May 13, 2025 • 34 mins
Are you looking to create a steady stream of income for your nonprofit? Monthly giving programs might be the answer you've been searching for. In this episode, I'm joined by Katherine Lacefield, a seasoned philanthropic consultant with over 20 years of experience, to explore the power of recurring donations.
Building a Successful Monthly Giving Program
- Creating a compelling narrative around your program
- Crafting an exclusive experience for monthly donors
- Implementing effective stewardship strategies
Strategies for Growing Your Monthly Donor Base
- Targeting existing donors for conversion
- Segmenting your audience for personalized outreach
- Leveraging year-end campaigns to boost monthly giving
Retaining and Engaging Monthly Donors
- Tracking key metrics for program health
- Conducting exit surveys to improve retention
- Making the giving experience fun and memorable
One of Katherine's standout tips? Don't wait for perfection. Launch your program and refine it as you go. Remember, if you don't believe in the value of monthly donations to your organization, how can you expect others to?
Whether you're considering starting a monthly giving program or looking to revamp an existing one, this episode is packed with actionable advice to help you create a sustainable source of funding for your nonprofit.
Ready to take your fundraising to the next level? Tune in now and discover how to build a thriving community of monthly supporters for your cause.
Want to Skip Ahead? Here are Some Key Takeaways:
03:28 Exploring the Benefits of Monthly Giving The advantages of monthly giving programs for nonprofit are consistent finances, operational stability, and sustainability. Its cost-effective and a great long-term value for organizations.
08:18 Crafting an Effective Monthly Giving Campaign Create a separate donation page, name the program, and develop stewardship strategies. It's also so important to build relationships with donors and suggests personalizing communication to increase retention and engagement.
15:49 Strategies for Growing Monthly Donor Programs To start building your program start with existing donors. Segment your database and craft a compelling story. Get an example of a client that converted on-time donors into monthly donors and how clear communication and goal-setting is impactful.
24:47 Tracking and Improving Monthly Donor Retention Monitoring monthly donor retention and gathering feedback is critical to the health of the program. Track donor longevity, reasons for leaving, and overall satisfaction. Even if someone stops being a monthly donor, maintaining relationships is important to encourage future support.
28:25 Final Tips for Successful Monthly Giving Programs Build confidence in your organization's mission, don't waiting for perfection before launching, and making the donor experience fun and engaging. Build personal connections with donors and think creatively about fundraising approaches.
Katherine Lacefield
Katherine Lacefield is a trusted partner in the philanthropic space, leveraging over 20 years of experience empowering organizations and individuals to bring about positive impact in their communities. Her knowledge and expertise span many areas, from overall fundraising strategy, monthly donations, major donation campaigns, and peer-to-peer, to a nuanced understanding of the global grantmaking landscape, animal welfare and rights, and sustainable development. She is the founder of Just Be Cause Consulting and the host of the Just Be Cause Podcast.
Learn more at www.justbecause.consulting
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@just.because.consulting?xmt=AQGzrTxxXpSOESIRL4Q6G-lzM-EGknSAHAJ7m51p3yMirJw
Podcast: http://www.justbecause.consulting/podcast
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (00:00):
It's been a minute since we've talked
monthly giving programs, and soI'm really excited to have my
special guest today here talkingabout the power of monthly
giving and how we can thinkabout it online and offline, how
we can bring in new people andjust connect with our donors.
Monthly giving is such a greatway for you to build a base of
(00:20):
recurring revenue that you canexpect to come in every single
month to help you with your cashflow, your planning and your
growth. And monthly donors tendto give multiple times, even
outside of their monthly gift.So this is going to be a great
episode for you to listen to ifyou're thinking about starting
or revamping or just wanting tomake that part of your big
(00:41):
strategy, as we are continuingto move through 2025 My guest
today is Katherine Lacefield.She is a trusted partner in the
philanthropic space, leveragingover 20 years of experience
empowering organizations andindividuals to bring about
positive impact in theircommunities. Her knowledge and
expertise span many areas, fromoverall fundraising strategy,
(01:02):
monthly donations, majordonation campaigns and peer to
peer, to nuanced understanding,to a nuanced understanding of
the global grant makinglandscape, animal welfare and
rights and sustainabledevelopment. She's the founder
of just because consulting andthe host of the just because
podcast. I'll definitely link upin the show notes. I was a guest
(01:22):
on her podcast as well, soyou'll want to check it out. So
fun. It's a great conversationthat we have. She has such a fun
perspective, because she hassome experience in grassroots
fundraising and face to faceconversations, and how that kind
of relates to the digital andthe messaging and the monthly
giving campaigns. It's just sucha great conversation that we
(01:44):
have together. So I hope youwill check it out. But before we
get into this episode, it isbrought to you by do good
university, and that's youUniversity, y, o, u. I'm so
happy to be working alongsidePatrick Kirby and joining him
inside of his membership fornonprofits. It is the place to
be if you want access to ondemand, trainings and resources,
(02:04):
but also in person, live Q andA's with myself and Patrick
Kirby every single week, we talkthrough whatever topics you're
struggling with, where you'restuck, where you need support.
And you can also just learn fromother nonprofits that are going
through the same thing like youand hear where they're what
they're working on, what they'recelebrating, what strategies
(02:26):
we're helping them kind ofrefine and define. So I hope
that you will check out DGU. Youcan go to thefirstclick.net/dgu,
the letter U, check out a bonuspodcast episode that I did with
Patrick to learn more about it.But you can also grab a link
there for two weeks free insidethe platform. From there, it's
only $50 a month. So thestrategies you learn if you just
(02:47):
grab one new donation, you willhave paid for that. And I tell
you, there is so muchinformation and content inside
the platform, you won't want tomiss it. So again, go to the
first click.net/dg, you check itout. Learn more and let me know
if you have any questions. Let'sget into the episode.
You're listening to the digitalmarketing therapy podcast. I'm
(03:08):
your host, Sami Bedell Mulhern,each month, we dive deep into a
digital marketing or fundraisingstrategy that you can implement
in your organization. Each week,you'll hear from guest experts
nonprofits and myself on bestpractices, tips and resources to
help you raise more money onlineand reach your organizational goals.
Hey, friends, please join me inwelcoming Katherine Lacefield to
(03:31):
the podcast. Catherine, thanksfor being here.
Katherine Lacefield (03:33):
Thanks for having me. We
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (03:36):
haven't talked about monthly giving
programs on this podcast for along time, but I think it's such
an important fundraisingstrategy for organizations. So
I'm really glad that we're heretalking about this today, but
before we kind of kick it off,why for you? Do you think
monthly giving programs are justsuch an exciting thing for
nonprofits to engage in? I thinkthat
Katherine Lacefield (03:56):
one of the biggest things that nonprofits
have to deal with is the lack ofconsistency in their finances,
especially when we know that thebiggest time of year for funds
to come in is at the end of theyear, and then what do we do for
the rest of the year? Thereisn't that consistency that
allows them to have morestability in their programs and
their deliverability, and thenin their operations. And the
(04:16):
second thing that I feel a lotof nonprofits come to me with
problems with is we don't haveany open ended operational
funds. They tend to have thesebig grants, but that are either
earmarked for certain costs andthat don't cover their general
operating expenses. And that'swhere I feel individual gifts,
which are usually just here,take my money and do what you
need to do. Well, we want moreof those, but we want those on a
(04:40):
stable, recurring basis, whichis where I believe that monthly
giving programs is the best wayto get more stability, and thus
more sustainability as anonprofit.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (04:51):
Yeah, and I think agree with everything you
just said. And I think for me,the thing that nonprofits shy
away from is they're like, well,if two. Much work just for a $10
a month or a $30 a month gift.And so they like immediately.
They're just like, well, that'snot worth my time. And so what
would you say to that right offthe bat?
Katherine Lacefield (05:10):
Well, when we look at the difference in
costs of acquiring, let's say adonor, versus a recurring donor,
that one time gift that thedonors may be giving you, yeah,
maybe they're gonna give you$100 okay, you're like, yeah,
that's 10 times more. But howmuch did it cost you to get that
donor to give, versus a $10 amonth or once it's set up, other
than your transaction fees and,of course, stewardship, which
(05:33):
you would also be doing for yourother donors. You it's just
automatic. So it's actually beenproven that it can be five to 20
times less expensive to retainan existing client slash donor
than to constantly acquire newones. So we have to think about
it in the long term perspectiveof retention. There's been a new
(05:54):
study out, I believe it was by aneon one, where they were doing
a study on recurring giving, andthey showed how recurring
monthly donors are likely tostay, on average, up to eight
years with your organization. Soit's not just $10 a month that
you just acquired. It's $10 amonth. So that's 120 times
eight. So you're getting intothe almost $1,000 from having
(06:17):
acquired one donor. So we haveto think about it in the long
term, from an acquisition,acquisition versus retention
perspective, the cost as well asthe fact that it gives you that
stability year long, which isvery necessary for most
nonprofits,
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (06:33):
oh my gosh, to have that cash flow coming in
every single month. And knowingthat you can kind of expect to
have something coming in everymonth is so critical when you're
in those lulls between, like yousaid you're in giving, or like
your big fundraising gala, like,it's so critical, and I don't
know the stat, but I believeit's still current that your
monthly donors are also morelikely to give an additional
(06:54):
gift at some point throughoutthe year, likely at year end, on
top of their initialcontribution. Yes,
Katherine Lacefield (06:59):
because most of the time because they've
made a commitment by makingthese maybe smaller monthly
gifts, which are a lot easierfor them to manage. But once
again, statistically, it hasbeen shown that these monthly
donors will actually give moreon an annual basis in total than
if they were just giving onetime annual gift. So we have to
think about it from over theyear, not just in that one time
(07:21):
transaction. And yes, like, whynot? If you're building up this
amazing campaign where you arelooking for a one time gift, why
not solicit your monthly donorsof like, thank you so much for
your support. We have this greatproject coming up, and we're
coming to you first because weknow how much you care about our
work. We're doing this newcampaign, and we need to raise
an extra $10,000 can we count onyou to make an additional gift
(07:43):
at this year end to really sparkthis project and get it off its
feet? I feel like these peoplehave shown a commitment. They've
shown an engagement in yourcause. Why not ask them for an
additional gift?
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (07:56):
Yeah, 100% okay, so let's talk about
actually crafting your monthlygiving campaign, because I don't
think it's enough to just go outand say, Hey, will you be a
monthly donor? We kind of needto create an experience around
it. We kind of need to createits own specific story. So how
do we maybe want to startcrafting what our monthly giving
program looks like before weeven start reaching out to
(08:18):
donors? Yes,
Katherine Lacefield (08:19):
because I completely agree. If you just
have it as an option on yourgiving page, and you don't have
any special story around it,it's not it's not going to be as
attractive if you have those twoof like one time gift versus
monthly. Of course, most peoplewill just go towards the one
time gift. If it's not marketedproperly, like any marketing
slash fundraising campaigns, youhave to make it more attractive.
(08:40):
So what I usually do is, firstof all, you're going to create a
separate monthly giving page formonthly donors. So when you're
doing a monthly giving campaign,you're not redirecting people to
your regular, typical donationpage, which has both options.
You're just going to have theoption of monthly giving for
that campaign, your general pagecan have both great but if
you're launching a monthlygiving campaign. Have it only
(09:02):
available to give monthly numbertwo is, I would recommend giving
your monthly giving program aname like a cute even like
cheesy name I've seen like bestfriends of one of my clients.
It's like the democracybuilders, something that makes
people feel like they're part ofthis exclusive, special club.
You want to really make themfeel special, because these
donors are going to most likelybe one of your biggest sources
(09:25):
of income and stability. So youwant to treat them more more
exclusively. You want to givethem a sense of exclusivity. So
naming your campaign, and then,of course, before you launch it,
I'd recommend strongly thinkingabout your stewardship
strategies. So thinking about,how are you going to build your
relationship with these monthlydonors? Because if you just
launch it and then you don'tfollow up with any retention,
(09:47):
then yeah, these people aregoing to also stop donating
monthly as much as your one timedonors are going to stop because
you're not building thatrelationship. So maybe even if
it's just about setting up anemail that's already set up for
the next. Year, where every twomonths, let's say, or at least,
ideally every month, thesedonors are receiving an email
that says, Thank you, somethingthat I actually am watching a
(10:09):
monthly giving podcast this weekas well, which we can talk about
later. But my guest shared anamazing thought, and I actually
implemented that with one of myclients recently, where a lot of
donation platforms have theoption of an a monthly receipt
for monthly donations, and ofcourse, you can also get the
annual receipt. Why not go intothat automated system that
(10:30):
already exists for your monthlydonors and customize and
personalize that receipt onevery month so that every time
someone makes a donation, theirreceipt is actually an
opportunity to share a story ofwhat you've done this month, or
what their monthly donationswent to. So yes, you're sharing
the receipt of like you'vedonated, but you're also sharing
a story which will reallyreinforce the reasons why
(10:53):
they're giving
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (10:55):
well, but now they'll say, Well, we don't
want to communicate with themtoo often, because if we remind
them of their gift, then they'relikely to stop giving. So that's
what I hear all the time. Sowe're just going to kind of let
them go, and we're not going toshare stories of impact. We're
just going to kind of, you know,we've got them now, so we're
just going to kind of, kind oflet that happen, kind of what,
what would be your feedback tothat?
Katherine Lacefield (11:17):
Of course, I consider that super unethical
in the sense of that mentalprocess, but I've heard it also
so I know it's a thing. I thinkthat as a nonprofit, for our
donors, we do have a some formof due diligence that we need to
send them information on whatwe're doing. I believe that to
be a strong nonprofit, to havelong term donors, you do need to
(11:40):
communicate with them. Ofcourse, that might turn into a
few of them that willunsubscribe, but if they're
unsubscribing, it's because theydidn't want to give at that
point. But on the opposite, whatwe've seen in practice is that
nonprofits who invest inbuilding relationships with
their donors, that actuallycreates a sense of community,
(12:01):
which actually reduces thelikelihood that they're going to
be quitting. So of course, ifyou don't message them for
months and then suddenly yousend a blast of like, by the
way, and be like, Oh yeah,donating to them. Haven't heard
anything from them, then yes,they're much more likely to
quit. But if, from the get go,you say, for example, every new
donor, monthly donor we get,we're going to send them a
(12:21):
little postcard with our withour logo that says, Thank you,
with a cute little storyhandwritten the the commitment
that they're they've alreadymade. You've just like, stamped
it like we care about you.They're much more likely to stay
with you than quit because yousent them something.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (12:39):
Yeah, I agree with that. And also, I
think you and I talk withnonprofits all the time about
stewardship and and it'ssurprising how few organizations
are doing it well. So it's noteven just that it's the right
thing to do, but it's also goingto help build that trust so much
faster, because they might, theymight say, okay, yeah, we'll
give to like, three differentorganizations at this amount and
(13:02):
just kind of see what happens.But if you do what you just said
and kind of touch base withthem, stay connected, they're
more likely to continue to giveto you because you are treating
them well and staying in touch,versus other organizations where
most are not doing that, mostare not taking care of their
donors in the way that theyshould.
Katherine Lacefield (13:18):
No and it allows you to stand out as a
nonprofit that cares. And I'malready hearing people saying,
Yeah, but we don't have thetime, we don't have the
resources. I get it. I canalready hear people like, well,
this is good for great, bigorganizations. I'm like, there's
things you can do, even as asolo Ed, because those monthly
donors are gold, and you want tokeep them, give yourself an hour
(13:41):
or half an hour every week toindividually reach out to one of
your monthly donors, send theman individual, personalized
email. Thank you so much, Sarah.We're so glad to have you on
board. I'd love to hear whatmade you become a monthly donor
at our organization, like, howdid you hear about us? Build a
relationship half an hour a daywhere you just reach out to one
or two of them. There's also alot of automation, and I'm sure,
(14:05):
I'm sure you can share with thisas well, of their systems that
you can create to make it sothat it's not as time consuming.
Having an automated email seriesthat welcomes your donors and
has emails that will bedistributed over a year in
advance allows you to at leasthave some touch points with your
monthly donors without youhaving to deal with it on a
monthly basis. There's even, ifwe're talking about like,
(14:26):
sending out cards. There arecompanies like letter labs, for
example, that if you send them alist of you can even have an
automated process, which I thinkis amazing. But you can also
just send them a list of yourmonthly donors, and they will
take care of shipping out thesehandwritten cards to your
donors, for as low as, like, twoor $3 a pop, like, it is so much
more accessible nowadays, aslong as you know which tools to
(14:49):
use and you create the system.Of course, it's the creation of
this system that takes time, butonce it's there, it'll work for
you.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (14:58):
Yeah, so good. I also like. Take
recording videos and sendingthem out, because I think a lot
of people aren't doing that, andthat only takes two seconds for
you if you have kind of ascript, and if you do need to
further automate it again, thereare AI tools that can help kind
of automate the names and makeit personalized. So I agree with
you that excuse of we don't havetime is not something that
(15:20):
should matter anymore. You justneed to put some thought into
the process. So those resourcesthat you shared are great. Okay,
so if we have our kind of we'vegot our name, we've got our
experience, we know how we'regoing to steward donors. I think
it's so important that you havethat that end piece done before
you even launch. How or what aresome strategies for how we can
even get this in front ofpeople, how we can ask people to
(15:43):
join what have you seen workwell with kind of growing our
monthly donors?
Katherine Lacefield (15:49):
So there's a couple things. So I have a
couple examples. I've workedonce where I was doing street
fundraising, where we justalways started our conversations
of asks, with asking for amonthly donation, because we
would say we almost don't wantyour one time gift. We are only
exclusively looking for monthlydonors right now. Why? Well,
then you'll be able to explainthe reasons, and you'll get
people that are much more likelyto want to commit and stay long
(16:12):
term. So there is that way ofjust making it for a while for a
specific campaign of pushingmonthly donations as like, the
only, slash, best way ofsupporting your organization.
Number two is, if you do have alist of existing donors, but
you're you don't have anymonthlies, why don't you segment
out your your donor database andlook at who's been donating
(16:33):
relatively recurrently everyyear for a few years, and start
by targeting them. Hey, we'venoticed that you've been with us
for. Then you can put the numberof years, five years. And we are
so grateful for your for yoursupport, we actually are
launching a new program, whichis the best way for us to allow
to invest in our programs on amonthly basis. We would love to
(16:54):
have you be part of ourdemocracy builders. And then you
can really target these peoplethat you know they're not going
to be surprised that you'reasking. Like, monthly giving is
not a like, what is this newthing? I've never heard of it.
Subscriptions and monthlypayments is the way our economy
rolls nowadays. It's the norm.You pay your rent, monthly, your
(17:16):
electricity, your phone bill,your apps. How many apps are you
paying $5 to do the face yogalike this is the new way people
it's a thing. So I think I'vedone face yoga. It's amazing.
It's amazing. It works so well.Sorry, but yes, I think that
people will be able to not besurprised. And if you feel less
(17:37):
comfortable asking everyone ofjust targeting however, I
believe in just why not inviteeveryone to join your program?
As long as you have a propercase for support of why donating
monthly works, then you're muchmore likely to do it. I'll give
you a little case study of thatI did with my client during the
year end giving. Instead offocusing on only one time gift,
(17:59):
we segmented it into those whohad been giving a certain
amount. So we had differentlevels of priorities, and the
priorities one and twos that hadgiven a certain amount annually,
which was much more than a 15,$20 a month donation, we
targeted them with a specificask of instead of making your
usual one time gift, this year,we would invite you to join our
(18:20):
monthly giving program. And justwith that campaign, there was
maybe, like two or maybe threeor four emails max that we we
sent throughout the month ofDecember, we confirmed about 13
to it was either 13 or 15monthly donors for almost a
total of $500 a month. Likethat's for a small organization,
for a shelter, for one campaignthat's $6,000 a year, that's
(18:43):
gonna be coming in regularly,that we can steward from 13
people. Like, that's a very easyfirst way of starting your
program.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (18:53):
Yeah, well, and I think it's interesting,
because I think it's a shift.You know, I was almost thinking
of the question I was gonna askyou next was, like, how can we,
you know, we're in, you know, Ithink this episode is launching
in April, in or March, anyway,whatever we're in the beginning
of the year. And so kind ofthinking about how a strategy
(19:16):
like this can actually make youryear end giving easier, if you
start to think about your What,what's your year end nugget? And
how can we maybe start to targetthe people that gave at year end
to be monthly donors now, sothat they're maybe more easily
able to plan out their gift overtime, and then maybe still give
an extra gift at your end, andalso then kind of do what you
(19:37):
just said at your end, becausethere'd be like, about six
months apart, right? So how canwe kind of use this campaign to
almost steward some people nowat the beginning and also catch
those people at the tail end whodidn't take us up on that the
first time around? So this isall
Katherine Lacefield (19:52):
about the importance of segmentation and
knowing your database. So what Ioften recommend to people when
they're, let's say, doing it. Aspecific campaign of acquisition
of new donors. Your welcomeseries, the last email should be
an invitation to join yourmonthly giving program. So it
could be a couple months aftermaking their one time gift, they
donate it. And you can even makeit a segment of anyone who's
(20:14):
given $500 or more, maybe theywon't get the monthly donation
ask. You're going to bestewarding it towards major
giving. For example, if that'syour I don't know what the
categories are in yourorganization, but let's say, but
you can segment of sending thoseemails to specific people so
that, almost like offhandedly,you might get people that are
going to start like joining atyour monthly giving program
(20:35):
throughout the year, and thenyou can segment those out at the
year end campaign. You're notgoing to be targeting, targeting
your monthly donors in the sameway. So once again, having a
proper CRM that allows you tosegment your donors into
different things, and thenallows your mailing system to
know who to send which emailsto. There's all these workflows
that you can do that if theybecome a monthly donor, they
won't receive these emailsafterwards. I just set one up,
(20:58):
actually, for the AustralianAnimal Protection Society, where
it was just such this web oflike, if yes, if no. And I was
like, it was kind of busy, butonce it's set up, like everyone
that's going to be joining theirmailing list is going to get
solicited for one time gift, andthen a couple months later
they're going to get the monthlydonation ask. So that way, it's
working for you in thebackground, without you having
(21:20):
to stress too much, and exactlylike you said, you're also
building up knowledge andrecognition of the fact that
there's a monthly giving programso that maybe they're not ready
now, but you're planting theseed so that maybe at your end,
you're gonna have yes yourregular asks. But also a little
like, Hey, this is the reallythe best way to support us. And
also, one last thing about thatis having a goal, either in
(21:42):
dollar amounts or in number ofmembers that you're really
putting a value on. Let's say wewere looking for 25 new best
friends, like we really want togrow a group of friends this
year. And would you be one ofour new best friends that joins
the program? So we did that forone of our clients, and they're
we're still working on it, butwe had a lot of people rejoin,
and now we just surpassed ourgoal, which was also $500 a
(22:04):
month. I think we're at 600 now.So it's just about putting it
forward, making objectives andmaking your case of why this is
the best way to support you.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (22:14):
Well in the piggyback off of that, you know,
you could also use that as alimited time offer or a limited
amount of space. So maybe yourorganization is one where there
are additional perks or benefitsthat you can provide to your
monthly donors, and I know youconsult your tax people and
whatever, before you kind ofstart to put all this together.
But like you know, maybe, forexample, if you are a museum, a
(22:38):
nonprofit museum, and you cangive people early access or
discounted tickets or whatnot.There's also an opportunity to
create a monthly donor programwith limited access, so we only
have 20 spots for these specificperks until the doors open
again. I mean, this is a tacticand a strategy that a lot of us
use in the online space, notnecessarily the nonprofit. But I
(22:59):
think there's ways that you canbe creative, in the way that you
almost create FOMO around, likeyou want to be a part of this,
because this is an elite,special group of people and
still hit your goals. Yeah.
Katherine Lacefield (23:11):
Another way of like, if you don't
necessarily have any like,tangible things that you can
provide, you can always say thefirst 50 people who joined the
program, let's say, if you'rejust launching a new one, the
first 50 people will be are likepioneers, and they will be
forever considered the pioneersof the monthly giving program,
even if they stop theirdonations. So that way they'll
have recognition, and you'rejust building up this excitement
(23:34):
of like, do you want to be partof our first 50? Or offering a
certain perk for those first 50,so that you're still allowing
other people to join, but notwith the same benefits. So
there's, there's so many ways,and I love what you brought up
this example of like, what theydo in like, the digital world,
not necessarily nonprofits, isthat the nonprofits are not
taking advantage of a lot of thestrategies that are still
available to them, as long asyou do it properly and
(23:55):
ethically. There's no problembehind that. If, let's say, one
of my clients, they had. Sothey're a shelter, but they also
have what they call op shops, orlike thrift shops, and they also
have a vet clinic and a groomingclinic, and so they can offer,
let's say, 20% off. As long asyou're a member, you get to be
for 20% off our services. Whynot?
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (24:16):
Yeah, no, that's so good, and it just also
increases the likelihood thatthat existing member will refer
other friends, family,colleagues, to also kind of join
the cause, because they'regetting treated well, there's
something in it for them, whichI know for nonprofits, we're
very much focused on the workthat we're doing, but we have to
remember that donors givebecause of their own what's in
(24:36):
it for them, whatever that mightbe. And so I love that idea of
really just making it sopersonal and so on brand, on
mission, like it's focusing ontheir mission, right? Like, come
do these things, but, but they,but they get something out of it
that's going to encourage peopleto refer so I want to make sure
we touch on this before we kindof wrap up in that paying
(24:59):
attention to. Your monthly donorretention, I think is extremely
important, not only just tomanage your cash flow so you can
kind of understand what toexpect for future projections,
but also just to maintain andmanage because I think sometimes
we can get very wrapped up inthe benefits of the of and the
follow up and the stewardship ofour monthly donors, and
(25:20):
sometimes we need to take a stepback and say, Well, do they
really care about this, or isthis something we really care
about, like, how is the programactually working, and donor
retention is kind of one of thegreat stats for that. So how can
we kind of track that? Whatshould we be paying attention to
with regards to the numbers ofdonors, or the dollar amounts as
it relates to the health of ourmonthly giving program, and how
(25:40):
we might want to make decisionsmoving
Katherine Lacefield (25:42):
forward. So of course, I think one of the
biggest thing is like, how manyare like, how long are your
donors staying as part of yourprogram? You can also look at
how many are leaving yourprogram and what's the length of
time that they stayed with you,but also having a qualitative
information around what are thereasons? So following up with
your monthly donors with a thankyou not like a Why did you stop
(26:03):
like? Don't be, you know, don'tbe mean. But one of the
recommendations, actually, in myown podcast episode where we
talked about is, why don't wouldyou send them a thank you card,
even if they're leaving like, ora thank you email? Thank you so
much for your support. You'vebeen with us for three years,
like this is what you've allowedus to do, so you're still
thinking and recognizing andthen maybe having a slight
(26:25):
little like, we'd love to hearyour thoughts on our program. If
there's anything we can improve,we really want your feedback.
And it just explains, like,which part of the retention did
they like? Do they would theywant more? And it's kind of like
a survey type thing where you'rejust asking people for their
feedback, you might get peopleor just, like, hit reply, or you
can say, like, I'd love to,like, have a 15 minute coffee
(26:46):
chat, whatever makes sense foryou, but having some form of,
like, exit survey slash quickquestionnaire that your donors
can share feedback with you on,maybe there was, well, we didn't
really receive anycommunications from you. Or
maybe it's just a personalissue, but taking the time to
build those relationships, youalso need to continue the
relationships, even if they wantto leave as a monthly donor.
(27:08):
That doesn't mean that theywon't come back. Doesn't mean
that they won't continue as aone time donor, or it doesn't
mean that they won't continuebeing an ambassador for you in
public amongst their own networkand community. So I think those
are some things to keep ontracking. But from a numbers
perspective, I would say, ofcourse, how many new people are
joining? How long do they stay?What are the reasons why they
leave, and just generally, theirsatisfaction levels?
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (27:33):
Yeah, because we've had clients before
that. Have done that survey justlike you said, and what they
found was they were able to getmore of them back, because
sometimes they say, Oh, well,we're just, we just need to take
a pause. Okay, well, when can wefollow up with you again? Like,
in three to six months? And thenthey come back and so, but if
you don't have the conversation,you'll never know. And then, to
(27:53):
your point, they're gone andlost, lost forever, and that's
all your hard work. Like, that'stoo Yeah, into the abyss. And
that's so sad, because you workso hard to maintain them. I love
this. It's such good tangiblestrategies to think about. With
regards to our monthly givingcampaigns, if there was
something else that you mightwant to share with listeners,
(28:14):
just about how they can whatthey should think about, or what
they should really have preppedbefore they really jump into
this so that they can have thebest success possible. Like,
what else might you want toshare that I haven't asked?
Katherine Lacefield (28:25):
The one thing I would say that is
missing in a lot of nonprofits,it's they don't have confidence
in why people would want todonate to them monthly. If you
don't believe if you're like,Oh, well, why would they want to
donate to us on a regular basis?Then you need to double check
yourself of well, then there's aproblem. If you don't believe
yourself that you are worth aregular monthly donation, then
there's a problem with yourmission. So definitely check
(28:47):
building up your case forsupport of why, and believing in
it and in your messaging,believing, of like, this is
really the best way. And secondof all, don't wait to be
perfect. I think I have a lot ofnonprofits that wait for it to
be so perfect, if you don't havea whole workflow with
automations like that, doesn'tmean you shouldn't launch it.
I'm just giving the bestpractices or to make it more
(29:10):
worth your time. But if youdon't have it automated, okay,
do your best, launch the programand then improve it as you go
along. So don't wait to beperfect. And third of all, the
last thing I would say is havefun with it. I find when it's
funny and you're enjoying it,I'll give a very concrete
example of what this looked likein real life. I was doing phone
fundraising back in the day,where phones were to like phone
(29:31):
people not like text, you know.So I was calling people that had
either stopped their donationsor credit cards stopped working,
whatever reason they were nolonger giving, that was my job
to follow up with them. I didn'tstart with like, Hey, your
monthly donation stopped. Like,no, build a relationship. We
would joke around how we alwayshad the name of their animals,
(29:52):
usually on their donation form.So we were like, like, oh, How's
Mr. Pickles doing? Like, wewould build a relationship. And
I would just say, hey, we, youknow, we noticed that you're.
Your monthly gift is no longerworking. We just want to double
check with you if ourinformation on on file is up to
date. And just like having theconfidence that they'd want to
join back, not like, I'm sosorry to bother you, like, no,
(30:12):
just assume in your mind thatthey will continue and have fun
with it. So what I would say isquestions like, All right, so
what's your favorite number? Andthey're like, What? Why? I'm
like, I don't know. What's yourfavorite number. They'll say
seven. I'm like, Okay, well,right now you're giving 15. What
would you say if we increase itto 17? Because now you have your
special favorite number inthere, and you'll be reminded
every month of why you'redonating. You know how many
(30:34):
times that has worked? Like alot, surprisingly, because if
they're no longer thinking of itas dollars, or thinking of it as
a symbolic number. Emotionally,it's an emotional funny thing.
Or, like, how many dogs do youhave? Okay, how about we do it
for, like, one extra dollar foreach dog? Or I do a lot of
animal examples, because that'swhat I worked in. But making it
(30:54):
into a fun experience that it'slike, I'm excited about this is
gonna make it much more fun forthe donor on the recipient end
to be living this experience.And when they hang up the phone,
they're not going to feel like,oh, just got, I just got had,
you know, they're gonna be like,Oh, that was so much fun. Like,
and then they're gonna be ableto share that experience with
others. Like, what I wouldalways tell my fundraisers is,
(31:16):
if you can't leave yourconversation knowing at least
two to three personal thingsabout the person where they
work. Do they have kids? Do theyhave animals? Like then you
didn't do your job of building arelationship with your donor
before making the ask?
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (31:30):
Yeah, I love the have fun piece, and I
think that's crucial. We have aclient in the animal rescue
space. They have a sanctuary,and they get really creative
with their animals names. Sothey have like, El Salvador
llama and like, they just have,like, all these crazy names,
(31:50):
right? So what they do is theycreated like Pokemon cards, oh
my God, for each of theiranimals. So they're like
characters. And so they sendthose out to donors. So like,
each month they could get a newcard with a different animal
that talks about, like, youknow, this is who the animal is,
and this is their name, and thisis their personality, and this
is how like, passively, like,this is how much it costs us
(32:11):
each week to, you know. So like,they're getting this really cool
thing, and also staying onmission, and also knowing, like,
how much it costs to operatejust for that one animal. So
they could choose to makeanother gift. There's no ask,
but they could choose to makeanother gift if they want to.
But it's super fun brand forthem. So I
Katherine Lacefield (32:29):
poke him on cards like them all, I can just
imagine, like, yeah, when you'reset, like, you can get, like,
the exclusive, like, gold cardwhen you're like, a train, Yeah,
amazing. This
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (32:40):
is great. So have fun with it. Yeah, yep,
I love that. Okay, well, I thinkhopefully if you've been
listening still, if you're stilllistening, then you're
definitely on track with I needto start a monthly donor
program. So start putting yourideas together. Collaborate with
your team. Have fun with it.Don't do this in a silo, because
I will tell you that doesn'twork. You need to. You need to
(33:02):
have some collaboration aroundthis experience. Ask some of
your key donors, right what theymight want. But Catherine, I
know you have so many morethings to share about this
topic. So if people want toconnect with you and learn more
from you and how you supportnonprofits as well, how can they
do that? I'm
Katherine Lacefield (33:19):
very, very active on LinkedIn. It is my
platform of choice. Sodefinitely look me up. It's
Catherine Lacefield on LinkedIn,if not on my website, just
because dot consulting, you'llbe able to find a lot of my
resources. My own podcast, justbecause podcast where I share a
lot of knowledge as well onfundraising in general, not just
monthly giving. So definitelylook me up there. I often have
(33:41):
resources. There's also mynewsletter where I share
regularly either tidbits ofinformation or resources that
you can use to help with yourfundraising.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (33:49):
Love that, and we will link all of those up
at thefirstclick.net/301. Thankyou so much for being here
today. I really appreciate yourtime. It was
Katherine Lacefield (33:57):
so much fun. Let's do this again.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (34:00):
Big thank you. Thank you to Katherine for
joining me today. I would lovefor you to hop on over to
YouTube at Digital Marketingtherapy and drop in the
comments. What your biggesttakeaway is? What strategy will
you implement? First, I'm reallygrateful that she's here to
share all of her goodies withyou and so many more
collaborations with her to come.But for now, make sure you
(34:22):
subscribe wherever you listen.Grab the show notes and
additional resources at thefirst click.net/ 301, and leave
us a review. Let us know howwe're doing, and let us know if
there's any topics that we canprovide for you that would help
you in your fundraising journey,or if you have a guest expert
that you know would be perfectfor the show. And you can do
that at Hello at the firstclick.net, for now. Thank you so
(34:44):
much for listening, and I willsee you in the next one.
It's been a minute since we've talked
monthly giving programs, and soI'm really excited to have my
special guest today here talkingabout the power of monthly
giving and how we can thinkabout it online and offline, how
we can bring in new people andjust connect with our donors.
Monthly giving is such a greatway for you to build a base of
(00:20):
recurring revenue that you canexpect to come in every single
month to help you with your cashflow, your planning and your
growth. And monthly donors tendto give multiple times, even
outside of their monthly gift.So this is going to be a great
episode for you to listen to ifyou're thinking about starting
or revamping or just wanting tomake that part of your big
(00:41):
strategy, as we are continuingto move through 2025 My guest
today is Katherine Lacefield.She is a trusted partner in the
philanthropic space, leveragingover 20 years of experience
empowering organizations andindividuals to bring about
positive impact in theircommunities. Her knowledge and
expertise span many areas, fromoverall fundraising strategy,
(01:02):
monthly donations, majordonation campaigns and peer to
peer, to nuanced understanding,to a nuanced understanding of
the global grant makinglandscape, animal welfare and
rights and sustainabledevelopment. She's the founder
of just because consulting andthe host of the just because
podcast. I'll definitely link upin the show notes. I was a guest
(01:22):
on her podcast as well, soyou'll want to check it out. So
fun. It's a great conversationthat we have. She has such a fun
perspective, because she hassome experience in grassroots
fundraising and face to faceconversations, and how that kind
of relates to the digital andthe messaging and the monthly
giving campaigns. It's just sucha great conversation that we
(01:44):
have together. So I hope youwill check it out. But before we
get into this episode, it isbrought to you by do good
university, and that's youUniversity, y, o, u. I'm so
happy to be working alongsidePatrick Kirby and joining him
inside of his membership fornonprofits. It is the place to
be if you want access to ondemand, trainings and resources,
(02:04):
but also in person, live Q andA's with myself and Patrick
Kirby every single week, we talkthrough whatever topics you're
struggling with, where you'restuck, where you need support.
And you can also just learn fromother nonprofits that are going
through the same thing like youand hear where they're what
they're working on, what they'recelebrating, what strategies
(02:26):
we're helping them kind ofrefine and define. So I hope
that you will check out DGU. Youcan go to thefirstclick.net/dgu,
the letter U, check out a bonuspodcast episode that I did with
Patrick to learn more about it.But you can also grab a link
there for two weeks free insidethe platform. From there, it's
only $50 a month. So thestrategies you learn if you just
(02:47):
grab one new donation, you willhave paid for that. And I tell
you, there is so muchinformation and content inside
the platform, you won't want tomiss it. So again, go to the
first click.net/dg, you check itout. Learn more and let me know
if you have any questions. Let'sget into the episode.
You're listening to the digitalmarketing therapy podcast. I'm
(03:08):
your host, Sami Bedell Mulhern,each month, we dive deep into a
digital marketing or fundraisingstrategy that you can implement
in your organization. Each week,you'll hear from guest experts
nonprofits and myself on bestpractices, tips and resources to
help you raise more money onlineand reach your organizational goals.
Hey, friends, please join me inwelcoming Katherine Lacefield to
(03:31):
the podcast. Catherine, thanksfor being here.
Katherine Lacefield (03:33):
Thanks for having me. We
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (03:36):
haven't talked about monthly giving
programs on this podcast for along time, but I think it's such
an important fundraisingstrategy for organizations. So
I'm really glad that we're heretalking about this today, but
before we kind of kick it off,why for you? Do you think
monthly giving programs are justsuch an exciting thing for
nonprofits to engage in? I thinkthat
Katherine Lacefield (03:56):
one of the biggest things that nonprofits
have to deal with is the lack ofconsistency in their finances,
especially when we know that thebiggest time of year for funds
to come in is at the end of theyear, and then what do we do for
the rest of the year? Thereisn't that consistency that
allows them to have morestability in their programs and
their deliverability, and thenin their operations. And the
(04:16):
second thing that I feel a lotof nonprofits come to me with
problems with is we don't haveany open ended operational
funds. They tend to have thesebig grants, but that are either
earmarked for certain costs andthat don't cover their general
operating expenses. And that'swhere I feel individual gifts,
which are usually just here,take my money and do what you
need to do. Well, we want moreof those, but we want those on a
(04:40):
stable, recurring basis, whichis where I believe that monthly
giving programs is the best wayto get more stability, and thus
more sustainability as anonprofit.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (04:51):
Yeah, and I think agree with everything you
just said. And I think for me,the thing that nonprofits shy
away from is they're like, well,if two. Much work just for a $10
a month or a $30 a month gift.And so they like immediately.
They're just like, well, that'snot worth my time. And so what
would you say to that right offthe bat?
Katherine Lacefield (05:10):
Well, when we look at the difference in
costs of acquiring, let's say adonor, versus a recurring donor,
that one time gift that thedonors may be giving you, yeah,
maybe they're gonna give you$100 okay, you're like, yeah,
that's 10 times more. But howmuch did it cost you to get that
donor to give, versus a $10 amonth or once it's set up, other
than your transaction fees and,of course, stewardship, which
(05:33):
you would also be doing for yourother donors. You it's just
automatic. So it's actually beenproven that it can be five to 20
times less expensive to retainan existing client slash donor
than to constantly acquire newones. So we have to think about
it in the long term perspectiveof retention. There's been a new
(05:54):
study out, I believe it was by aneon one, where they were doing
a study on recurring giving, andthey showed how recurring
monthly donors are likely tostay, on average, up to eight
years with your organization. Soit's not just $10 a month that
you just acquired. It's $10 amonth. So that's 120 times
eight. So you're getting intothe almost $1,000 from having
(06:17):
acquired one donor. So we haveto think about it in the long
term, from an acquisition,acquisition versus retention
perspective, the cost as well asthe fact that it gives you that
stability year long, which isvery necessary for most
nonprofits,
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (06:33):
oh my gosh, to have that cash flow coming in
every single month. And knowingthat you can kind of expect to
have something coming in everymonth is so critical when you're
in those lulls between, like yousaid you're in giving, or like
your big fundraising gala, like,it's so critical, and I don't
know the stat, but I believeit's still current that your
monthly donors are also morelikely to give an additional
(06:54):
gift at some point throughoutthe year, likely at year end, on
top of their initialcontribution. Yes,
Katherine Lacefield (06:59):
because most of the time because they've
made a commitment by makingthese maybe smaller monthly
gifts, which are a lot easierfor them to manage. But once
again, statistically, it hasbeen shown that these monthly
donors will actually give moreon an annual basis in total than
if they were just giving onetime annual gift. So we have to
think about it from over theyear, not just in that one time
(07:21):
transaction. And yes, like, whynot? If you're building up this
amazing campaign where you arelooking for a one time gift, why
not solicit your monthly donorsof like, thank you so much for
your support. We have this greatproject coming up, and we're
coming to you first because weknow how much you care about our
work. We're doing this newcampaign, and we need to raise
an extra $10,000 can we count onyou to make an additional gift
(07:43):
at this year end to really sparkthis project and get it off its
feet? I feel like these peoplehave shown a commitment. They've
shown an engagement in yourcause. Why not ask them for an
additional gift?
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (07:56):
Yeah, 100% okay, so let's talk about
actually crafting your monthlygiving campaign, because I don't
think it's enough to just go outand say, Hey, will you be a
monthly donor? We kind of needto create an experience around
it. We kind of need to createits own specific story. So how
do we maybe want to startcrafting what our monthly giving
program looks like before weeven start reaching out to
(08:18):
donors? Yes,
Katherine Lacefield (08:19):
because I completely agree. If you just
have it as an option on yourgiving page, and you don't have
any special story around it,it's not it's not going to be as
attractive if you have those twoof like one time gift versus
monthly. Of course, most peoplewill just go towards the one
time gift. If it's not marketedproperly, like any marketing
slash fundraising campaigns, youhave to make it more attractive.
(08:40):
So what I usually do is, firstof all, you're going to create a
separate monthly giving page formonthly donors. So when you're
doing a monthly giving campaign,you're not redirecting people to
your regular, typical donationpage, which has both options.
You're just going to have theoption of monthly giving for
that campaign, your general pagecan have both great but if
you're launching a monthlygiving campaign. Have it only
(09:02):
available to give monthly numbertwo is, I would recommend giving
your monthly giving program aname like a cute even like
cheesy name I've seen like bestfriends of one of my clients.
It's like the democracybuilders, something that makes
people feel like they're part ofthis exclusive, special club.
You want to really make themfeel special, because these
donors are going to most likelybe one of your biggest sources
(09:25):
of income and stability. So youwant to treat them more more
exclusively. You want to givethem a sense of exclusivity. So
naming your campaign, and then,of course, before you launch it,
I'd recommend strongly thinkingabout your stewardship
strategies. So thinking about,how are you going to build your
relationship with these monthlydonors? Because if you just
launch it and then you don'tfollow up with any retention,
(09:47):
then yeah, these people aregoing to also stop donating
monthly as much as your one timedonors are going to stop because
you're not building thatrelationship. So maybe even if
it's just about setting up anemail that's already set up for
the next. Year, where every twomonths, let's say, or at least,
ideally every month, thesedonors are receiving an email
that says, Thank you, somethingthat I actually am watching a
(10:09):
monthly giving podcast this weekas well, which we can talk about
later. But my guest shared anamazing thought, and I actually
implemented that with one of myclients recently, where a lot of
donation platforms have theoption of an a monthly receipt
for monthly donations, and ofcourse, you can also get the
annual receipt. Why not go intothat automated system that
(10:30):
already exists for your monthlydonors and customize and
personalize that receipt onevery month so that every time
someone makes a donation, theirreceipt is actually an
opportunity to share a story ofwhat you've done this month, or
what their monthly donationswent to. So yes, you're sharing
the receipt of like you'vedonated, but you're also sharing
a story which will reallyreinforce the reasons why
(10:53):
they're giving
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (10:55):
well, but now they'll say, Well, we don't
want to communicate with themtoo often, because if we remind
them of their gift, then they'relikely to stop giving. So that's
what I hear all the time. Sowe're just going to kind of let
them go, and we're not going toshare stories of impact. We're
just going to kind of, you know,we've got them now, so we're
just going to kind of, kind oflet that happen, kind of what,
what would be your feedback tothat?
Katherine Lacefield (11:17):
Of course, I consider that super unethical
in the sense of that mentalprocess, but I've heard it also
so I know it's a thing. I thinkthat as a nonprofit, for our
donors, we do have a some formof due diligence that we need to
send them information on whatwe're doing. I believe that to
be a strong nonprofit, to havelong term donors, you do need to
(11:40):
communicate with them. Ofcourse, that might turn into a
few of them that willunsubscribe, but if they're
unsubscribing, it's because theydidn't want to give at that
point. But on the opposite, whatwe've seen in practice is that
nonprofits who invest inbuilding relationships with
their donors, that actuallycreates a sense of community,
(12:01):
which actually reduces thelikelihood that they're going to
be quitting. So of course, ifyou don't message them for
months and then suddenly yousend a blast of like, by the
way, and be like, Oh yeah,donating to them. Haven't heard
anything from them, then yes,they're much more likely to
quit. But if, from the get go,you say, for example, every new
donor, monthly donor we get,we're going to send them a
(12:21):
little postcard with our withour logo that says, Thank you,
with a cute little storyhandwritten the the commitment
that they're they've alreadymade. You've just like, stamped
it like we care about you.They're much more likely to stay
with you than quit because yousent them something.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (12:39):
Yeah, I agree with that. And also, I
think you and I talk withnonprofits all the time about
stewardship and and it'ssurprising how few organizations
are doing it well. So it's noteven just that it's the right
thing to do, but it's also goingto help build that trust so much
faster, because they might, theymight say, okay, yeah, we'll
give to like, three differentorganizations at this amount and
(13:02):
just kind of see what happens.But if you do what you just said
and kind of touch base withthem, stay connected, they're
more likely to continue to giveto you because you are treating
them well and staying in touch,versus other organizations where
most are not doing that, mostare not taking care of their
donors in the way that theyshould.
Katherine Lacefield (13:18):
No and it allows you to stand out as a
nonprofit that cares. And I'malready hearing people saying,
Yeah, but we don't have thetime, we don't have the
resources. I get it. I canalready hear people like, well,
this is good for great, bigorganizations. I'm like, there's
things you can do, even as asolo Ed, because those monthly
donors are gold, and you want tokeep them, give yourself an hour
(13:41):
or half an hour every week toindividually reach out to one of
your monthly donors, send theman individual, personalized
email. Thank you so much, Sarah.We're so glad to have you on
board. I'd love to hear whatmade you become a monthly donor
at our organization, like, howdid you hear about us? Build a
relationship half an hour a daywhere you just reach out to one
or two of them. There's also alot of automation, and I'm sure,
(14:05):
I'm sure you can share with thisas well, of their systems that
you can create to make it sothat it's not as time consuming.
Having an automated email seriesthat welcomes your donors and
has emails that will bedistributed over a year in
advance allows you to at leasthave some touch points with your
monthly donors without youhaving to deal with it on a
monthly basis. There's even, ifwe're talking about like,
(14:26):
sending out cards. There arecompanies like letter labs, for
example, that if you send them alist of you can even have an
automated process, which I thinkis amazing. But you can also
just send them a list of yourmonthly donors, and they will
take care of shipping out thesehandwritten cards to your
donors, for as low as, like, twoor $3 a pop, like, it is so much
more accessible nowadays, aslong as you know which tools to
(14:49):
use and you create the system.Of course, it's the creation of
this system that takes time, butonce it's there, it'll work for
you.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (14:58):
Yeah, so good. I also like. Take
recording videos and sendingthem out, because I think a lot
of people aren't doing that, andthat only takes two seconds for
you if you have kind of ascript, and if you do need to
further automate it again, thereare AI tools that can help kind
of automate the names and makeit personalized. So I agree with
you that excuse of we don't havetime is not something that
(15:20):
should matter anymore. You justneed to put some thought into
the process. So those resourcesthat you shared are great. Okay,
so if we have our kind of we'vegot our name, we've got our
experience, we know how we'regoing to steward donors. I think
it's so important that you havethat that end piece done before
you even launch. How or what aresome strategies for how we can
even get this in front ofpeople, how we can ask people to
(15:43):
join what have you seen workwell with kind of growing our
monthly donors?
Katherine Lacefield (15:49):
So there's a couple things. So I have a
couple examples. I've workedonce where I was doing street
fundraising, where we justalways started our conversations
of asks, with asking for amonthly donation, because we
would say we almost don't wantyour one time gift. We are only
exclusively looking for monthlydonors right now. Why? Well,
then you'll be able to explainthe reasons, and you'll get
people that are much more likelyto want to commit and stay long
(16:12):
term. So there is that way ofjust making it for a while for a
specific campaign of pushingmonthly donations as like, the
only, slash, best way ofsupporting your organization.
Number two is, if you do have alist of existing donors, but
you're you don't have anymonthlies, why don't you segment
out your your donor database andlook at who's been donating
(16:33):
relatively recurrently everyyear for a few years, and start
by targeting them. Hey, we'venoticed that you've been with us
for. Then you can put the numberof years, five years. And we are
so grateful for your for yoursupport, we actually are
launching a new program, whichis the best way for us to allow
to invest in our programs on amonthly basis. We would love to
(16:54):
have you be part of ourdemocracy builders. And then you
can really target these peoplethat you know they're not going
to be surprised that you'reasking. Like, monthly giving is
not a like, what is this newthing? I've never heard of it.
Subscriptions and monthlypayments is the way our economy
rolls nowadays. It's the norm.You pay your rent, monthly, your
(17:16):
electricity, your phone bill,your apps. How many apps are you
paying $5 to do the face yogalike this is the new way people
it's a thing. So I think I'vedone face yoga. It's amazing.
It's amazing. It works so well.Sorry, but yes, I think that
people will be able to not besurprised. And if you feel less
(17:37):
comfortable asking everyone ofjust targeting however, I
believe in just why not inviteeveryone to join your program?
As long as you have a propercase for support of why donating
monthly works, then you're muchmore likely to do it. I'll give
you a little case study of thatI did with my client during the
year end giving. Instead offocusing on only one time gift,
(17:59):
we segmented it into those whohad been giving a certain
amount. So we had differentlevels of priorities, and the
priorities one and twos that hadgiven a certain amount annually,
which was much more than a 15,$20 a month donation, we
targeted them with a specificask of instead of making your
usual one time gift, this year,we would invite you to join our
(18:20):
monthly giving program. And justwith that campaign, there was
maybe, like two or maybe threeor four emails max that we we
sent throughout the month ofDecember, we confirmed about 13
to it was either 13 or 15monthly donors for almost a
total of $500 a month. Likethat's for a small organization,
for a shelter, for one campaignthat's $6,000 a year, that's
(18:43):
gonna be coming in regularly,that we can steward from 13
people. Like, that's a very easyfirst way of starting your
program.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (18:53):
Yeah, well, and I think it's interesting,
because I think it's a shift.You know, I was almost thinking
of the question I was gonna askyou next was, like, how can we,
you know, we're in, you know, Ithink this episode is launching
in April, in or March, anyway,whatever we're in the beginning
of the year. And so kind ofthinking about how a strategy
(19:16):
like this can actually make youryear end giving easier, if you
start to think about your What,what's your year end nugget? And
how can we maybe start to targetthe people that gave at year end
to be monthly donors now, sothat they're maybe more easily
able to plan out their gift overtime, and then maybe still give
an extra gift at your end, andalso then kind of do what you
(19:37):
just said at your end, becausethere'd be like, about six
months apart, right? So how canwe kind of use this campaign to
almost steward some people nowat the beginning and also catch
those people at the tail end whodidn't take us up on that the
first time around? So this isall
Katherine Lacefield (19:52):
about the importance of segmentation and
knowing your database. So what Ioften recommend to people when
they're, let's say, doing it. Aspecific campaign of acquisition
of new donors. Your welcomeseries, the last email should be
an invitation to join yourmonthly giving program. So it
could be a couple months aftermaking their one time gift, they
donate it. And you can even makeit a segment of anyone who's
(20:14):
given $500 or more, maybe theywon't get the monthly donation
ask. You're going to bestewarding it towards major
giving. For example, if that'syour I don't know what the
categories are in yourorganization, but let's say, but
you can segment of sending thoseemails to specific people so
that, almost like offhandedly,you might get people that are
going to start like joining atyour monthly giving program
(20:35):
throughout the year, and thenyou can segment those out at the
year end campaign. You're notgoing to be targeting, targeting
your monthly donors in the sameway. So once again, having a
proper CRM that allows you tosegment your donors into
different things, and thenallows your mailing system to
know who to send which emailsto. There's all these workflows
that you can do that if theybecome a monthly donor, they
won't receive these emailsafterwards. I just set one up,
(20:58):
actually, for the AustralianAnimal Protection Society, where
it was just such this web oflike, if yes, if no. And I was
like, it was kind of busy, butonce it's set up, like everyone
that's going to be joining theirmailing list is going to get
solicited for one time gift, andthen a couple months later
they're going to get the monthlydonation ask. So that way, it's
working for you in thebackground, without you having
(21:20):
to stress too much, and exactlylike you said, you're also
building up knowledge andrecognition of the fact that
there's a monthly giving programso that maybe they're not ready
now, but you're planting theseed so that maybe at your end,
you're gonna have yes yourregular asks. But also a little
like, Hey, this is the reallythe best way to support us. And
also, one last thing about thatis having a goal, either in
(21:42):
dollar amounts or in number ofmembers that you're really
putting a value on. Let's say wewere looking for 25 new best
friends, like we really want togrow a group of friends this
year. And would you be one ofour new best friends that joins
the program? So we did that forone of our clients, and they're
we're still working on it, butwe had a lot of people rejoin,
and now we just surpassed ourgoal, which was also $500 a
(22:04):
month. I think we're at 600 now.So it's just about putting it
forward, making objectives andmaking your case of why this is
the best way to support you.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (22:14):
Well in the piggyback off of that, you know,
you could also use that as alimited time offer or a limited
amount of space. So maybe yourorganization is one where there
are additional perks or benefitsthat you can provide to your
monthly donors, and I know youconsult your tax people and
whatever, before you kind ofstart to put all this together.
But like you know, maybe, forexample, if you are a museum, a
(22:38):
nonprofit museum, and you cangive people early access or
discounted tickets or whatnot.There's also an opportunity to
create a monthly donor programwith limited access, so we only
have 20 spots for these specificperks until the doors open
again. I mean, this is a tacticand a strategy that a lot of us
use in the online space, notnecessarily the nonprofit. But I
(22:59):
think there's ways that you canbe creative, in the way that you
almost create FOMO around, likeyou want to be a part of this,
because this is an elite,special group of people and
still hit your goals. Yeah.
Katherine Lacefield (23:11):
Another way of like, if you don't
necessarily have any like,tangible things that you can
provide, you can always say thefirst 50 people who joined the
program, let's say, if you'rejust launching a new one, the
first 50 people will be are likepioneers, and they will be
forever considered the pioneersof the monthly giving program,
even if they stop theirdonations. So that way they'll
have recognition, and you'rejust building up this excitement
(23:34):
of like, do you want to be partof our first 50? Or offering a
certain perk for those first 50,so that you're still allowing
other people to join, but notwith the same benefits. So
there's, there's so many ways,and I love what you brought up
this example of like, what theydo in like, the digital world,
not necessarily nonprofits, isthat the nonprofits are not
taking advantage of a lot of thestrategies that are still
available to them, as long asyou do it properly and
(23:55):
ethically. There's no problembehind that. If, let's say, one
of my clients, they had. Sothey're a shelter, but they also
have what they call op shops, orlike thrift shops, and they also
have a vet clinic and a groomingclinic, and so they can offer,
let's say, 20% off. As long asyou're a member, you get to be
for 20% off our services. Whynot?
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (24:16):
Yeah, no, that's so good, and it just also
increases the likelihood thatthat existing member will refer
other friends, family,colleagues, to also kind of join
the cause, because they'regetting treated well, there's
something in it for them, whichI know for nonprofits, we're
very much focused on the workthat we're doing, but we have to
remember that donors givebecause of their own what's in
(24:36):
it for them, whatever that mightbe. And so I love that idea of
really just making it sopersonal and so on brand, on
mission, like it's focusing ontheir mission, right? Like, come
do these things, but, but they,but they get something out of it
that's going to encourage peopleto refer so I want to make sure
we touch on this before we kindof wrap up in that paying
(24:59):
attention to. Your monthly donorretention, I think is extremely
important, not only just tomanage your cash flow so you can
kind of understand what toexpect for future projections,
but also just to maintain andmanage because I think sometimes
we can get very wrapped up inthe benefits of the of and the
follow up and the stewardship ofour monthly donors, and
(25:20):
sometimes we need to take a stepback and say, Well, do they
really care about this, or isthis something we really care
about, like, how is the programactually working, and donor
retention is kind of one of thegreat stats for that. So how can
we kind of track that? Whatshould we be paying attention to
with regards to the numbers ofdonors, or the dollar amounts as
it relates to the health of ourmonthly giving program, and how
(25:40):
we might want to make decisionsmoving
Katherine Lacefield (25:42):
forward. So of course, I think one of the
biggest thing is like, how manyare like, how long are your
donors staying as part of yourprogram? You can also look at
how many are leaving yourprogram and what's the length of
time that they stayed with you,but also having a qualitative
information around what are thereasons? So following up with
your monthly donors with a thankyou not like a Why did you stop
(26:03):
like? Don't be, you know, don'tbe mean. But one of the
recommendations, actually, in myown podcast episode where we
talked about is, why don't wouldyou send them a thank you card,
even if they're leaving like, ora thank you email? Thank you so
much for your support. You'vebeen with us for three years,
like this is what you've allowedus to do, so you're still
thinking and recognizing andthen maybe having a slight
(26:25):
little like, we'd love to hearyour thoughts on our program. If
there's anything we can improve,we really want your feedback.
And it just explains, like,which part of the retention did
they like? Do they would theywant more? And it's kind of like
a survey type thing where you'rejust asking people for their
feedback, you might get peopleor just, like, hit reply, or you
can say, like, I'd love to,like, have a 15 minute coffee
(26:46):
chat, whatever makes sense foryou, but having some form of,
like, exit survey slash quickquestionnaire that your donors
can share feedback with you on,maybe there was, well, we didn't
really receive anycommunications from you. Or
maybe it's just a personalissue, but taking the time to
build those relationships, youalso need to continue the
relationships, even if they wantto leave as a monthly donor.
(27:08):
That doesn't mean that theywon't come back. Doesn't mean
that they won't continue as aone time donor, or it doesn't
mean that they won't continuebeing an ambassador for you in
public amongst their own networkand community. So I think those
are some things to keep ontracking. But from a numbers
perspective, I would say, ofcourse, how many new people are
joining? How long do they stay?What are the reasons why they
leave, and just generally, theirsatisfaction levels?
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (27:33):
Yeah, because we've had clients before
that. Have done that survey justlike you said, and what they
found was they were able to getmore of them back, because
sometimes they say, Oh, well,we're just, we just need to take
a pause. Okay, well, when can wefollow up with you again? Like,
in three to six months? And thenthey come back and so, but if
you don't have the conversation,you'll never know. And then, to
(27:53):
your point, they're gone andlost, lost forever, and that's
all your hard work. Like, that'stoo Yeah, into the abyss. And
that's so sad, because you workso hard to maintain them. I love
this. It's such good tangiblestrategies to think about. With
regards to our monthly givingcampaigns, if there was
something else that you mightwant to share with listeners,
(28:14):
just about how they can whatthey should think about, or what
they should really have preppedbefore they really jump into
this so that they can have thebest success possible. Like,
what else might you want toshare that I haven't asked?
Katherine Lacefield (28:25):
The one thing I would say that is
missing in a lot of nonprofits,it's they don't have confidence
in why people would want todonate to them monthly. If you
don't believe if you're like,Oh, well, why would they want to
donate to us on a regular basis?Then you need to double check
yourself of well, then there's aproblem. If you don't believe
yourself that you are worth aregular monthly donation, then
there's a problem with yourmission. So definitely check
(28:47):
building up your case forsupport of why, and believing in
it and in your messaging,believing, of like, this is
really the best way. And secondof all, don't wait to be
perfect. I think I have a lot ofnonprofits that wait for it to
be so perfect, if you don't havea whole workflow with
automations like that, doesn'tmean you shouldn't launch it.
I'm just giving the bestpractices or to make it more
(29:10):
worth your time. But if youdon't have it automated, okay,
do your best, launch the programand then improve it as you go
along. So don't wait to beperfect. And third of all, the
last thing I would say is havefun with it. I find when it's
funny and you're enjoying it,I'll give a very concrete
example of what this looked likein real life. I was doing phone
fundraising back in the day,where phones were to like phone
(29:31):
people not like text, you know.So I was calling people that had
either stopped their donationsor credit cards stopped working,
whatever reason they were nolonger giving, that was my job
to follow up with them. I didn'tstart with like, Hey, your
monthly donation stopped. Like,no, build a relationship. We
would joke around how we alwayshad the name of their animals,
(29:52):
usually on their donation form.So we were like, like, oh, How's
Mr. Pickles doing? Like, wewould build a relationship. And
I would just say, hey, we, youknow, we noticed that you're.
Your monthly gift is no longerworking. We just want to double
check with you if ourinformation on on file is up to
date. And just like having theconfidence that they'd want to
join back, not like, I'm sosorry to bother you, like, no,
(30:12):
just assume in your mind thatthey will continue and have fun
with it. So what I would say isquestions like, All right, so
what's your favorite number? Andthey're like, What? Why? I'm
like, I don't know. What's yourfavorite number. They'll say
seven. I'm like, Okay, well,right now you're giving 15. What
would you say if we increase itto 17? Because now you have your
special favorite number inthere, and you'll be reminded
every month of why you'redonating. You know how many
(30:34):
times that has worked? Like alot, surprisingly, because if
they're no longer thinking of itas dollars, or thinking of it as
a symbolic number. Emotionally,it's an emotional funny thing.
Or, like, how many dogs do youhave? Okay, how about we do it
for, like, one extra dollar foreach dog? Or I do a lot of
animal examples, because that'swhat I worked in. But making it
(30:54):
into a fun experience that it'slike, I'm excited about this is
gonna make it much more fun forthe donor on the recipient end
to be living this experience.And when they hang up the phone,
they're not going to feel like,oh, just got, I just got had,
you know, they're gonna be like,Oh, that was so much fun. Like,
and then they're gonna be ableto share that experience with
others. Like, what I wouldalways tell my fundraisers is,
(31:16):
if you can't leave yourconversation knowing at least
two to three personal thingsabout the person where they
work. Do they have kids? Do theyhave animals? Like then you
didn't do your job of building arelationship with your donor
before making the ask?
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (31:30):
Yeah, I love the have fun piece, and I
think that's crucial. We have aclient in the animal rescue
space. They have a sanctuary,and they get really creative
with their animals names. Sothey have like, El Salvador
llama and like, they just have,like, all these crazy names,
(31:50):
right? So what they do is theycreated like Pokemon cards, oh
my God, for each of theiranimals. So they're like
characters. And so they sendthose out to donors. So like,
each month they could get a newcard with a different animal
that talks about, like, youknow, this is who the animal is,
and this is their name, and thisis their personality, and this
is how like, passively, like,this is how much it costs us
(32:11):
each week to, you know. So like,they're getting this really cool
thing, and also staying onmission, and also knowing, like,
how much it costs to operatejust for that one animal. So
they could choose to makeanother gift. There's no ask,
but they could choose to makeanother gift if they want to.
But it's super fun brand forthem. So I
Katherine Lacefield (32:29):
poke him on cards like them all, I can just
imagine, like, yeah, when you'reset, like, you can get, like,
the exclusive, like, gold cardwhen you're like, a train, Yeah,
amazing. This
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (32:40):
is great. So have fun with it. Yeah, yep,
I love that. Okay, well, I thinkhopefully if you've been
listening still, if you're stilllistening, then you're
definitely on track with I needto start a monthly donor
program. So start putting yourideas together. Collaborate with
your team. Have fun with it.Don't do this in a silo, because
I will tell you that doesn'twork. You need to. You need to
(33:02):
have some collaboration aroundthis experience. Ask some of
your key donors, right what theymight want. But Catherine, I
know you have so many morethings to share about this
topic. So if people want toconnect with you and learn more
from you and how you supportnonprofits as well, how can they
do that? I'm
Katherine Lacefield (33:19):
very, very active on LinkedIn. It is my
platform of choice. Sodefinitely look me up. It's
Catherine Lacefield on LinkedIn,if not on my website, just
because dot consulting, you'llbe able to find a lot of my
resources. My own podcast, justbecause podcast where I share a
lot of knowledge as well onfundraising in general, not just
monthly giving. So definitelylook me up there. I often have
(33:41):
resources. There's also mynewsletter where I share
regularly either tidbits ofinformation or resources that
you can use to help with yourfundraising.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (33:49):
Love that, and we will link all of those up
at thefirstclick.net/301. Thankyou so much for being here
today. I really appreciate yourtime. It was
Katherine Lacefield (33:57):
so much fun. Let's do this again.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (34:00):
Big thank you. Thank you to Katherine for
joining me today. I would lovefor you to hop on over to
YouTube at Digital Marketingtherapy and drop in the
comments. What your biggesttakeaway is? What strategy will
you implement? First, I'm reallygrateful that she's here to
share all of her goodies withyou and so many more
collaborations with her to come.But for now, make sure you
(34:22):
subscribe wherever you listen.Grab the show notes and
additional resources at thefirst click.net/ 301, and leave
us a review. Let us know howwe're doing, and let us know if
there's any topics that we canprovide for you that would help
you in your fundraising journey,or if you have a guest expert
that you know would be perfectfor the show. And you can do
that at Hello at the firstclick.net, for now. Thank you so
(34:44):
much for listening, and I willsee you in the next one.
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