Latest / The Nonprofit Podcast / Ep 177|From Year-End to Year-Round: 5 Top Recurring Giving Tips

Transcript

Ep 177|From Year-End to Year-Round: 5 Top Recurring Giving Tips · The Nonprofit Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: As giving season kicks into high gear, most nonprofits are laser focused on that big year-end push, hoping for a flood of one-time donations before the calendar flips.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_02: And yes, those gifts matter.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_02: But what if the real game changer in 2025 isn't about the rush?
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_02: It's about the rhythm.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_02: This year, donors are giving more thoughtfully.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_02: Many are scaling back the number of causes they support, but going deeper into the ones that they trust.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_02: That means the organizations who build consistency and invite supporters into long-term relationships are the ones most likely to thrive.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_02: The Nonprofit Podcast, powered by DonorBucks.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to the Nonprofit Podcast.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Jenna, education and community engagement manager here at Donorbox.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_02: And today we're doing something a little different.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_02: We often advise you to not reinvent the wheel.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_02: So I took a little of our own advice.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_02: I'll be sharing some of the most powerful moments from one of last year's most popular episodes in our giving season guides with my friend Chris Barlow of Beeline Marketing and adding a new fresh perspective along the way.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_02: I'll share five quick but powerful takeaways, short actionable tips on everything from avoiding messaging pitfalls to building a true recurring donor community.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_02: And I'll sprinkle in some updated insights, including one simple donor box feature that makes nudging one-time donors toward monthly giving easier than ever without adding pressure or complexity.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_02: So if you're ready to maximize every opportunity this giving season and beyond, let's dive in.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_02: First up, why is it so essential for nonprofits to build a base of recurring donors?
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_02: And when's the best time to start?
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_02: Here's Chris.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: If you've been listening to any podcasts or reading anything on recurring donors this year, you'll see from multiple sources that over the last several years, donor retention rate across nonprofits averages to be around 44%, 45%.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so if we think about that in like school terms, that's like an F.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's like that's really bad.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's not success to keep only less than half of our people.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think it's kind of obvious, but it's essential to build recurring donors just for retention sake.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: The average monthly donor retention rate is around 90%.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like double that.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: You retain most of your donors if they are recurring.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so that is to me the main reason why it's so important.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's and whether we should focus on them on year end or another time of year.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: I tend to think and have heard from others in the industry that it's actually better to focus on year-in impact and really ask for one-time or year-in gifts and focus on people giving their larger gifts if they can at the end of the year or becoming first-time donors.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_02: Those retention numbers for one-time donors, not great.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: Only about 44% stick around.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_02: But recurring donors are a totally different story.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_02: They are far more likely to stay with you.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_02: Here's Chris with the why and the when.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_02: It actually makes sense to launch your recurring campaigns.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: There's actually an opportunity to in the new year really start to put a focus on recurring donors and have to start, you know, activating people, thinking about the year as a whole.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: So you thank people for giving at in 2025 and asking them to give again, but say instead of giving$500 like you did in December, would you consider giving us that again?
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: $500.26.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: But would you consider just making that a monthly$40 gift or a monthly$50 gift and helping them see, like, look, we're not wanting you to give more money.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Would you just give it over a course of 12 months?
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'll also say that monthly donors give 42% more than one-time givers on average, because monthly donors are giving monthly.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then if you do an appeal at the year end, they might give again a one-time gift.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: So that's how you end up getting more.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then finally, next after has done some studies on this, the most valuable donors on your list that are outside of your major donors are your key multi-year donors who give three years in a row.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: If you can give get someone to give a second time in their first year, their retention rate increases dramatically.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: And if you can get them to give a third time or give three years in a row, those are the people who are going to be your most committed long-term donors.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so if you can get them to become a recurring donor at the beginning, they're going to probably stick with you a long time.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_02: So, what's holding most nonprofits back from building stronger monthly giving programs?
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_02: It's usually not the tech because donation platforms today make giving monthly incredibly simple.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_02: What's missing is the why.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_02: And that's a big deal because recurring donors are sticking around at rates in the 80% range, while one-time donor retention is falling fast.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_02: Chris breaks down how to fix your messaging so more of those first-time givers decide to stay with you month after month.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the most common mistake is maybe the most obvious one.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: And that's we aren't telling donors why they should give monthly instead of once.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: There's actually a number uh that I found it's 86% of organizations do not provide a unique reason for why someone should give monthly.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: So we have our value proposition, right?
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: We tell people here is why you should give, here's what we do, and this is the impact you can make through us, and here's how we do it uniquely.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: We need to answer the question why should you give to me rather than to any other cause?
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: And why should you give monthly?
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: And specifically honing in on that, if organizations take the time to think through what are the reasons why someone should give monthly, we can come up with those.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: And if we have those reasons in our mind, then we'll be able to just clearly articulate them.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I think some of that anxiety will go away.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because if we're feeling anxiety, that's a signal to us that there's some friction there, there's some confusion, even in ourselves, as to, well, yeah, of course, we want people to give multiple gifts, but what's in the donor's interest to do that?
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so if we know what's in the donor's interest, we're not gonna feel the anxiety.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, reasons like if you want to make an impact, you don't have to give us more money.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: If you just give us right regularly, that actually creates more impact.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: And here's how.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: And if you want to make an ongoing impact, you can automate it and make it convenient for yourself.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: We're all about the subscription economy these days.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: So make it automated and easier for yourself.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: So there's the convenience factor, there's the what do you want to make an impact?
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: People do want to do that.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: Here's how to make more impact.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: And they're like, well, how does this make greater impact?
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a lot of things we can say.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: But one big example is just say, if you could get a million dollars today, or you could get an$83,000 monthly gift for the rest of the year.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: With that lump of money, you kind of have to figure out what you're gonna do with it.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: And you don't know if it's gonna continue.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: You don't know if it's just like a one-off thing and never coming back.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: But if you have a monthly gift, then you know we can start planning ahead.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: We can hire some people.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: We have the immediate impact and we have the long-term planning.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: And with that long-term planning, we can actually spend less time on fundraising.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: We can spend more time in the program.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: Again, telling the donor how it can change your budgeting, your fundraising, your program impact is ultimately in your donor's best interest.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_02: And speaking of messaging, it's not just what you say, it's how you say it.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_02: This year, we've seen donors pulling back on the number of causes they support, but going deeper with the ones they feel closest to.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_02: That means your tone and your authenticity matter more than ever.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_02: Chris has some great stories on how being human and personal make all the difference in building recurring support.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: First, some data that I've heard from different sources is that actually we are doing a pretty poor job of thanking recurring donors and making them known that they're actually seen differently and appreciated differently for their ongoing support.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so regularly thanking them will go a long, long way.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then just being human.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: One of our clients is a Jewish nonprofit.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so on Christmas, their audience is probably not necessarily celebrating Christmas Day.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: So she wrote an email like, Are you getting pizza Chinese today?
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because those are the typically the only places that are open.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's just an unofficial tradition.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so all the emails that they send are from the director's name and they have a personal feeling.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so many times they she would forward emails that of replies that she was getting.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's that kind of response where people are replying to you or you know you're building a connection.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it turns someone from just being a subscriber to wanting to support.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: And now they feel more connected to you because you're talking to them like a human and you're talking to them like they're a human.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_02: Giving season can feel like you're shouting into the crowd sometimes.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_02: But here's the thing: even when you feel like you're saying the same thing over and over, most people aren't actually seeing every single message.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_02: Attention is shorter than ever and inboxes are always overflowing.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_02: That's why repeating yourself isn't actually a bad thing.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_02: It's what helps you cut through.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_02: Chris explains how this works in practice.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: We actually have to be staying on top of mind throughout the year and we have to be building that relationship throughout the year.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: And the people who feel connected to us, even if it's not like super strong connection, if they are just aware of us, if they have that in the back of their mind, then when you're making your appeals at your end, they're going to be likely to give to you.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: I think part of it is just not being afraid or being bold to keep communicating and to send a lot of communications.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: If you have an amazing open rate of your emails of 40%, that means 60% of people aren't even seeing your emails.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: So if you feel you're repeating yourself, whether throughout the year or even during your end appeals, you send 10, 15 emails in December, don't worry.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like most of the people aren't seeing all of those emails, right?
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: I and I just experienced this myself.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: So for several months in the spring, I started hearing about like this nonprofit agency from someone I trust.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: They've organized this membership group.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: I put we was getting emails about it, but I was ignoring them.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: But then two months ago, I got an email from that person and it was like, hey, if you want to join this community, you can do so.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: But there's a discount and it's gonna end today or in the next day.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, okay, well, I should consider it because there's a deadline now instead of just putting it off, putting it off, putting it off.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: But I still deleted it because the person said, I'm gonna send you one more reminder today.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: And it was really smart because I knew I could delete the email.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't have to make the decision right then, but it was stuck in my head all day long.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, okay, I have to make a decision when this other email comes in.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then another consultant posted on LinkedIn praising how helpful the community had been to them.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, okay, I better go look at the landing page.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I saw then, oh yeah, if I sign up, it's at a lower cost.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: What's the risk?
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is totally different from donors, but the lesson to me here is I trusted the person, you know, or the organization, right?
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: And their mission, I trusted this person and the community they created.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: I just didn't have time to think about it.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: And it took all of those communications for it to finally sink in.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then finally I took action when there was a deadline.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I think part of the reason why nonprofits do so well or like why we all depend on year end is because there's just that deadline.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: If I'm gonna give this year, I have to give now.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's just a reality we live in.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: And that's also part of the opportunity we have with recurring donors too.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_02: Finally, let's talk about building community.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_02: Monthly donors aren't just generous, they're invested.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_02: Even in a year when a lot of donors are giving less often or not at all.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_02: They want to feel like they belong, like they're a part of your mission in a deeper way.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_02: Chris shares why naming and nurturing your recurring donor community makes such a big difference.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: I think January is a really key time.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: You take your donors who gave, say, under a thousand each at the end of the year and put them into a special segment of people where you give them the opportunity to give again for 2026.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Thank them first.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: Thank them in the first email, let them know the impact they made.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: And then write it, have another two, three emails at least, where you lay out that unique recurring donor value proposition and ask them to give the same amount.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: Let's split into 12 months.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's a place you start.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: I think another thing is just cultivation where you're not asking for anything, where you're obviously sharing your stories and impact and encouraging, but also sharing helpful ideas and tips.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the same nonprofit I referenced, they would send emails regarding Jewish holidays or Holocaust Memorial or other tips or ideas.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then they didn't even necessarily create all this stuff.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: They would some create some things and they would also curate and say, this other nonprofit that we love has these awesome resources for this particular holiday or other things.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so those cultivation emails, again, help people feel valued and remembered.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: And then one last thing that was really effective with recurring donors is creating a sense of community, naming your recurring donor community, giving it a sense of identity and purpose.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: One of our clients roots Ethiopia, they have a special community that they've named for the recurring donors.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's helping people see that like we're not just a donor.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I didn't just give one gift.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm actually part of a group of people who are making this vision, this mission real.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: My wife is just pointing these out to me.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: Once upon a time, it was the Carnegie's and the major philanthropists that they said, I've got all this money.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna make this work.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna build this library, I'm gonna do whatever.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: And they're still obviously large, wealthy philanthropists, but for all the everyday donors, we need the same mindset and we need to talk about our donors with the same mindset.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like this is their work.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: We're just the conduit.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: They're the ones making it happen.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so creating that sense of identity, I think, is also another important piece of messaging for our recurring donors.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_02: Those five moments are just a slice of the full conversation, but I hope they've sparked some ideas for how your organization can think differently about recurring giving this season.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_02: For more in-depth advice, head back to episode 140 of the Nonprofit Podcast for the full conversation.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_02: And then be sure to take a look at DonorBox's nonprofit blog.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_02: We have a variety of year-end guides and best practices to help you find a successful path this year.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_02: Whether it's refining your donor messaging, building a stronger community, or simply staying in touch with more consistency, there is no one size fits all, but there is a common thread here.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_02: Recurring donors want to feel seen.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_02: They want to feel appreciated, and they want to feel connected.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_02: And if you're ready to take a small step that makes recurring giving easier, check out DonorBox's recurring upsell feature.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_02: It gives one-time donors a gentle, no pressure prompt to make their gift monthly with just one click.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_02: It's so simple, subtle, and incredibly effective.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_02: It is one of my most favorite features here at Donnerbox, and you'll find it under your campaign settings under amounts.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_02: No heavy lifting, no hard sell, just a thoughtful nudge that can make a lasting difference.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for being a part of the nonprofit podcast community.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_02: Your work matters, and we're honored to support it.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_02: If you enjoyed this episode, share it, leave a review, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_02: Until next time, take that first step and stay inspired.
• 14:51
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• 14:56
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• 15:02
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• 15:05
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• 15:07
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