Steady Support That Adds Up: Best Practices for Monthly Giving
The Importance of Monthly Giving
A growing number of nonprofits are discovering that monthly giving programs can transform their fundraising and provide long-lasting benefits. Rather than constantly campaigning for one-time donations, monthly giving offers a steady, predictable stream of support that helps take funding worries off the table.
For nonprofits operating on thin budgets and small staffs, monthly donors can feel like members of the team. They show up month after month with reliable funding right when it's needed most. This allows organizations to focus more on their missions instead of constantly fundraising to keep the lights on.
There’s also great power in those small, incremental monthly gifts. When donors build recurring donations into their budgets, they often give more over time than one-time supporters. For instance, take a $ 100-a-year annual donor who starts a 10-monthly gift. That monthly gift turns into $120 every year —and likely will stick around for years. Over time, that significantly outpaces bigger, one-off donations.
Monthly donors tend to be the most loyal too. They feel closely connected to the work on the ground since they fuel it month in and month out. They become invested in long-term success and may even jump in to provide emergency support if additional funds are needed. We often see monthly donors supporting organizations outside their monthly gifts in response to annual appeals and one-off campaigns. Ultimately these dedicated supporters provide stability in unpredictable times.
In this blog post, we’ll share tips, strategies, and best practices for launching and managing a successful monthly giving program:
Market Monthly Giving As Much As Annual Giving
Invest in the Right Tech Tools
Brand Giving Opportunities to Create Belonging
Minimize Transactional Giving
Ask the Right People - Including Major Donors
With the right approach, your nonprofit can significantly grow your monthly giving program. With increased financial stability, you can confidently operate programs, take on new projects, and best serve your community over the long haul.
Market Monthly Giving as Much as Annual Giving
With donation behaviors and preferences changing, nonprofits need to showcase monthly giving options as prominently as annual campaigns. In the past, organizations relied on once-a-year check-writing drives because more frequent giving wasn’t feasible. But now supporters are empowered to set up automated monthly donations in just minutes using the technology in their pockets. As more people embrace the ease and convenience of recurring payments for streaming media, box subscriptions, and memberships, nonprofits should heavily promote giving on a monthly basis. Prominent placement in newsletters, websites, social media profiles, and email signature lines is great real estate for promoting recurring giving.
Tips for Marketing Monthly Giving
Highlight the monthly giving program prominently on your website - Include an easy sign-up form on every page and build a dedicated monthly giving landing page. Take this example from California Change Lawyers:
Promote monthly giving posts on social media - Utilize videos, stories, link-in-bio, etc to spread awareness. Bonus points for putting some ad dollars behind those posts and aligning your ask with fun, relevant moments like Mary’s Place:
Dedicate a portion of your email newsletter exclusively to monthly giving - Educate about the benefits and share donor stories, like Facing Homelessness:
Invest in the Right Tech Tools
A monthly giving program won't thrive without the proper supporting technology. The right online fundraising platforms and donation management systems help automate recurring gifts and minimize administrative headaches. When evaluating software for managing monthly donors, nonprofit organizations should ensure the tools allow supporters to quickly set up recurring donations and provide flexibility to manage their gifts in the future.
Specific capabilities to look for in your tech tools:
One-click monthly giving sign-up and management
Integrated credit card updater to refresh expired cards
Options to select gift frequency, date, and amount
Donor account portals to edit payments if needed
Automated receipts and acknowledgment emails
Importantly, nonprofit staff need clear insights into recurring donor details and activity within their donor database and customer relationship management (CRM) system. These insights allow them to proactively nurture these pivotal supporters by:
Monitoring for declined monthly gifts and following up accordingly
Recognizing consistent monthly donors
Understanding engagement and communication preferences
Evaluating program performance with reporting
By centralizing recurring donor data, nonprofits create continuity for supporters. If changing credit cards or managing gifts becomes difficult for a user, retention may drop drastically. Convenience encourages engagement over time.
Investing in the appropriate giving technology paves the way for monthly donor growth and management efficiencies. The right tools alleviate headaches throughout the experience for donors and nonprofit staff.
Tips For Integrating Tech in Monthly Giving
Allow donors to manage their own recurring gifts - Empowering supporters reduces admin work
Tag and segment monthly givers within your database - Enables targeted communication
Set up automated email receipts and gift acknowledgments - Technology handles donor stewardship
Track monthly giving metrics and performance - Reporting provides insights to optimize
Brand Giving to Create Belonging
Rather than just promoting "monthly donations," give your recurring donors an identity to feel part of a community. Craft a compelling name and monthly giving structure unique to your organization that conveys shared purpose and reinforces donors’ ongoing commitment. For example:
At Mary’s Place, recurring donors are on the “Homes Team”.
Game to Grow invites donors to join their “Guild of Giving”.
When you give monthly to California Change Lawyers, you become a “Change Catalyst”.
Whatever the terminology, build the monthly giving brand around your organization’s values and mission. This makes supporting your organization month after month seem less like blindly adding another monthly bill and more like a way for them to join your community. When you name the program something unique with heart behind it, recurring donors gain their own special circle.
With an established identity, nonprofits can then steward monthly donors with a community-focused tone. Send communications addressing them as insider members fueling the work through ongoing support. Spotlight how recurring contributions allow long-term planning and make initiatives possible well into the future.
A monthly giving brand sets the stage for purpose-driven messaging and donor-centric stewardship, it boosts retention of recurring givers by making them feel integral to operations, and it provides connective tissue to unify and rally core supporters month after month.
A Branded Giving Case Study
Common Great client Rhapsody Project rebranded their monthly donors with the creative name “Resonators.” The concept ties recurring support to their mission of amplifying youth voices through music programs. In their words:
In our project, a “resonator” is someone who engages longterm with our community while sharing our values. You enhance the volume of young people’s voices, talents, and experiences, and reinforce the strength of our programs.
Rather than generally inviting supporters to “become a monthly donor,” the Resonator identity fits Rhapsody’s passionate, youthful, music-filled identity. Like how instrument resonators boost sound waves, monthly givers help their programs stay loud and strong all year.
Tips for Creating Branded Giving
Offer insider access and updates - Ex: Monthly newsletters, donor spotlights
Use branded assets across channels - Custom images, logos, hashtags
Reinforce commitment to the cause - Ex: "Together, our monthly gifts further the mission..."
Share the operational impact of recurring revenue - Spotlight what consistency makes possible
Minimize Transactional Giving
When rallying monthly donors, skip offering grab bags, mugs, or other swag in return for recurring gifts. Supporters who give to snag swag often lose interest quickly. Studies show transactional gifts like totes, mugs, or memberships undermine donor altruism over time.
Instead, spotlight how predictable funding allows your nonprofit to confidently run programs and assist in furthering your mission long-term. Share specific examples of how monthly contributions lead to real-world community impact. Because, in the end, the act of supporting the mission itself should feel rewarding.
While some nonprofits create insider groups for top donors, be conscious about equity. All recurring givers at every level deserve celebration for sustaining your work month after month. Ensure messaging conveys how they collectively shift the possibilities through an ongoing commitment to the vision.
It's worth noting that small, low-cost branded swag can sometimes boost monthly donor retention if done thoughtfully. For example, Seattle radio station KEXP's "Amplifier" sticker reward program for recurring givers has become a collector's item that donors proudly display. If providing budget-friendly branded items to sustainers, ensure the perks tie back to the mission and reinforce the community. However, avoid creating a recurring giving program where donors are trained to regularly expect items in return for their gifts, as this can be challenging (and cost-prohibitive) for small development shops to execute.
At the end of the day, donors who donate monthly want to know they’re making a tangible difference. Avoid distracting perks and keep the focus on societal outcomes. When supporters realize recurring gifts help further shared goals, they stick around for the long haul.
Tips for Minimizing Transactional Giving
Spotlight mission impact over swag - Share stories of change recurring gifts make possible
Send personalized thank you notes - Express genuine gratitude for loyal support
Establish monthly giving member levels carefully - Avoid inequitable tiered gifts
Ask the Right People - Including Major Donors
Rather than sending every person on your email list with the call to become monthly donors, be strategic. Scan for supporters already demonstrating consistent commitment to the mission year after year. Chances are your biggest annual donors, and first-to-give Giving Tuesday enthusiasts will excitedly convert to recurring gifts if asked.
Similarly, first-time donors spurred by a recent campaign may still feel the spark to give again and convert that energy into recurring funding over time. The key is inviting further support around 30-60 days post-gift before momentum entirely fades (Read our 60-Day Blueprint for Boosting Donor Retention to learn more).
Your current monthly donors are the best allies to champion monthly giving to others. Survey these MVPs on why they give monthly—what they love, what could improve, etc. Scanning for patterns helps refine and target your asks where recurring support will stick. Identifying those who are already loyal or newly excited can mean smoother monthly sign-ups.
Tips for Identifying Perspective Monthly Donors
Flag new donors from the past 1-2 months - Fresh excitement primes for sustainability
Tap referrals from current monthly donors - Peer influence is powerful
Spotlight monthly giving in stewardship emails - Capture when engagement is high
Identify multi-year consistent annual donors - Longtime loyalty indicates readiness
Don’t Ignore Major Donors
It’s tempting to focus monthly giving pitches on donors giving at lower levels. However, recurring programs are shown to appeal to donors across all giving levels, so make sure to loop in your biggest supporters, too.
Rather than limit monthly donation requests to supporters giving at lower levels, the format has significant potential for securing major donor retention over time. Traditionally, higher-tier donors may only receive annual renewal appeals. However, consider inviting these leadership supporters to divide large one-time sums into monthly gifts billed conveniently over the year.
Breaking up a $60,000 yearly pledge into $5K monthly increments might simplify budgets for your donor. And from your side, that significant gift gets way less nerve-wracking when it's secured as steady recurring revenue month-to-month rather than sweating a huge year-end renewal check. It’s a win-win!
Tips for Engaging Major Donors in Monthly Giving
Provide monthly installments for annual fund - Simplifies higher dollar budgeting
Highlight recurring option on renewal forms - Provide an alternative to large one-time gifts
Conclusion
We hope this breakdown demystifies building a successful monthly giving program for your organization. With some strategic adjustments, every nonprofit can rally recurring revenue to ease budget worries. With the right technology, messaging, and engagement strategies, organizations can rally donors to provide reliable recurring revenue month after month. This leads to financial stability, confident long-term planning, and less time wasted constantly fundraising to stay afloat.
So what now? Use our tips to get started:
Round up your team and brainstorm how to showcase monthly options front and center across channels.
Pick a creative monthly giver name that fits your brand.
Analyze supporter data to identify who to steward first for converting to recurring gifts.
Build the messaging and tech tools to smoothly onboard monthly patrons.
Growing your monthly giving program won't happen overnight. But with focus and nurturing relationships with your community, you'll be surprised how reliability adds up. Before you know it, a community of loyal contributors will form the financial backbone allowing your nonprofit to confidently advance its vision well into the future.