Create a Healthy Sustaining Giving Program
Published
If you build it, they will come! At least that’s what we would like to happen. We want our own Field of Dreams. However, unless you have mystical powers on your side, not everything goes according to your original plan. Despite strategic planning, your sustaining giving program may become dull. But, with patience, careful planning, and time, your plan can pay off. Use these simple tips to help with your mission.
Make Giving Easy
In order to convert one-time donors into sustaining givers, you must make it simple for them to give. Start by ensuring that your recurring donation form is secure and easily accessible from every page of your website. Use a call-to-action button on the home page as well. If prospective constituents can’t quickly find what they need, they can’t join your sustained giving program. Provide donors with a way to securely manage their gifts and credit card information online by creating an online account. After all, this is what they expect. By creating a My Account page—like the Gift Service Center in Luminate Online—you can allow constituents to select their preferred method of communication (email, direct mail, or phone), opt out of or in to mailings, modify their gift amount, or even skip a monthly payment. How do you manage your own online giving account? Keep that in mind for your constituents.
Be Responsive
Did you know that more than half of all web traffic comes from mobile devices, though we do most of the design on desktop and laptop computers? Make sure your recurring giving form is responsive—that is, it automatically detects the web visitor’s screen size and changes its layout accordingly. If your website is not responsive, is it at least mobile friendly? Responsive donation forms have a higher rate of successful transactions over non-responsive donation forms. That’s amazing right? After all, trying to stretch and scroll through a donation form that is optimized for a laptop computer is a frustrating experience—and makes the donor more likely to abandon the form. With Luminate Online, you can click a box to make your donation form responsive. It’s that easy.
Continue to Ask
While you should limit the number of email messages you send to your sustainers, you shouldn’t remove them entirely from your giving campaigns. It’s not all or nothing. Instead of a hard ask, try a soft ask that doesn’t include a specific donation amount. Timely, well-written email messages have actually boosted constituent engagement as well as follow-up emails sent to those who initially opted out of sustained giving over the phone.
At the end of the year, why not provide donors with the option to increase their monthly gift? If you’ve successfully demonstrated how their support matters, and kept them engaged, then increasing their commitment to your nonprofit should come naturally—and easy! If you prefer to keep the upgrade ask as part of your spring campaign, you can instead request that sustainers make a “13th gift” or a “baker’s dozen” by making an extra contribution at the end of the year.
Regardless of how—or how often—you ask, make sure to always say “thank you”. Learn more tips and tricks in the course Luminate Online: Generating an Effective Welcome Series.
Keep Things Fresh
Donors pay attention to the content you send them, which means they will notice and tune out recycled content from year to year. You can motivate your current sustainers to increase their gifts, by continually offering fresh, new content that is connected to your mission and the impact sustainers have. In addition, you can capture the attention of donors and prospects who have yet to become sustainers, with fresh and exciting content. Be bold, take risks, and try new messages and images! You never know what might be the next Great Big Idea that inspires your donors—stories, premiums, or demonstrated impact. Keep it mission-focused and you won’t go wrong.
Automate the Process
Just like for-profit companies, your nonprofit should look for ways to streamline processes through automation. This will save you time and also make your outreach more effective. One way to do this is by using autoresponders. These auto-generated emails, configured in your online fundraising software, are often sent in appreciation of a gift. But, they can also be used to alert sustainers of an expiring credit card or to request feedback when a monthly gift is canceled. If that happens, take advantage of the opportunity to collect valuable input on your program and why the donor left. Then use that feedback to make adjustments. To learn more about autoresponders and ways to effectively optimize your techniques for effective marketing, register for the class Luminate Online: Email Strategy and Optimization.
In addition to autoresponders, you can—and should—take advantage of credit card updater services like the one Blackbaud offers to Luminate Online users. With these types of services, data for expired, lost, or stolen credit cards is updated automatically so that the gift continues to process and your organization does not lose any gifts. This service can save your staff a significant amount of time on donor outreach and data entry, allowing them to focus their efforts on recruiting new sustainers and other important areas of focus for your organization.
While it will take time and commitment to grow your sustaining giving program, the return on investment is well worth the effort.
And remember, “People will come. People will most definitely come.”
Make Giving Easy
In order to convert one-time donors into sustaining givers, you must make it simple for them to give. Start by ensuring that your recurring donation form is secure and easily accessible from every page of your website. Use a call-to-action button on the home page as well. If prospective constituents can’t quickly find what they need, they can’t join your sustained giving program. Provide donors with a way to securely manage their gifts and credit card information online by creating an online account. After all, this is what they expect. By creating a My Account page—like the Gift Service Center in Luminate Online—you can allow constituents to select their preferred method of communication (email, direct mail, or phone), opt out of or in to mailings, modify their gift amount, or even skip a monthly payment. How do you manage your own online giving account? Keep that in mind for your constituents.
Be Responsive
Did you know that more than half of all web traffic comes from mobile devices, though we do most of the design on desktop and laptop computers? Make sure your recurring giving form is responsive—that is, it automatically detects the web visitor’s screen size and changes its layout accordingly. If your website is not responsive, is it at least mobile friendly? Responsive donation forms have a higher rate of successful transactions over non-responsive donation forms. That’s amazing right? After all, trying to stretch and scroll through a donation form that is optimized for a laptop computer is a frustrating experience—and makes the donor more likely to abandon the form. With Luminate Online, you can click a box to make your donation form responsive. It’s that easy.
Continue to Ask
While you should limit the number of email messages you send to your sustainers, you shouldn’t remove them entirely from your giving campaigns. It’s not all or nothing. Instead of a hard ask, try a soft ask that doesn’t include a specific donation amount. Timely, well-written email messages have actually boosted constituent engagement as well as follow-up emails sent to those who initially opted out of sustained giving over the phone.
At the end of the year, why not provide donors with the option to increase their monthly gift? If you’ve successfully demonstrated how their support matters, and kept them engaged, then increasing their commitment to your nonprofit should come naturally—and easy! If you prefer to keep the upgrade ask as part of your spring campaign, you can instead request that sustainers make a “13th gift” or a “baker’s dozen” by making an extra contribution at the end of the year.
Regardless of how—or how often—you ask, make sure to always say “thank you”. Learn more tips and tricks in the course Luminate Online: Generating an Effective Welcome Series.
Keep Things Fresh
Donors pay attention to the content you send them, which means they will notice and tune out recycled content from year to year. You can motivate your current sustainers to increase their gifts, by continually offering fresh, new content that is connected to your mission and the impact sustainers have. In addition, you can capture the attention of donors and prospects who have yet to become sustainers, with fresh and exciting content. Be bold, take risks, and try new messages and images! You never know what might be the next Great Big Idea that inspires your donors—stories, premiums, or demonstrated impact. Keep it mission-focused and you won’t go wrong.
Automate the Process
Just like for-profit companies, your nonprofit should look for ways to streamline processes through automation. This will save you time and also make your outreach more effective. One way to do this is by using autoresponders. These auto-generated emails, configured in your online fundraising software, are often sent in appreciation of a gift. But, they can also be used to alert sustainers of an expiring credit card or to request feedback when a monthly gift is canceled. If that happens, take advantage of the opportunity to collect valuable input on your program and why the donor left. Then use that feedback to make adjustments. To learn more about autoresponders and ways to effectively optimize your techniques for effective marketing, register for the class Luminate Online: Email Strategy and Optimization.
In addition to autoresponders, you can—and should—take advantage of credit card updater services like the one Blackbaud offers to Luminate Online users. With these types of services, data for expired, lost, or stolen credit cards is updated automatically so that the gift continues to process and your organization does not lose any gifts. This service can save your staff a significant amount of time on donor outreach and data entry, allowing them to focus their efforts on recruiting new sustainers and other important areas of focus for your organization.
While it will take time and commitment to grow your sustaining giving program, the return on investment is well worth the effort.
And remember, “People will come. People will most definitely come.”
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Blackbaud Luminate Online® Blog
09/07/2016 12:00pm EDT
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