At its core, a monthly giving program is simply offering your donors the option to make their gift recurring. But with just a few tweaks, you can transform your monthly giving program to go beyond that simple, one-time click to a program that feels purposeful and driven AND accessible to all your different kinds of donors.
Tie your monthly giving to a program
The number one mistake that most organizations make with their monthly giving programs is that they just provide the simple option to make a gift recurring or to upgrade a gift to monthly on every single appeal they send out. But by tying your monthly giving to a certain project or program within your organization, it gives your monthly giving more direction. And suddenly your monthly giving is a program that you can promote on its own.
For instance, let’s say you have three different arms of your organization where you provide educational classes, feeding programs, and clothing. A purposeful monthly giving program takes the greatest need, perhaps funding teachers to teach those classes, and builds a giving program around that. This kind of monthly giving program might say that for $10 a month for an entire year, a donor can finance one class for 30 students to learn basic mathematics. That’s tangible, and it gives people a clear picture of what their gift will accomplish, why it needs to be monthly. It also reminds them that if they drop off on their gift, then that class won’t be funded and kids will go without valuable teaching.
Lastly, keep the ask amounts for your monthly giving smaller to make this program accessible to all of the people that are wanting to be a part of your organization. If you already receive a lot of gifts in the $15 range, then a good starting point for your monthly giving program might give people the option of choosing $15, $25 or $40 a month. Make sure to attach a specific accomplishment to each ask amount to show what the different ask amounts achieve throughout the year.
Maintaining the program
Once you set up the program, have a plan in place for maintaining it. Since your donors are giving every month, you should be updating them at least once a month on the specific things that they’re gifts are accomplishing. Because each ask amount is tied to a different goal or objective that it’s accomplishing, then each group of donors should be getting a different set of communications. For example, if the $15/month per year is funding one class—update those donors on what the children are learning. Include videos and pictures, stories and testimonials. If the $25/month is funding a teacher salary, then those donors should be getting specific communications on what the teachers are accomplishing, how their role is changing their lives, complete with videos, pictures and more. Before you launch the program, make sure you have systems in place to gather that information and share with your donors.
Get ambassadors for your monthly giving program
Having people that are excited about your monthly program and willing to tell other people about it can go a long way in garnering support from places and people that you might not have always expected it from. But don’t ask for this from your donors right away—wait until they are a few months into the program, then ask them to share this special opportunity with a friend. Word of mouth can do wonders for boosting your support!
But remember, you can only enlist the help of other people if you have a solid monthly giving program in place. And that monthly giving program needs to be purposeful, focused, and accessible.
