as well. But monthly donation is the first option here make a monthly donation of $10 or $25, and then donate another amount. So they put it first. And then from those that page, they link right through to specific amounts. So they’ve actually created monthly pages for a specific amount. So that’s another way to do it that might fit better with your organization. So make it first.

I also recommend that if you don’t have that set up yet, do consider adding it asked for that electronic funds transfer online, the bank automatic bank option, more and more donors are very comfortable using their bank account information. And it will help you even increase your retention rate even more. Because donors don’t typically change their bank account that often. Whereas they might get a chip card, or they might have some fraud situation with their credit card or their card expires. So there’s all kinds of reasons why card donor credit card retention rates are about 85 to 87%. Whereas like electronic funds transfer through the bank is close to 95%. So it really helps you increase your retention rate.

And then by all means, consider adding a form in PDF just added to your donation page. It’s another way that some donors will be comfortable with sending that in and again, offer the checking account and credit card option on that form. So again, you making it easy to find. Alright, we’re gonna do another poll here.

How many email addresses Do you have? Is it less than 500? Between 5000? File sorry, less than 5000 between 5020 5000 or more than 25,000? Or you’re not? Sure.

And Sam, I’ll take another question if you have one.

Yes. So

one question that came in was related to new donors that come in and

when you ask them to become a monthly gift

For do you do sort of find them that takes away from them giving during, you know, the special giving time such as end of year solicitations or giving Tuesday or something like that? Great question. So, so what and I’m not going to talk about too much. But what I recommend is that your monthly donors, by all means do include them in your appeals in year and holiday giving time.

And that applies for email. And it also applies for direct mail. These donors care about you, they will give again, but do recognize them as monthly donors. So in your letter, say thank you so much for for being a champion for animals, I’d like to tell you a story about bah. And then in your email saying, Thank you so much for your ongoing support, as you know, a member of the DayZ club. And but let me tell you bobble in it’s giving Tuesday. So the beauty of that is because you have that segment created, it’s very easy to just add that little line in your mailing or in your email. So absolutely do include them in your appeals as well, they will give additional gifts. And in fact, one of my clients, we’re seeing that that is the most responsive group, we’re getting anywhere from like 10 to 15% of those donors giving another gift in addition to their automatic credit card or bank gift. So they’re just very, very loyal people. And if you do it, right, you’re thanking them, you’re telling them the impact their gift is made, right? And then you’re telling the story of how they can make a difference. Donors will decide. And you may have some donors that says, Look, I rather not get any appeals. Well, that’s okay, then you know, and you can flag them for future reference. Right.

So let me jump back to the poll here.

And we’re going to close that.

Alright, so Okay, so it looks like 6% has less than 5000 emails, and then five of them more than 25,000 email addresses. That’s fantastic. Great. So the reason why I asked that question is because monthly giving online has really, really grown tremendously. It’s in fact, it’s it grows more than one time donations. And a big factor in that obviously is sending out an email. So

if you’re getting to your question earlier, same if you’re getting new donors that come to your website,

a lot of the email programs now have the option to create a welcome email that goes out right away. So I recommend that you send a welcome email right away. And then a couple of days later, you send them another welcome email, and invite them to the to join your monthly giving program. So here’s an example. Few days ago, you made a special contribution.

Again, we’re very grateful. And now I’m letting you know about an opportunity to deepen your commitment. So it doesn’t cost you much at all. You have your emails, it’s a great way to try to convert new donors to give monthly as soon as possible. In fact, you can even consider something like this for people who signed petitions, and they’ve done something and that you do a little follow up email, where you say, well, thank you so much for signing this petition. But would you consider joining this special monthly donor program named x, because it would really, really make a difference. And one of my clients is an advocacy organization and we’re getting like 300 new monthly donors a month just by adding that extra special email as a follow up to those people who just signed a petition. So it’s very, very powerful. You want to make sure that you put monthly donors in every email newsletter, become a champion for hope. Just put it right in there in the mix, attitude, you have nothing to lose doesn’t cost you anything at all. And it again will help plant the seed for donors to say oh, when you ready to then send a special email to ask for monthly donations. They have seen this like oh, yeah, I remember I was wondering what those champion for animals were all about.

And then you get a special email to follow up. Again, your monthly support can do all this make a monthly gift. So this is a very special email. So you need to look at what you’re doing right now, how many emails are you sending to your donors? And how many special monthly donor emails could you add in there? Obviously, the more the merrier, the more you ask, the more monthly donors you’re going to generate. But you also want to make sure that it fits in with everything else that you have going on. So, for example, if you have an email newsletter that goes out once a month, and you have one email that goes out in the middle of the month, that tells a specific story. So you have 12 special emails a year, you could consider making four of those 12 to ask for monthly donors. So again, just look at make it fit in your plan, just remembering that the more you ask, the more you’re gonna get write us a challenge. And I know a lot of you have challenges going on with giving Tuesday. But you may want to consider doing this at another time. September is a really good month, January, February is also a really good month where people have made their holiday gifts they’ve like recovered from all of the Christmas expenses. Now you can ask them to become a monthly donor with a special challenge. So talk to a donor, a bank, a board member, a group of board members, and say, Look, can we get a challenge that we can use to reach out to generate new monthly donors. It’s it’s not a Chatzky. It’s not a premium, it doesn’t cost you anything. It’s a carrot that will help lure some of these monthly donors that are kind of on the potential monthly donors that are kind of on the fence and make them actually join your program. It works very, very, very well. So I was talking to I did a workshop two weeks ago, and one of the women that was there sent me news the other day, and she said she was really excited because she talked to her donor and says, Look, we really want to grow this sustainable revenue program for for our organization, will you make a challenge gift, and she agreed. So now she has a $10,000 challenge that she can use in her email approach to challenges work very, very well. They have the urgency in the mix. It’s basically a series of three, or maybe even four emails where you launch a challenge, you give them a deadline, and I recommend you have about a month, you don’t want to make it too long, you don’t want to make it too short. So you want to be able to have the email spread out. So you launch the challenge, you get set a goal in there. And then you send a week before the challenge. And you send another reminder saying, Hey, we only have like 50 more new home builders ago. And then the day before the challenge ends, you send one final remember, like with this close, right, so just like see what happens. And a lot of times you know what happens when you set a goal, you typically reach it right? So use that in your approach.

If you’re a membership organization, you can absolutely ask your members to give monthly. In fact, that’s what makes public television and public radio so successful. They’re offering the month the giving option, as a way to pay for the membership. But it’s important that you also then say, look, the minute somebody joins as a monthly donor, that they are recognized as a member, that you give them the full benefits that belong to that membership level. So don’t say Oh, I gotta wait for the whole year because they haven’t technically paid. You’re absolutely right. They haven’t technically paid but they have given you their credit card information. So you can pretty much assume that they’re going to fulfill that commitment. So don’t worry too much about it. offer it to people if they’re not able to make to maybe go to the next level, but they can give they can pay monthly so that’s another way to, to convert members to give monthly as well.

And if you have that challenge or just if you want to really, really focus on promoting your monthly donor program. Well, how about putting it in your email signature? Here it is Join me as a committee

Unity builder, your small monthly gift adds up to big impact. It’s an every email that she sends out, make it easy to find. And then even if you only have 50, even if you have only 10 monthly donors, I

was talking to her an organization recently, they started out with three, we says, Let’s go to those three monthly donors and ask them for a testimonial. Why are they giving monthly? And then ask them can I use that to reach out to other monthly donors to, you know, to grow that program because of that sustainable revenue. Because donors want you to be sustainable, they want you to be in existence for a very long time, right. So use a donor testimonial, take a video, share it to the heart’s content, this is another example you can literally go up, put the link there, you can check out the video and see how they did it. And they just did it with a simple iPhone, so. So again, it doesn’t have to be very fancy, just and then share it in again, you can reach out the minute you have a video, you can reach out to everybody. With that you can really share it on your social media to your heart’s content.

If you’re doing Google AdWords campaigns, make a monthly gift, put that in the mix. Facebook, you can put Facebook ads, thanks for your support, make a difference, become a Special Olympics monthly donor. And again, you’ve created the monthly donor only page, right? So all you got to do is put the link in there and click right through. Now I want to caution you I know some people say well, how about this crowdfunding? Isn’t that the greatest thing? Should I be looking at that? Well, crowdfunding is great, there’s a great place for it. But I do recommend that when you’re looking at building your multi Donor Program, that you always direct donors to your website, you want them to sign up on your monthly giving program, on your site, in your system. Because there’s a lot of these crowdfunding companies in some, you know, may go out of business, some may not be around very long. So if you’ve just in the donor doesn’t realize that this is like something in the back end, right. They’re thinking that they’re giving to your organization. And they’re thinking they’re giving money to your organization. So if they go out of business, you’ve just lost all these monthly donors. So have them go to your system, and then you’re able to control it, you’re in charge.

So we looked at earlier, like welcome emails, welcome letters, you can absolutely ask as early as when they have just joined your organization. So look at what you’re sending out now, and see where you can fit the monthly donor ask,

what I recommend is, when a new donor comes on board, you send them the thank you letter, just like what you normally do. And then within the first month, send them another thank you letter, and then add an insert or add a very special invitation to join your monthly donor program. Again, you have not much to lose, it doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg to do it. And again, we’re talking about generating monthly donors without breaking the bank. Right? So it’s something that you’re you know, might make them make the donor feel special anyhow. And now it’s like, oh, yeah, I could, I could do that. Again, you and then use all your tools, you have your testimonials you have you know, your you have your specific pages, you have a special reply for him that you use. So make it easy for the donor to consider.

And then if you’re doing appeals, add the option to your appeal. Help us respond. I’d like to make a monthly gift.

So put it right out there make it easy to find. So the magic words when it comes to generating monthly donors are really you have to ask, just like anything we do in fundraising, right? And again, you have to aim it at you the donor. It’s not about us fundraisers. It’s not about our organizations, not even about the systems. It’s about making it easy for the donor and asking about it.

And then the best way to generate monthly donors is really if you can combine all of your tools. So if you’re putting it in a letter, follow it up with an email if you putting in

In Email, have a specific letter that goes out for you know, to generate your monthly donors. And one of the things that you could look at is isolating those donors who’ve already made a gift by credit card and start there, try to convert them to give monthly via their credit card. Those donors who have given by cheque, try to convert them to give via electronic funds transfer. And some will do it. So but having that combination of mail and email, and then ideally, even your phone calls, that will be very, very, very powerful like 18% of monthly donors came in, you know, from a recent study of soil, like came in through email. And then 12% came in through the mail. And then 5% came in through

telemarketing. So tele fundraising. So again, in you can have volunteers do it, or board members do it. So the minute you talk to a donor, you can sit and you can say, hey, you know, like, did you know that we just launched his very brand new monthly donor program? And they say, Oh, wow, that’s very interesting. Yes, I would love to do that. Right. So again, you can have that conversation. So combining your tools works like a charm.

So the next piece is we’re going to look at your monthly donor retention. Because we saw there was some pretty big

numbers already in the house here. So how are we going to do that what’s important? So the number one recommendation is you want to put one person in charge.

Especially if you’re in different locations, or multiple locations, you want to have one person in charge, I see those programs that are struggling, a lot of times, it’s because they don’t have a person driving it. It’s all over the map. And so and so things that so and so is going to do it and it’s not actually happening. So put one person in charge. Now get it doesn’t mean you have to do everything, but you have to oversee everything, you’re the driver, very important, making sure that nothing falls through the cracks.

Test your donor service. This is where a lot of I would say midsize to large organizations are struggling with. So I recommend that you have somebody you’re your spouse, or you know a family member or somebody else in your organization, make a call from home and try testing your donor services and see how is the call being answered? What are they saying? And then say, well, he I would like to join your monthly donor program and see what happens? Or hey, I have a question, and then see how they answer it. Because this is very important. These monthly donors will have questions, they are going to call you. So make it easy and make sure that that system works. Because again, nothing worse than saying Well, I tried calling this organization five times and they never answered the phone. So you know why men want they don’t want to, but I’m just going to stop because I’m upset about that, right? That happens a lot. So test it, make sure it works. before you really start going all out. I’ve mentioned it already, make sure that you have a personal contact a special phone number, special email address, make it easy for the donor.

And then check your reports. So I recommend that you have one particular day a month that you’re charging your monthly donors. And the next day, make sure that you check which ones didn’t go through now DonorPerfect has a system where you can actually see which cards are about to expire, or the ones that expired didn’t go through last time. So but not all of the systems have that so check your reports and then

take action right away.

Very important and that’s why again, if you have that in in your bailiwick, if you will, you may have to work with finance that says okay, well I know that these are the ones that processed and these are the ones that didn’t go through so again, you want to take action right away. Now, what if you call it expires or changes like you see that saw that in the report earlier? Well, there is a system called account updater and actually don’t imperfect has just launched this. And in the follow up email, you’re gonna get some information about that, but it’s very, very exciting. So so what this

count updater system does is it actually takes the cards that expired or declined, and it hits it against a big system of all updated credit card information. And it’s all tokenized all PCI compliant, I mean, you wouldn’t see every get access to it, but it’s done in the back end. And then it will identify those new cards, or updated card information. And it will then process it. So here you see it, you know, before they had accountant, this was done on based on a pilot that was done last last fall 19% of cards didn’t go through. But after the account updater only 4% of the cards didn’t go through. So 15% more cards were being processed at a minimal fee. So it’s it’s those cards that you don’t have to personally follow up, they’re going to go through so it makes it a lot easier, especially as you’re growing your program. Now, you will still have to go after some donors whose card information expired, because they were not part of his account updater for some reason. So I recommend that you have a just a simple email, ideally with the link to a special page where they can update their information. So you can create a special donation page, and you know that that’s the one that’s only being used for credit card updates, you want to pick up the phone. So again, you have to do everything, you have to send out an email right away, you want to pick up the phone, because remember, not everybody is going to be able to be reached by phone. So you also may consider sending out a letter right away to those cards that expired that didn’t go through the account updater that you need to follow up on.

Because the sooner you can get them, the better off you are because again, your payments keep going through, right.

And when you pick up the phone, and you actually have a conversation with the donor, you can negotiate in some cases, the donor might have a situation where they just can’t afford it anymore. And you can say, well, we can give you would you would you be interested in a payment break? We’d hate to lose you. And the doors are gonna say, Oh, I didn’t know I could do that. Yes, I that would be really, really convenient. Then you can say what can I call you back in six months? Because we really value your ongoing monthly support. In some cases, they might say, Oh, look, I just can’t do $24 a month. And then you can say, Well, maybe you would be more comfortable with five or 10 euros a month and say, Oh, I didn’t know I could do that. So again, you’ve just saved that month and owner, right? So you can totally get those donors to continue by just having that conversation.

And you always always want to try to reactivate like this is again, a link directly to the monthly donor page. You can also go back six months later, nine months later, 12 months later, I do this with one of my organizations, we always try to call and do another email campaign six months after they their card expired. And we’re able to bring back about 15 to 20% of those donors and get them back on giving monthly. So it’s very, very worth it.

So this, I mean, I actually had a call from somebody nine months after I had stopped giving. And it was really, I they got me back, right. So you always want to try to reactivate.

Sorry, something in my throat. Oh, wait, I’m going to do one more poll here. So what do you think, is the value of 300 monthly donors? And Sam, I’ll take another question.

Sure.

So one question here. And this is probably a pretty typical question that you get from someone who is just starting with their monthly giving program what what timeline should they expect as far as actually setting it up? And having it running from the very beginning to the very end of having it up and going? Great question. Well, the reality is you could get this up and running, if you focus on it in a week.

If you have the system and I don’t know if you’re doing a perfect line, but if you if you have web link setup already for your one time donations, and you download the monthly giving starter kit and you work through that. You can and you look at all of the templates

There are there, you can literally get this up and going in less than a week. I mean, you could even do it in a day. But I would say if you focus on it a week, and now is actually probably a really good time, because it’s springtime. So you’re not worried about giving Tuesday and all those other things. So.

So that’s, I think that’s a realistic timeframe. Again, you have you have the tools. So

yeah, and just to note, again, we’ll be sending out a link to the monthly giving starter kit in the follow up email. So that’s what Erica just referred to. So yeah, we’ll get a copy. And this does does a gazillion templates, thank you letters and email, the email examples and all of that. So, so it’s literally just like, you know, making it your own. So you can, you can customize it. So.

But again, it’s it’s important in and I much rather have you if you say look, I can’t do it in a week, you know, don’t beat yourself off, right? So but you know, think about it, if you focus on it again, you know, maybe you can do it in two weeks, but just work through all of the stuff that you have to do all of the prep work. And then you don’t have to worry about it anymore. You’ve done all the all the work. It’s there. So and then you can start asking, you can start looking at your promotion for it. And that’s obviously that’s where the fun starts. Right. So. So that’s, that’s my recommendation.

All right. Looks like pretty much everybody voted here. All right, fascinating. Okay, so. So what do you think is the value of monthly donors?

It’s,

it looks like 16% of youth is things it’s $15,000 31% says it’s $30,000 30% says it’s $87,000? And 14% says, it’s not you’re not sure? Where and the answer is almost $87,000. So if you can get from 100 to 200 to 300 monthly donors $87,000 A year is what you can expect. It’s very, very powerful. People have no idea. And again, you don’t have to be very big, even just to get started. I mean, one of my clients is 2500 donors. And they have 300 monthly donors. They said, Well, we see the tremendous value, let’s get it to 400, right. So it’s very, very powerful. But whenever you talk about monthly giving, you always want to annualize the results. Very important. Always, always annualize your results. You’re not bringing in $24. Donors, you’re bringing into an $88 a year doors. I know some organizations, they’re actually taking two year values, some are taking five year values. Now, I think this annualizing is just the easiest. So it’s tremendously powerful. So that’s the reality. But you will only grow if you ask, and you have a plan. So you got to start asking, and you got to start planning. So I want to challenge you today. It’s challenge time. So what I recommend is, again, as you get that link from DonorPerfect as a follow up to today’s webinar, go to your monthly giving calculator and plug in, how many donors do you have? I recommend looking at those donors who have given in the last two years.

How many monthly donors do you have now? What’s the average value? So what percentage of your donors are giving monthly Now, calculate that? And then what is your goal going to be? What do you think you can create realistically? Look at so for example, to to to look at this one. What if you have 37 monthly donors? That’s 3% And you have $1,200? Right? Small, small, relatively small organization in that 3% of your donor base. What if you could get 210 That’s 9% of your donors. But look at that you’ve just quintupled three quadrupled your annual revenue by just looking at bringing in a couple more monthly donors. So set a goal and again write it down. If you write down your goal, you’re going to get there right so set your goal

We’ll create a plan, how are you going to get there? And then implemented for a year. So take a year and

go do this. And then email me your results for next year, we’re going to have another conversation and saying, Okay, where are you? Did you reach that goal of 110 monthly donors a year, if you will want to go from 500 to 1000? Did you get the goal, because the reality is you can get there, as long as you work on it, and make it happen.

So in order to succeed, we must first believe that we can. So I hope that I’ve proven to you that you can do this, even with small to mid size organizations, even with small to midsize donor counts, you can absolutely do this.

And, you know, here’s my contact information. And I’m going to open it up for questions.

Thank you very much for that, Erica. So we’re actually right up against it and what so what I think we’re going to do, because we have a number of questions here, that has gone,

or that I guess, we won’t be able to get to them all. So what I think we’ll do, then Erica, is you and I can go ahead and write up a document with these questions, answer them offline. And we can include that in a separate email, follow up to every one

that may take us, you know, a few days to get ready. But I think that’s probably the better way to approach this. And then to a couple of people asking again, yes, we will be sending out the recording, as well as the presentation slides to everyone. So that should be

emailed out tomorrow.

So again, we will try and answer all the questions submitted

within the next few days, and we’ll send that out as a follow up. Okay, so Erica, again, thank you very much. That was a lot of very good information.

And I just want to make a note to every everyone on the webinar today, um, for those of you who might be attending the AFP international conference, at the end of the month in San Francisco DonorPerfect will have a booth there, booth number 509. So be sure to stop by and say hello. We’ll also be hosting a free wine and cheese reception at 6pm on Sunday night at the Marriott Marquis, so feel free that that’s free for all attendees. So I just wanted to put that note out there.

And yeah, so that should do it. Again. Thanks, everyone. Erica, thank you very much.

Welcome.

Yeah. All right. So that’s it. Thank you. Have a good day. Have a great day, everybody. Bye. Go Go. Go do it. Bye.