Latest / Nonprofit Launch Plan Podcast for Startup, Small, and Growing Nonprofits / Nonprofit Fundraising: The Hidden Power of Monthly Donors for Small Nonprofits (Ep 50)
Transcript
- Matt Stockman (00:00) If your nonprofit is constantly feeling financial pressure month after month, if you feel like every single fundraising ask kind of starts from zero, or if one lost donor or one grant that goes sideways could create a real crisis for your organization, then I am glad you're here. This episode is for you because one of the biggest mistakes that I see nonprofit leaders make is treating monthly giving like it's sort of an option or something. only reserved for giant organizations. And the truth is, a healthy monthly donor program might be one of the most important financial foundations your nonprofit can build. Today, we're going to break down five of the biggest myths about monthly giving and why recurring donors may be far more valuable than you think they are. Welcome to the nonprofit launch plan podcast for startups, small and growing nonprofits. This podcast is here to help you build your nonprofit from the ground up on a strong, sustainable foundation by providing clear frameworks, practical tools, and real world guidance that you can actually put into practice. I'm your host, Matt Stockman, a nonprofit growth coach thrilled you're here at nonprofit launch plan. We believe that every successful nonprofit has to be operating at peak performance. across six key areas, leadership, fundraising, marketing, programs and services, operations, and finances. So on every episode of the podcast, we focus on one of these core areas to help you create lasting impact without all the complexity. as promised in this episode, if you're listening to it in real time, this episode is dropping on May 13th, 2026. In the previous episode, I teased that I would have a really unique special offer for one nonprofit leader in this episode. So here it is. As a nonprofit coach, I work with small and growing nonprofits on getting you and your organization to the next launch phase or to get your existing nonprofit to a new level, whether that's in fundraising or launching more and better programs, whatever. The way I do it is with my signature offer as a coach. It's what I call the nonprofit launch plan. Obviously that's the name of my coaching business. A nonprofit launch plan is a detailed 30 to 40 page roadmap that I create specifically for you full of to do's next steps and my best coaching and advice on exactly what needs to happen in your nonprofit to either get it off the ground or to the next launch phase of growth. Building your specific plan begins with a series of three virtual meetings with you and your team if you have one where we deep dive into the reality of where your nonprofit is. If you're just trying to get off the ground, that's fine. Or if you've launched but you are struggling to maybe break through a plateau or just get a little bit more sustainable and like a firmer foundation underneath your feet, we go deep into all the reasons why and what needs to happen next to get you operating at peak performance. in the six key areas you hear me talk about all the time on the podcast. Then after those three meetings, I come back to you with your detailed, tailored, specific to you and your nonprofit launch plan. Again, 30 to 40 pages of fully executable step-by-step specific things to implement that will solve the problems you're facing right now in your nonprofit and get your nonprofit either launched or into the next phase. Plus monthly coaching for a year after that to make sure that you're supported as you implement the plan. That is my signature offer. It's called the nonprofit launch plan. So here's the deal for you today. Normally that costs $2,500, but I'm going to offer it to one podcast listener for exactly $0 in return for you being willing to allow me to record all of our sessions, the three initial sessions and then the monthly coaching sessions afterward and use that for future podcast episodes. In other words, other podcast listeners can learn from you and I working together and working through some of the challenges and problems in your nonprofit. So that's the trade off. You get the launch plan for $0, but you agree that we can use the recording sessions of us working together. in future episodes of the podcast. So if this is something you'd like to take advantage of, and why wouldn't you? I want you to email me right now at mattt at nonprofitlaunchplan.com mattt at nonprofitlaunchplan.com with the words episode 50 offer in the subject line. That's all you have to do. Email me mattt at nonprofitlaunchplan.com with the words episode 50 offer in the subject All right, so let's dive in. In today's episode, we're going to go deep into fundraising, particularly building a monthly donor program in your nonprofit. The number of nonprofit organizations that I work with who have a giving mix that is out of balance is really significant, which is why I'm doing a podcast episode on it. Here's what I mean when I say that there's a nonprofits giving mix that's out of balance. Your nonprofits incoming revenue is made up of a number of different revenue sources, hopefully such as major donors, grants or foundation gifts, business partners, maybe memberships if that applies to your situation, non-recurring gifts, and then recurring gifts or monthly gifts. And there can be others too, this is just an example. But a healthy nonprofit should have revenue coming in from a number of those categories in a balanced fashion. Often nonprofits will end up with 80 % of their annual operating budget coming from only one or two sources, like maybe one big grant or one church or a handful of major donors. And then the moment that the earth shifts underneath one of those revenue sources, the nonprofit is automatically in real trouble. So developing a monthly giving program does take some work upfront, but the dividends are pretty enormously positive. Think of it this way, for many people, you have a job that pays you a salary that is fairly consistent month to month. I know that's not accurate for everybody, for a lot of people it is though, so when it comes to managing your family budget, you have a good sense of what it is that you're working with every month because you've got this consistent income. Monthly giving is the same way when you've done the work to build a monthly giving program With a group of givers who are all giving the same amount of money every month This creates a pretty solid financial foundation that you can work and budget from kind of like the salary analogy If you're the person who pays the bills every month in your house, no doubt you appreciate that consistency if you can get it, of course a monthly giving program is the same thing a consistent foundation that you can build from and something that should be a part of every nonprofit, including yours, giving mix. So for this episode, I want to do some myth busting about launching a monthly donor program. I hear a lot of excuses or reasons why monthly giving doesn't work that are just not true. So let's look at five myths about launching a monthly giving program and the actual truth behind them and how you can take some steps towards putting a monthly giving program into place today. first, before we even do the first myth, let's define some terms. Some nonprofits refer to the portion of their database that gives a consistent amount every month to the work as monthly donors or often as sustainers or sometimes even as recurring donors. So you may hear me use these terms interchangeably, just so you know up front. So myth number one about monthly giving programs is monthly giving is too small to prioritize. Hear this one a lot. Even a handful of sustaining givers generates bigger lifetime value to your nonprofit than a person who makes one larger single gift. Research by Charity Engine says that on average monthly givers stay with a nonprofit for a period of seven to eight years. Whereas non-monthly sporadic donors stick with a nonprofit on average 18 to 24 months. So monthly givers stay with you seven to eight years on average, people who just give occasionally stay with you 18 to 24 months. So if you've thought to yourself, would I rather have a person give me $250 right now or commit to $10 a month? The answer is $10 a month all day long. Myth number two, we need more donors before focusing on sustainers. That's a myth. The fact is monthly donors are your acquisition strategy. It costs you a lot less over time to maintain and properly care for consistent monthly donors than having to chase new one-time givers. over and over again every month. that's myth number two. Myth number three about monthly giving. Monthly donors are just small givers. The fact is, while monthly donors aren't always going to be ringing the bell as the number one annual giver in your nonprofit, they do bring huge financial value in a lot of other ways, like consistency and a high sense of passion and engagement. And they often upgrade and increase their monthly amount over time and are very likely to give single gifts above and beyond what their monthly commitment is. So that's a myth. Myth number four, monthly giving only works for large nonprofits. I actually... Strongly believe that in fact the opposite is true, that the advantage in growing monthly giving is clearly on the side of smaller nonprofits that can easily bring the impact of the giving right in front of the giver. The donors who give to you monthly are the most committed and as your nonprofit grows and scales up, that you will need to be conscious of as your nonprofit scales up is what I call the widening of the psychological distance between the person making the monthly gift and the impact that their gift has. In other words, as you grow, it will be very natural for the distance between a person making a monthly gift and the impact of that gift to feel as though it is widening and that distance is growing greater between the two. So think about a huge organization like the Red Cross, whether you give monthly or you just give occasionally, it is really hard to get a sense of exactly what happens to your gift. It could go to employee salaries, it could go to funding a blood drive, it could go to emergency relief somewhere far from where you live. This is why large nonprofit organizations like Compassion International, which is a faith-based, child sponsorship nonprofit that provides educational and medical care and more to children in the third world. This is why they focus so much on when you give $45 a month, you've got the picture of your compassion child on your refrigerator, so that it feels like your $45 each month is going directly into an account that meets the needs of that specific kid. They try their best to close the psychological distance between the giver and the impact of the gift when in reality what is happening is something closer to this your money is going into an account with all the other funds for all the other sponsored children in that particular region and they're managing those funds to meet the needs of all of the kids there but they do their best to shorten the psychological difference this is why I think smaller nonprofits are better off launching a monthly giving program you are able to put the impact of the gift on a monthly basis right in front of the giver in a very natural way. So last myth for you people won't commit to monthly gifts in this economy. The fact is a lot of people who are wired to be generous to begin with prefer the predictability of a small monthly amount over the pressure of a larger single gift ask. The consistent feeling of seeing their funds go to do good every month, even in the middle of a record in their bank statement, if the bad decision, bad decision, bad decision, then they see the monthly amount going to your nonprofit, they feel like I've done one good thing with my money, boy, that is very powerful. even in this economy, people are open to the idea of monthly giving, which is why you should start sooner rather than later. Then one more myth, monthly donors don't give beyond the recurring gift. Actually, the fact is the monthly gift is usually the beginning of deeper engagement and more giving. rather than less. These are the most committed and engaged people in your ecosphere. Monthly givers, for example, they stay longer with your organization. We talked about that earlier. They open more of your emails. They're likely to volunteer more frequently with your organization. They are also more likely to leave legacy gifts near the end of their life and they respond more frequently to special project opportunities as well. You're likely to get single gifts above and beyond that monthly gift amount from people who are the most engaged and the most committed to your organization. And maybe that's the biggest thing that I want you to hear in this episode. Monthly giving is actually a relationship strategy. It's a way of inviting somebody to move from being an occasional observer of your mission and what you do to becoming an ongoing participant in it. When somebody commits to giving every month, they're not just saying, believe in this organization. They're saying, I want to be a part of this impact every single month, which is a completely different level of buy-in. And if you steward those people well, you communicate clearly, and you consistently bring them close to the mission and the stories of impact, those donors often become some of the most strongest advocates your nonprofit will ever have. So if you've been putting off building a monthly donor program because you thought your nonprofit was too small or you just didn't have time or because you assume people wouldn't commit you felt like you needed to focus someplace else first Hopefully this episode has challenged some of those assumptions You don't need thousands of donors to begin with you just need to start somewhere five or ten is a great start a simple recurring giving page on your website a great start clear communication about what your monthly gifts accomplish as a start and over time, those consistent gifts begin to create stability and predictability in a foundation and momentum that can completely change the financial health of your organization. And as you think about the future of your nonprofit, remember this sustainable ministry and sustainable impact are built on consistency, a healthy monthly giving program. does help create that foundation. So you don't think of monthly giving as something extra or something we'll get to it when we have time for it. Start building it now, because the sooner you do, the sooner you begin creating a stronger and a more sustainable future for the mission that you have been called to lead. Now, as I promised in this episode, if you're listening in real time, this episode is dropping May 13th, 2026. And the last episode, I tease that I'd have a really unique special offer for one nonprofit leader. told you about it at the top of the podcast. As a coach, I work with small and growing nonprofits on getting you and your organization to the next launch phase, or to get your existing nonprofit to a new level, whether that's in fundraising or launching more and better programs, whatever it might be. My signature offer as a coach is what I call the nonprofit launch plan. It is a detailed 30 to 40 page roadmap full of to do's, next steps, and my best coaching on exactly what needs to happen in your nonprofit to either get it off the ground or to the next launch phase of growth. Building your specific plan starts with three virtual meetings that we do together. You invite your team if you have one. We deep dive into the reality of where you at as a nonprofit. And if you're just trying to get off the ground, that's fine. Or if you've launched but you're struggling, we go deep into all the reasons why and what needs to happen next to get you to operating a peak performance in the six key areas that you hear me talk about. Then after those three meetings, I come back to you with your detailed, tailored, specific to you launch plan. 30 to 40 pages of fully executable step-by-step specific things to implement that will solve the problems that you're facing now and get your nonprofit either launched into the next phase. So here's the deal. Normally that costs $2,500. But I'm going to offer it to one podcast listener for exactly $0. But in return for you being willing to allow me to record all of our sessions and use that audio and video as coaching for future Podcast episodes in other words other podcast listeners could listen to you and I working together and working through the challenges and learn from those so If this is something you'd like to take advantage of and I think you might be a perfect candidate for it Here's what you need to do. Just email me right now Matt at nonprofit launch plan comm and the only thing you have to do is type in the subject line episode 50 offer and I'll follow up Matt at nonprofitlaunchplan.com and put in the subject line episode 50 offer. That's it for this episode of the Nonprofit Launch Plan Podcast for startups, small and growing nonprofits. If you feel like this has been helpful for you and you think it might be helpful for another nonprofit leader, you consider sharing it with them? Maybe somebody who's just getting started and needs some more clarity. And don't forget to do all the podcast things like share, subscribe. and ⁓ leave a comment if you can until next time. Again, thank you so much for watching and for listening. Keep building wisely and keep making a difference.