Rolling out a Monthly Giving Program to Generate Predictable Revenue

More and more nonprofits are monthly giving societies, clubs, and programs. There are several reasons why. Let’s take a look at why a monthly giving program might be right for your organization.

A monthly giving program generates predictable revenue.

By focusing on automatic electronic funds transfers (ETFs), your donors will provide you with a reliable income stream to help bolster your general operating fund. Knowing you can expect X dollars per month relieves stress and frees you up to focus on other donors with greater capacity.

A monthly giving programs generates loyalty and protects against donor attrition.

By giving to your organization month after month, year after year, you’ll find your monthly donors are less likely to stop giving. Monthly giving becomes a positive habit. And with the most recent Giving USA 2022 reporting an average donor attrition rate of -6.2% by nonprofit organizations, it’s important to do whatever you can to retain existing donors.

A monthly giving programs can increase your matching gifts.

By having a monthly giving program, you will likely find new donors who work for companies with matching gifts as a benefit. Be sure to mention this opportunity on your monthly giving sign-up page on your website. Vendors like Double the Donation, and Affiniquest have APIs (application programming interfaces) that you can embed into your website to make it even easier for your donors to request a match.

A monthly giving program allows donors to give more generously.

Sixty percent of U.S. donors prefer to give online, according to Blackbaud’s most recent NGO Giving Report—and 44 percent are members of a monthly giving program. One of the biggest impacts is that by providing donors a giving amount they can afford on a monthly basis, by the end of the year they cumulatively give a far larger amount than they normally could.

A monthly giving program can generate more planned gifts.

By giving regularly monthly givers tend to develop a higher RFM score (Recency of gift, Frequency of gift, Monetary amount of gift). Donors with higher RFMs tend to be the best prospects for a legacy program—even if they don’t have very high giving capacity during their lifetime. Grow your planned giving program while you raise more funds by kicking off a monthly giving program.

And there you have it—roll out a monthly giving program and watch your revenues climb.