5 Tips to Build Your Nonprofit’s Recurring Giving Program

November 19, 2024

Many nonprofits are alarmed by the recent decline in giving, with a 2.1% decrease between 2022 and 2023. As a charitable organization, you need to take every chance you can get to secure funds for your mission.

Though overall giving has decreased, certain individual donation methods are becoming more popular. For instance, revenue from monthly giving increased by 6% in 2023 and accounted for 31% of all online nonprofit revenue. Donors are increasingly drawn to making regular contributions and maintaining ongoing involvement in the causes they care about.

Monthly giving is just one form of recurring giving, alongside options like quarterly, annual, or payroll deduction giving, where donors contribute regularly. By establishing a recurring giving program, your nonprofit can create a steady, reliable source of revenue that helps smooth out fluctuations in donations and increases overall support for your cause. In this post, we’ll explore how to develop your own recurring giving program and expand your nonprofit’s mission.

1. Identify your target audience.

Before launching your recurring giving program take a moment to assess your audience to determine who is best suited for your recurring giving program. By narrowing down your top prospects, you can focus your outreach efforts on those most likely to participate in your program.

Recurring giving prospects come in all shapes, sizes, and stages and may include: 

• Current Donors
• Event Attendees
• Volunteers
• Email Subscribers
• Lapsed Donors
• Social Media Followers

No matter which stage of the donor journey your recurring giving prospects are in, evaluate the following factors to determine if they’re the right fit:

Likelihood of Participating

Some prospects may be passionate about your cause and have the funds to support your organization, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll join your program. Explore each current supporter’s giving history or engagement level, and look into how often new prospects engage with other nonprofits.

Giving Capacity

If giving history and engagement level doesn’t identify enough potential prospects consider consider conducting a data append to uncover wealth insights like income, net worth, and assets so you can easily assess prospects’ giving capacity.

The ultimate prospects will be invested in your cause, have sufficient funds, and show an interest in this type of program. If you’re unsure whether certain prospects are likely to participate, send a survey gauging their interest before you start sending them information about how to join.

2. Build a compelling case for why donors should join.

Once you’ve identified your prospects, you’ll need to convince them to become recurring donors. Create a case for support that highlights the benefits of recurring giving, such as:

Convenience

Your prospects likely lead busy lives. Show them that, through recurring giving, they can balance their hectic schedules and passion for your cause. Instead of navigating to your donation page every time they want to make a contribution, recurring donors have the luxury of a one-time set-up that makes it extremely easy to give back.

Ability to Make a Greater Impact

While every donation counts, recurring gifts are typically more valuable than one-time gifts because they allow your nonprofit to secure dependable, mission-critical funds without investing in more solicitation. Recurring donors can feel proud that their contributions create a larger impact and truly help your organization make a difference for its beneficiaries.

Any Additional Membership Perks

Your nonprofit may offer additional benefits for joining your recurring giving program to entice prospects to sign up. These may include branded merchandise, access to exclusive events, specialized impact reports, or discounted fundraising event tickets.

Developing this list of benefits will help drive the messaging of your campaign and get your team on the same page about how they should discuss your recurring giving program with prospects. Make sure to include this information on your website and in your appeals.

3. Implement the right technology.

While it’s important to determine your target audience and get them on board, you also have to set up the behind-the-scenes mechanisms that will support your recurring giving program. One of the benefits of recurring giving is convenience; the right tools will streamline the recurring giving process and make it easy to manage your program.

Look for a platform that comes with the following features:

Donation Processing

First and foremost, your fundraising software should be able to efficiently and securely process donations. Your platform’s payment processor should support a variety of payment methods (including credit, debit, ACH, PayPal, and Apple Pay) to give your recurring donors more options for how they’d like to contribute.

According to Nonprofit Learning Lab, approximately 20% of donors reconsider donating when a nonprofit doesn’t include their preferred payment option. By offering multiple payment choices, you can significantly reduce the likelihood of potential donors abandoning their donations.

Sustainer Donor Support

Jackson River explains that the ideal donation software will leverage donor data to find the most promising prospects and send one-click upgrade prompts to efficiently encourage existing donors to become recurring givers. Additionally, to grow your program once it’s running, they recommend finding a platform that automatically prompts recurring donors to upgrade their gift amount based on their donation history, giving capacity, and willingness to give.

Other Fundraising Tools

Lastly, your fundraising software should provide other fundraising tools that help you raise more for your cause. For example, the solution you choose may come with peer-to-peer fundraising features that allow supporters to create their own fundraising pages and collect donations on behalf of your nonprofit.

In addition to looking for these specific features, you should also thoroughly research each provider you’re considering. Look for reviews on reputable websites like G2 and Capterra, or ask other similar organizations if they recommend the fundraising software they currently use.

4. Promote your program.

With the basics of your recurring giving program in place, it’s time to start promoting it! Kick off your marketing efforts by segmenting your prospects. This process will help you personalize your communications and make them resonate more with each recipient. For instance, you may segment prospects based on their:

• Cause-related interests, so you can tell relevant stories that encourage them to get involved.
• Communication preferences, so you can promote your program via the channels they are most likely to respond to.
• Demographics, so you can cater to different age groups or locations.
• Engagement level, so you can communicate with prospects according to how often they’d likely prefer to hear from you.

Then, decide which channels you’ll use to target these segments. You may promote your program via:

• Social media. Create social media posts that explain the benefits of recurring giving and include links to sign up for your program.
• Newsletters. Highlight your program to newsletter subscribers who are likely already highly engaged with your organization.
• Events. While you have your supporters gathered in one place, introduce them to your recurring giving program. This strategy can be especially effective for auctions; if certain attendees don’t place a winning bid, they can still support your cause by becoming recurring donors.

Additionally, once you’ve acquired some recurring donors, consider leveraging word-of-mouth marketing by having members promote the program to their friends and family. This social proof may convince those who are on the fence to join.

5. Evaluate your program.

Monitor your recurring program’s performance to make improvements over time. Double the Donation’s data collection guide recommends using both quantitative and qualitative data to “gain a more comprehensive understanding” of what you’re assessing—which, in this case, is donors’ experience with your recurring giving program.

That said, your team should analyze both data types by:

• Assessing performance metrics. Look into data points like your recurring donor retention rate and the click-through rate (CTR) for different program communications. Additionally, explore more granular issues through metrics like donation page bounce rate to discover if you need to revamp your site to boost participation.
• Collecting donor feedback. Go straight to the source by asking your donors directly about their experience with your recurring giving program. Through donor surveys, you may unlock insights such as donors’ interest in additional giving options or frequencies.

Store both types of data in your constituent relationship management platform (CRM) so you have easy access to this information and can reference it in the future when you’re making program improvements.

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Recurring giving is an untapped opportunity for many nonprofits that can deepen your impact and get donors excited about supporting your cause. Remember to develop a strategy for recognizing and retaining recurring donors to ensure your program is successful for years to come.