Monthly gifts provide predictable and consistent revenue to sustain your organization year-round

It's a new year—and as fundraisers, we're likely exploring paths toward our revenue goals for 2024. Whether that includes in-person events, online campaigns, or exploring our retention stats, there are many tools in our belt we may use to create a diversified plan.

One of the tools we believe each fundraiser should consider is a monthly giving ask. In addition to providing consistent and predictable revenue for your cause year-round, data suggest that monthly giving sees higher retention than one-time gifts, and that a majority of monthly donors also support your other campaigns with a one-time gift on top of their monthly gift! (And, your GiveMN.org page is already set up to accept and manage monthly gifts—more on that below!)

But, like with all fundraising best practices, your donors likely won't simply have an 'a-ha' moment and say, "You know what, I should start a monthly gift today!" We know that when given opportunities and reasons to be generous, donors respond as they are able. Over time, your roll of monthly supporters could increase to provide meaningful revenue to your cause throughout the year.

Whether it's a general call to your donors to add a monthly gift to their support, or some data crunching to convert the most likely one-time donors to monthly donors, we recommend taking stock of how you could slot a monthly giving ask in your overall fundraising planning.

Below, see our resources around monthly giving strategy and how to take advantage of monthly giving features on GiveMN.org!

• Resources
  - Article: Get started with a monthly giving strategy for your organization 
  - Worksheet: Creating your ask for monthly support
  
• How to get started:
  • Learn more about monthly giving on GiveMN.org
    Monthly giving features on GiveMN.org are built for ease-of-use and retention. For donors, it’s easy to create, edit, or cancel recurring gifts with just a few clicks, and our system will send alerts and reminders when credit cards are about to expire or payment information is no longer valid. For organizations, you’ll receive notifications each time new monthly gifts are created and recur, as well as a monthly giving report to see active or canceled monthly gifts, and alerts to when credit cards are soon to expire.
    ☑️  Monthly giving FAQs for donors (via Mightycause) 
    ☑️  Monthly giving FAQs for organizations (via Mightycause)
    
  • Brainstorm when and how you might ask for monthly support
    After reviewing the resource above, make a plan for how you might work a monthly giving ask into some of your communications with options for how donors may support your work. Maybe it's a simple mention in an email to all of your donors. Perhaps if you have more time, you could make personalized asks to a list of monthly prospects you've identified with a starting-point suggestion of how much they could give based on their giving history. This is a great mini-project for the first half of the year before the busy end-of-year giving work begins this fall!
    
    

Coach Clara: Don't forget your "why"

You might be nervous about asking existing donors to create an additional monthly gift, but you may also be surprised by how many say yes! Even though this may be a new ask, always center your organization’s “why” in any fundraising ask. Then, layer the benefits of a monthly gift on top of that. Start with your long-term donors and encourage them to be the leaders of this program, and remember to build in special quarterly or semi-yearly stewardship of your monthly donors.

Clara Lind is GiveMN's director of coaching. Want to receive individualized fundraising coaching for your organization or to further your professional development? Learn about our RaiseMN offerings and schedule your coaching session! Learn more.