After all, your donation button is your nonprofit’s main call to action (CTA). Standard guidance on showcasing your donation button for online giving includes ensuring it is easy to find, links to the correct page, and stands out using contrasting colors—but it doesn’t end there. 

Today, we’re showing you how to further strategize its usage across your different online fundraising efforts. An intentional approach helps your story reach more ideal supporters and makes visitors more likely to take action as they digest and engage with your page.

Below, we look at creative ways to format the best donation button across different fundraising campaign types, with examples from five nonprofits that bring the donor experience to the next level.

1. Peer-to-Peer Campaigns: Focus on Strategic Placement and Visual Distinction

Peer-to-peer fundraising tools allow supporters to fundraise on your behalf. A donation button on your peer-to-peer campaign helps you collect even more one-time (and recurring) gifts for your campaign. 

Since these two CTA buttons—to fundraise or donate—live on your campaign page, you want to distinguish them visually. That could mean using color variations, separating sizing, or adding a contrasting visual that guides a page visitor to the options you offer.

One example comes from Texas Appleseed, a nonprofit working to “promote social and economic justice for all Texans by leveraging the skills and resources of volunteer lawyers and other professionals to identify practical solutions to difficult systemic problems.” The nonprofit’s peer-to-peer fundraising campaign helped it raise over $35,000.

At the top of its campaign page, Texas Appleseed highlights the opportunity to fundraise and donate. The “Become a Fundraiser” CTA leads the two with a transparent background and white outline that grabs visitors’ attention. 

Next to it is the highly visible donation button in red. Each CTA’s visually distinct yet grabby design catches the eye. The strategic proximity of these two buttons—visible at the top of the fold when a supporter lands on the page—gives supporters multiple opportunities to help the nonprofit reach its goal.

Farther down the campaign page, the nonprofit elevates the peer-to-peer component by listing some of the campaign’s top fundraisers and including the headline “Support a Fundraiser” to encourage donors to give directly to a peer’s personal fundraising page.

Pro Tip: By placing a donation button strategically alongside your CTA to fundraise, you can engage more donors by offering options for how they can participate in your peer-to-peer campaigns.

2. Crowdfunding Campaigns: Vary Your Donation Button Options

Crowdfunding campaigns allow for maximum creativity with your donation button. Below are two nonprofit examples that varied donation button options across Classy crowdfunding campaigns.

Incorporate Multiple Types of Donation Opportunities

Classy customer Houston Ballet started a crowdfunding campaign to keep its company dancing despite significant challenges resulting from COVID-19. The crowdfunding page featured a clear goal to raise $5 million, and the nonprofit incorporated three different donation opportunities, all supporting the overall goal.

First, the page displays a visually contrasting Donate Now button next to its progress bar on the campaign’s homepage. The placement creates a quick, easy way for donors to see social proof that others have supported the cause, and they can immediately take action as well.

Farther down the page, the campaign uses impact blocks to suggest how different levels of donations can help support the nonprofit during these times. It uses imagery in line with its brand and includes specific details on how the donation will make a difference, such as home-training gear and digital academy classes.

In the final section of the campaign page, the nonprofit includes a Become a Fundraiser button that encourages supporters to start fundraising pages to make an even more significant impact.

Pro Tip: By offering multiple donation buttons that cover various styles and fundraising types throughout your crowdfunding campaign, you give your supporters choices for how they can help you meet your goal. Your donation buttons progressively tell your campaign’s story as the supporter scrolls through your page.

Leverage Impact Blocks to Showcase Recommended Donations

Second Harvest of Silicon Valley provides healthy meals to anyone who needs one within its community. When the pandemic put a pause on its collection of in-kind food donations, the nonprofit started a crowdfunding campaign to fill the gap in its operations and keep the momentum flowing online.

The initial donation button for Second Harvest of Silicon Valley’s campaign is easy to find on the campaign landing page in bright orange, placed next to a short video showcasing some of the nonprofit’s beneficiaries.

Next on the page is an overview of the  nonprofit’s story, which highlights how its food distribution process looks different this year. Second Harvest of Silicon Valley explains how supporters can give a monetary donation for a particular item instead of in-kind food drop-offs.

Impact blocks show donors how different gift amounts translate to specific food items typically provided in kind. For example, the $50 impact block has a graphic of a roast chicken and says you can “fill the barrel” with 85 pounds of a whole chicken. 

The visually engaging custom illustrations, complete with donation buttons in orange, are specific to its branding. You can get creative with visuals that speak to your audience and draw attention with Canva or other design platforms.

Pro Tip: By adding creative impact blocks with donation buttons on your crowdfunding campaign, you provide a fun way for supporters to understand the tangible impact of their donations. If you hit a creative rut, explore these eight simple designs you can create for free using Canva for Nonprofits. 

3. Fundraising Event: Pair One-Time Donation With Registration

In registration with fundraising, you want your supporters to register for your event and start fundraising. For example, for ticketed events, your primary CTA is to buy a ticket.

Special Olympics Washington created a registration with a fundraising campaign page on Classy for its Polar Plunge challenge. On the campaign landing page, donors see a Register button alongside the donation button in the center of the hero block, under the event logo. 

Farther down the page, the nonprofit again pairs a registration button with a donation button next to a progress circle, inspiring people to join those who have already contributed and taken action.

Pro Tip: By distinguishing your registration and donation buttons visually, you inspire participants to donate more at that moment and people who can’t make your event but still want to support.

4. Recurring Giving Campaigns: Pair Donation Button With Powerful Language

Neighborhood Homework House started a recurring giving campaign to fund its mission to support students in its community. Its initial donation button pairs with text branded around the nonprofit organization’s recurring donations campaign. It explains, “For as little as $10 a month, you can rewrite the future of a generation of Azusa students.”

Below the initial donation button is additional text describing the power of small donations and that you can start supporting now by giving up small monthly expenses. 

The campaign then incorporates impact blocks that showcase examples of things a supporter could skip each month to donate to the nonprofit instead. For example, a supporter could choose to donate their $40 tank of gas or $20 meal delivery.

Pro Tip: By shaping your donation options around your recurring giving story, you build a case for your supporters to join your campaign.

6 Bonus Tips to Round Out Your Donation Process

As you set up a donation platform that converts supporters into loyal donors, here are a few last items to check off your list to complete the experience.

1. Offer suggested donation amounts to guide people and collect donations that make a real impact based on the programs you run
2. Think about offering as many payment options as possible outside of just credit cards, such as trusted transaction apps like PayPal and Venmo
3. Leave a checkbox that lets donors opt in to cover their processing fees and give the maximum gift to your mission
4. Provide an easy way for donors to share their actions for good on social media to build cause awareness through their Facebook page or other accounts
5. Consider embedding your donation form directly on your webpage with a simple modal, widget, or pop-up
6. Test the whole process as if you are a potential donor through different mobile devices and browsers to make it as smooth as possible

Think Creatively About Your Donation Button to Increase Supporter Engagement

Strategic use and formatting of online donation buttons can increase support across different campaign types. Think creatively about what types of donate buttons to use, how to place them, and ways to brand them to your mission to engage your audience and encourage donations.

As you build your donor-centric fundraising strategy, Classy has your back.

In 2012, Operation Broken Silence launched a recurring giving program out of necessity to establish a consistent stream of revenue due to a lack of support from grantmakers. Since bringing their recurring giving program to Classy in 2015, Operation Broken Silence has seen a staggering 1,128% increase in their number of monthly donors and an 865% increase in monthly giving revenue. 

Advancing your nonprofit’s recurring donor acquisition strategy can help establish a consistent fundraising revenue stream, improve cash flow, and provide much-needed support during slow giving periods.

Even though recurring donors generally give smaller amounts per gift, they have a 5x higher donor lifetime value with nonprofit organizations than one-time donors. Recurring donors are also more likely to stick around through financial uncertainty, typically increasing gifts each year to showcase their loyalty to causes in need.

Today, we’re walking you through recurring donor acquisition tips from a nonprofit that grew its monthly donation program by a staggering 1,128% in new donors and 865% in recurring revenue. Get ready to reimagine your fundraising strategy with recurring acquisition goals that have the potential to fuel your cause for the long term.

Recurring Donor Acquisition Tips From a Leading Nonprofit

In 2012, Operation Broken Silence launched a recurring giving program to establish a consistent revenue stream due to grantmakers’ lack of support. Building a recurring giving program through the Classy giving platform in 2015 led the organization to incredible donor acquisition and revenue. This revenue stream continues to empower Sudanese heroes through childhood education and healthcare.

In addition to using Classy’s simple recurring gift features, here are seven recurring donor acquisition strategies Operation Broken Silence shared to help you establish a reliable income stream.

Donor Acquisition Strategies to Boost Your Recurring Giving Program

1. Amplify Your CTA With a Sense of Urgency

Your call to action sets the tone for your campaign, so emphasize why support is critical and timely. Because the crisis in Sudan continues, and the Sudanese people still live in fear, Operation Broken Silence strategically leverages urgency in its messaging to engage donors and compel them to give.

Operation Broken Silence uses its story to forge an emotional connection with donors and motivate them to take immediate action. For example, it leverages social media, an excellent platform to share timely appeals. You can also lean on nonprofit influencers to bring your message to their audiences and drive them back to your donation form.

If you’re looking for ideas, here are 10 social media post examples that drive engagement.

2. Identify the Right Target Audience

Identify prospective donors within your community who have shown consistent interest in your mission. It’s more likely that you’ll convert a supporter who’s already familiar with what you do versus someone coming across your page for the first time.

Knowing your ideal demographic of supporters is critical to increasing your donor acquisition rate. This knowledge can help you identify targeted opportunities to convert people into recurring donors based on their individual behaviors, preferences, and interests.

Operation Broken Silence targets two main audience segments as candidates for its recurring giving program: event attendees and donors who have given multiple one-time donations.

Segment your donor database into specific email lists to tailor each message to the specific audience you aim to convert. Classy’s Returning One-Time Donors Report can help you do this more efficiently by showing who has given more than one donation to your organization.

3. Add a Personal Touch to Your Outreach

A mass email is fast and easy, but when was the last time you engaged with a generic message that landed in your inbox? Phone calls and personalized emails can go a long way in establishing trust and rapport with recurring donors.

Every candidate for Operation Broken Silence’s recurring giving program receives a phone call or personalized email from a team member to introduce themselves to the donor, tell the organization’s story, and open the floor to any questions. The supporters’ questions typically indicate which program they’re most interested in, which the team uses as an opportunity to promote the most-aligned program designation option.

Whether the donor expressed interest in a particular program or not, the Operation Broken Silence team has still begun building a relationship with that person and establishing their connection with the organization.

To improve your email communications and encourage more recurring donors to take action, download these 8 templates to upgrade your recurring donors.

4. Promote Tier-Based Incentives

Offering unique perks to donors who contribute more significant gifts is a great way to incentivize and thank them accordingly.

At Operation Broken Silence, all recurring donors receive a membership pin and early access to new stories and campaigns. Those who give $35 or more per month also receive two free tickets to the organization’s annual events. Additionally, long-term recurring donors receive tickets to these events  for friends and family.

Perks also include one-on-one conversations with potential donors. When this information comes from a human instead of a computer screen, it’s much more likely the donor will convert or increase their gift size to $35 or more to receive the benefits.

You can also try direct mail if that communication channel aligns with your target audience. Highlight your organization’s incentives and include a message that helps nurture your most loyal supporters and reminds them how much you appreciate their generosity.

For more examples of unique recurring giving incentives, check out these 5 unique ways to thank recurring donors.

5. Encourage Existing Donors to Spread the Word

Lean into the power of networking by encouraging your existing recurring donors to share your nonprofit story with their inner circles and inspire others to get involved.

A critical behavioral insight is that people are often motivated to give to other people or a cause, not necessarily a nonprofit. That’s why organic conversations between donors and their cohorts can help boost your recurring donor acquisition strategy. It’s also great to incorporate a recurring donation appeal into your existing peer-to-peer fundraising strategy.

Operation Broken Silence leverages this approach when long-time donors bring guests to its annual fundraising events. It encourages existing donors to bring their friends and family to the recurring giving donation table to start a conversation and share why they’ve supported the organization for as long as they have. More often than not, the donor’s passion for Operation Broken Silence motivates their guests to join the program.

6. Prioritize Your Communication With Recurring Donors

The insight, feedback, and support from recurring donors are critical to your mission, so prove that with fast response times and transparent conversations.

The Operation Broken Silence team prioritizes their communication with recurring donors above all else to ensure that they feel appreciated and valued. Namely, their internal policy requires them to return every email or phone call from a recurring donor within 24 hours. This helps to reduce the number of lapsed donors who might leave if they don’t feel involved.

7. Emphasize the Impact of Boosting Your Gift Size

Once or twice a year, it’s beneficial to ask your recurring donors to increase their gift, even if it’s only by $5. Emphasize the impact each dollar makes by providing specific examples of the incremental work you could fund. Our latest report, Why America Gives, showcases that clearly understanding the impact of a donation is one of the most important aspects of preventing donor attrition.

Operation Broken Silence sends out a branded email to all recurring donors once a year, asking them to consider increasing their gifts. The organization also reaches out to all current donors who have had a positive status change that year, like a job promotion, to initiate the conversation from a different angle. This allows them to congratulate the donor on their accomplishment and encourages them to dedicate a portion of their increased income toward Operation Broken Silence’s mission.

Pro Tip: After a gift has been active for about a year, reach out and ask if an increased commitment is possible. Explain how their current giving level has impacted your mission and remind them that even a small addition could dramatically help your organization achieve its goal.

From Donor Acquisition to Donor Retention

A robust recurring giving program allows Operation Broken Silence to execute on its promises to the Sudanese community. By establishing a steady stream of revenue, the team has built a deep level of trust with their beneficiaries while strengthening retention rates with valuable donors. In turn, those donors have become loyal to the organization and grown alongside Operation Broken Silence as a community.

Take these donor acquisition strategies back to your team and experiment with what works best for your nonprofit audience. To learn more about elevating your nonprofit’s recurring giving program, check out our other resources:

• The Ultimate Guide to Recurring Giving
• 5 Email Templates for Stronger Recurring Donation Appeals
• Top 7 Reasons to Invest in Monthly Recurring Donations
• Move Your Recurring Donors to Classy in 3 Steps

To capture a monthly donor base, however, a recurring giving campaign needs to encompass a well-designed online presence, simple donor management, and clear language about a donor’s potential impact. Getting creative about your program can help you turn a one-time gift or one-time donor into a recurring one.

Check out the successful monthly giving program examples we’re loving right now, with actionable takeaways you can apply to create your unique recurring donor community.

7 Monthly Giving Program Examples to Inspire You

1. PAN Foundation

PAN Foundation welcomes its monthly donors as PAN GEMs, another way to say those who Give Every Month. The nonprofit created a space where supporters can make a steady contribution to change the lives of those who care burdened by high out-of-pocket medication and treatment costs for severe and life-threatening illnesses. This beautiful program brings monthly donors in through regular communication, recognition, and a community feeling.

Here’s what we love about this monthly giving program:

• Clear impact greets website visitors with a bold statement of what a specific monthly contribution means for patients, offering them treatment coverage for an entire year
• Beautiful visuals present a polished and professional program in which monthly donors can explore the many perks to becoming a member
• Beneficiary storytelling brings the faces of those in need to a potential monthly donor to help them see the life-changing impact they can have
• Program designations let donors choose which condition, such as heart failure, their contributions will support every month right on the donation form

2. The TEAK Fellowship

The TEAK Fellowship calls on monthly donors to help support talented students from low-income families achieve their potential. TEAK unlocks access to an outstanding education and transformative experiences for exceptional NYC students, who use these opportunities to change their lives and the world around them. Monthly donors become members of the TEAK Investor Program to help fuel a large, lasting impact through recurring gifts.

Here’s what we love about this monthly giving program:

• Thoughtful call-to-action buttons throughout the donation experience using terms like “join” instead of “donate” to differentiate its program membership
• Employer gift matching made easy through a simple checkbox on the monthly donation form to double its impact with the support of eligible employers
• Personalized form fields that ask about TEAK alum status and class number to get to know new monthly giving program members
• Various incentives for new monthly giving program members to choose from, such as a cotton tote bag, that showcase appreciation for their generosity and open the door to direct-mail engagement.

3. The Crayon Initiative’s Crayon Box Giving Program

The Crayon Initiative collects unwanted, used crayons and repurposes them into new ones that are then shipped to children’s hospitals, free of charge, for their therapeutic arts program. The organization gave its recurring donation program’s name a creative spin—The Crayon Box. It celebrates each monthly donor, known as a “friend” of The Crayon Initiative, for their willingness to help support children in need.

Here’s what we love about this monthly giving program:

• Prominent recognition of varying giving levels throughout the program’s messaging, encouraging generosity with as little as $5 a month to add up to big results for pediatric patients
• Convenient options for donors to set and forget their recurring payments with a credit card or ACH bank transfer, adding language like “make more smiles automatic” to showcase how easy it is to get involved
• Strong storytelling on the donation site of a pediatric patient’s experience and what one pack of crayons can do for her recovery
• Creative giving levels shown through impact blocks that designate specific online donation amounts to the quantitative patient count a donation can support and the emotional appeal each gift has on the individual

4. Child Advocacy Center’s Support Squad Giving Program

The Child Advocacy Center’s vision is to be a community where justice is accessible, prevention is possible, families are resilient, and children can heal. Their monthly giving program, the Support Squad, invites passionate supporters to come alongside them and help children begin their healing journey. Supporters who join the Support Squad can be a hero for a child in need. Each recurring gift helps families and children throughout the community, gives them a safe place to talk about their experiences, and receive support as they navigate the trauma of abuse. By donating on a consistent, scheduled basis, supporters can chose their monthly giving amount to help cover everything from snacks to education and child abuse prevention training.

Here’s what we love about this monthly giving program:

• A creative recurring program brand identity showcases the special nature of giving back to the organization through a recurring gift, with some semblance of a superhero emblem to symbolize the support level this donor community offers
• Distinct levels of support with names like “guard,” “shield,” and “defender” that break down how each donation amount translates to tangible impact and continues the theme of heroism as new monthly donors choose which gift amount best suits their needs
• Multiple giving frequencies that let donors choose how often they want to donate, from weekly to semiannually, based on what works best for them
• Captivating video sharing to elevate emotional storytelling and pull in monthly donors with a clear reason to join

5. Operation Broken Silence’s The Renewal Giving Family

Operation Broken Silence is on a mission to support Sudanese teachers and healthcare professionals through its monthly giving campaign. The Renewal welcomes donors to join a monthly giving family that has the power to make a meaningful difference in people’s lives.

Here’s what we love about this monthly giving program:

• Simple but powerful language displayed across the monthly giving page pulls donors in to become a part of something bigger than themselves
• Impactful videos take the idea of clarifying where monthly gifts go to a new level by showing the individuals who need support regularly
• Membership perks offer gratitude for the supporters who decide to take their donations to a more committed level
• Personal testimonials from the founders seal the experience with an authentic appeal to help change lives from one group of passionate individuals to another

6. Downtown Rescue Mission

Downtown Rescue Mission depends on generous monthly donors to support their mission and care for the lost, lonely, and broken in North Alabama. Their monthly giving program, Friend of the Friendless, unites hundreds of supporters who give what they can on a regular basis to ensure Downtown Rescue Mission’s services remain available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Here’s what we love about this monthly giving program:

• A powerful call to action features the words “donate today” on a prominent button that pulls in interested supporters to join the program
• A creative appeal to give shows monthly donors how their gifts support hunger, housing, health, and hope intiatives
• Membership engagement through a live activity board shows how members are making an impact every day and forms community
• Flexible payment options give donors an easy way to sync their automatic donations to their PayPal or bank accounts for a seamless experience

7. Treehouse’s Builder Monthly Giving Club

Treehouse is building brighter futures one monthly donor at a time through its Builders Giving Club. Becoming a “Builder” comes with regular updates and stories that pull supporters into a more meaningful giving experience.

Here’s what we love about this monthly giving program:

• Humanistic imagery choices on the campaign page and donation form put a face to the impact of giving a monthly donation
• Bright colors fill the monthly campaign page from the call-to-action button to the impact blocks that describe why donations matter to the bigger picture
• Community values take precedent as monthly donors step into exclusive event invitations, specialized volunteer opportunities, and one-on-one interaction with leadership and staff members
• Dedication donations become simple with a checkbox on the donation form to give a recurring gift in honor or memory of someone
• Embedded giving that allows donors to make a monthly gift with a few clicks on any device

What Could a Giving Community Mean for You?

With many variables in nonprofit finances, a dedicated community of monthly donors and predictable income will have a huge impact on your organization’s long-term health. Recurring giving can become an option on any fundraising campaign you host, offering donors a seamless path to regular involvement.

There are endless examples of strong recurring giving programs that you can follow, but using your creativity to bring your story to loyal donors is the first step. The rest of the details will follow. One year of building support through monthly gifts can make a big difference on retention rates and the way your mission can thrive.

Feel free to share these recurring charity infographics on social media or save them to build out your programs.

The Power of Recurring Giving

A recurring giving program is an unmatched source of predictable and sustainable revenue. Check out the key statistics highlighting the potential impact to your organization from strengthening your recurring donation strategy this year. 

Below, you’ll see data insights from Classy’s platform data and annual reports: The State of Modern Philanthropy and Why America Gives.

Organizations who allow donors to give at a daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly, quarterly, semiannual, or annual frequency see incredible returns. The data shows the impact of having a recurring gift option on a donation site on attracting repeat donations. 

More than that, organizations constantly apply entrepreneurial thinking to establish recurring gift programs that model our 21st-century subscription economy. The better the experience you offer recurring donors, the more loyal they become to contributing a reliable income stream.

The power of a recurring donation became further amplified when we had the opportunity to survey American donors themselves. While heading into the unknowns of 2022, donor loyalty  was incredible as they consistently returned to the same organizations and causes. 

This confirms that recurring donors not only show up to impact your current year’s revenue but also seek connections with organizations they can continue to support for years into the future. As we continue to navigate the impact of economic uncertainty on charitable behavior, it’s highly beneficial to have (and lean on) a cohort of reliable supporters.

There’s always a new audience of donors ready to grow their support. It’s about how you engage one-time supporters and grow your donor relationships that lead to their commitment to a recurring donation. 

The more education you provide to donors about the benefits of giving small amounts over a longer period, the more potential you have to see your recurring momentum grow.

When giving levels hit natural seasonal spikes, such as on Giving Tuesday or at year-end, recurring donation momentum follows. That’s why days like these or significant giving days for  your cause are optimal for outreach about recurring gift opportunities. 

People are naturally more inclined to make an impact and want to feel like they’re part of a larger solution. When you pair storytelling and a design template with the clear desired outcomes of an established fundraising goal, you have an open door to welcome and recruit passionate individuals that will be by your side for the long run.

Apply These Donation Infographic Learnings to Your Nonprofit’s Aggressive Goals

Consider how a recurring giving program can fit into your overall annual fundraising strategy for short and long-term gains. To help you envision what the results could mean for your organization, we packed each of these digital and printable infographic elements with recurring giving statistics and pointers on starting or strengthening the functionality of your recurring giving program.

Get more information or answers to frequently asked questions about recurring donations on Classy by requesting a demo. 

Throughout the year, we heard insights from our nonprofit and technology ecosystem partners that deepened our understanding of the social sector’s opportunities and challenges. We also conducted research, shared in our annual reports, including Why America Gives and The State of Modern Philanthropy. Now, as part of GoFundMe, we have the broadest view of the donor landscape to date that accounts for both giving to individuals and organizations. 

I’ve synthesized all of these inputs into five trends I believe nonprofits can use to create proactive strategies to raise more in 2023.

1. Fundraising Will Require Precision to Break Through the Noise 

Donors are often inundated with requests to give. Consider the requests that occur on an average day—donors round up a bill at the grocery store, receive a donation appeal through email or social media, and find a pamphlet about an organization in the mail. With so many methods of giving available to today’s donors, you will need to break through the noise with a clear message on the specific channels that reach your donors. 

Focus on data specific to your target cohort of donors to inform which interactions are most likely to result in donations. Understand your target donor’s daily interactions and influences, such as their demographics, careers, location, friends, and family. We’ll see advanced A/B testing capabilities, marketing analytics, and audience segmentation become a greater focus in the coming year as organizations hone in on their ideal audience. New opportunities will be unlocked when a nonprofit knows where to place an impactful message and what that message should contain to align with its donors.

2. Privacy Controls Will Promote High-Quality, Targeted Marketing

As privacy controls increase, creating valuable, relevant content that targets the right audience becomes even more critical. Generic marketing campaigns will lose their effectiveness in garnering donors and hinder your ability to reach and engage the right audience. We’re already seeing this in some of our marketing channels. Take email, for example. It’s becoming even easier to unsubscribe to emails as Apple and Google develop banners at the top of emails and prompts asking whether you’d like to unsubscribe. If your content is not customized toward the individual, you risk getting left behind.

Additionally, as more donors opt out of data sharing, the transparency of how and where you are using their data will become even more important. By increasing the trust in your organization and your data collection practices, you’ll make donors more likely to share their data willingly. 

3. Charitable Funding Will Further Diversify

We see the definition of giving evolving to include not only monetary donations to organizations but also donations given directly to individuals through platforms like GoFundMe, and non-monetary gifts such as volunteering time or the contribution of goods. 

As younger generations inherit wealth from Baby Boomers, the ways in which these younger generations give will continue to evolve the fundraising landscape. We see, for example, that Millennials and Gen Z prefer to be more hands-on with their investments, with 40% checking their investments daily. 

As these generations earn and inherit wealth, they are more likely to turn to investment-based giving such as stocks, Donor Advised Funds (DAFs), and cryptocurrency. Almost 60% of millennials own cryptocurrency or stock, and younger generations are twice as likely to give through structured vehicles, such as DAFs. As you look to diversify fundraising at your nonprofit, donations through DAFs and non-cash gifts will be particularly fruitful as those gift options are typically much larger than cash gifts from the same donor.

4. Nonprofits Will Trade Custom Platforms and All-in-One Solutions for Comprehensive, Specialized Partners

The time, development, and resources required to maintain and keep up with the latest technological advances will outweigh the benefits of a customized solution.

Similarly, while the concept of an all-in-one solution seems to promote ease of use and time-savings, in reality, it lacks the flexibility and agility to match the pace of technology. An all-in-one solution’s reliance on acquisitions means that its extensive list of products does not easily integrate and is not updated to keep up with the latest advancements.

In its place, nonprofits will lean on platforms that take the middle path between point solutions and all-in-one approaches. Organizations will prioritize platforms that balance breadth and focus to drive key efficiency gains. This balance will help avoid the complexity tax associated with managing disjointed solutions and donor frustrations bred from platforms trying to be everything at the cost of innovation and user interface.

5. Technology and Partnerships Will Drive Human Resource Priorities 

You might be one of the many nonprofits seeing heightened competition (and turnover) of employees with expertise in high-priority tools and systems. By leaning on technology and partnerships to automate tedious, day-to-day operations, employees will be more likely to stay on board. 

Instead of seeking out talent based on experience with the platform, we’ll see talent sought out for their expertise in a particular function, such as digital marketing, and their ability to learn quickly as systems innovate. Organizations will look for intuitive, easy-to-adopt technology to pair alongside strong digital partners that support scalability in areas such as SEO, paid advertising, email marketing, and A/B testing. 

Nonprofit Fundraising Trends and the Year to Come

I see so much opportunity ahead for the social sector. As a new generation of donors emerges to redirect fundraising efforts, as the pace of innovation quickens for fundraising technology, and as the way you build relationships with donors strengthens from precise, targeted marketing, 2023 holds a lot of promise. I hope these trends help you take on the new year with a critical lens to identify new ways to support your nonprofit and raise more for your mission.

Let’s cover how you can get creative with donor-engagement initiatives to retain year-end supporters and new donors throughout 2022.

Make a First Impression That Ignites Donor Retention

Your donor experience matters. That’s why supporters delighted by an intuitive campaign page lead to a seamless checkout flow and are more likely to share your cause with their network of loyal peers and passionate philanthropists.

Step one to retaining new donors acquired during the holiday season is to make a strong impression from their first interaction with your organization.

Offer a fulfilling giving season experience that kicks off on Giving Tuesday and lasts throughout every year-end touchpoint. Then, stand out by making each donor feel like they play a valuable role in your nonprofit’s mission—because they do. Once you establish a strong sense of connection, you can shape your donor relationships for years to come. This is especially true for donors giving for the first time.

Think of this analogy: Imagine finally getting a table at the popular new restaurant. You sit down and have one of the most delicious meals, but the service and experience were awful. Will you go back? Do you tell your friends to go? The lesson here is you can have a great cause and mission, but a lackluster experience can negatively impact your donors’ perception of your organization and willingness to support you again.

Surprisingly, catching a donor’s eye doesn’t necessarily need to be extravagant. As seen in Classy’s Why America Gives, it highlighted that the biggest motivator for donors to give to a cause is simply understanding the impact of their gift.

The Top Emotional Benefits of Donating for Loyal Donors: 

1. Feeling gratitude for the work nonprofits do
2. Feeling a part of a greater solution
3. Feeling good about themselves

It’s crucial to note the emphasis that today’s donors place distinguishing an excellent giving experience from one that feels disjointed. Equally important is the ongoing expectation for options and flexibility during the donation checkout experience related to payment types and transaction fees. For example, our report showed that 37% of passive donors reconsider donations because they don’t believe their budget will cover an organization’s suggested donation amount.

By offering various giving frequencies and suggested donation amounts through their Classy donation forms, nonprofits can accommodate any financial situation. Plus, nonprofits can now accept PayPal and Venmo donations to provide more payment methods and provide donors the option to cover any associated fees—so they can give as much as possible to the cause.

Build your donor engagement strategies to attract and retain loyal donors in our latest report.

Engage Donors With an Impactful Thank You

Donors will remember if you nail your thank you.

What’s more, if you use an online fundraising platform for your holiday campaigns, you can automate your thank you emails and donation receipts. After all, donors who land on your donation page and complete their gifts chose you over (or alongside) many causes.

So make your outreach feel personal to remain memorable instead of autoresponders. The goal is to sound human, use authenticity to leave a lasting impression, and make donors want to give to you again.

Here are some engagement opportunities to help follow up with your supporters:

• Customize your thank you message and a donation receipt for your giving season donors to explain the impact of their gifts during that specific time. Add details like who was supported, how many people were impacted, or what the impact looked like (e.g., images). In other words, help them feel that their contributions make a tangible difference that lasts into the new year.
• Go above and beyond with a personalized email in addition to your first thank you that continues the conversation. You can also comment on the activity wall of your campaign page to say thank you through a message that’s not attached to a receipt.
• Demonstrate their gift’s impact with thank you notes from beneficiaries or team members explaining how their gift fueled your goals for this year and how they can continue to support. This helps donors see themselves as part of the solution to your challenges.

You’ll build relationships with a personalized thank you that isn’t attached to an ask. So think of it as another touchpoint to plan into your nurture strategy with donors, and get creative to let your authenticity shine.

Establish a Strong Social Media Presence to Engage Donors Organically

Social media produced conversion rates of page visitors to completed donations that reached up to 50% this year. It only makes sense as these platforms become the hubs for all things engagement and community. That also means it may be time to think about your social media presence in the new year.

Use the month following year-end as an opportunity to rethink your nonprofit’s social media template to see how you can organically show up on your supporters’ feeds to stay top of mind.

Here are some quick tips for using social media to retain donors:

• Make frequent, impactful updates: Use each post as an opportunity to connect to donors authentically. By taking advantage of impactful images and storytelling, you remind donors why your cause needs continued support and makes a difference in the community. For example, a testimonial video from a child who received support over the holidays or an image of volunteering. These visuals are a powerful way to bring a human element to each post you share with your community.
• Include a timely CTA: Use the updated link feature in Instagram stories and the ability to include links in posts on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter so that you always have a timely call to action. And so you don’t overwhelm donors with too many options, consider your monthly goals and add a link that will provide the easiest path to give. For example, you could feature your live year-end campaign following Giving Tuesday or a landing page for your recurring giving membership program when you need to boost sustainable revenue.

Honesty and impact matter more than ever with social media, and donors are more likely to give again when they receive regular updates about how your cause makes tangible changes with the funding received.

Think Through a Continuous Path to Give

Your giving season donors can be your next loyal supporters if you make it easy to give again. After all, what’s to stop a Giving Tuesday donor who gave $50 this year from writing a $1,000 check for your annual event next spring? So think about how to offer that next step in the giving journey to motivate increased levels of support.

How to Engage Donors With a Cross-Campaign Promotion:

1. Recurring donations: Consider asking your donors to make an automated gift they can set and forget. Recurring donations give supporters a way to contribute at a lower cost while bringing the same impact that a major donor might.

Our Recurring Donor Sentiment report asked recurring donors what motivates them to continue an ongoing donation. Use their feedback to position your ask better:

• 61% are motivated by the affordability of segmenting gifts over time
• 45% are motivated by swag
• 44% are motivated by exclusive access to cause-related events

Download the Full Report Now

2.Peer-to-peer fundraising platforms: Use fundraising to help supporters raise more money than they could give on their own. Then, create tailored asks for your giving season donors to share your cause with their network through a peer-to-peer campaign. You could even opt to share a DIY-fundraising option to get their creative juices flowing on how they can fundraise for you whenever they want throughout the year.

3. Events: Make sure to promote your upcoming fundraising events as widely as possible to allow your supporters to interact with your mission in new ways. You can also incorporate hybrid events into your strategy to expand your reach, and how your nonprofit can spark interest ahead of your event’s formal registration period to generate a positive buzz.

Segment Communication to Engage Donors Longer

People come together throughout the giving season for different reasons. As you better understand demographics within your donor base, customize your outreach based on communication preferences. That helps you create more meaningful outreach. Treating donors with some exclusivity can pay dividends if someone feels compelled to support you during the giving season.

Then, take your personalized communication to the next level by reaching out specifically to donors who gave to your Giving Tuesday or year-end campaign for the first time, as a repeat donor, or as a major gift. We break this down for you below.

Consider These Segmentation Ideas for Donor Stewardship:

1. First-time donors: Follow up with a handwritten letter or video to share how their actions during the giving season or on Giving Tuesday connect to your cause in a personalized way. For example, use their name and show them that they are much more than a transaction by inviting them to get involved in your annual event or upcoming campaigns. It’s also a great time to share your social media handles so they can feel involved with everything you do.

2. Return giving-season donors: Express that you know the supporter made an effort to return to your cause and stick around. It’s a great time to share peer-to-peer fundraising efforts for the coming year and encourage potential donors to get their communities involved in a team effort to make an even more significant impact.

3. Major gift donors: Source a recurring gift when someone makes a large gift, whether it’s for the first time or returning to give again during your year-end campaigns. It’s a great opportunity to explain how automated donations on a weekly, biweekly, monthly, or quarterly basis can move the needle for your cause.

Outside of first-time or repeat donors, other data points that can help segment your lists include:

• Location of donor
• Gift amount
• Specific program supported
• Comment left with gift
• Ecard sent to loved one

Understand How to Engage Donors for a Strong Retention Rate

Your donors came to you with a passion for making a difference. At the same time, there are always new causes to support coming their way. Remaining top of mind is the most straightforward strategy to retain their long-term loyalty.

But remember not to overthink it. Your organization already connects with each of your supporters uniquely. Simply reminding them why they hit that donate button the first time is plenty to impact ongoing support for your cause.

Use our latest donor behavior data in Why America Gives 2022 to tailor your approach based on who your donors are today and how you’d like your loyal donor base to grow in the future.

What Are the Benefits of Virtual Fundraising?

Virtual events helps your nonprofit reach entirely new audiences with a next level fundraising strategy. They also allow for on-demand events that open the likelihood of supporters attending and viewing your content than a time-bound event. You can appeal to your donor’s schedules, and reach more potential donors using the recordings of your event. Imagine hosting your event once, and keeping registration to access the content on-demand all year to continue building relationships and support raising funds.

A Modern Take on Virtual Fundraising Software

As you start to think about virtual fundraising efforts, consider the way technology sets you up for success. Engaging event platforms let you bring physical, virtual, and hybrid events to life with tech enhancements that exceed modern donor expectations.

22 Creative Virtual Fundraising Ideas

Across almost all virtual fundraising events, your nonprofit organization will likely want to livestream content to your audience. You can also embed your Zoom recording, YouTube or Twitch livestream directly into your Classy virtual fundraising campaign or Classy Live event.

In-Person Event Pivots to Virtual or Hybrid

1. Online Gala Dinner

Many nonprofits were forced to pivot their in-person galas to virtual events due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which struck during the height of gala season. However, nonprofits have seen great success hosting their galas virtually. There’s no longer a geographic restraint so anyone can attend, you can emulate table fundraising with online peer-to-peer fundraising and team captains, and you may actually net higher fundraising totals with an expanded attendance and less overhead costs.

Upaya Social Ventures successfully pivoted their in-person gala to a virtual gala in a few weeks and ended up raising over $300,000, 50% more than their initial fundraising goal. They used their Classy campaign page as a central hub to post messages from leadership, share engaging videos, and even host an auction.

2. Online Auctions

Similar to galas, an online auction or silent auction can increase your audience of potential donors and bidders. The key to a successful virtual auction is twofold. On one hand, your nonprofit must take stock of your items, clearly define the rules for participants, set competitive bids, and promote the auction items in emails and on social media.

On the other hand, you can also use this as an opportunity to ask for donations throughout the event that are separate from the price of every auction item. This way, you can keep people engaged at times when they might drop off. For example, if someone is outbid on an item, you can suggest they donate the amount they would have paid to your organization directly.

3. Online Telethons

You can also turn an online raffle or auction into a telethon event. A telethon can be an opportunity to livestream with a special host or group of engaging community members. You can use the time to share items for auction or raffle of fun prizes in exchange for donations. Mobile bidding can enhance the experience as you tie your event to an online campaign or donation page.

Get creative about a theme that resonates with the time of year or your current projects. You can translate that theme to your host’s appearance, the set of your telethon, and any supporting marketing materials.

Food and Drink Virtual Fundraising Ideas

4. Cooking or Mixology Virtual Classes

Whether you’re making homemade pasta or mixing up a nice old fashioned, cooking and mixology virtual classes cater perfectly to a virtual audience. Your nonprofit can partner with a local chef or mixologist, or even famous culinary influencers if you have the connections, and stream the virtual cooking class fundraising event live.

You can charge admission with a ticketed event fundraising page, or in the form of a donation. The key is to set tiers of gifts. For example, $100 can guarantee a supporter gets a seat in the class, but $250 or more will allow that supporter to participate in a live virtual happy hour or webinar with the cook or mixologist after the class is concluded. Additionally, you can make calls to donate to your nonprofit throughout the livestream fundraising event.

5. Group Dining Events

It may not be feasible to gather your community of supporters together around a good meal, but there are ways to transition a feeling of togetherness into a virtual fundraising idea. When Miry’s List hosted their 2020 World Refugee Day Awards Campaign, they offered a takeout picnic that supporters could pick up curbside and enjoy at home while they watched the virtual awards ceremony.

6.Virtual Alcohol Tasting

Whiskey, wine, mezcal, or otherwise, alcohol tastings are never dull events. Your nonprofit can create a virtual fundraising event where the price of registration includes the cost of the alcohol and shipping. Your supporters can then receive their drinks in time for the live event, where a professional teaches them about the alcohol.

There are some rules and restrictions by which you must abide in order to ensure the legality of your event, but Hope for Haiti is a great example of a nonprofit who has done this with Haitian crema. You can use their model to get started, like clearly calling out which states are eligible to receive alcohol shipments, but always consult with your legal team to ensure you’re in compliance with state and federal laws.

Athletic Virtual Fundraising Ideas

7. Yoga Class

Reach out to your local yoga studio and invite them to lead a class, or series of classes, in partnership with your nonprofit over zoom. You can also ask your supporters if any of them are yoga teachers, or know someone, who would want to guide the classes. Either way, you can sell tickets to your community, as well as the community that regularly supports the yoga studio. The best part of this virtual fundraiser is that there’s no limit to the number of people who can join.

8. Bootcamp

For your supporters who want more of a hardcore workout over a relaxing yoga class, bootcamp is the perfect option. Collaborate with a local trainer to develop a regimen and have them lead the virtual workout. You can also design it so no extra equipment is required, supporters can do it on their own time, and they can share results on social media after.

Consider pre-recording the initial workout with the trainer so you can keep the virtual bootcamp up in a more evergreen capacity. Each time someone pays the registration fee, you can email them the video.

9. Virtual Walks and Runs

Many nonprofits who host regular endurance events—like the Cleveland Clinic VeloSano event, a walk-a-thon, a stair climb, or a 5K—often incorporate a virtual fundraising component into their event even when they’re hosting it in-person. The formula is simple: you charge registration through an online donation form and then the athlete completes the distance on their own.

If you’re going fully virtual, it’s crucial that you create engagement opportunities throughout the campaign. Have riders or racers start peer-to-peer fundraising pages to solicit their networks for support, ask them to share photos on social media with a hashtag, and send them branded gear that promotes your nonprofit while they race.

Community Engagement Virtual Fundraising Ideas

10. Virtual Crowdfunding Pet Events

This virtual fundraising idea capitalizes on people’s love of showing off their furry friends. An event like this can be a great way to get people involved with your organization, especially in a virtual environment. Often, all that’s needed is for them to snap a picture of their pet and post it to social media with a specific event hashtag. You could run a crowdfunding campaign that coincides with the awareness to give people a place to take action.

For example, if you’re hosting a virtual pet parade, they can dress their animals up in costumes and post photos. The virtual component also expands the potential audience since people with birds, turtles, rabbits, and lizards might not normally be able to attend an in-person event with their pets—pets they might not be comfortable taking outdoors. Everyone can participate.

The Boulder Humane Society pivoted their annual Doggie Dash event into a fully virtual fundraising event. They drove engagement across their social media channels powered by user-generated content, and raised 101% of their fundraising goal.

11. Community Talks

Virtual community talks offer an opportunity for your nonprofit to offer supporters something of value, as well as solicit donations for your mission at the same time. Tap your board members, executive leadership, or prominent members of your community and have them speak about topics related to your mission. You can also bring in outside speakers to discuss relevant or timely topics.

For example, if your nonprofit is involved in the fight for social justice, you can have a respected diversity coach lead an open discussion for your supporters. Whatever topic you choose, you can engage your audience with Q&A sessions, educational hand-outs, and interactive conversations throughout.

12. Book Clubs

Virtual book clubs are a great way to get your supporters to donate. Charge a small fee for supporter to get admitted. You can make this a club that recurringly meets and give the attendees an opportunity to donate each time. Book clubs allow for discussion and adds a personal touch to getting connected with supporters.

13. Behind-the-Scenes Tours

What goes on at your organization that the average, everyday supporter never gets to witness? Host a virtual fundraising event that takes your supporters on a behind-the-scenes virtual tour of your operations. There are countless options for what you can show your supporters, regardless of your cause category. The key is to provide them with a value equal to the amount they donate to participate.

This tactic worked well for the Joffrey Ballet in their campaign, “Pulling Back the Curtain: The Nutcracker.” They invited people to get a first glimpse of the play with footage, interviews with artists, the art team, and secret delights along the tour. What’s more, they created their page so that people were sponsoring the virtual event versus just making a donation. This language makes it feel tangible for supporters and gives them a sense of ownership over the actual event when it takes place.

14. Virtual Tailgate

Tailgating for a major sports event is one of the most fun parts of watching the game. You can make your tailgate avirtual celebration. Have your supporters purchase a tailgate package, which can be picked up and taken back home before the big game.

The Palmer Home for Children decided to host a virtual tailgate like this for the Mississippi State football team, and supporters a cooler filled with tailgate foods and treats. They creatively sold sponsorship packages as well, and anyone who purchased a sponsorship had their organization included inside the tailgate cooler on special promotions. Anyone who was unable to grab a tailgate cooler could make a one-time donation and celebrate with a virtual cocktail.

Arts and Entertainment Virtual Fundraising Ideas

15. Game/ Trivia Night

Nothing beats an engaging game night to spark donations to your fundraiser. There are endless virtual game night opportunities with trivia being a stand-out when it comes to captivating the attention of the attendees. You can even tailor the trivia questions to your company or charity to get attendees to learn more about the cause.

16. Virtual Movie Night

Movie nights are an easy way to solicit donations. Simply charge a fee to enter the virtual screening of a popular movie. At the end or beginning of the movie, you can further explain your cause and communicate your mission to your supporters.

17. Script Readings

Hosting a virtual movie night is a good idea, but it can be difficult to convince someone to donate and watch a movie at their house when they could simply watch it on their own. One way to level up this virtual fundraising idea is to invite actors to join your organization on a livestream and read the script to a famous movie together.

To be clear, you don’t need to be an arts organization to do this, any nonprofit can. The key is to get the right people to participate in the script reading. If you don’t have connections to influential actors, you can tap into the local businesses, performance arts centers, schools, or even your direct audience of supporters to participate.

18. Tour an Art Gallery

In the world of virtual fundraising ideas and events, no geographic territory is off-limits. Your organization might be located in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but that doesn’t mean you can’t give your supporters a tour of MOMA in New York City. It boils down to securing partnerships with the right people and orchestrating a virtual fundraising event.

You might not be able to secure access to major venues, but there are thousands of smaller artists around the United States who would likely be willing to showcase their galleries to your supporters. You can build this as a ticketed event and maybe even throw in an online fundraising auction for the artist’s various creations.

19. Virtual Concerts

You might not be able to go to an in-person venue to watch your favorite band play, but that doesn’t mean concerts are off the table. Reach out to bands and invite them to perform for your audience in a closed venue. Sell tickets for the virtual fundraising event idea, solicit donations during the virtual concert, and livestream all the excitement to everyone who bought a ticket.

20. Virtual Pageant

Similar to a concert, you can host a pageant and livestream it for your attendees who bought tickets. Unlike a concert, you can use this opportunity to shine a light on your beneficiaries.

Arc Broward hosted the Virtual Miss Arc Broward Pageant, which empowers their beneficiaries who actually participate in the pageant. They sold tickets to save a virtual seat for the livestreamed event and added upgrade options to enhance the viewing experience with a hot chocolate bomb, a make-your-own pizza experience, or charcuterie board for two. Each enhancement was designed to be a curbside pickup that you take home and enjoy while watching.

21. Comedy Events

Comedians can find opportunities to perform for wider audiences online. Your nonprofit can secure comedy talent from local improv venues all the way up to nationally recognized names, and everything in between. This virtual talent show fundraising event can be more than just a ticket purchase. It can be part of a larger giving day.

The Scleroderma Research Foundation hosts an annual comedy event called Cool Comedy, Hot Cuisine. When they pivoted to a fully virtual event, they moved all of their performers into the virtual space to deliver their performances as well. However, they enhanced the experience by folding in an online auction and gourmet food and wine boxes for purchase.

22. Virtual Fashion Show

A fashion show can be a great virtual fundraising idea for schools, clubs, or communities looking to raise money. You can get creative and partner with local boutiques or stores that would love to have their clothing promoted for a good cause. You could livestream the event or pre-record the fashion show and sell tickets to view it when it’s finalized. You could even lean into a peer-to-peer fundraising model by having each participant or model raise money from their friends, families, and social networks.

African Community Education (ACE) transformed their annual gala into a flexible hybrid event that welcomed virtual guests. During the 2021 giving season, ACE has students walk in a fashion show that was streamed to a virtual audience to immerse them in the experience. The result was a 3X increase in revenue from their 2019 in-person gala.

Which Creative Virtual Fundraising Idea Will You Use?

One benefit to hosting virtual fundraising events is that you can get wildly creative with the ideas and concepts. You don’t only have to stick to ideas that seem to fit exactly in your cause category either; almost any event can be adapted to fit your mission, work, and impact.

Use this list of virtual fundraising ideas to inspire your next great virtual fundraising event, and feel free to tweak them to fit your specific goals. Don’t forget to download our virtual fundraising events toolkit to ensure you nail your next event.

As you build out your nonprofit’s annual strategy, use these virtual fundraising ideas to create engaging experiences for your donors, grow your audience of supporters, and raise more money. Don’t forget to download our Virtual Events Toolkit to help.

By using best practices from the most successful subscription services out there, your nonprofit can take its recurring giving program to the next level. Below, we highlight five of these lessons learned to help you increase your donor retention rates and benefit from consistent recurring donor revenue.

1. Treat Recurring Donors as Members

Amazon Prime and Disney+ both treat subscribers as members rather than simply customers with ongoing transactions. Both do so through strategies like special member days and branding. 

For example, Amazon Prime is a subscription service that provides special services to members, such as free shipping and access to its streaming service. It hosts an annual Prime Day where only members benefit from exclusive deals on top brands. 

Meanwhile, Disney+, a subscription streaming video service, connects its members to the full Disney brand, including in-person experiences at Disney Parks that can leave a lasting impression. Disney+ Day showcases upcoming content on the streaming platform while offering various perks for current and new subscribers. These include benefits like early entry to Disney’s theme parks, discounts on Disney cruises and resorts, Disney+-inspired treats, and photo opportunities at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

Both examples foster brand loyalty from customers because members feel like they belong when engaging with the brand. As a member, they’re not just paying a monthly bill—they’re part of a community.

Nonprofits can learn from this and treat recurring donors as members, too, by fostering a brand connection through:

• Member-exclusive perks: For example, Savory Institute’s Regenerating Members recurring giving campaign offers three membership levels: champion, steward, and changemaker. Each receives corresponding exclusive perks, such as quarterly webinars, discounts on products and offerings, branded apparel, and signed books.
• Special names for the recurring giving community: For example, Canal Alliance calls its members Aliados, meaning allies in Spanish. Additionally, Many Hopes refers to its community of recurring givers as The Rising, a group of “change agents committed to raising children from injustice to influence.”

2. Offer Membership Tiers

Many subscription services will offer tiers based on factors like:

• Number of users
• Needed features
• College student or professional status

This ensures new subscribers aren’t discouraged from joining because they either aren’t getting enough value for the price or feel they’re paying too much for features they don’t use. Successful subscription models meet the customers where they are.

Nonprofits can mirror this approach by offering donation tiers that match donors’ different recurring giving capacities. For example, a college student may only be able to afford a $10 donation per month, whereas the CEO of a company may be able to afford $1,000 per month. 

Additionally, each recurring giving tier can come with special perks to encourage donors to increase their contribution when they can.

For example, Broadway Cares uses membership tiers to encourage recurring donations that “provide essential support for those affected by COVID-19, HIV/AIDS, and other debilitating illnesses across the country.” Membership options include:

• NextGen Network: Donors who are young professionals and give an annual contribution of $250 or more receive exclusive invitations to events and other benefits.
• Angels Circle: Donors who give an annual contribution of $1,000 or more receive exclusive invitations to events, VIP status at some events, and other benefits.
• Visionary Circle: Donors who give an annual contribution of $10,000 or more receive exclusive invitations to events, VIP status at events, and the option to designate their gift to a specific grant category.  

3. Create a Discount Option

Subscription services will often use discounts on the first year or month of service to encourage new members to join. 

Nonprofits can also institute a discount by encouraging donors to request a company donation match from their employer. That added contribution may allow donors to gain the benefits of a higher membership level that they would otherwise be unable to afford. For example, if a donor gives $500 and can have their employer match that gift with another $500, they could join the Angels Circle at Broadway Cares.

Another way to create a discount is by offering multiple frequencies for donating. For example, a donor may choose to give $120 at the start of every year, or they could break that up to just $10 every month for a more affordable option long term. Many subscription services use this technique as well, often providing a discount for services paid in full upfront.

4. Ensure Seamless, Automated Payment

The subscription economy doesn’t rely on members returning each month to settle their bill. Instead, these companies let users set up their payment information once and then seamlessly automates the charge afterward at the agreed-upon frequency.

Many also use various payment options so customers can use their preferred method. For example, BarkBox, a monthly subscription service that provides dog products, offers the expected credit card payment options as well as Venmo and PayPal. Having these payment options may appeal to a wider range of customers.

Nonprofits can implement modern, automated payment processes for recurring donations, as well, through software like Classy. Classy Pay offers flexible, secure payment options, including: 

• Credit cards
• ACH bank transfer
• Digital wallets, like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Microsoft Pay
• PayPal donations and Venmo donations

By reducing any payment friction for recurring donors, you can reach broader and younger donor segments.

5. Take an Evergreen Approach

Disney+ reached over 137.7 million subscribers worldwide in April 2022 and has grown to account for 18% of the streaming video-on-demand market since its launch in 2019. 

Forecasts predict Disney+’s continued success in the streaming services industry because it hosts a lot of evergreen content subscribers can rely on rather than constantly focusing on the need to develop new content to entice users. Evergreen content at Disney+ includes classic movies and shows that people are likely to watch again and again. So having that reliable library of content helps prevent subscriber churn.

Nonprofits can also take the evergreen approach to recurring donor retention through: 

• Consistent messaging and nonprofit branding that members can rely on
• Accountability in meeting their mission, such as through publishing annual reports
• Timely thank you notes and donation receipts
• Quick, clear responses to donor inquiries to keep members informed
• Active, engaging social media accounts

In other words, while your nonprofit may launch new programs or try new marketing strategies, always keep enough consistency and connection to your original intent for recurring donors to trust in and continue with your ongoing relationship.

Grow Your Recurring Giving Program Through Lessons From the Subscription Economy

As the subscription economy continues to grow, nonprofits have a unique opportunity to learn from its approach to inform recurring gift programs. Through a membership strategy like the ones outlined above and effective, streamlined systems, your nonprofit can gain and retain supporters for donation subscriptions for years to come.

You might have heard about updated Mastercard rules. While these changes are no longer applicable to nonprofits and donations, Classy considers it best practice to conform to consumer regulations. We’re here to explain why you should feel confident that your nonprofit still prioritizes the recurring donor experience when you partner with Classy.

This year, Mastercard enhanced its cardholder experience with new requirements around subscription billing models. Our team at Classy is constantly improving the platform to help you facilitate a fantastic recurring giving experience for your donors, which includes allowing donors to give how and when they want.

What Are the New Mastercard Rules?

Mastercard asked any subscription merchant or organization conducting recurring payment transactions to adjust their practices. These rules aim to add transparency for cardholders and reduce chargebacks.

Nonprofits aren’t required to apply these rules but doing so can only improve the experience recurring donors have with their organization, and therefore impact the rate at which they convert and retain them.

How Mastercard’s Merchant Rules Impact Nonprofits

While at the start, we believed Mastercard’s latest updates would also impact any nonprofit organization offering a recurring donation option, they no longer apply.

However, a recurring donation is similar to a subscription as it regularly charges a donor’s card on an automatic frequency such as daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, and annually.

Nonprofits can create better experiences similar to for-profit services and subscriptions by applying the rules Mastercard laid out:

1. Disclose full subscription terms at the time of a recurring gift subscription, including the price that will be billed and the frequency of the billing (for example, “You will be billed USD 9.95 per month until you cancel the recurring donation.“).
2. Send a confirmation by email or another electronic method when a donor enrolls in a recurring donation plan that provides the subscription terms, a transaction receipt, and clear instructions about canceling the subscription. Cardholders may choose to opt out of receiving these notices.
3. Offer an email or electronic reminder for payments that process six or more months apart, such as a semi-annual or annually recurring gift. Nonprofits should notify a donor on this type of plan or recurring gift frequency at least seven days, but no more than 30 days before the billing date, and include the subscription terms and instructions on how to cancel.
4. Provide instructions for canceling a recurring gift online or precise information on how a donor can cancel their donation online (such as a “Manage Subscription” or “Cancel Subscription” link on the merchant’s home page).
5. An online cancellation method easily accessible for donors to manage and end their recurring donation as they see fit, at any time they wish to do so.

You’re Covered With Classy

Classy’s strategy for recurring giving is about much more than being compliant. Classy’s technology creates great giving experiences for supporters, which includes the ability for donors to give how and when they want. It’s why we’ve invested, and continue to invest so much into our recurring giving product set.

Classy’s platform allows donors to manage their subscriptions through the supporter hub, and we’ve launched capabilities like multiple plan frequencies and plan end dates, which give them even more flexibility. We also have plans to enrich the supporter hub with more features like temporary pause options and reactivate options. All of these features are aimed at giving recurring donors the best experience, which drives retention.

Prioritizing the donor experience means investing time to explore what today’s donors want and need. A large portion of that experience is maintaining trust with donors as they give to various nonprofit organizations. We pride ourselves on offering features and proactive measures that naturally support the Mastercard merchant rules.

To ensure we are compliant with the regulations set forth by Mastercard, we will make the following updates by November 2022:

1. Email notification to donors 7 days prior to processing payment for recurring giving plans with frequencies that are six months apart or longer, inclusive of semi-annual and annual donations
2. A required “manage your donation” content block for all recurring giving emails sent to supporters

This email will be enabled and triggered for all existing campaigns so that no action by the organization is needed. However, organizations will have the option to customize the email template just as they currently do for other email templates within a campaign.

Your Trusted Partner for Recurring Giving

Recurring giving at Classy is so much more than remaining compliant. We prioritize innovation and scalability for nonprofits to invite donors to give in the way that works best for them. We recognize the value that nonprofits receive from predictable revenue streams and offer them tools to effectively establish and manage strong recurring donation programs.

Some recent updates we’ve made include additional recurring frequencies, end dates, intuitive donation management tools for donors, and mobile payment options like Paypal. We’ve also made recurring giving available through embedded checkout experiences to give donors the easiest path to provide a lasting impact. Take a look at the example below.

We’ve consistently measured recurring donation trends on our platform through our annual report, The State of Modern Philanthropy to understand the ROI of our investments. We also conducted third-party research in our Recurring Donor Sentiment Report to hear from donors themselves about what drives excellence in recurring giving experiences.

The collective research we do between our data collection and conversations on the ground with nonprofits helps us introduce new functionality that keeps recurring giving ever-evolving with modern technology and the donor landscape. Valuing incredible recurring donor experiences means we already have in place many of the aspects Mastercard is now requiring. We will continue to prioritize the evolution and improvement of the donor experience so you can build trusting relationships with your donors that lead to loyal supporters.

Now, with greater access to online fundraising systems, accepting monthly recurring donations has become a realistic option for nonprofits of all sizes. In fact, building a strong recurring giving program is now a necessary fundraising strategy to both protect nonprofits’ revenue streams and scale their organizations.

When a donor signs up for a recurring donation online, there’s no need for written checks or monthly reminders; much of the expense and hassle on the nonprofit’s side have been eliminated. In light of these advances, it’s time for your nonprofit to consider developing its own online recurring giving program. Here are some of the benefits of monthly recurring donations.

Reasons to Invest in Monthly Recurring Donations

1. Increased Revenue

For organizations who raise over $50 million in total revenue, 26% of their online revenue through Classy came from recurring gifts according to The State of Modern Philanthropy 2020. Even though monthly donors generally give smaller amounts on a per-gift basis, the aggregate amount they give over a year almost always adds up to more.

For instance, the average one-time gift amount made through Classy Pay is $189. The average monthly recurring donation of $31 would provide an equal return over one year as a one-time donation of $372. When you combine this higher annual giving level with monthly donors’ increased retention rates, you can begin to see why monthly donations are important.

Successful Nonprofit Example: Recurring Donation Volume

Operation Broken Silence saw a 1,128% jump in the total number of recurring donors supporting their mission and an 865% rise in total monthly giving revenue since taking advantage of recurring giving on Classy.

2. Easy and Effective For Nonprofits and Donors

A monthly recurring donation allows supporters to spread the financial impact of their giving across the entire year, lessening the acute financial effect. Supporters end up contributing more on an annual basis, but the distribution of payments across the year makes the commitment more manageable.

This flexibility makes recurring giving an especially effective way to increase gift amounts from committed supporters who might not have the financial resources to move up and become “major donors” with larger one-time gifts.

Also, from the nonprofit’s perspective, monthly recurring donations provide a relatively nonthreatening way of asking donors for larger financial commitments. Instead of asking for an increasing lump sum each year, your organization can ask for a smaller monthly donation that adds up to a larger annual total. The lower monthly figure tends to come across as less aggressive to donors, making them more likely to consider your request.

Choose a Recurring Giving Campaign Type Proven to Yield Results

In The State of Modern Philanthropy 2022, we found that donation pages bring in the most average recurring revenue of any campaign type. Placing a recurring gift option on your donation page is a great place to start capturing year-round support, and you can grow your program with crowdfunding and peer-to-peer campaigns that follow close behind in recurring revenue potential.

3. Improved Cash Flow

Monthly recurring donations are extremely beneficial from an operational perspective. It’s common for nonprofits to receive a majority of their income during a seasonal donation window. If an organization has its big fundraising event in December, and its other major fundraising campaign during June, then its revenue is going to be concentrated in those two months.

This introduces operational challenges (particularly for smaller organizations). Revenue may be confined to certain months throughout the year, but operating costs are generally spread out evenly. As a result, organizations can have insufficient cash to function optimally during the down months.

Building a predictable revenue stream helps to reduce this imbalance and provide much-needed support during your organization’s fallow periods.

Monthly recurring donations also protect your nonprofit during times of uncertainty or emergency, such as during a disaster or pandemic. When unforeseen circumstances challenge your organization’s cash flow, a recurring giving program will provide critical stability.

4. Better Long-Term Planning

As a corollary to the cash-flow point, a mature monthly recurring donation program can also help an organization improve its long-range planning and decision-making.

Revenue from recurring donations is far more predictable than revenue from one-off gifts. Once some data has been accumulated, an organization can easily calculate the average span in months its recurring gifts last and the average number of new recurring donors it acquires each month.

Using these numbers, your nonprofit can model out its projected revenue from recurring donations with a high degree of accuracy. Being able to predict income in advance helps with longer-range budgeting and planning. For example, it’s much easier to commit to hiring a new staff member or piloting a new program if you know that you will be able to cover these costs with recurring revenue.

5. Cost-Effective

There’s no need for repeat solicitation with recurring gifts. Once you’ve converted a donor into your monthly recurring donation program, the gifts continue indefinitely until the donor decides to stop. Of course, you’ll need a retention strategy to encourage continued engagement, but the costs of maintaining recurring donors are generally lower than annual givers.

Simple ways to improve your donor retention without spending more include personalizing your outreach messaging, experimenting with custom questions in your donation form to better understand your donor base, and sending customized follow-up emails in response to each donation.

Offer More Flexibility Through Recurring Donation Frequencies

As the economy fluctuates, make it easy for donors to continue giving recurring donations at the frequency that works best for them. Offer options to give monthly donations, but also to change those to daily, weekly, bi-weekly, quarterly, semi-annual, and annual donations.

6. Strengthened Donor Loyalty and Engagement

Of all one-time donors who return to start a recurring giving subscription, 25% go on to make an additional one-time gift on top of their recurring gift. Of those recurring donors, 51% return to also give through a different campaign type, according to The State of Modern Philanthropy 2020. It’s clear that recurring donors are willing to take additional actions for your nonprofit on top of their monthly donations.

This is also reflected in their participation in registration with fundraising campaigns, as well as peer-to-peer. Of recurring donors who return to take additional action, 14% sign up to fundraise or donate to a registration with fundraising campaign, and 10% participate in a peer-to-peer campaign.

7. Heightened Sense of Community

The key to donor retention is facilitating conversation and connection within your community to keep supporters excited about your mission. Your recurring donors are a special cohort that deserves tailored communications, so reach out to them regularly with custom updates about your work and the impact of their monthly recurring donations, exclusive perks, and thank you messages.

Every month when a donor makes their contribution, you have the chance to start an organic conversation and remind them of their impact on your nonprofit, fostering the clear sense of community that’s so important to donors and solidifying a positive feedback loop that keeps them engaged with your nonprofit.

Successful Nonprofit Example: Recurring Donation Program Growth

Savory Institute saw a 4,277% increase in recurring gifts since launching its community-driven recurring program through Classy in 2017.

Integrate Recurring Giving Into Your Existing Fundraising Campaigns

As you build your branded recurring giving program, don’t forget that you can easily integrate requests for monthly recurring donations into your existing fundraising campaigns and donation forms. This is the easiest way to get your feet wet and start testing out different appeals while beginning to acquire recurring gifts.

Start by including the option for donors to subscribe to recurring giving on the donation form for your next crowdfunding campaign. Then, when you’re getting ready to take the next step and launch your branded recurring giving campaign, you can also use a crowdfunding campaign to promote it.

Develop and Promote Your Own Recurring Giving Program

To start building your recurring giving program, identify your goals, analyze your audience, and plan a campaign to promote monthly giving. These goals could include your target monthly recurring revenue amount or number of monthly donors, for example. Once you identify your focus, it’s crucial to keep your audience in mind when deciding on the best appeal.

Consider the top factors that make up your target demographic and leverage your donor personas to map out your strategy. From there, identify a small group of your most committed supporters to help you get your new program off the ground, and ask them to become monthly donors. By starting with a soft launch, you can test your strategy and receive valuable feedback from your most avid advocates.

Building a recurring giving program requires a lot of work, but it starts with these small, actionable steps. Create an exciting opportunity that your community wants to be a part of and the return on investment from each monthly recurring donation will set you on a path to sustainability.

An Overview of Fundraising Campaign Types

We’ll take a look at five different campaign types at your disposal when you use a modern fundraising platform like Classy. These include:

• Donation Pages /Donation Websites
• Crowdfunding
• Peer-to-Peer
• Ticketed Events
• Registration with Fundraising Events

Choosing the right campaign type is vital to your fundraising success. Your decision affects the entire marketing and communications strategy that you’ll use to rally and engage supporters.

For example, the call to action you’d include on a donation form would be along the lines of “make a one-time donation.” For a peer-to-peer campaign, you’d change that to something like “sign up to fundraise on our behalf.” If you want to lean heavily on storytelling through photos and narrative text, or explain the power of different gift amounts through impact blocks, you might lean toward a crowdfunding campaign where people can come to donate.

Below, we’ll explore the different use cases and nuances of each campaign type and provide actual Classy campaigns examples. First, let’s go over how you can determine your nonprofit’s primary focus to help decide which type is right for your first campaign.

The Value of Using Multiple Campaign Types

It’s important to state that it can be highly effective for nonprofits to use multiple campaign types throughout the year to capture new donors and audiences according to how they’d like to give. Our annual report, The State of Modern Philanthropy, outlines how valuable a multi-campaign approach can be to a well-rounded fundraising strategy. 

As you go through the list of campaign type options, think about which combination can help you reach your target donors and raise the funds you need at various milestones throughout the year. You’ll see proof points and sentiment from Classy customers to help you envision your organization’s next successful campaign.

What’s Your Campaign Focus?

To ensure you choose the right Classy campaign type, determine your organization’s focus or top priority. This isn’t the end-all-be-all of your fundraising strategy but rather something to guide your first campaign.

Start by exploring the most immediate need that brought you to use Classy in the first place. For example, you might want to establish your main donation button on your website and build a landing page that serves as a place for someone to donate.

Define specific goals and desired outcomes

Your goal will help you choose the best-fit campaign to get you there. The key is to be as specific as possible. It could also be a good idea to envision the end of the campaign and your desired outcomes. Get clear about the donation volume you’d consider a success, how many donors would participate, the ideal length of your campaign, and how many supporters you want to build relationships with throughout the process for future campaigns.

Once your team agrees on its focus, it becomes much easier to create cohesive messaging that helps supporters understand how they can contribute to your work. Each section below begins with a sample focus statement before exploring the different campaign types and examples from real nonprofits.

Donation Page

“Our nonprofit simply needs to gather donations and build a supporter base.”

A donation page can stand as your landing page. Supporters can arrive, read a short section on your work, and complete their donations. Your nonprofit can link to your donation page from your main website through a donation button. 

From there you can take the following action to get donors to your donation page:

• Include it in your monthly email appeal for donations
• Add a promotion within your newsletters
• Create online ads 
• Develop social media posts
• Write timely blogs
• Include the URL on pieces of direct mail

Flexibility of Donation Pages

With a donation page, you can collect either one-time or recurring donations. You can offer the frequency and the donation amounts listed on the form. Further, you can use pass-through parameters to have a pre-selected donation amount automatically populated when someone lands on the form. 

Offer more choices on your donation pages with modern payment options like Venmo, PayPal, cryptocurrency, digital wallets, and ACH bank transfers. Classy also offers an embedded checkout experience with a pop-up modal that can be placed on your website to simplify the experience for your donors. 

Many Hopes brought an embedded checkout experience to their donation website to see a year-over-year donation volume increase of 56% and a $975 average gift size specifically through the PayPal option.

For example, look at how Casa Central built its donation page to be engaging enough to draw someone in yet still strong enough to stand on its own.

Donation Page Classy Campaign Example

The ROI of Donation Pages

Donation pages powered by the Classy fundraising platform bring in the most average recurring revenue of all campaign types from automated repeat donations. They also have the least amount of canceled recurring contributions in the first year from the original recurring donation compared to all other campaign types.

Crowdfunding

“Our nonprofit needs to gather donations, build a supporter base, and tell our organization’s compelling story in the process.”

A crowdfunding campaign is built for storytelling. With this campaign type, you can inspire support for your cause with a robust narrative that ultimately drives people to donate.

Crowdfunding campaigns are the landing page before someone gets to your donation page. It’s meant to draw people in, teach them about your nonprofit, show the impact their gift will make, and steward them to complete a donation. Nonprofits often use video, rich imagery, and well-written copy to accomplish this.

Crowdfunding’s Value for Community-Based Campaigns

While a crowdfunding campaign works well for story-driven appeals, it’s also ideal for time-bound appeals that fundraise against an optional, public-facing goal. You can’t do this on a donation page. In addition, when you run a crowdfunding campaign that’s bound to a set duration of time, it can create a sense of urgency to donate.

Additionally, when someone donates, you can thank and encourage them in real time on the comment wall of the campaign page. This public-facing engagement opportunity shows supporters that you and your team are grateful for the support.

It also lends an element of social proof to the campaign. With a donation page, you cannot see who’s donated, how many have donated, or gauge any sense of momentum. Here’s a campaign by Water4 that puts all of these best practices to use.

Crowdfunding Classy Campaign Example

Crowdfunding for Recurring Giving

Donation pages can effectively include a recurring giving option, but you can also use a crowdfunding campaign to build a dedicated recurring giving program. The only things that change are the call to action, which shifts the focus from a one-time donation to a monthly recurring donation, and the timeline. Recurring giving programs are often evergreen. Operation Broken Silence built a recurring giving program in this fashion.

Recurring Giving Crowdfunding Classy Campaign Example

The ROI of Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding campaigns have the highest percentage of donors on mobile devices who are visiting from social media platforms. We also see that crowdfunding campaigns are the second most common way a donor returns to give a second donation. 

Peer-to-Peer

“We want to empower people to fundraise on our behalf.”

A peer-to-peer fundraising campaign page may look similar to a crowdfunding campaign, but it has a different call to action. Instead of asking someone to donate, a peer-to-peer campaign instead asks them to sign up to fundraise on your behalf.

Some peer-to-peer campaigns will offer both options and invite supporters to donate or sign up to fundraise. That way, people can still give to your cause even if they don’t want to build a personal fundraising page.

Create a Central Hub for Peer-to-Peer Fundraising

Your main campaign page serves as a central hub from which supporters build their personal fundraising pages. Fundraisers will then send out their personal pages to their networks, asking people to donate.

All donations to personal fundraising pages link back to your main campaign page and increase your fundraising progress toward the goal. The true value here lies in that network effect.

As individuals reach out to their friends, families, and coworkers to share their fundraising pages, your nonprofit gets exposed to new audiences that may not have heard about your mission before. Peer-to-peer fundraising can also net your organization higher overall fundraising totals.

That’s because someone who starts a personal fundraising page can often raise more from their network than they can donate out of pocket. Not everyone can donate $100 at once, but many people have 10 friends who can each donate $10. Look at how Volunteers of America built their page.

Peer-to-Peer Classy Campaign Example

Year-Round Peer-to-Peer Campaigns

While most peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns are time-bound, like most crowdfunding campaigns, you always have the option to leave it on year-round. In these cases, you would call it a year-round peer-to-peer campaign.

Beyond that, you can build your peer-to-peer campaign as a DIY fundraising campaign, which lets supporters fundraise on their own terms and time, like Room to Grow did. Someone can donate their birthday, wedding, athletic event, or another major life milestone.

DIY Peer-to-Peer Classy Campaign Example

The ROI of Peer-to-Peer

An individual’s fundraising page brings in 20 donors on average, so your campaign could potentially reach 100 donors if even five people participated. We also saw that the average amount raised by each participant’s fundraising page in 2021 increased by 34% on average from 2020.

Events

“I want to hold an event that activates my entire community of supporters.”

Classy offers two different ways your nonprofit can tap into the power of events. First, you can choose a ticketed event, which allows you to sell tickets to your event—our online ticket sales for nonprofits feature makes this easier than ever. Second, you can choose registration with fundraising, which combines the peer-to-peer fundraising campaign with a ticketed event campaign. With the addition of Classy Live, these events can now be run virtually or enhanced in-person with mobile features.

Ticketed Event

A ticketed event is what you’ll want to choose for any event that you want to sell admission tickets for, like a gala. You can control the total number of tickets you want to sell, as well as the types of tickets you offer supporters.

You can also create special promo codes to pass out and attract additional attendees. Last, you can include a “Donate” call to action so that anyone who can’t attend your event can still make a donation to support like the High Fives Foundation did.

Ticketed Event Classy Campaign Example

Registration with fundraising is similar to the ticketed events campaign type, but it mixes in an element of peer-to-peer fundraising. Often, nonprofits will use this campaign type for endurance events like 5Ks, marathons, and run/walks.

Participants can still pay for admission to the event, but there’s an option for them to create a personal or team fundraising page as well. Some will also use this peer-to-peer functionality as a gate to entry for the event.

Someone must fundraise a certain dollar amount to guarantee their registration in the event. You can use this example from the Sacramento SPCA to inspire your own campaign.

Registration With Fundraising Classy Campaign Example

The ROI of Events

Not only are events seeing tremendous year-over-year donation volume growth after the pandemic years of 2020 through 2021, but registration with fundraising events converted at the highest rate of all campaign types. We also see ticketed events bringing in the highest percentage of donations over $1,000.

What Classy Campaign Type Will You Choose?

No matter which Classy campaign type you choose, it’s helpful to view your campaign as an iterative work-in-progress that can always be improved. One of the biggest keys to success is to have a defined focus before you start that drives a strong first version that can be improved upon later.

When you understand the call to action and are confident in the campaign type you need, you’ve done the hard part. That way, you won’t spend hours designing a page only to realize you’ve chosen the wrong type.

For more ROI related to specific campaign types on Classy, visit The State of Modern Philanthropy report. If you’re interested in learning more about how Classy can power your online fundraising efforts, please reach out to us. Good luck!

You’re about to explore eight simple tips for getting donations for your nonprofit. These tips come from trends across more than 12 million donations completed on the Classy fundraising platform, as well as donor sentiment insights from our ongoing third-party research.

Consider this a simple roadmap to hook new and existing donors. We’ll cover everything from how to greet donors with a smooth donation site, to how you can encourage expanded giving through recurring donations and peer-to-peer fundraising. Let’s get started.

Tip #1: Know Your Target Audience

The first step to getting donations is to understand who your donors are. This is your opportunity to get creative about which donor segments you’re looking to target. 

As you build your donation site and first donation requests, details about the audience you’re trying to resonate with will be critical. This information can become your solid foundation on which to base all other decisions.

Take time to define your ideal donors

You may already know which supporters are most interested in your cause category. If not, we’ve got you covered. Take the time to understand what defines your donor base to speak directly to them as you ask for donations.

This is especially important if you’re looking to pivot the groups you’ll target in the future. You could also take it a layer deeper by identifying individuals who have demonstrated a particular passion for your organization. We’ve built a few questions to start your exploration below.

Ask yourself:

• What is the age group or generation(s) your target audience falls in?
• Which social media platforms or sources will you use to reach your target donors?
• Will you find more support locally or by targeting a nationwide audience? 
• What other interests will your ideal donors hold?
• What communities would your ideal donors be members of?

Download our Campaign Field Guide Series for interactive worksheets to further define your donors and how to reach them, as well as how to design an effective campaign and execute communications. 

Learn what motivates different donor groups

Our annual Why America Gives report shows that the economy, current events, and challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic continue to impact giving. Once you know whom you’re targeting, you can use these insights to understand how various groups stay motivated to donate.

Start with our annual donor sentiment research. You can see a snapshot of our recent generational giving breakdown to discover which donors are most likely to give to your cause category and what keeps them engaged.

Tip #2: Choose the Right Technology

Before you invite donors to contribute to your cause, ensure you’re offering a seamless giving experience. Your donation site is the page your excited supporters will land on to donate. It’s the moment they decide to complete a donation or abandon the page, making it critical to think through this checkout process proactively.

Choosing the right tool to build your donation site

Your nonprofit has choices when it comes to the donation experience you’re looking to offer. Many nonprofits establish a donation website dedicated solely to collecting funds. You could also add a donation button to your existing website that links visitors to a simple donation form. 

Think about how to meet donors’ expectations with the technology they want to use. That way, you’re in the best position to secure their generosity after attracting them to your pages. Choose the best fundraising technology for your organization’s current state while thinking about what may benefit you as you grow.

Tip #3: Make It Easy to Give Through Your Donation Site

The list of donation site best practices available to help you is extensive. Here are a few key points to prioritize based on our latest research.

Donation Site Best Practices

1. Make your main donation button shine above all else

The first step to getting someone to your donation form is optimizing your donation button. 

The top factor donors say leads to an excellent experience is that a nonprofit clearly explains the impact a donation will have on their cause. That’s where your donation button placement, language, and supporting context will make a big difference. 

You’ll want to customize your donation button using the information you have about your target donors and what appeals to them. For example, placing a “Donate Now” button on your website is fine, but could be more personalized. 

Imagine having that button sit below a text blurb that reads, “For as little as $10, you can rewrite the future of American students facing hunger.”  Page visitors now understand exactly what your nonprofit can accomplish with their generosity. That goes a long way in building their trust and motivating them to come back again.

2. Reduce friction for your donors in the process

One of the top reasons a donor reconsiders donating is they do not see the payment option they prefer. The payment step seals the deal, so get ahead of any friction there.

Think beyond credit cards to payment types offered by modern consumer brands. Including PayPal, Venmo, and even cryptocurrency on your donation page is a great way to provide donors with the flexibility they expect. When donors see an option that feels trusted, secure, and simple, they’re more likely to follow through.

3. Make sure the mobile experience feels natural 

We saw that 56% of donor traffic to a donation page in 2021 came from a mobile device. First and foremost, make sure your website is mobile-friendly. Aim to include as few form fields on the donation form as possible and short instructional text that informs the donor without crowding their screen.

The only way to know how the experience feels on mobile is to test the look and feel of your donation page on a few different devices and browsers. Adding mobile-friendly payment options will boost the experience too.

Tip #4: Personalize Your Asks for Donations 

Now you’re ready to request donations from your target audience. Let’s go over a few ways to make your donation appeal stand out and which channels might be best suited for your request.

Stand out from other donation requests

Think about the person on the other end of your appeal and what will make them feel special. Your first ask for a gift is your opportunity to build a relationship with that prospective supporter. Leaning on a voice and tone that feels human is a strong start. 

One rule of thumb is to always greet your potential donors by name. Offer details about what their contribution means to you personally, as well as what it will accomplish for your organization. 

You’ll also want to note what’s happening in your supporter’s world. Suppose an economic downturn or other current events have made a noticeable impact on your community. Recognizing this can add a sense of urgency to your ask. 

Take every chance to share images or videos to make your story come to life. Present visuals that help donors see themselves as part of the solution to the timely challenge you’re tackling. And lastly, always leave more ways to connect with your organization (social links, website, email) in each of your communications.

Tip #5: Choose the Right Marketing Channels

When you know whom you’re talking to, where you’re sending them, and how you’ll frame your ask for donations, it’s time to think about where to share that ask. Take a look at a few channels you can use to bring donor traffic to your donation pages and alert supporters about new opportunities to give.

Marketing Channels for Your Donation Site

Direct mail

Send a physical letter or postcard to your target donor audience to add that personal touch. Get creative about promoting your online donation page on paper with tools like a QR code generator that links back to your site.

Email outreach

Email, compared to other marketing channels,  drives the second-highest percentage of traffic to fundraising campaigns (27%) that go on to complete a donation. A thoughtful email strategy is powerful for reaching donors. Think about how you can elevate the correct information with an engaging flair to drive people to take action.

Social media

Social media is an increasingly important strategy for donor acquisition. Each platform has its benefits in reaching different audiences. 

We see that overall, Facebook drives the most traffic to campaigns. We also see that LinkedIn is the most likely to convert that traffic to a completed donation. Play around with a strategy that works for you, based on your target audience and goals.

Fundraising events

Both in-person and online events are a great way to reach potential donors. Get creative with an event idea that gives you an outlet to engage new and existing supporters. Welcome them in and offer meaningful ways to connect. From there, share ways they can take action during your event and have a solid plan to nurture those relationships after the event ends.

We recently talked to African Community Education (ACE) about how they use an annual gala to rally supporters around their mission. Their investment in the events space as an outlet for relationship-building and donations helped triple their gala revenue between 2019 and 2021.

Tip #6: Encourage Repeat Donations

Right now, your focus may be on securing your first donations, but it’s important to think ahead to maximize the lifetime value of your new donors. Imagine your one-time $25 gift could be a monthly $25 contribution that adds up over time. That type of financial power and predictability comes from tapping into recurring donations.

Explore recurring donations

Recurring donations can help you better predict your income. Turn one-off donation requests throughout the year into reminders of why being a regular donor is so valuable. 

The key to attracting recurring donors is a strong value proposition. Highlight the benefits of being a member of your recurring donor community and the value it’s providing your organization financially. Make donors feel special for contributing so significantly to your cause, and regularly update what that means for the work you’re doing or those you’re helping.

Make recurring giving an option for any donor

Many fundraising solutions will offer recurring giving as an option to add to your donation page. That offering allows you to add a recurring donation option to your donation site and checkout form to make sure every donor is aware of the opportunity to expand their impact. 

The more you elevate the option, the more donors will opt in and spread their generosity in the best way for them. Our Recurring Donor Sentiment Report shares why donors enjoy recurring gift options:

• 56% feel their recurring gift enables them to support the organization continuously
• 47% feel like their ongoing donation is making more of an impact than a one-time gift
• 38% feel more connected to a nonprofit when they give regularly

Your recurring donation option can also present donors the chance to give at the frequency (monthly, weekly, daily, etc.) and gift size they prefer.

Tip #7: Tap Into Your Donors’ Networks to Increase Giving

Peer-to-peer fundraising is a big topic within our annual report, The State of Modern Philanthropy. We’ve seen just how impactful it can be to fundraise within a community, especially in times of economic fluctuations.

Explore peer-to-peer fundraising

Look at each donor who supports your cause as a member of a larger community. By doing so, you open the door to greater levels of support when they advocate for your cause and engage their personal networks on your behalf.

Peer-to-peer fundraising gives existing donors a simple way to solicit their networks for donations to support your cause. Modern tools will make it easy for your donors to spin up a branded individual fundraising page. That page can then be shared with their colleagues, family, friends, social media networks, and communities. 

Take advantage of the strong ROI of peer-to-peer fundraising

The average individual’s fundraising page on Classy experienced a 34% year-over-year increase in donations between 2020 and 2021. It’s also important to note that a single individual fundraising page on Classy brings in an average of 20 donors. 

Suppose you got only five donors to participate in peer-to-peer fundraising. Even that could help you potentially reach 100 donors as a result.

Tip #8: Regularly Evaluate What’s Working and What’s Not

At first, you may start out trying a lot of different ways to get donations for your nonprofit. It’s normal to navigate decisions without real insight at the beginning stages of your development since there’s no concrete evidence to tell you what’s working.

As you build your strategy over time, you’ll have some important and valuable metrics at your disposal. Lean on those for guidance when you decide what you’ll continue and what might not be resonating.

Track the right metrics early on

We’ll leave you with a list of a few metrics to track as you begin receiving donations to help you improve for the future. 

• Average monthly overall donation volume
• Average monthly overall donor count
• Breakdown of recurring vs. one-time gifts
• Average one-time donation amount
• Average recurring donation amount
• Average recurring donation frequency
• Top sources of donor traffic to your donation page
• Average conversion rate of site visitors to completed donations

Collect data to build relationships that bring donors back

The data you’ll gather about your donors is just as important as transaction-based metrics. Collect the right data about your donors during the process to personalize the experience for future outreach and build a more authentic relationship. 

Get Ready to Secure Donations for Your Nonprofit

If you need help getting started, the Classy team is here for support. Subscribe to our blog to get more resources and best practices sent to your inbox weekly.

In fact, this platform switch presents a perfect opportunity to re-engage this critical group of donors and even acquire greater levels of support.

Below, we discuss how you can make this migration as streamlined as possible, seize this opportunity to reconnect with your recurring donors, and create a targeted outreach plan that inspires supporters to recommit to your cause. Here’s what you need to know to get started.

3 Simple Steps to Migrate Your Recurring Donors

Many nonprofits are quick to feel intimidated by the idea of a recurring donor migration and what it might encompass, but the process is not as complicated as it seems.

There are three clear-cut steps for your organization:

Step 1: Email your recurring donors and ask them to set up recurring donations (according to the frequency option they desire) on your new Classy campaign.

Step 2: Cancel these donors’ old recurring gifts in your previous platform.

Step 3: Call any recurring donors who have not yet set up new donations on your Classy campaign, and ask them to make donations over the phone. Your staff can manually enter in these new donations and cancel those in the former platform.

The great news is that this process is not only simple, but it also has the potential to transform into a major donor stewardship event.

Pro Tip: Classy makes it seamless to migrate donors from your existing platform. Learn about these migration opportunities and more.

A Stewardship Opportunity You Can’t Miss

The recurring donor migration process can become a unique opportunity for your team to personally re-engage this vitally important cohort of supporters.

Each targeted email or phone call creates the opportunity for a meaningful touchpoint that reconnects your recurring donors with their impact on your mission. The direct calls, especially, are moments to remind them of the real people behind your brand and share person-to-person interactions that can deepen those connections.

Use these messages to call to mind:

• The milestones your donors have helped you reach so far
• How their ongoing support will impact your programs moving forward
• Any upcoming initiatives their donations will directly support
• The people and personalities behind your mission
• How upgrading their gift can make an even greater difference on the lives of those you serve

You can also explain to donors how this transition to Classy will give them even greater flexibility and control over their own recurring subscriptions. On Classy, they’re able to customize their payment frequency, the dates they’re charged, their payment method, and even the end dates for their gift plans. Let your donors know how your organization deeply considered their needs and wants when deciding your platform transition.

Overall, understanding that this is a stewardship opportunity beckons another layer of strategy. Get smart with your messaging by segmenting your outreach.

Segment Your Outreach

An intentional, segmented outreach plan will ensure customized messaging that creates a positive experience for your donors. Whether you organize supporters by their credit card expiration dates, or the size or frequency of their donations, consider how each touchpoint can serve as a piece within a larger, personalized narrative versus a one-off administrative message.

Here are three ways you might segment your recurring donors.

Group 1: Recurring Donors Set to Expire in the Next 30 to 60 Days

Email this group of recurring donors and let them know that their card is about to expire. Ask them to start a new donation with their most up-to-date information through your brand new campaign or recurring giving donation page on Classy.

This message is also an opportunity to upgrade donors’ gift sizes. Thank them for their continued support and ask if they might consider increasing their donation by a certain amount. Be sure to demonstrate what that additional support would mean to your organization in terms of impact.

You can also use this outreach as an opportunity to be transparent and further develop your brand’s voice. Consider communicating to your donors why you’re updating your recurring giving program, what you need from them to help it succeed, and outline the benefits both your supporters and beneficiaries will receive from the change.

Group 2: Your Recurring Donor All-Stars

While their credit cards might not be set to expire anytime soon, the next group to consider could be your “all-stars.” To assess which recurring donors you have the strongest relationships with, segment your list by the length of your relationship, donation amount, or by how often they open your messages.

If you decide to sort your donors by length of relationship, consider referring to them as your “founding members” to make them feel like they’re part of an exclusive group. Let them know you’re revamping your recurring giving program, and you’re reaching out to personally invite them over. Thank them for their longtime support and walk them through setting up a gift on your new Classy campaign.

This could also be an opportunity to introduce any new perks for your recurring donors. Consider what else you could provide to help strengthen their connection to your team. Exclusive content? Specific impact updates? Branded swag? Position the transfer and relaunch as a way of saying thanks and offering new benefits to increase the chance donors will engage.

Group 3: Recurring Donors You Don’t Know as Well

After you’ve reached out to your all-stars, it’s time to reach out to your recurring donors with whom you don’t have quite as much history, or as strong of a relationship.

Introduce your new recurring giving campaign and acknowledge the work your supporters helped make possible thus far. As with the previous groups, let them know how your new program is an improvement and how it offers them even more flexibility with their payment methods, frequencies, and overall subscription plans.

Communicate how you’d like to take this opportunity to learn more about them. In addition to making a donation on your Classy campaign, perhaps you can ask them a survey question or two to help you better understand how you can serve them as valuable members of your community.

Ready to Migrate Your Recurring Donors to Classy?

Migrating your recurring donors to Classy can be a seamless process. Just as importantly, it offers you the chance to personally connect with your supporters and rejuvenate their passion for your mission.

Let them know how your recent change in platform will also improve the flexibility and control your recurring donors have over their own giving. Strategic planning and communication can turn this necessary transition into a stewardship opportunity that yields even greater, long-lasting rewards for your organization.

Warn to learn more about how you can not only transfer, but ultimately up-level your recurring giving campaign? Talk to a Classy expert today.

A recurring donation appeal is a specific request for a donor to commit to an automated gift at a frequency of their choice. The difference between an appeal that drives conversions and one that falls flat is the use of descriptive language, engaging visuals, and a clear connection to impact.

To help you successfully convert returning donors into committed recurring supporters, we’ve crafted five email templates sure to resonate with any audience. Pair these templates with graphics whenever possible, like infographics, images, or visual markers. That extra touch can go a long way in driving donors to convert.

Harness the Power of Email to Boost Donor Acquisition

Twenty-six percent of online donors say email is the communication tool that most inspires them to give. When COVID-19 challenged nonprofits to adopt fully-remote operations in 2021, we saw donors respond to email appeals with even larger gifts. In fact, the average amount raised per 1,000 fundraising emails in 2021 jumped from $45 to $78 year over year.

To identify additional opportunities for targeted recurring appeals, it’s important to:

• Evaluate how often you’re communicating with your returning donors
• Organize a recurring donor prospect list to keep tabs on supporters who are taking repeated action on your behalf
• Identify a way to store all of your donor data in one centralized location

With these best practices in place, you will know exactly when it’s time to elevate your communications to inspire a recurring gift.

Template #1: Build social proof with a compelling donor testimonial

Donor testimonials are the pinnacle form of social proof. When deciding whether or not to donate to your cause, donors are consciously or subconsciously looking for validation from others that it’s a smart choice.

How to Leverage This Template at Your Nonprofit

If you already have a recurring giving program in place, tap on existing donors to share their first-hand experiences. Encourage them to explain why they upgraded to a recurring donation and how it has positively impacted their life.

Once you have a recurring donor (or donors) in mind, fill out the prompts that relate to your specific organizational information and then share this template with each individual to help get their creative juices flowing. Encourage each donor to customize the language as they see fit to speak to their unique experience, and be sure to emphasize how much you appreciate their time.

Template #2: Spark an emotional connection to your program with testimonials from beneficiaries 

The most valuable perspective on your organization’s impact comes from those your efforts help. Their views and experiences provide exclusive insight into your program’s effectiveness and, therefore, can inspire supporters to get involved.

How to Leverage This Template at Your Nonprofit

Identify a beneficiary who has openly expressed their appreciation for your nonprofit or who you believe could clearly communicate the tangible impact of each gift. Explain how much you value their perspective and how each testimonial provides your supporter base with greater insight into the impact of each gift.

Next, confirm that the beneficiary you’re reaching out to is comfortable with their name and photo being made public. Once you’ve received their approval, don’t forget to thank them for their participation with a meaningful note, phone call, or cup of coffee.

Once those two steps are complete, fill out the prompts that relate to your specific organizational information before passing it to your beneficiary. Invite them to add their own message and customize the language to reflect their experience.

Template #3: Speak to the long-term impact of a recurring donation

A mature recurring giving program can help improve your nonprofit’s long-term planning and decision-making. Emphasize how this predictable stream of donations can help your organization model out its projected revenue, and remind donors that the impact of their gift will be felt for years to come.

How to Leverage This Template at Your Nonprofit

Determine which member of your team you would like this email to come from, then customize your message to reflect your organization’s unique long-term goals.

Template #4: Invite donors to join your exclusive inner circle 

Your recurring donors are a special cohort that deserve to be treated that way. To increase your chances for conversion, highlight the exclusivity of your program and emphasize the tight-knit community you’re inviting them to be a part of.

How to Leverage This Template at Your Nonprofit

Vet a list of your most passionate supporters, then identify a team member who has had the most interaction with this cohort to be the sender. Consider marrying your appeal with the celebration of a special day for your organization (like your founding day), or try to match it with a timely fundraising goal you’re marching toward.

Template #5: Highlight material items donors could give up in exchange for a recurring gift 

Get creative with how you frame your recurring donation appeal. Rather than sticking with a standard call to action, offer an exchange program that encourages people to donate the money they would’ve spent on a material item toward a recurring donation instead.

How to Leverage This Template at Your Nonprofit

An example of this approach could be encouraging donors to skip one Friday night happy hour each month and instead donate that amount as a monthly recurring donation. Although seemingly small, just $20 a month can add up quickly to impact someone in need.

Confidently Send Donation Appeals to Drive More Recurring Support 

Building a healthy recurring giving program takes time, but starting with a strong donor acquisition strategy is the first step. Create an exciting opportunity that your community wants to be a part of, and remind donors just how much of an impact their contributions make on the lives of those you serve.

Already a Classy Customer?

You’ll make key decisions such as the type of program you want to run, how to best tell your recurring giving story, and which donors to target. Once your program is up and running, you’ll spend time maintaining its momentum while you continue to scale it to meet your nonprofit’s goals.

Tracking the return on investment (ROI) for your recurring giving program can help you see what’s working, what’s not, and how to leverage that information to make improvements.

Read on for a look at some of the goals you can set for your recurring giving program to measure your success and plan concrete steps toward achieving them. Below, we’ll discuss three metrics you can track to help you review your goals, evolve your program, and scale it into the future, along with four reports to run to see your progress.

Being able to easily run reports to track your recurring giving program’s ROI will help your staff fully leverage this critical, reliable revenue stream.

Setting Recurring Giving Program Goals

Setting goals for your recurring giving program helps your nonprofit visualize and implement a plan to achieve them. These will also help evolve your initiative from perhaps simply having a recurring gift option on your donation page to a more fully-fledged program. Goals allow you to plan for growth into the future and provide benchmarks against which you can measure your success.

Check out our 2021 Recurring Donor Sentiment Report as you set your goals. We gathered data from over 1,000 recurring donors to find what motivates them to give, incentivizes them to stay, and causes them to leave. Setting goals and using Classy to track your progress toward them can help your nonprofit align your efforts with those findings.

3 Recurring Giving Program Metrics to Track

Below are three key data points that can guide your goal-setting process and demonstrate your recurring giving program’s ROI.

1. Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)

MRR is the income you can expect to receive each month from your recurring giving program. Lost MRR, also called “churn,” is the monthly income you lose when people cancel their recurring gifts.

By tracking these figures you can set goals for:

• Target total MRR for the year
• Percentage increase in MRR from the previous month, quarter, or year
• Maximum acceptable churn rate

These goals will provide an overview of your program’s success and whether your current investments into it are enough to meet your targets.

2. Number of Active Donors

This measure looks at the total number of your supporters who make recurring gifts. You can use it to set goals around:

• Target number of supporters to have in your program
• Number of supporters by which to grow your program each month, quarter, or year

This measure offers a concrete way of reviewing your recurring giving program. Even if you aren’t hitting revenue targets yet, you can see how many people are joining your movement and how each newcomer might be able to encourage their networks to further the cause.

Particularly if you’re just getting your program started, setting a goal for how many supporters you want to convert into recurring donors can help you build momentum and see what is possible.

3. Recurring Gift Increases

Over time, you want recurring givers to increase the size of their donations, even if it’s just by a few dollars. Measure this by setting goals around:

• The number and percentage of recurring donors who increase their gift size each year
• How large supporters’ increases are each year

Tracking this helps you sustain your mission and also gauge the overall engagement and commitment of your audience over time.

4 Reports to Measure Success Toward Your Goals

Once you know what data you want to track to measure success and progress, you’ll need to know which report to use and when to accurately determine the ROI of your recurring giving program.

Using a fundraising solution like Classy makes this easy. Classy allows you to access custom reports at any time and share them across your team. You can then use these reports to make pivots to address any gaps in your programs.

Below are a few of the reports you can pull from Classy that can help shed light on the health and growth of your recurring giving program.

1. Returning One-Time Donors

Use this report to see donors who have given more than one donation to your organization. These supporters will likely be more responsive to targeted outreach encouraging them to become recurring donors. This report can assist with any goals you’ve set around the number of active donors in your program.

2. Failing Recurring Giving Plans (Churn)

To ensure you meet your MRR targets, you’ll want to reduce your churn rate as much as possible. Looking at the failing recurring giving plans report allows you to quickly review any recurring donations that had unsuccessful transactions.

Sometimes this can be due to something as simple as a supporter’s change in address or credit card information. Use this report information to reach out to donors to remedy the payment and keep their membership in your recurring giving circle active.

3. Recurring Plans Over One Year

This report shows you recurring donations that have been active for at least a year. You can use this report to evaluate how well you retain recurring donors. You can also use it to identify potential candidates to approach and appeal for a slight increase in their recurring contributions.

4. Upcoming Expiring Recurring Plans

Avoid unplanned churn by pulling this report to see recurring donations with upcoming credit or debit card expirations before they happen. You can reach out to supporters to update the payment information in advance and thank them again for their continued support.

Mature Your Recurring Giving Program and Scale Into the Future With Easy Reports

Building and growing a recurring giving program is an important investment for your nonprofit’s future. By setting goals around your program and pulling reports to track its progress, you can know what to change and what to keep the same to maintain a positive ROI for the effort.

Already a Classy Customer?

Many organizations believe they must either fall into the camp of having no recurring giving campaign or having a huge, robust program. This can paralyze you from actually working to take your recurring giving program to the next level, whatever that might look like for your unique organization.

The truth is that there are many stages of healthy growth between these two ends of the spectrum. A successful recurring giving program is the result of cumulative steps over time that build a truly sustainable effort.

It’s important to evaluate your current efforts and consider how you can reach that next step. Ask yourself these top questions to gain a better understanding of where your recurring giving program currently stands and identify areas for improvement.

Get the Lay of the Land

Consider the following questions to gauge the current state of your recurring giving program.

How many recurring donors do you have?

Have you checked this number recently? Some organizations enable the option to make a recurring gift on their donation forms, but don’t know how many recurring donors they’ve organically acquired this way. Maybe your nonprofit doesn’t think it has a recurring giving program, but you do—it’s just smaller, and you can take steps to grow.

No matter your number of existing recurring donors, there are steps you can take to increase it and build out your program. For instance, if you have more than you expected and you don’t already have a branded program, perhaps it’s time to create one for this special cohort of donors and move them all to one campaign and hub.

If you only have a handful of recurring donors, it might be premature to build a hub, but think about steps you can take to fire up your efforts, including:

• Step 1: Enable recurring giving as an option on your donation forms. Make sure you’re surfacing this option to one-time donors.
• Step 2: Incorporate asks for recurring gifts in your fundraising throughout the year. Consider dedicating one of your year-end appeals to sign up as a recurring donor, or go big and launch a dedicated, month-long campaign at another point in the year to spark interest.
• Step 3: Eventually create a branded recurring giving campaign. Give your cohort of donors a special name, brand your program with its own look and feel, and segment communications to recurring donors to make them feel special.

How many of your recurring donors have cancelled?

It’s important to keep an eye on your retention rates. Let’s say you have 200 recurring donors, but 250 people have previously cancelled their plans. Donors are churning at a worrisome rate; what can you learn from that? How can you prevent donor attrition? How are you recognizing and thanking your recurring donors?

Nonprofits using Classy Pay experience the benefits of the automatic credit card updater to avoid losses due to expired or cancelled credit cards, as well as the ability to accept various payment options like ACH. Your communications plan should also strategically touch base with your recurring donors to keep them engaged and excited about your organization. Download our free 13 Donor Retention Email Templates to enhance your plan.

What’s the average length of your donors’ recurring plans?

Are your recurring donors all new, or have they been around for a long time? If many are new, evaluate how you are creating milestones to intentionally check in on them along the way.

Consider if staff turnover plays a role here for your organization too. Has there been a change in who manages your recurring donors? If you have a core group of long-time recurring donors who signed up under a former development director, make sure the new overseer has a current plan in place to engage and sustain this group into the future.

Outside of when your donors’ recurring plans started, continue to keep an eye on their length over time compared to industry benchmarks, so you can pulse-check your retention efforts. The median/average lengths of a recurring gift on Classy are 11 months/13 months, respectively.

Audit Your Communications

Get a hold on when you’re communicating with your recurring donors and identify other potential opportunities to elevate this level of engagement.

Do you have consistent appeals throughout the year?

Double-check that your recurring giving appeals aren’t lopsided to one specific season or period. Spread them out and balance out your calendar as you develop donor relationships throughout the year. Don’t miss the opportunity to include an ask in your Giving Tuesday or end-of-year communications, though.

Also make sure to offer different recurring giving frequencies to give your donors more options and flexibility to manage their regular donations.

Is there a special day or event that could serve as an opportunity to ask for recurring donations?

If you haven’t already, consider what important events or moments in your community could be a great time to attract recurring gifts:

• Organizational or donor anniversaries
• Cause awareness days/weeks/months
• Major annual events hosted by your organization

Do you have a recurring donor prospect list?

Trigger communications based on when and how your supporters are taking action on your behalf. For instance, set up an alert when someone makes a repeat donation for the second or third time in the year, signalling they could be a prospect for a recurring donation. Nonprofits on the Classy platform can easily identify these candidates using the Returning One-Time Donors report.

Keep tabs on supporters who are taking repeated action on your behalf, such as repeat volunteers, fundraisers, event attendees, or a mixture of all of the above.

Do you have a goal for how many recurring donors you’re trying to acquire each year?

Just as you should keep a pulse on your retention efforts, establish your goals around recurring donor acquisition. Evaluate what your results have been to date, and then set your realistic goal for the next calendar year. This intentionality can give you something solid to track toward, plan your communications around, and measure against.

Retain and Steward Your Recurring Donors

Your retention and stewardship efforts directly impact how sustainable your recurring giving program will be over time.

How are you engaging your recurring donors?

Your recurring donors should receive tailored communications that help them feel set apart. Are you sending them a special welcome email or newsletter that acknowledges them as an integral, esteemed member of your community?

Consider how you can use different tools to level up that feeling of custom communication. For instance, your welcome message could be a custom video from your team that thanks and acknowledges them as a member of your branded community.

How often are you checking in with them?

After surveying over 1,000 recurring donors, Classy’s 2021 Recurring Donor Sentiment Report revealed that a significant number of recurring donors wanted to hear from the organizations more often. Evaluate the frequency of your communications and make sure you’re touching base enough times throughout the year.

Get more firsthand insights to learn exactly what motivates recurring donors to give and incentivizes them to stay with your organization.

How are you recognizing them?

A big way to help recurring donors feel special is to spotlight them in your communications. Consider highlighting recurring donors in your:

• Newsletters
• Annual report
• Communications with your board
• Social media posts

Not only does this public spotlight help them feel valued, but it also boosts social proof to the rest of your community that this recurring giving option exists, others are doing it, and they can be a part of this special community too.

How are you reinforcing what their dollars are doing?

Whether you email your donors quarterly, bi-annually, or another cadence that works for your community, your recurring donors should receive regular updates on the impact of their donations. They should also be the community that hears from you first whenever you make a big decision or have a significant program update.

Get Started

No matter the current state of your recurring giving program, you can take steps to level it up and continue to grow it over time. Perform a pulse-check on where your program currently stands, and draft up a plan on how you can incrementally improve your results.

In fact, bookmark this page and revisit these questions year after year—perhaps during your annual or quarterly review processes—to continue evaluating your progress.

These stepping stones will help you build a recurring giving campaign that is truly sustainable into the future.

Already a Classy Customer?

In April 2021, we launched new recurring frequencies to give you and your donors more options to build and execute a powerful recurring giving strategy. Now, we’ve added even more recurring frequency options: daily, weekly, and bi-weekly. 

In addition, we’re excited to announce the launch of our new recurring end dates, which gives your donors the option to select an end date for their recurring plan directly from your donation page. You and your donors can also easily edit active recurring plans to include an end date, providing greater control and flexibility.

Below, we dive into a few ways you can leverage these new frequencies and recurring donation end dates to engage and convert donors.

Recurring Frequency Use Cases: Daily, Weekly, and Bi-Weekly

These new frequency options can inspire some creative campaign ideas to engage your recurring donors in new ways. A few use cases include:

• Awareness weeks or months: Suggest daily donations during an awareness week, or perhaps weekly donations during an entire awareness month.
• Religious tithing and holidays: Offer a digital tithing option with weekly recurring donations. Daily donations can create a unique experience for supporters during religious holidays like Ramadan.
• Supporter budgets and schedules: Supporters might be more able to give on a recurring basis when the frequency matches their pay schedule. Their pay periods could fall on the 15th or last day of the month, making a bi-weekly recurring frequency option useful.

These are just a few examples. With additional recurring frequencies, your organization now has even more creative freedom to ideate and execute campaigns, calls to action, and programs that stand out and boost supporter engagement in new ways.

Pair these flexible frequencies with Classy’s new recurring end dates feature to continue cutting through the noise by providing donors with a greater sense of autonomy over their commitment to your cause.

How End Dates Improve Recurring Donor Retention

Donors faced with the option to make an ongoing gift ultimately want to be able to control and manage their donation, including how long they want their recurring plan to run. They might be able to commit for only a specific length of time, or their willingness and financial ability could leave it more open-ended.

Giving your supporters the ultimate control over their recurring donation, including the ability to set its end date, can build more trust among your donor base. This improved trust can, in turn, translate into improved retention. The more your donors trust your nonprofit and feel that you’re prioritizing their giving experience, the more likely they’ll be to sign up, promote your cause, and even take additional action again in the future.

This feature also saves your staff time and effort in the long run. While conventional wisdom may tell you to not offer end dates on recurring plans to extend the life of each plan, the reality is that many donors will end up wanting to cancel at some point. Servicing all of these requests can create an organizational burden for your nonprofit, as well as ultimately lead to an unpleasant giving experience.

Allowing your donors to manage their own plans—like they’re accustomed to doing with the rest of their online subscriptions—puts them in the driver’s seat. That empowerment goes a long way towards building trust while also eliminating the administrative burden of servicing these requests.

Valuable Use Cases for Recurring End Dates

This feature also offers your organization more customization to execute specific campaign types where an end date can be important.

Some examples include:

• Religious events: As noted above, end dates can be particularly valuable for religious observances, like Ramadan or Hanukkah, that involve a finite, highly concentrated period of giving throughout your community.
• Seasonally-based campaigns: An end date is valuable for campaigns that run for specific lengths of time. For instance, if your organization focuses on education, you can run a fundraising campaign that asks donors to equip teachers in the classroom for the duration of a school year. Simultaneously, parents could start personal fundraising pages that ask friends and family to give a monthly donation to support their child over the course of the school year, or until they graduate.
• Sports or team leagues: The same concept applies to sports leagues. Your organization could ask for recurring donations to support a particular team or a specific season. Parents could also start fundraising campaigns on their child’s behalf, or on the behalf of coaches, and solicit recurring donations from their networks for the duration of the season. Recurring donations could also go toward a specific fund, like a team’s annual travel budget.
• Funding a particular project: If your organization is building a school, monument, or any other project over a length of time, consider requesting recurring gifts to support that build until its projected completion date.

With Classy, recurring donors have total control over their gift plan. They’re able to customize their payment frequency, the dates they’re charged, their payment method, and now the end dates for their recurring subscriptions.

We’re cooking up even more features to optimize the giving experience for your recurring donors, which we’re excited to announce in the coming months. When you give this flexibility and control to your donors, you can improve your overall recurring retention rates and set your organization up for scale.

Have you considered shifting your Giving Tuesday goal from converting more one-time donations to elevating your recurring giving program?

Giving Tuesday is one of the most high-traffic donation days of the year. Why not use it to promote the opportunity for donors to amplify their impact with a recurring gift to help improve your organization’s cash flow throughout the year?

To help you attract more passionate supporters and create a sustainable income stream for your organization that flows well into the year-end giving season and beyond, select a state of readiness from our list below and we’ll walk you through a strong Giving Tuesday game plan.

Jump ahead to see tips based on where you’re at:

Why Focus on Recurring Giving for Giving Tuesday?

Recurring giving is your nonprofit’s straight path to sustainable revenue all year long. Take advantage of the organic influx of support that comes with the giving season to establish predictable funding for your mission and allow supporters to give effortlessly over time. 

Communicate the impact a recurring donation can make on the long-term health of your organization. Doing so can help you engage those landing on your donation pages this Giving Tuesday with the intent to make a big difference.

Here’s what our latest data in Classy’s The State of Modern Philanthropy 2021 report tells us:

• The average recurring gift duration is 13 months, and the average gift size is $42. 
• We’ve also seen our top 10% of nonprofits achieve average gift sizes of $131 on Classy.

Pair that with the $511 million in donations the Classy giving platform sees on Giving Tuesday, and you have yourself a smooth path to achieve your year-end goals. 

Deliver a Seamless Giving Experience to Today’s Donors

Consumers are becoming increasingly more comfortable with subscription-based goods and services, and that behavior translates to how they view recurring giving to your nonprofit.

Classy’s 2021 Recurring Donor Sentiment Report found that 61% of recurring donors appreciate the affordability of segmenting their gifts to nonprofits over time. 

The end of the year signals cleansing of subscriptions that won’t serve us in the new year and a fresh look at new ones. Present your recurring giving program as a subscription donation option on Giving Tuesday to make a relevant appeal to younger generations of donors.

Promote Your Recurring Giving Program on Giving Tuesday

I’m Ready to Launch a Recurring Giving Program

Level Set: You’ve heard the buzz about recurring donations and maybe even have a recurring giving option enabled on your checkout forms. That’s a significant first step to unlocking more generosity to drive change.

To take your recurring giving program to the next level, consider these three simple steps:

3 Steps to a Successful Giving Tuesday Launch:

1. Decide which type of recurring giving program is best 

Build a membership program with a unique brand that piques the interest of supporters. Invite them to be a part of your community, family, or inner circle. These words all exude a sense of connection, loyalty, and trust. 

You might also consider a sponsorship opportunity. Nonprofits successfully use this approach when they position a recurring donation as a way to provide ongoing support to a beneficiary, such as “adopting a child” or “sponsoring a zoo.”

The good news is that there’s no limit to the number of programs you can try out. The first step is to nail down what will resonate most with your audience on Giving Tuesday and grow from there.

2. Differentiate your messaging

Recurring donation programs are all built around a robust and compelling message. People choose to invest when they feel tied to your mission and vision, especially on Giving Tuesday.  Think of it as your thoughtful invitation to donors instead of a direct ask to give.

Consider what message you want to get across when writing content that greets new and existing donors on your recurring donation pages. What will a donor gain from making a recurring donation as opposed to a one-time gift? Be sure to clearly and concisely answer that question in your unique words to compel your supporters to join.

Provide tangible examples of what those donations will do for your cause and why starting now matters. 

3. Think through incentives

Giving Tuesday gives you an incredible opportunity to tie festive incentives to your recurring giving program. Time-bound incentives centered around the giving season can help you drive action from supporters.

Imagine offering a welcome bundle to anyone who signs up to give a recurring donation on Giving Tuesday. This same approach can go for anyone who gives at a specific frequency (monthly, semi-annually, etc.) or in a particular gift amount ($25 or above). Get creative in the same way you see consumer brands drawing people in with limited-time offers.

The best part? You see the benefit for years to come when you continue the momentum with regular communication and opportunities exclusive to your recurring donors.

I’m Looking to Expand My Recurring Giving Program 

You’re interested in boosting your recurring giving program’s membership this Giving Tuesday to set you up for a strong year of fundraising ahead. We’ve got you covered.

3 Steps to a Successful Giving Tuesday Program Expansion:

1. Consider a referral program

This marketing tactic is at your fingertips if you’ve built loyalty among your existing donor base. Offer a Giving Tuesday-specific swag item or a limited edition gift to those who refer someone in their network to subscribe to your recurring giving program.

2. Tap into influencer marketing 

Word of mouth is powerful. Similar to the peer-to-peer fundraising model, personal stories attract more donations to your cause. Think about when you’re scrolling on Facebook and see someone fundraising for awareness around a disease that impacted their family members. That’s a solid case to support that cause over another. You can easily tie a recurring membership to that same concept. 

Instead of a peer-to-peer landing page, maybe you arm your existing recurring donors and any new arrivals with your recurring donation landing page and a template to share with their audiences on social media. In that template, provide them with the language to describe why signing for a recurring gift makes their donation go further, for longer. 

3. Share a timely goal that drives action

Time-driven goals give people more of a reason to take action the second they land on your recurring donation page instead of waiting to think it over. Let donors know your goals for the coming year and why recurring gifts are crucial to your success. 

Present your goal on social media, in emails, and across newsletters. Show your progress along the way so people know their membership truly makes a difference. You can even create a new incentive every Tuesday leading up to Giving Tuesday for new recurring members.

Get your donation page ready for people who want to act right away. You can easily do this by optimizing your page for mobile with digital wallet payment options like PayPal, Venmo, and ACH.

I Want to Refresh and Rebrand My Recurring Giving Program

You have a recurring giving program in place but haven’t nailed down your nurture strategy for donors who’ve been members for a while. Let’s help you add an engagement boost for Giving Tuesday to opt for larger gift amounts in the new year.

3 Steps to a Rebrand Your Recurring Giving Program on Giving Tuesday:

1. Welcome donors into a community

Rebrand your recurring giving program with a name that shows donors their connection to your cause and other passionate supporters in your recurring giving community.

Build a dedicated recurring giving landing page that makes donors feel seen and welcomed. Include language around why regular donations make such a significant impact on your cause, coupled with creative imagery that exemplifies the work being done with the help of their gifts. 

Consider any donor who wants to make a larger imprint on your cause by offering several gift amounts, giving frequencies, and payment options. The small details drive supporters to contribute more regularly and turn loyal recurring donations into even larger gifts over time.

2. Make donors a part of your new year plans

Use Giving Tuesday as a way to share your big picture for the coming year. Think about how you can lead with your vision and tie concrete actions to the dollars you’ll raise with every new recurring donation you receive. 

When you make people a part of what you’re doing, they’ll feel that fulfillment every time they donate. You can add to that by regularly sharing updates on progress made due to new recurring donation sign-ups.

3. Use the power of social media 

Social media is the perfect place to relaunch your recurring giving program (even if you only made a few tweaks). Create hashtags related to your updated naming or messaging to draw attention, and pair that with meaningful posts that get people excited about signing up for a recurring donation on Giving Tuesday. 

There are endless social media trends to tap into on Giving Tuesday. Start simple with a countdown to Giving Tuesday Instagram story series. From there, try ideas such as leaning into past donors to share their “why” behind a recurring donation to your organization. Another idea is to create a giveaway to get more eyes on your page. 

Think about how many donors you could get to sign up for a recurring gift if each new member was automatically entered into a giveaway for an impactful prize.

Quick Recurring Giving Program Checklist for Giving Tuesday:

Make the most of your Giving Tuesday marketing by offering the best recurring giving experience possible for new and existing donors.

Ask Yourself:

• Is my donation page set up to support recurring gifts? If not, check out our Donation Page Checklist.
• Am I offering donors the flexibility to give at their preferred frequency? Explore the frequencies available to you through Classy.
• Have I set up enough options to complete payment for donations? Get ahead of it with new options like Paypal and Venmo before Giving Tuesday.
• Am I capturing payment information through ACH to avoid canceled cards? Read the data behind ACH’s impact on recurring donations and explore ClassyPay’s automatic credit card updating.

Below, we’ll talk more about what subscription donations are, as well as three important takeaways your nonprofit should know. Learning how to take advantage of the subscription giving era helps your nonprofit tap into this desirable form of donations through your future or existing recurring giving program.

What Is a Subscription Donation?

Subscription donations are monetary gifts that are automatically billed to a donor at a specified time interval. Donations can be set to be routed from a donor weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually, or at any other frequency, your nonprofit wants to offer.

Historically, we’ve thought of this as a “recurring” donation. While your nonprofit may still consider subscription donations a part of your overall recurring giving program, it’s forward-thinking to reframe the option as a “subscription” gift. Your donors are increasingly familiar with the subscription model and more comfortable signing up to give in that way.

Many people use subscription services daily and don’t even realize it. Think about an electricity bill set up for automatic payments or streaming music services like Spotify. Donors appreciate the ease of subscription services, as they’re one less bill to have to process each month personally. After setting up the automatic payment, the service continues seamlessly.

Try framing subscription donations as a new way donors can offer consistent support in an easy, effortless way for your cause. Likely, more recent generations will quickly connect to the subscription terminology rather than a recurring gift that may take time to explain.

3 Things to Know About Subscription Donations

We recently released our 2021 Recurring Donor Sentiment Report. This research involved a third-party survey of over 1,000 recurring donors in learning what motivates them to give, stay, leave, and more.

Below, we cover three significant findings from this report that can help build a case for subscription donations at your nonprofit.

1. Subscriptions are on the rise in younger generations.

In our research, nearly half (44%) of the recurring donor survey respondents were millennials. This figure becomes over half when including the 11% who were from Generation Z.

Data shows that 71% of Generation Z has a Netflix subscription, more than any other generation. It’s also worth noting that 55% of Generation Z actively chooses eco-friendly and socially responsible brands to support.

The combination of an appetite for subscription-based services and a want to support good causes creates fertile ground for nonprofits looking to tap into younger generations’ support.

In addition, our recent report, The State of Modern Philanthropy 2021, shows that the average monthly subscription donation made through ACH is 55% larger than recurring gifts made with credit cards.

ACH, or Automated Clearing House processing, is available to Classy customers through Classy Pay, our seamless integration with Stripe. ACH fees are lower than credit card processing fees for nonprofits. An expired credit card can’t interrupt a gift with this option. You’d be surprised at how younger donors might prefer giving this way to ensure more money goes toward your cause.

2. Consumer behavior can be parallel to donor behavior.

Consumers are more comfortable with subscriptions, especially during the pandemic when contactless delivery and digital forms of entertainment increased in necessity. There are now subscription services for various streaming platforms, meal delivery kits, coffee, razors, workout programs, and more.

As consumers have become more comfortable with subscription-based goods and services, that behavior can translate to how they relate to recurring giving as donors to your nonprofit.

Our survey found that 61% of recurring donors appreciate the affordability of segmenting their gift to your nonprofit over time. To help you visualize that, imagine if, rather than giving a one-time $120 donation, a donor can better budget for a $10 monthly donation subscription over the course of a year. It’s easier to commit to this structure set forth by many other popular subscription models.

In addition to affordability, subscription donations help 56% of donors feel like they’re able to support your nonprofit continuously. They also leave 47% of donors feeling that their recurring donations make a more significant impact than a one-time gift.

3. Recurring giving is the new subscription gift.

Thirty-eight percent of recurring donors felt more connected to a nonprofit by donating regularly. This creates an opportunity to frame subscription donations as a meaningful gift-giving option.

Rather than a wine subscription during the holiday season, for example, people can gift a subscription donation in someone’s name to a cause with which they align. Nonprofits can encourage this by establishing creative recurring giving programs where these monthly donors will receive tangible benefits over time for their support.

Thanks to recurring donors, these benefits can include swag, discounted event tickets, and stories about specific people your nonprofit helped. Our report showed that 45% of survey respondents appreciated physical swag as part of being a recurring donor and 44% enjoyed exclusive access to cause-related events.

By framing subscription donations as the perfect gift, your nonprofit can encourage thoughtful giving for holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, and more.

Tap Into Subscription Donations to Connect With a Wider, Committed Audience of Supporters

Subscription donations are the future of nonprofit fundraising. By leveraging this increasingly popular way to support causes, nonprofits can connect with a larger audience, including the next generations of donors.

Next Stop: Classy Academy’s Recurring Essentials Course

To help your organization maximize the impact of recurring giving, we’ve rounded up our top 10 recurring giving resources to educate your team, guide your decision-making, and help you grow your recurring giving program. Use these free resources to create a comprehensive strategy that will help your nonprofit amplify its impact.

Recurring Giving Resources

Guides and Templates

1. The Ultimate Guide to Recurring Giving

A strong recurring giving program is a must. Whether you’re just starting or are looking to level up your strategy, this comprehensive guide will help you get there. Discover tips on goal-setting, a launch plan, campaign branding, donor retention, and more.

2. 8 Email Templates to Upgrade Your Recurring Donors

Once you’ve taken the leap to officially launch your recurring giving program, it’s time to learn how to craft email appeals that inspire donors to deepen their involvement. Discover new ways to initiate conversations around upgrading recurring donations and steward existing donors to give higher amounts and additional one-time gifts.

Blog Posts

Getting Started

3. Top 7 Reasons to Invest in Monthly Recurring Donations

If you’re still not convinced that recurring giving can help boost revenue at your nonprofit, here are a few more reasons to give it a try. Learn why recurring giving is crucial to your organization’s long-term planning for reasons like improved cash flow, strengthened donor loyalty and engagement, a heightened sense of community, and more.

4. 5 Types of Recurring Giving Programs to Consider

Not knowing which type of recurring giving program to launch can often be the reason nonprofits go without one. Discover which recurring giving program would be most beneficial for your audience as you explore these five most common program types, with a list of pros and cons for each.

5. 3 Recurring Giving Campaigns to Inspire You

These organizations launched effective and compelling campaigns with conversion in mind, so we’ve highlighted how they did it and how you can too. With everything from pass-through parameters to custom donation pages, this blog post breaks down tangible ways your organization can elevate its program and boost revenue.

Grow and Upgrade Your Program

6. 5 Unique Ways to Thank Recurring Donors

It’s crucial to make your recurring donors feel appreciated and special. Here are five unique incentives to inspire your nonprofit’s creative thinking and simple ways to implement similar ideas at your organization.

7. 3 Powerful Strategies to Upgrade Your Recurring Giving Program

Check out these three modern strategies to consistently raise more money, every month, into the future. Learn the value of recurring frequencies, ACH payment options, and catering to Gen Z.

8. 4 Storytelling Tips to Boost Recurring Donations

Learn how to tell your nonprofit story in a more compelling way to forge an emotional connection with supporters and motivate them to take action. Use these four nonprofit examples as inspiration to craft your own narrative and make your donors feel like part of something meaningful.

Videos

9. How to Level Up Your Recurring Giving Program

This session from the Collaborative features a conversation between Tracee Henneke, the development manager of sustainability at Mobile Loaves & Fishes, and Angie Moore, the chief individual fundraising officer at CARE, about how their respective nonprofits approached recurring giving and what they’ve learned since launching their programs. They share best practices, acquisition and retention tactics, growth strategies, and more. 

10. How to Modernize Your Recurring Giving Program

This webinar will walk you through the elements your nonprofit needs to tailor your program to appeal to the modern online donor. Learn how to leverage eye-catching design to tell a story and build credibility, as well as ways to tailor your messaging to modern supporters.

Are You Ready to Get Started?

Dive in to this full library of resources, and learn how Classy can help you achieve your fundraising goals by visiting our recurring giving page today.

Already a Classy Customer?

That’s why we’ve created this step-by-step checklist to help pave the way to increased conversion rates, revenue, and donor satisfaction. 

Use this checklist to cover off on must-have elements for your donation page, including things like:

• Brand colors and logos
• Giving options
• Domain-masking 
• Suggested donation values
• Custom questions
• Dedications

Learn how to engage your audience with a branded look and feel, concise messaging, and a seamless checkout flow, and discover how Classy can help your organization reach its conversion goals.

Here’s a peek into what you’ll find inside:

Download The Nonprofit’s Donation Page Checklist today to optimize your page for conversion and raise more money for your mission.

Finding special ways to thank donors for their recurring donations is crucial to a strong stewardship strategy, but identifying perks or incentives that truly excite your donors can be challenging. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of five recurring giving programs with unique incentives to inspire your creative thinking.

1. Haymakers for Hope: Haymakers Harriers

Haymakers for Hope’s mission is to give everyday people the chance to fight back against cancer by training for, and competing in charity boxing events to raise money and awareness. To elevate their recurring giving program, the team launched “Haymakers Harriers,” a subscription-based running community, to incentivize their supporters to get involved.

Keeping their community engaged during COVID-19 was a big concern for the organization, so they wanted to offer a unique perk that aligned with their mission, felt authentic, and offered a value their supporters couldn’t get anywhere else.

Their regional fight manager, Brian Schroy, is a registered running coach in pursuit of qualifying for the Olympic Trials in the marathon, so his unique skill set was immediately put to use as a trainer whom recurring donors could connect with in this subscription-based community.

With a minimum $25 donation per month, supporters gain access to:

• Private running coaching with Brian Schroy
• Private Strava group with weekly workouts
• Slack channel to connect with peers
• Training plans
• Early access to charity races
• Running swag and discounts to premium running products
• Webinars from running industry experts
• Community meet-ups

Frame your program as a subscription-based group with unique, valuable benefits. Consider how you can offer value to your donors for their investment, similar to how they might subscribe to Netflix to access content.

2. Bright Pink: FundHER

Bright Pink helps save lives from breast and ovarian cancer by empowering women to know their risk and manage their health proactively. By investing monthly in their mission, donors become a part of the FundHER community dedicated to the long-term sustainability of these efforts.

For a monthly gift of $25, donors receive:

• A FundHER welcome gift delivered to your door
• Quarterly progress reports showing their life-saving gift in action
• Recognition on the program page
• Exclusive early access to events, campaigns, programs, and projects

Ensure you’re providing a regular touchpoint with each donor by sending progress reports, campaign highlights, or organizational updates on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis.

3. Savory: Become a Regenerating Member

Savory’s mission to facilitate the large-scale regeneration of the world’s grasslands is fueled by the generous support of its donors, and recurring giving has become a crucial source of revenue in their goal to influence the management of 1 billion hectares by 2025.

Savory offers different perks for different giving levels to incentivize and thank donors accordingly.

For $10 per month, “champion” donors receive:

• Quarterly webinars
• Annual meeting with Allan Savory
• Holistic management online course
• 25% discount on all Savory products and offerings
• Access to Network Collaboration Platform
• Full suite of advocacy materials

For $25 per month, “steward” donors receive:

• All “champion” benefits
• Past conference and webinar recordings
• 15% off Network partner brand
• Invite to annual Savory Network Reunion
• “Regenerative” T-shirt

For $50 per month, “changemaker” donors receive:

• All “champion” and “steward” benefits
• 1-on-1 meeting with Savory staff
• Savory belt buckle
• Signed copy of Alan Savory’s book

Break up your incentives based on the size of the recurring gift and offer different perks for higher giving levels. Also, get creative by making your donors feel like they’re a part of your team. Consider inviting your supporters to spend time with your staff and advocates, attend organizational meetings, or register for special networking events.

4. LoveYourBrain: Building Resilience Project

LoveYourBrain is on a mission to improve the quality of life of people affected by traumatic brain injury (TBI) through programs that build community and foster resilience.

The LoveYourBrain team promotes recurring giving by sending a special meditation by email every month to their monthly donors, which falls perfectly in line with their belief that yoga, mindfulness, and community are essential to transforming the wellbeing of people impacted by TBI.

In addition to a monthly meditation, donors can gain access to additional perks. After 12 months of giving at the following levels, donors will receive:

• Monthly donations at $28 or more: LoveYourBrain sticker
• Monthly donation at $50 or more: special recognition in LoveYourBrain’s Annual Report
• Monthly donation at $100 or more: special gift

Offer incentives that align with your mission and feel authentic to your organization.

5. Operation Broken Silence: The Renewal

Operation Broken Silence is the only organization in the world providing support to refugee teachers in Yida Refugee Camp who fled Sudan to escape the genocidal war in 2011. To continue combatting the existing education crisis, the team is working to motivate 150 supporters to become generous monthly givers.

Operation Broken Silence incentivizes prospective recurring donors by offering:

• A membership pin
• Exclusive, early looks at new stories and campaigns
• Two free tickets to annual events for donors who give $35 or more

Invite your donors to receive early access to events and be the first to know about campaign launches, story updates, or exclusive offers.

The lifetime value of recurring donors is 440% greater than one-time donors, so finding a unique way to show your appreciation for their commitment and deep engagement with your mission is a must.

The next time you’re thinking about how to thank your recurring donors, remember:

• Offer incentives that reflect and support your mission and provide a value that your donors can’t receive anywhere else
• Consider subscription-based incentives that bring your community together
• Motivate donors with different perks for different giving levels

Download The Ultimate Guide to Recurring Giving today for more information about how to create an effective and appealing recurring giving program.

Already a Classy Customer?

The lifetime value of recurring donors is 440% greater than one-time donors, which is why we’ve created a comprehensive recurring giving guide to help your organization build a predictable stream of revenue, maximize annual contributions, increase donor value, and boost donor retention. 

In this guide, we offer actionable tips to questions like:

• Who is the right audience for your recurring giving program?
• What’s an effective way to launch your campaign?
• How can you visually elevate your microsite?
• What should you include in your email appeals?
• How can you retain your recurring donors?

Recurring giving is a tried and true path to sustainability, but you have to set your campaign up for success. Our guide will walk you through everything from goal-setting to stewardship strategies, as well as pro tips on how to leverage Classy product features to convert and nurture donors.

Here’s a peek inside:

This guide provides tips that will help you create an appealing and effective recurring giving program. Download The Ultimate Guide to Recurring Giving now to start building your roadmap to long-term sustainability and growth.

Offering these year-round fundraising and donation options is a great way to generate sustainable revenue, diversify your fundraising portfolio, and keep supporters engaged with your mission. Once the campaign is created, it can run on your website indefinitely, reducing your team’s workload while also giving your supporters a variety of ways to get involved.

To further diversify your nonprofit’s fundraising strategy and help support your efforts during low-traffic times, here are three year-round fundraising campaigns your organization should launch if you haven’t already.

1. Main Donation Page

Generic donation pages often lack the personal touch most donors are looking for when deciding whether or not to make a gift. Even if a visitor hits your donation page with the original intent to donate, an underwhelming first impression, or a poorly structured or distracting page, can leave your nonprofit with a missed opportunity.

A fully customized donation page with a compelling appeal and branded call to action can be the difference between converting a visitor or losing a donation. Follow these 10 best practices to optimize your main donation page for conversion:

• Elevate the visual appeal of the donate button on your website. Use a bold color and make sure it’s easy to find at the top of your header.
• Reduce the number of clicks to reach your donation page. Link the main donate button in your website header directly to your donation page.
• Enable domain-masking to match your website branding. Consistency is key.
• Create a concise, compelling appeal on your donation page. Use high-quality images or graphics to support your call to action.
• Be strategic and purposeful with custom questions on your form. Stick to three or fewer to prevent donors from abandoning the checkout process.
• Incorporate a recurring giving option. Encourage donors to amplify their impact with a recurring gift.
• Provide suggested giving amounts. List these amounts from highest to lowest.
• Default your suggested giving amount to the second-to-highest value. Drive donors to this suggested amount to encourage a larger gift.
• Offer donors the opportunity to cover a portion of the transaction fee. When Classy mode is enabled by default, Classy platform data reveals that 85% of donors choose to cover the fees associated with their gifts. When donors need to opt in, 65% of them choose to cover the fees.
• Optimize your page for mobile. 60% of traffic on Classy is from a mobile device, and 43% of donations on the Classy platform are made through mobile devices.

All campaigns built on the Classy platform are automatically optimized for mobile, built with domain-masking, and offer a unique feature called Classy Mode which gives supporters the option to increase their gifts to cover transaction fees.

In order to take advantage of today’s virtual landscape, it’s crucial to transition your supporters from offline to online givers. Download these six quick tips to unify your offline and online fundraising.

2. DIY Peer-to-Peer Fundraising

Offering your community the option to fundraise with a do-it-yourself (DIY) campaign allows supporters to fundraise for any personal reason or special occasion that they feel passionate about, regardless of the time of year. Whether they want to fundraise for their birthday, an athletic milestone, or even their wedding, they choose when and how to raise money on behalf of your organization.

DIY fundraising takes the form of a traditional peer-to-peer campaign, but without the pre-set stop date. Fundraisers can access the parent campaign on your website, and then customize their own personal fundraising page to reflect their goal.

To get started, here are a few campaign elements we recommend:

• Create a clear custom headline
• Include two calls to action (to fundraise and to donate)
• Maintain brand consistency on your parent campaign
• Hide the progress bar
• Display a leaderboard

If you’re looking to elevate your campaign a bit further, here are a few examples from The Salvation Army that your organization can use as inspiration:

Use impact blocks to spotlight examples of when a DIY fundraiser might apply. Link each button to a fundraising goal, rather than a donation value, to motivate your supporters. Remember that the fundraising amounts should be higher than a single donation amount.

Break down the process for your fundraisers so that each person feels confident getting their campaign up and running. Explain how to set up a campaign, promote it, and achieve your goal with clear and concise instructions.

Provide fundraising resources with key messaging, example emails, social media content, and tangible tips to set your fundraisers up for success, like this toolkit from The Salvation Army.

In addition to these examples, it’s important to be a cheerleader for your fundraisers by engaging with them throughout their fundraising campaigns and congratulating them for their progress. Classy’s milestone email feature automatically sends an email to thank and encourage donors when they raise a certain amount, giving them the recognition they deserve.

The Classy for Facebook integration is another tool that fundraisers can leverage to extend their reach. After creating an individual peer-to-peer or registration with fundraising campaign page, a supporter can seamlessly push that campaign, complete with their name, photo, and personal headline, to Facebook to create a Facebook fundraiser. Your campaign progress remains in sync so that anyone within your network can view the impact their contribution made.

3. Recurring Giving Campaign

A strong recurring giving program establishes a predictable stream of revenue for your nonprofit, and the consistency and reliability of this revenue source can support your nonprofit during times of crisis or uncertainty.

Recurring donors are over five times more valuable to your nonprofit than one-time donors, and return at a rate of 25% to go on and make an additional one-time gift on top of their recurring gift. The annual aggregate amount of their recurring contributions almost always adds up to more than just a one-time gift, and the increased retention rate of this donor segment can help your nonprofit improve its long-term planning.

By offering a way for donors to connect with your organization on a recurring basis, they remain closely tied to your mission and connected to its impact. This bond inherently increases their loyalty to your organization while also strengthening their relationship with fellow donors.

To help sustain and grow your impact over time, consider launching a branded crowdfunding campaign, like the LoveYourBrain Foundation, to promote your recurring giving program, its story, and benefits for those who join. Their page draws donors in with a strong headline image and branded visuals.

Here are a few ways to boost the visual appeal of your recurring giving campaign:

• Build a strong hero block that emphasizes the impact of each gift
• Make your campaign distinct with photos, videos, or logos that are unique to your recurring program
• Include a list of benefits or incentives that make your recurring donors feel special
• Optimize your page for mobile with digital wallets and ACH (you can do this with one click on the Classy platform)

In addition, leverage impact blocks to highlight the different programs within your organization that recurring gifts will impact, or get creative like Love146 and show items people could sacrifice in exchange for a recurring donation.

Once these year-round campaigns are live on your website, you can focus your time on donor communication and fostering a stronger sense of community. Offering a variety of ways for supporters to get involved gives them the freedom to drive your mission forward on their own terms, and to be creative in the process.

To further accelerate your organization’s impact, register for the Collaborative: Virtual Sessions today for access to engaging conversations and online sessions led by some of the industry experts and leaders we admire most. Reserve your spot now to learn about fundraising and marketing best practices, current technology, organizational priorities, and so much more.

At Classy, we have a saying: the future is recurring. Not only are recurring donors over 400% more valuable compared to one-time donors, but recurring giving also provides your organization with a revenue stream that’s consistent from month to month. In a time when the future of in-person fundraising events is still uncertain due to COVID-19, having this predictability in your fundraising is more important than ever.

Not only is recurring giving beneficial for your nonprofit, it’s also convenient for donors. People prefer to give on a recurring basis because it’s automated and fits into their monthly budget, and the proof is in the data: nonprofit recurring revenue grew 40% in 2020, according to data from our partner, Double the Donation.

With this in mind, it’s important to continue to refine your recurring giving program to attract, convert, nurture, and retain new donors. Let’s dive into three strategies you can deploy to consistently raise more, every month.

Recurring Giving Strategy #1: Move Beyond the Monthly Gift

We know that subscription-based giving is important and growing, but it doesn’t just have to be monthly. In April 2021, Classy introduced New Recurring Frequencies to give you—and your donors—more options for subscription giving. You are able to accept recurring gifts on the following frequencies:

• One-time
• Monthly
• Quarterly
• Semi-annually
• Annually

You can choose which of these frequencies to offer on any donation form or campaign to hyper-target giving options to different segments of your audience.

With this new set of options, your organization can begin offering new ways for your donors to support you on a recurring basis. For example, automate annual giving for End of Year, your fiscal year-end, or another annual campaign. Quarterly recurring donations can be used to expand membership offerings for museums, zoos, or arts and culture organizations. Monthly donations, of course, are not going anywhere and will continue to be very popular for all types of nonprofits.

These are just a few examples; the only limit is your organization’s creativity. Not only can flexible frequencies support a wide variety of campaigns, they also play an important role in donor retention.

With Classy, donors have total control over their recurring gift subscription, with options to change their payment frequency, the date they’re charged, or to update their payment method with a new credit card or bank account.

Recurring Giving Strategy #2: Get Ready for Gen Z

Many organizations have put thought into understanding and catering to millennial donors. In 2021 and beyond, there’s a new generation entering the workforce, as the oldest members of Gen Z (born 1996 and later) turn 25.

Gen Z is gaining a reputation as a group with a hyper-awareness of world issues and passion for social and environmental justice. As they’re seeking out organizations to support, you need to make sure your cause is visible and accessible to them. After all, the global cohort of Gen Z-ers makes up 27 percent of the world population and accounts for 2 billion people.

Subscription giving is a perfect opportunity to engage Gen Z. Not only are they accustomed to subscription experiences in every part of their economic lives (Spotify, Amazon, and Netflix, just to name a few), but they’re also just at the beginning of their income-earning years.

Few members of Gen Z will be ready to make a $500 annual gift, but a smaller recurring contribution fits in their budgets and allows your organization to steward these donors for the future. 

Ensure that your recurring giving program appeals to these newest members of the philanthropic community through the following steps:.

Prioritize Your Social Media Presence

First, it’s absolutely necessary that you be active and authentic on social media. Tell the story of your organization, why your work is important, and explain the impact a recurring donation makes. Consider levering short-form video or eye-catching infographics to boost reach and engagement.

Welcome Recurring Donors of Smaller Gift Sizes

Once you’ve attracted attention, make sure that your recurring giving program is appealing to donors who may come in at a smaller gift amount. Many organizations have a branded recurring giving program specifically for younger donors, like a “coffee club” inviting supporters to give the $5 they’d spend on a latte on a recurring basis.

Optimize Your Mobile Giving Experience

Finally, members of Gen Z are more likely to use a mobile phone to browse the web and access social media than older generations. It’s important that your organization’s website and donation form are optimized for use on mobile devices. Payment options like Google Pay and Apple Pay are extremely popular with younger donors and increase donation conversion rates from mobile devices.

Recurring Giving Strategy #3: It’s All About ACH

One of the toughest challenges of running a successful recurring giving program can be donor churn due to expiring credit cards. Think of it like filling a leaky bucket—it’s hard to grow your program when you are constantly losing gifts as cards churn out.

With this in mind, more organizations are turning to ACH (Automated Clearing House processing) donations to ensure strong recurring gift retention. To support this, we’ve added ACH donation functionality to our in house processor, Classy Pay. Our platform data indicates that recurring donations made through ACH are both larger and retained longer than gifts made with credit card.

On the Classy platform, the average monthly recurring gift made with ACH is 55% larger vs. credit card ($48 vs $31).

And, monthly recurring donors who give via ACH are retained on average for 20% longer versus credit card. Cards expire, are cancelled, and get lost or stolen constantly, but when was the last time you changed your checking account?

Making sure your nonprofit can accept recurring ACH donations has other benefits. Processing fees for ACH are typically lower than for credit cards, and retaining even one additional percentage point of your gifts can make a big difference for a program at scale.

Conclusion

Recurring giving not only creates a predictable revenue stream that powers organizations through uncertain times, but it also sets you up for scale. The most successful organizations on Classy are powerhouses of recurring giving, with organizations who raise over $50 million in total revenue driving 26% of their online revenue through Classy from recurring gifts. Because this is a critical cohort of supporters, you should only continue to improve the giving experience for new and existing recurring donors.

Hear more about recurring giving and other sustainable donation strategies to build financial resilience well into the future at the Collaborative: Virtual Sessions.

Over the course of their involvement with your nonprofit, recurring monthly donors provide five times greater value than one-time donors, giving 42% more overall. Recurring donors are also 75% more likely than one-time donors to make an additional one-time gift on top of their monthly contribution. Recurring giving serves as a critical revenue stream especially as nonprofits scale. Nonprofits that raise over $50 million in total revenue secure 26% of their online revenue through Classy from recurring donations.

Your organization needs to prioritize strong visual and written storytelling to drive recurring donations. Through these emotional anchors, you can steward potential donors through your communications, campaign page, and, ultimately, the checkout process where they select the option to become a recurring donor.

Below, we share four examples of nonprofits effectively structuring their stories to drive monthly recurring giving. You can use their experiences to craft your own compelling narrative.

1. Make Your Recurring Donors Feel Like Part of the Family

Many Hopes is a nonprofit that “rescues children from poverty and abuse and raises them with an imagination for justice and the tools to act on it.” Many Hopes created its recurring giving program by expanding from its mission to center around the idea of family.

The Many Hopes recurring giving campaign starts with a banner image reading, “Join the family. Give the gift of a loving home.” It then describes “the family,” which is the organization’s term for its recurring donors. The description shares how, through their monthly subscriptions, family members are part of a “community of givers” committed to helping a girl in need over the course of a full year. It explains that 100% of monthly donations go toward direct services supporting the program’s children.

To join as a recurring donor, supporters click a red donation button that reads, “Click Here to Join the Family,” further emphasizing the value the organization places on monthly giving.

Many Hopes creates a story around its recurring giving campaign on Classy that gives supporters a positive identity to associate with their involvement. When marketing your recurring campaign, consider how you can make supporters feel like they’re part of a special, meaningful community that’s contributing to your important work. Weave that in throughout your copy and even your calls to action.

2. Use Donation Levels to Describe Long-Term Impact

Milagro House is a nonprofit working to eradicate unequal treatment and systemic bias that keep people in poverty. Similar to how its mission is focused on systems-level change, its recurring giving campaign crafts a narrative on how monthly giving is about making a difference rather than simply making a donation.

The campaign uses the impact blocks on their Classy campaign to showcase how various monthly amounts make an impact over the course of a year. For example, its monthly gift option of $30 reads: “A monthly gift of $30 increases your impact over one year to $360. Your generosity supports life-skills programming focusing on basic financial knowledge, effective parenting, nutrition, healthy development in children, counseling and self-care.”

The campaign page continues with the theme of long-term sustainability by describing how monthly donations give the nonprofit a “way to responsibly budget and plan our programs around more predictable revenue; a plus as we navigate challenging times during an unpredictable pandemic.”

Help your supporters see the larger impact of their recurring donation by:

• Totaling how much their gift will amount to by the year’s end
• Emphasizing your long-term goals
• Highlighting the importance of financial stability during uncertain times

3. Share the Perks of Being a Monthly Donor

Operation Broken Silence is a nonprofit focused on empowering Sudanese people through innovative programs. Its recurring giving campaign page incorporates video, simple infographics, and written narrative to build the story of the nonprofit and express its current needs.

Following its ask, the nonprofit shares the perks of becoming a monthly donor, calling its group of monthly donors “The Renewal.” Members of The Renewal receive a membership pin and exclusive, early looks at the nonprofit’s new stories and campaigns. Gifts of $35 or more per month also receive free tickets to the nonprofit’s two annual events, the Soirée For Sudan and Eden’s Run 5K.

Think of ways your nonprofit can add incentives for becoming a monthly donor, such as early access to campaigns or initiatives, exclusive stories of your work on the ground or with beneficiaries, or even swag. Incentives that further connect donors to your nonprofit, such as tickets to your annual event, are particularly helpful for continued stewardship.

4. Incorporate a Video Highlighting the Value of Monthly Giving

BlinkNow is a nonprofit focused on empowering youth in Nepal. The nonprofit brands its monthly recurring giving program as “Roots,” where recurring donors support the growth of the children the nonprofit serves, or, as BlinkNow describes, “you nurture our little buds!”

BlinkNow’s main storytelling for its recurring giving campaign comes in the form of a short video. The video message uses mission-driven, emotional imagery to build its case for support. It weaves in the “roots” theme by explaining, “Our greatest need is to simply keep all of our programs running.” The speaker continues by sharing how monthly giving provides them with stability and recurring donors truly become the “roots” of the organization, helping the most vulnerable kids in the area they serve.

Quick storytelling videos are powerful and gaining popularity. Capture the attention of prospective monthly donors by incorporating a short video that shares the essence of your brand, power of your mission, and gratitude for recurring gifts.

Cultivate Recurring Donor Relationships Through Storytelling

Monthly giving provides a reliable revenue stream for nonprofits during uncertain times. Recurring gifts are also a sign of donor loyalty and reflect that your audience has trust in your brand. Encourage growth in your monthly gifts through creative campaigns with rich storytelling and positive associations for donors.

Learn more about recurring giving strategies that keep the most successful nonprofits resilient against economic shifts at the Collaborative: Virtual Sessions.

In previous years, Classy’s Why America Gives report has focused on consumer giving trends, what motivates donors to give, and their plans for Giving Tuesday and year-end giving. In our third-annual edition of Why America Gives, the 2020 report measures these year-over-year changes in giving sentiments and behaviors; in addition, it also analyzes how current events—specifically the COVID-19 pandemic and the social justice movement—have altered giving trends.

Most importantly, we wanted to pose the questions:

• How have the events of this year affected donor behavior?
• Will supporters be giving more or less than last year?
• Have COVID-19 and the fight against social injustice changed the causes or organizations donors will give to?

We sent out a survey in September 2020 to poll 1,000 individuals across the United States, all of whom were age 18 or older, to find out.

Based on the results of our survey, we’re optimistic about what the giving season holds for nonprofits. Below, we explore some of the major key findings from the report, but make sure you download your free copy of Why America Gives now to get all the insights.

The Outlook for the 2020 Giving Season Is Positive

The Giving Tuesday movement has grown to the point where over half of Americans have an awareness and understanding of the giving day. In 2020, 67% of our survey respondents who are familiar with Giving Tuesday donated last year, compared to 53% in 2019 and 57% in 2018.

Further, our survey results show that Americans still plan to give the same amount, or more, than they did in 2019. Among those who plan to give more, 33% say it’s because the societal need seems greater this year. Despite the economic impact from the COVID-19 pandemic, people still feel compelled to give, so don’t pass up an opportunity to engage your supporters with an ask.

COVID-19 Fuels Charitable Giving

Despite the financial challenges many Americans are facing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 39% of our survey respondents said they definitely or probably will give more to nonprofits in 2020 than they did in 2019. The main driving factor behind this is that many see a greater societal need in 2020 than in previous years.

When asked which causes Americans were most like to support, respondents chose healthcare as the top cause category ahead of disaster relief, the environment, and education. Still, whether your nonprofit is health-related or not, you can be confident that prospective donors are looking for ways to support relief efforts alleviating various challenges presented by the pandemic.

The Social Justice Movement Creates an Influx of New Donors 

Our survey results show that many Americans are actively looking for ways to support causes fighting for racial equality. In fact, 42% of respondents either donated, or planned to donate, to social justice causes in 2020.

Interestingly, 58% of these donors claim this was their first gift ever made to the social justice cause sector, and 43% said this donation was made in addition to other contributions. This shows us that current events play a major role in creating new donors, but for nearly half of all people, it doesn’t replace their regular giving.

Virtual Fundraising Events Generate Attention and Donations

Countless nonprofits were forced to pivot their in-person events to virtual events after the COVID-19 pandemic hit, but donors weren’t driven away by this change. Our survey results show that nearly 30% of respondents have supported or participated in a virtual fundraising event since the beginning of the pandemic.

Of that 30%, the majority claim they have donated more in the virtual environment than they did at in-person events. This aligns with how many nonprofits have seen comparable or higher fundraising revenue generated from virtual events as well. Moving forward, the social sector will likely continue to host virtual events, even when in-person events make a return.

Download Why America Gives 2020 for More Insights

These insights are only the tip of the iceberg for this year’s edition of Why America Gives. Download the full report now and explore:

• Which causes Americans favor most
• The role politics plays in giving
• How donors prefer to give
• Insights around Giving Tuesday and year-end

That predictable stream of revenue can power your nonprofit through uncertain and unforeseen circumstances, as well as set you up for scale. In fact, many nonprofits are starting to see other fundraising efforts like crowdfunding and peer-to-peer as tools to first attract donors and then steward them into becoming recurring donors. In The State of Modern Philanthropy 2018, we found that recurring donors are over five times more valuable to your nonprofit than one-time donors.

With The State of Modern Philanthropy 2019, we saw that of all one-time donors who returned to start a recurring gift subscription, 25% proceeded to make another one-time gift. In The State of Modern Philanthropy 2020, we explored the second actions taken by recurring donors:

• 11% made a contribution to a crowdfunding campaign
• 16% purchased an event ticket
• 14% signed up to fundraise or donated to a registration with fundraising campaign
• 10% participated in a peer-to-peer campaign

Further, we found that, for organizations who raise over $50 million in total revenue, 26% of their online revenue through Classy came from recurring gifts.

Given the overwhelming value of recurring donors, you need to pay close attention to when they might be at risk of churning.

If you’re able to see these red flags early, you can take decisive action to intercept and re-engage your recurring donors before they move on. Below, we’ll walk you through some strategies that can help identify the risk and retain their support.

Risk Indicator 1: Email Engagement

Keep a close eye on your email marketing metrics, specifically messages that are being sent to your recurring donors. If you notice that a recurring donor stops opening or clicking through on your emails, this dip in engagement could precede a cancelation of their monthly commitment.

Consider reaching out to these recurring donors personally, with a phone call or handwritten note, and thank them for their ongoing commitment.

Risk Indicator 2: Credit Cards

Take action before your recurring donors’ credit cards expire. Pull a report to analyze the credit card data for your recurring donors, identify which ones are nearing expiration dates, and prompt them to update their subscription with a new credit card.

Additionally, you can encourage your recurring donors to sign up through ACH payments, which are only available through Classy Pay. This way, you don’t have to worry about credit card declines or expirations and can almost fully mitigate this risk indicator. Plus, recurring donors who give through ACH are retained for 20% longer.

Risk Indicator 3: Willful Downgrades

Recurring donors who have been giving monthly at a certain amount, but then willfully decrease their monthly commitment, pose a churn risk. This is a supporter literally telling you they want to give less.

The key here isn’t to berate them for doing so. After all, we may not have a full understanding of someone’s financial situation. Instead, show the link between their gift and the impact it makes. For example, you can create an ongoing series that showcases the beneficiaries they’ve helped, which gets sent to them each month or quarter.

Risk Indicator 4: Giving History

A recurring donor’s giving history can say a lot about their future plans to support your nonprofit. Analyze your pool of recurring donors and ask questions like:

• Did they donate before their first recurring gift?
• Have they ever increased their monthly commitment?
• Do they buy tickets to our events?
• How often have they fundraised, or donated to someone’s personal fundraising page?

If you end up with a pool of recurring donors who have only made the monthly commitment with no prior donations, follow-up actions, or upgrades, they might pose a churn risk. Make a concentrated effort to engage them with messages about your programs, impact, and work to fulfill your mission in order to deepen their relationship with your organization.

Strategize to Proactively Reduce Recurring Donor Churn

Identifying churn risk is moot if you don’t have strategies set in place to engage your recurring donors. Whether you’re sending them proactive emails, making personalized phone calls, or offering new ways to get involved, you must act to get in ahead of the curve to retain their support.

1. Proactively Offer Ways to Deepen Commitment

The best defense is a good offense. Be proactive and avoid a situation altogether where someone might churn. Keep open lines of communication with your recurring donors and reach out to them often with tailored messaging.

Send them news about your nonprofit, stories of your beneficiaries, and impact reports, and offer opportunities to get involved beyond their monthly commitment. This could be an ask to donate an additional one-time gift, upgrade their current amount, fundraise on your behalf, or even spread your message across social media.

2. Ask Their Opinion

In order to balance your communications so that you’re not always making an ask, consider asking for something in return aside from a donation: their opinion.

This creates moments where someone can share their experience with your nonprofit and engage in a two-way dialogue with you. It can deepen the relationship between you and your recurring donors, make them feel heard, and give them a reason to keep engaging with your organization.

You might consider sending an annual survey, or make an annual phone call, that asks what they’re feeling about their impact, your programs, or things they’d like to see happen. Further, if someone does churn, you can reach out and ask why they left and what you could have done to retain their support.

Either way, you’re getting crucial information that can strengthen your nonprofit right now, and help mitigate churn risk for other recurring donors in the future.

3. Push a Downgrade Over Cancelation

If you get to the point where someone does, in fact, wish to cancel, suggest they downgrade their amount instead of canceling outright. You can say something to the effect of:

“Even if you stay on as a $5 a month donor you can still make a major impact to our programs.”

Should they still wish to cancel, consider adding them to an email segment that you can follow up with about interesting news about your nonprofit. You may want to ask them to ensure you’re aligned with GDPR sensitivities. Keep them in the game any way you can, and they may end up re-committing some day in the future.

Don’t Set and Forget Your Recurring Donors

Recurring giving has never been more important, but it’s not enough to simply “set and forget” your recurring donors once they’ve committed. You have to work to retain their support, encourage them to upgrade their gift, and make them feel like a true part of your nonprofit.

These are donors who raise their hand and signal that they’re willing to support you long-term. They deserve the extra love and attention, and it can literally pay off for you over time.

On Classy donation pages, specifically, 60% of people who check out do so in less than one minute. However, when analyzing time spent across all Classy campaign types—including donation pages, peer-to-peer, crowdfunding, and events—we find that fundraising conversion rates peak within the 4 to 5-minute window.

While your nonprofit should test what works with your specific community and its behavior, this data points you in the right direction to drive higher conversions on your pages. It shows that you must capture someone’s attention as soon as they land on your page, either to immediately convert or keep learning more to eventually convert.

Your nonprofit needs to strike the perfect balance of engaging content that will hook in your visitors and increase their likelihood of checking out. Below, we supply some tips and best practices that can help your nonprofit engage visitors, disseminate important information, and inspire action.

Defining Conversion

Before we dig into the best practices, it’s important to understand the different ways a prospective supporter can convert, especially across different campaign types, and which action your nonprofit wants to encourage.

Donate

To donate is to contribute with either a one-time or recurring donation. This the primary call to action on crowdfunding platforms and donation pages.

Fundraise

Supporters can sign up to fundraise on your nonprofit’s behalf by creating a personal fundraising page. If you’re running a peer-to-peer fundraising platform or registration with fundraising event, this is your primary call to action.

Purchase a Ticket

A ticketed event, either in-person or virtual, will have a call to action that asks supporters to purchase a ticket in order to attend.

Tips to Increase Your Fundraising Conversion Rates

Armed with an understanding of different ways to convert across Classy campaign types, your organization can begin building and optimizing your campaign for higher conversion rates. Below, we walk through steps you can take to enhance your campaign and strengthen your efforts.

1. Balance Your Content

Encouraging someone to spend enough time on your page to buy into your cause and convert, while absorbing the right amount of information about your nonprofit, is a balancing act. Further, the amount of content can also depend on the campaign type.

For example, if you’re sending people directly to a donation page, they likely already intend to make a donation. You want this process to be as streamlined and quick as possible for them, so they follow through with their gift.

It doesn’t make sense to overload them with information about your mission or cause on the checkout form. After all, 60% of people check out on Classy donation pages in under one minute, according to The State of Modern Philanthropy 2020.

Don’t include paragraphs of text, links out to other pages, and excessive custom questions on your checkout form. If you add in unnecessary information, you run the risk of distracting or interrupting the checkout process for potential donors and may lose crucial fundraising revenue.

With the other campaign types—crowdfunding campaign, peer-to-peer campaign, ticketed event, or registration with fundraising events—people are going to inherently need more information in order to convert. Unlike with a donation page, they may not know for certain if, and how, they want to support your organization.

In that light, these landing pages need to disseminate important information while also answering potential questions someone might have, such as:

• Details about your mission
• How the campaign funds your work and programs
• The impact of a donation
• Incentives for fundraising activity
• If you’re a legitimate, trusted nonprofit
• Why someone should fundraise on your behalf
• How they can build a personal fundraising page
• Why they should attend your event

You need to anticipate the questions and gaps in knowledge someone might have when arriving on your campaign page, and provide that information in an easily digestible way.

2. Use Video

A well-made video can dole out large amounts of information in a short amount of time, showcase the impact your supporters make on the ground, or give new life to your organization’s imagery.

If you find your page is packed with long-winded walls of text, try to reimagine your copy as a video. Further, think about what common questions or knowledge gaps you can quickly cover with the help of a video.

As a general rule of thumb, you’ll want to keep your videos short and powerful. Aim for not much longer than 90 to 120 seconds.

More than anything, your video needs to be targeted. If that means you create a five-minute video directly related to your campaign that supplies worthwhile information, try it out and track your engagement metrics to see whether people are watching it all the way through. If it’s an old video about your brand unrelated to the campaign, skip it. Stop and examine what helps your call to action the most.

3. Create Clear Calls to Action

Make sure your language for your call to action is clear. If you want someone to donate, ask them to donate; don’t get overly creative or flowery with the copy. This makes it confusing for your supporters to know what action, specifically, you want them to take. That, in turn, introduces a chance that they abandon your page entirely because they don’t know what to do.

Additionally, including too many different CTAs can add more potential questions to the list they already have—questions your page is supposed to answer. A combination of CTAs to donate, make a monthly donation, and fundraise on your behalf can end up stalling their action. All of this increases the amount of time a potential donor spends on your page, but it’s not productive time spent.

Instead of learning about your mission and the impact they can make on your work, they run around in circles attempting to figure out what to do. Keep your asks simple, straightforward, and direct.

In fact, you can use the three conversion buckets above as a starting point for strong CTAs: “Donate,” “Fundraise,” and “Purchase Ticket.” If you have a specialized campaign, like a dedicated monthly giving program, you’ll likely want to create a CTA that’s a bit more specific, like “Donate Monthly.”

While our data analysis shows that conversion rates peak within the 4 to 5-minute window across campaigns, that doesn’t mean people won’t convert before then. Create a strong, direct CTA that can help push someone to convert sooner rather than later.

4. Perform User-Testing

At Classy, when we have new feature updates or product launches, our team asks external individuals to participate in user-testing. This allows us to gauge the effectiveness of any changes or new releases before the full launch to the public.

Carry that same testing mindset into your own nonprofit as it relates to conversion rates on your campaign pages. After you build a new page or re-optimize an old page, reach out to your network and source individuals who would be available to test the page.

Aim to secure between 3 to 5 people and set up a time where you can observe them as they engage with your page. Pay attention to:

• What they click on
• If they’re clicking what you need them to click
• Where they spend their time
• What they miss
• Which media they engage with most
• Any areas of confusion
• Any areas of fixation

As you go, ask them to provide verbal feedback about their experience with the page. Don’t prompt them with leading questions; let them supply organic reactions. All the while take diligent notes about their behavior on the page.

Once you have your feedback, update your page accordingly and prepare to launch it to the public. Think of this as a sort of soft launch to build confidence that your page is ready to drive conversions.

There’s no guarantee that people who don’t go through your donation checkout flow in over a minute won’t complete it. Additionally, if someone spends 4 to 5-minutes on your campaign page, it’s no sure bet they’ll convert.

However, you can use the findings from our annual report, The State of Modern Philanthropy 2020, to ensure you’re optimizing your campaign pages for higher conversion rates. If you’re interested in learning more about time spent on page, and the wealth of other data points in the full report, download your copy for free right now.

That’s why we’re excited to announce that Classy Pay now supports ACH donations. While we dive into details below, this update reflects not only our commitment to helping you offer an enhanced giving experience, but also yet another layer in providing your nonprofit and your donors the highest levels of security. To paint the full picture, we take an in-depth look at how Classy Pay offers organizations the strongest protection against online payments fraud.

Stay up to date on Classy’s latest announcements for more on Classy Pay and updated functionality across the entire platform. Join us free at the Collaborative: Virtual Sessions so you don’t miss a beat.

The Nonprofit’s Challenge With Online Payments Fraud

Classy has been in the business of online fundraising for more than a decade, and in that time, we’ve gotten insight into the most common obstacles nonprofits face with online payment processing. One of the most stubborn challenges is the continual fight against online payments fraud.

It’s an unfortunate truth that online donation forms are very attractive to scammers. This is due to their simple, one-step checkout process and the ability to input any dollar amount into the donation form, unlike a traditional e-commerce website with set prices. We’ve seen this manifest in scammers or bots using online donation forms to run large batches of small donations, attached to fake names and email addresses, to test the validity of stolen credit card numbers.

For the nonprofit on the receiving end of these “donations,” this typically results in time-consuming audits and manually combing through reports to attempt to separate legitimate payments from fraudulent ones. Nonprofits can also be hit with expensive chargeback fees from the owners of the compromised credit cards, bad data in their donation platforms or CRMs, and perhaps most importantly, harm to donor trust.

To fight fraud, many payment processors and the nonprofits who use them currently rely on manually setting filters and rules for blocking fraudulent transactions and blacklisting individual IP addresses. Or worse, organizations rely on humans to regularly monitor all incoming payments to flag transactions as being potentially fraudulent. This can fail to prevent the full spectrum of fraud, as today’s scammers are increasingly sophisticated, and often use fluctuating proxy IP addresses to make it look like their fraudulent transactions are coming from different computers each time, or even from different countries.

This can result in a game of “whack-a-mole,” where organizations are constantly creating new filters or rules in their processor to block a source of fraudulent transactions, only to have a determined scammer bypass those rules and have the nonprofit end up right back where they started. Additionally, setting up too many manual filters means your organization runs the risk of blocking legitimate gifts from your donors, leading to a loss of revenue and frustration from donors who don’t understand why their gifts are failing.

How Classy Pay Protects Your Nonprofit From Fraud

All this to say that when we built Classy Pay, we knew security had to be front and center. One of the major factors that led us to decide to partner with Stripe to build Classy Pay was their Stripe Radar fraud protection product. Instead of using fraud rules set at the individual account level or human monitoring, Stripe Radar uses machine learning to automatically detect and block fraudulent payments in real time.

When a card is used to donate to a nonprofit organization using Classy Pay, there’s an 89% chance that that same card has been seen before on Stripe’s global payments network of millions of businesses. Data from that global network, as well as card blacklists from Stripe’s financial partners, is used to create a fraud score for each payment and evaluate the risk level.

This approach results in a 25% reduction in fraud, on average. We also see that this method results in fewer false positives (legitimate donations falsely being blocked as fraud).

We’ve already seen organizations that have switched to Classy Pay enjoying higher conversion rates on donation forms, thanks to this reduction in false positives. One organization saw more than $20,000 in gifts accepted that previously would have been falsely flagged as fraudulent.

Classy Pay Now Supports ACH Donations

We’re excited by these early successes, but we’re not stopping here. Our product team is constantly focused on updating Classy Pay with new features to enable your donors to give exactly how they choose and make managing your fundraising even easier. Our latest update, available now, adds support for ACH donations on Classy Pay.

ACH, or Automated Clearing House processing, allows donors to make a gift to your organization directly from their bank account, without using a credit card. This giving method has a number of benefits, including supporting donors who don’t have credit cards, offering lower processing fees for large gifts, and even improving retention rates for recurring donors, as individuals tend to change their bank accounts much less frequently than they get a new credit card.

Did You Know? Monthly recurring donors who give via ACH are retained for 20% longer, on average, than donors who give via debit or credit card.

Of course, since donors who give through ACH are linking their payments directly to their bank accounts, it is even more important to make sure the payments are secure. That’s why we’re utilizing Plaid to authenticate and process ACH donations through Classy Pay. Plaid allows donors to safely and securely sign in to their online bank account directly from the Classy donation page, which provides an additional layer of protection for the donor’s bank account information.

We’re excited to roll out ACH payments to give organizations on Classy Pay—and their donors—even more flexibility to accept payments online. If you’re already a Classy Pay user, you can begin accepting ACH payments with just one click.

If you’re a current Classy customer not yet using Classy Pay, making the switch is simple. In just a few clicks, your nonprofit can see all the benefits of leveraging Classy Pay within your online fundraising ecosystem.

The work doesn’t end here. Our team has added support for digital wallet payments to Classy Pay, including Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Microsoft Pay. For the latest news about Classy Pay and other new features, make sure to check back on our blog or sign up for our product newsletter to stay in the know on all things Classy. For more information on Classy Pay, check out the Support Center.