1. I don’t have the financial resources to launch a monthly giving program…
- Start small! If you can’t afford to develop a logo, letterhead, and special newsletter for a monthly giving program and provide valuable benefits to members, then just ask people to join a monthly program, anyway.
- Explain the convenience and cost-savings of monthly giving in your newsletter to donors or members.
- In your appeals to donors, offer monthly giving as a special way to help.
- Include a box on the reply form for more information (or even a section people can fill out to join immediately). Reinforce this option with a paragraph in your letter.
- Consider using volunteers to recruit members.
Many donors will join a monthly giving program simply because you invite them to do so. One of my clients with a large donor base placed a small, 120-word promotional ad in its newsletter — and attracted 227 new monthly givers. The cost: almost nothing.
2. I don’t have the authority to set up a monthly giving program and have to convince my superiors…
- Make a proposal to the decision-makers in your organization. Try starting your proposal with the following lead sentence: “Would you prefer that our donors give once or twice a year, or every month?”
- Propose survey research (with questions on monthly giving included in any donor survey you conduct).
- Propose a test. Select the segments of your donor file most likely to become monthly givers, and test an appeal to them. Analyze the Long-Term Value of the donors who enter the program, and determine if it’s worthwhile to proceed.
3. I’m afraid a monthly giving program will take “too much staff time” …
Jim Fleckenstein, of the Navy Memorial Foundation in Washington, DC, told me that when he started his monthly giving program, he was the only staff member responsible for development. He felt that he didn’t have the time or resources to run a manual monthly billing program, so he decided he would only offer EFT to his donors. His supporters tend to be conservative older males, many of whom don’t even have credit cards. Yet he managed in a short period to recruit many members from his donor base with only low-intensity efforts. This has significantly increased income from these donors.
4. Other staff members in our development department think a monthly giving club will “take money” from their programs…
Smaller nonprofits often have only one or two staff persons in the development department. Therefore, there is usually little concern about where money comes from. The concern is usually how to raise more money. In larger organizations, there may be competition for donors and income, especially if specialized staff have particular targets to reach.
Not surprisingly, a monthly giving program will reduce income from other areas of fundraising, principally direct mail, telemarketing, and special programs for “mid-level” donors ($50-500 annually). So, even though overall the nonprofit’s income will increase, the new program may be threatening to staff members responsible for particular areas of the budget. (A similar situation could arise if you introduce a new telemarketing program and pull donors from direct mail, or launch a major donor program that pulls the best donors out of the mail program.)
There are two ways to solve this problem: either (a) unwavering support from the decision-makers in your organization, or (b) setting up a win-win situation, with such devices as overall departmental income targets rather than for individual managers.
Harvey McKinnon & Associates specializes in direct mail, monthly giving programs, and fundraising audits. For more information, contact Harvey McKinnon, 218-2211 West 4th Ave, Vancouver, BC V6K 4S2. Telephone (604) 732-4351. Fax (604) 732-4877. eMail info@harveymckinnon.com. Visit: www.harveymckinnon.com.
