December 30, 2020 |

How to Find Monthly Donors and Grow Your Monthly Giving Program

Whether your organization is just starting a monthly giving program or you’ve had one for a while, it can be a challenge to find new donors who want to become monthly givers. Read on to learn which type of donors are likely to participate and how to attract them.

PRO TIP:
With Monthly Giving, there is no better way to retain your existing donors, gain sustainable revenue, and upgrade annual giving amounts. Check out our Monthly Giving Resource Center for tips on how to start and grow your program.

Characteristics of a Typical Monthly Giving Donor

The best place to find potential monthly giving program participants is within your existing donor base. These donors know your organization and are already interested in your mission. They’ve given before and are likely to give again. Monthly Giving expert, Erica Waasdorp, recommends looking for supporters with these characteristics, among donors that have given in the last year:

• Donated $100 or less to your organization
• Given three or more times to your organization
• Given by credit card
• Typically donate in small amounts

DonorPerfect users can find these donors using the Donors by Giving Level Report. It breaks out which donors are contributing at different giving levels and lists their most recent gift date.

For more ideas on where to find donors, visit 19 Places Potential Donors Could be Hiding on the blog.

How to Attract New Monthly Donors to Your Monthly Giving Program

Once you know which donors you want to attract to your program, how can you get them to join? The best way to enroll donors in your monthly giving program and collect recurring donations is to use an online donation form that accepts credit and debit cards and ACH (e-check) payments. Next, add this form to your website, social media accounts, and other promotional materials to make it easy to find information about joining your monthly giving program. Then, promote your program to supporters within your existing donor pool that are likely to donate and ask them to join your program.

Promoting Your Program to Find Monthly Donors

Here are a few ways to promote your monthly giving program:

• Promote and grow your monthly giving program using the ready-to-send templates in our Monthly Giving Communications Template Kit.
• Hold an event to ask supporters to make a monthly pledge to your Capital Campaign or other monthly giving projects.
• Equip your Board to reach out to specific donors to ask them to partner with your organization every month.
• Hold a phone fundraiser to solicit monthly donations. As many as 1 in 4 donors would give you more money if you called them and asked!
• Ask businesses that are event sponsors to consider financially supporting your organization as monthly givers.
• Make monthly giving an option on your regular direct mail pledge cards or your online donation form.
• Share monthly giving impact stories with your social media followers and ask them to join your program.
• Time your monthly giving appeal to coincide with when constituents are looking to make a difference. This might be in response to a crisis or in January.
• Ask existing monthly giving donors to check if their employer matches charitable gifts.

For more ideas and advice on how to take your monthly giving program to the next level, visit the Monthly Giving Success Hub. This resource center will show you how to manage all aspects of your monthly giving program from end-to-end.

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