How Do You Shift to a Recurring-First Fundraising Framework?
Most fundraisers understand the extraordinary benefits of building a recurring giving program for your nonprofit: High retention, loyal donors, increased lifetime donor values, a more equitable donor base, and more.
But for many nonprofits, recurring giving is still an afterthought, or a second-tier strategy that gets forgotten during event season or when staff turns over. But a new trend is emerging - pursuing a “recurring-first” fundraising framework. But what does a recurring-first strategy look like in practice, and how do you get there?
A recurring-first fundraising framework centers recurring giving as the most important element of your fundraising program in the long term. It’s an approach that recognizes the reality that we now live in a subscription economy - where more often that not, we pay a monthly fee in exchange for ongoing, convenient or even instant access to products or services.
Why go recurring-first?
Subscription models are everywhere. This isn’t just Netflix or Hulu - it’s entered every corner of our personal and professional lives, from personal finance tools to meal delivery to clothing rental and fitness instruction.
Most people now think of their finances in monthly instead of annual terms, and philanthropic giving is no exception. If you’re not leaning into that, you’re leaving money on the table.
According to M & R Benchmarks’ 2023 study, recurring giving was the only category that grew in 2023 - up 11%, compared to a 12% decrease in one-time donations. This is the growth area you’ve been waiting to jump on, and it’s time to go all in.
What does a recurring-first framework look like in practice?
How does a recurring-first framework differ from simply having a monthly giving program? From strategy down to tactics, here are 10 clear ways you can center recurring giving in your fundraising efforts.
You articulate a recurring-first approach explicitly in your development plan, and set both qualitative and quantitative goals around recurring giving. Name it and then drive it.
You’re explicitly soliciting recurring gifts, not just asking for donations and hoping that someone chooses a recurring option. Be transparent and direct about what you want them to do.
Recurring gift solicitations lead directly to a landing page specific to monthly gifts that sells your audiences on the benefits of recurring giving for you *and* for them.
When donors land on giving pages and forms that are not specific to the recurring giving program (like the general donate page on your website), the default option they are offered is a recurring gift. They have to specifically choose to make a one-time donation instead (but the option is there).
One-time donors are ALWAYS solicited for a recurring gift at a strategic moment following their gift (see HERE for why the 30-60 period following their most recent gift is the right timeframe)!
Donors of all sizes are asked to become recurring donors - even major donors. Even high net worth people - who you imagine may not share the day-to-day financial concerns of grassroots givers - can see the value in stretching their giving out and being able to do more as a result. Among our clients, we see recurring gifts as high as $1,000 per month. This is a great way to increase your retention of major donors - and reduce the organizational risk of reliance on major donors who we’re concerned might not renew their gifts every year.
You implement a regular cadence of asking existing recurring donors to upgrade their giving amounts - not just converting one-time donors into recurring donors.
You market recurring giving consistently (perhaps even obsessively). It should be in every monthly newsletter, featured prominently on the your website, repeatedly reinforced on social media, and included in SMS marketing efforts. Remember that marketing recurring giving doesn’t always mean a standalone ask - it can be a testimonial or profile of a monthly donor, a quote from your ED about how important sustaining support is, or an ad in your luncheon program or slide show encouraging people to choose a recurring giving option at the event.
You devote digital advertising dollars to recurring giving. Use retargeting campaigns on current one-time donors and use lookalike campaigns to attract new folks who are similar to your current recurring donors.
You regularly A/B test communications focused on recurring giving to make them more effective over time. Be ruthless and discard what doesn’t work.
How do I transition to a recurring-first fundraising framework?
Set Expectations
Recurring giving is a slow burn that takes years to build and fortify, and a shift to a recurring-first framework won’t happen overnight. The more entrenched and sophisticated your existing fundraising strategy is, the longer it will likely take to evolve into a recurring-first framework.
For the vast majority of nonprofits, this is a multi-year shift. Plan for that instead of a sprint to get there as fast as possible. Set benchmarks for how you’ll shift the proportion of donors and dollars raised through recurring giving over time, and evaluate success - and identify possible barriers - on a consistent basis.
Get Organizational Buy-In
A switch to a recurring-first framework will impact the whole organization, not just your development team. Imagine if all your one-time donors suddenly switched to recurring gifts overnight. It would radically change the cash flow projections for your organization on a dime! And that affects everyone.
If you’re not the department head, your first conversation is with your Director of Development. You’ll need their buy-in first and foremost. If you are the director, skip convincing yourself in the mirror and go straight to speaking with your Executive Director and the finance staff. They need to understand the potential operational implications of a shift like this.
The truth is, for most nonprofits, more even cash flow projections from a higher proportion of recurring gifts would be an upside. But every nonprofit’s financial model and cash position is different, so don’t make assumptions.
Another reason you might need buy-in is that depending on the state of your technology tools, you might need to transition to new tools or initiate major changes to the way you use your current tools - a decision that will probably impact other departments or staff too.
One type of buy-in you don’t need is from the board of directors. We believe in a firm division between management (staff) and governance (board), and this type of strategic decisions falls squarely under management.
Don’t put yourself in a position to let your board’s Development Committee - likely full of people who have no professional experience in fundraising, who probably don’t understand the compounding power of high-retention strategies over time - tank this idea because they don’t understand it, or think it won’t appeal to their friends.
The one exception is that your Executive Director and finance staff will likely want to engage the Finance committee in a strategic conversation about this shift to ensure that everyone responsible for financial strategy understand its implications. And that’s a good thing.
Audit Your Technology Stack
For a recurring-first framework to thrive, you need technology tools that facilitate a strategic approach, put control in the hands of your donors, and work in the background to decrease churn and increase retention.
Start with your donor CRM. You need to be able to query and identify your current monthly donors easily to facilitate segmented communications. This is the foundation of most of the 10 steps we listed above.
Don’t make assumptions that just because your CRM is expensive, it can already do what you need it to do. We’ve worked with organizations with $20 million annual budgets and supposedly “best in class” donor management tools that can’t actually identify who their current recurring donors are without a 5-hour manual process that eats their entire day - and still don’t have confidence in its accuracy. That’s the kind of barrier that will stop a shift to a recurring-first framework in its tracks.
We’ve also worked with organizations using free or extremely low-cost donor management tools who can find that information with three clicks and export the list in five more. Recurring-first frameworks don’t require expensive tech, but the tech has to work - and at a bare minimum, at least not work against you.
Recurring giving is built on TRUST. You have to strategically earn a donor’s trust in order for them to commit to a recurring gift in the first place, but that has to be paired with operational practices that build their trust in your process.
So next, look at your online giving platforms. They may be part of your CRM, or they might be standalone systems. Either way, to really rock a recurring-first strategy, your donors need to be able to log in and manage their own recurring gift plans.
Why? Occasional upgrade asks are a critical part of any successful recurring giving strategy, and especially a recurring-first fundraising framework. If a donor has to pick up the phone and call you, or send an email off into the void of a “development@yourorg.org” email address requesting a change to their gift amount or to change their credit card number, they are not going to have a lot of trust in the process.
And, you’ll spend hours and hours of staff time servicing those requests, which aren’t real relationship-building moments - they’re transactional problem-solving from a headache you could have avoided.
The majority of donors would rather have the convenience of changing their gifts themselves with a couple clicks. Anything that makes it more difficult for a donor to say yes to what we’re asking of them is going to reduce the number of people who do it and stick with it over time.
And that time comes with an opportunity cost. What else you could your staff be doing with that time that will actually move the needle on your results? Lots of things.
Your giving platform should also also have credit card auto-updater functionality built in to the back end to minimize churn caused by credit card expirations. This will minimize the time your staff spends chasing down donors whose cards have expired, and ensure the highest possible retention rate for your recurring givers. Industry tools have come a long way in this regard - there are many affordable tools that have this feature.
Allocate Appropriate Internal Capacity
It doesn’t matter how innovative your strategy is if there isn’t sufficient staff capacity to execute the work. You need staff capacity for a recurring-first framework because it takes consistency.
Recurring giving is a “set it and forget it” choice for your donor, but not for you. If you’re really going to ensure that every one-time donor gets a strategic ask to become a monthly donor, and that there is consistent engagement of recurring donors on an ongoing basis, that’s a lot of time spent in the CRM pulling queries and coordinating segmented personalized communications (even with email merge tools like YAMM that create efficiencies at scale). But it’s worth it!
One of the common reasons that recurring giving programs flounder is that no one staff member really owns the strategy and implementation. Especially in small and midsize nonprofits who haven’t found their way out of a scarcity-driven mindset yet, there’s often a culture of “everybody has a say in everything and has a role to play in everything.” Implementation and evaluation then happens piecemeal across different staff roles, and no one feels empowered to drive, suggest changes, or experiment with new ideas.
But that framework doesn’t serve recurring giving. Give a team member well-defined true ownership over the program and watch it flourish! And don’t just task them with running the recurring giving program - task them with looking at everything the team does through a recurring-first lens in real time, and identifying ways the organization can continue to lean in to this strategy.
Final Thoughts on Recurring-First Fundraising
Embracing a recurring-first fundraising framework is not merely a strategic shift, but a transformative journey that can position your nonprofit at the forefront of the evolving philanthropic landscape. This approach, inspired by the “new normal” of a subscription economy, offers a compelling roadmap for sustainability and growth. By prioritizing recurring giving, your organization not only can secure a steady stream of support, but also cultivate deeper connections with your donors, ensuring long-term engagement and increased lifetime value. The benefits are clear: higher retention rates, a more diverse and equitable donor base, and a robust financial foundation that can weather the unpredictability of fundraising cycles.
Ultimately, the shift to a recurring-first strategy is more than a fundraising tactic; it's a reflection of your nonprofit's adaptability to changing donor preferences and a commitment to building a more sustainable future. As the subscription model continues to dominate our economic landscape, nonprofits that embrace this shift will not only thrive, but lead the way in demonstrating the enduring power of community and shared commitment to causes that matter. In doing so, your nonprofit will not just be raising funds, but fostering a culture of continuous support that propels your mission forward, making the world a better place - one recurring donation at a time.