A Fresh Look At Recurring Giving

Matt Crawford

You’ve kicked off your month-long vacation on a sweltering June day in Charleston, SC.  You’re hot.  You’re thirsty.  You spot some children sitting behind a lemonade stand with a painted sign showing what this sugary relief will cost you. 


Pitcher: $3.50
Glass: $0.25

You search your wallet for something called cash and find that you have $3.25.  You remember seeing a quarter in the cup holder of your rental car, but it’s several blocks away, and thinking about cup holders is making you even more thirsty.  You could certainly drink an entire pitcher of lemonade today, but then you think for a moment about tomorrow, and the next day.  You ask yourself, “Should I walk back to the car so I can have a pitcher of lemonade today?  Or, should I buy a glass of lemonade right now, and repeat that process every day for the next two weeks?”  It’s still technically spring.  Your thirst will return tomorrow.  On the other hand it's a lemonade stand, so there’s also no guarantee that it will be there tomorrow.  Buying an entire pitcher requires you to use more of your resources upfront, but it also means that you get it all, and don’t have to share lemonade with other patrons.  Lemonade purchasing can be a surprisingly cutthroat game. What to do?  The answer ultimately depends on how you value many small gains against fewer large ones?  In a fundraising world, the question becomes, “Would I rather acquire supporters that give a bunch of small gifts on a regular basis, or those that give a massive gift in the future?” 

Perhaps some proverbial sayings will steer us toward an answer:

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
Nice try, but these birds are not the same size.

Do not count your chickens before they are hatched
We’re not talking about pledges here.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step
Moving in the right direction.

Better to light one candle than to curse the darkness
Getting warmer.

Take care of the pennies, and the pounds will take care of themselves
Right on the money.

Starting small and increasing ask amounts is a sound strategy to cultivate major gift prospects.  In proverbial form, you might say that mighty oaks from little acorns grow.  And if you’re using an axe instead of a chainsaw, little strokes fell great oaks.  Just remember though that money doesn’t grow on trees, so you need keep an eye on your timber to make sure that it remains healthy along the way.  After all, well begun is only half done. 

We know that in terms of major gifts, shiny are the distant hills, but sometimes enough is as good as a feast, and we all know that a mill cannot grind with the water that is past.  Having a strong recurring giving program makes operating a more predictable task. 

The main benefit to building a solid foundation of sustained giving is to begin engaging with donors today.  In other words, don’t try to walk before you can crawl, and stop putting off until tomorrow what you can do today, because possession is nine-tenths of the law, every little bit helps, and half a loaf is better than no bread at all. 

At this point, you’re either excited about recurring giving or getting tired of the schtick.  Either way, we’ve made it easy to get reacquainted with the robust recurring giving capabilities that Blackbaud CRM can support.  You might think that if it ain't broke, don't fix it, but when dealing with recurring gifts, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, so we invite you to take a video stroll with expert Jill Byrne, and learn how to handle complex scenarios like lapsed gifts and expired credit cards.  It's time to start building that foundation for sustained success.


 

Slow and steady wins the race

The recurring gift record underwent a major redesign in the early Service Packs of Blackbaud CRM 4.0  Most recently, an additional installment frequency option was added to recurring gifts.  For customers that recently made the jump to version 4.0, a number of resources are available online on Blackbaud CRM functionality to support recurring giving, including a Walkthrough and the New Features Guide.  

 

Chris Whisenhunt

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