Do you offer your donors a monthly giving program? 6 reasons why you should.

I was recently reading an article on philanthropy.com about the monthly giving program for Minnesota Public Radio and it started me thinking about all the times I have committed to monthly giving programs. The article had some interesting statistics:

Donors who give monthly tend to be loyal: 80 percent of people who commit to giving monthly for a year continue to do so a second year, while just 42 percent of people who make a one-time gift donate again the following year. What’s more, 87 percent of all donors who give monthly continue donating from one year to the next.

MPR actually presents the monthly option as the default option on their website.

With the tools available to small nonprofits online, there is no reason why your organization can’t benefit from such a program. There are distinct advantages to automatic monthly donation programs.

Donors like them.

It is easy to set up an automatic payment. The monthly amount is small enough that it doesn’t hurt and donors can feel good every month.

Donors can join at lower levels.

$10 per month sounds like an amount most people could handle, but how many other donors/members do you have that donate $120 per year?

Donors will give more over time by giving longer – your program benefits from inertia.

After the year goes by, donors have adjusted to the monthly payment and are likely to just keep it running. Evidence shows that automatic donors stay loyal sometimes up to 10 years, however donors that are required to renew each year rarely last longer than 2 years. Of course, the organization needs to communicate with their donors during this time as well.

Regular giving creates ongoing relationship with donor.

Donors that are regularly giving are bound to be more engaged with the work of your organization, which can provide opportunity for volunteer hours, increased giving and even possibly future board members.

Automatic payments provide predictable income for your nonprofit.

Monthly giving makes it easier to predict your organization’s fundraising income.

Electronic monthly giving is easy to set up.

Donation websites such as Razoo make it simple to set up monthly giving.

These statements apply to me. I definitely end up giving longer and feeling more connected to organizations that I give to on an ongoing basis. If you don’t currently offer a monthly giving program, I challenge you to give it a try. Let me know how it goes!