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How to Start a Nonprofit Monthly Giving Program

By Megan Jones Published January 6, 2022

Introducing a successful monthly giving program can increase revenue, retain donors, and help provide a predictable and reliable monthly income for your nonprofit.

A monthly giving program is a recurring donation plan that allows individuals to set up monthly donations to your nonprofit. This fundraising strategy is ideal for any sized nonprofit, charity, faith or education organization, local community group or club, or other institution that relies on donations and wants to increase revenue.

In this article, we’ll take a look at the benefits of starting a monthly giving program for your nonprofit, strategies and tools to get started, and some top tips to ensure your success. Let’s jump in…

The Benefits

Although in the past accepting monthly donations from donors was common among global nonprofits, the pandemic has seen many smaller charities also adopting this trend. There are many benefits to recurring donations, both for nonprofits, and for donors. Here are just a few…

Increase in Revenue

With the majority of in-person events canceled over the last couple of years, it’s no secret that many nonprofits have struggled with fundraising. Reports have shown that up to 90% of nonprofits have seen a dip in income, with up to 70% turning to the digital realm to help innovate their revenue streams.

A monthly giving program, that encourages donors to sign up online is quickly becoming a must for nonprofits big and small, helping to replace some of that lost pre-covid revenue. It’s also important to note that, according to Network for Good, donors who make recurring donations give on average 42% more per year than one-time donors – a win-win for your nonprofit.

Stability of Income

As well as increasing revenue, recurring giving can also improve the stability of your nonprofit’s income. Knowing how much you can expect in donations each month can help you plan campaigns, improve your budgeting, and strategize for the future.

Higher Retention Rate of Donors

Monthly giving programs have shown to have higher retention rates – typically over 80% after one year and 95% after five years. However, new donor retention rates average less than 23%.

There are numerous reasons why this is the case. Firstly, setting up a monthly donation is a quick process for a donor, and then can be left alone, taking up no more time, attention, or effort.

If you run an effective campaign around your giving program, donors will also feel like they are part of a strong like-minded community, and understand the importance of their contribution. This means they are less likely to cancel their recurring donation.

Lastly, by gifting a monthly amount, donors themselves can give sustainably, budgeting for a sum that is affordable for them on a regular basis.

Start a Monthly Giving Program

So now you can see the benefits of implementing a monthly giving program for your nonprofit, let’s next look at how to get started…

Strategy

Planning out the strategy for your monthly giving program is key to its success. You need specific goals in mind for your program – once you know what you want to achieve you can plan accordingly.

Firstly, think about how the program will fit in with the rest of your nonprofit’s strategy. For example:

• What do you want to accomplish through monthly giving?
• What would that mean for your programs and mission?

Once you are clear on a high-level vision for your monthly giving program, set measurable targets that you can plan for and track. These could include aiming to attract a set number of new donors each month, or focusing on driving a certain amount of income through your program over the first year.

Implementation

Once you are clear on what you want the program to achieve, the next step is to implement it. To do so, you’re going to need to invest in a suitable online tool that will integrate with your website and allow you to set up and accept recurring donations.

Gravity Forms is a secure and robust WordPress tool that is used by nonprofits around the globe. Integrating with Stripe, PayPal, and numerous other online payment processors, with Gravity Forms you can accept one-time donations, as well as enable donors to set up recurring monthly payments.

Top features of Gravity Forms include…

• Create stylish donation forms that convert – With Gravity Forms you can design custom donation forms that work with your website. Use the intuitive drag-and-drop editor to add the form fields you need to collect all necessary information from your donors, then simply embed the form on any page on your website. Equally you can make use of the free, fully-customizable donation form template, to get you up and running in minutes. All Gravity Forms built-in features are included with all license tiers, so you can implement conditional logic into your forms, design multi-page form layouts, and much more, helping to improve the form experience for your donors and increase recurring donation sign ups.

• Integrate with the payment processor of your choice – As mentioned, Gravity Forms integrates with numerous payment processors, including Stripe, PayPal, Square, Authorize.Net, and more, catering to all nonprofit payment needs. Other integrations include numerous marketing services and CRMs like Mailchimp and HubSpot, helping to automate your processes and connect the services that you use. (Note: payment integrations are only available with Gravity Forms’ Pro and Elite licenses).

• Not just a payment tool! – Gravity Forms is a complete data collection tool for WordPress websites. As well as enabling your donors to easily set up recurring donations, Gravity Forms can also help you to connect and engage with your audience in numerous other ways too. Need a contact form to enable website visitors to start a conversation with you? Want to grow your leads list with a newsletter signup form? Register people on your website or for a webinar or other online event? Increase engagement on your site with a quiz or understand your donors better with a survey? Gravity Forms can do all of this and more, helping to support your nonprofit at every turn.

Like the sound of Gravity Forms? Sign up for a free demo to see just how easy it is to create a donation form and start generating revenue for your monthly giving program.

Promotion

Once you have your monthly giving program set up, the last step is to promote it. Follow these top tips to help drive donations…

• Create a strong campaign – Branding your monthly giving program and creating a dynamic campaign around it will be crucial to its success. Think carefully about the name of the program and create powerful taglines, attention-grabbing visuals, and engaging videos that all work together to show potential donors just what their money can do.

• Start with your email list – people who have already donated in the past or shown an interest in your nonprofit should be your first port of call when trying to grow donor numbers. Send out targeted emails to encourage people to set up monthly donations and include mentions of the program in content such as newsletters.

• Social media – Use social media to not only engage with your current community, but to also reach a whole new audience. Paid ads and a well-planned out organic social strategy will help to drive interest in your campaign and boost recurring donations.

• Offer incentives – Give back to your donors by offering a signup gift, or ongoing perks like discounts on products in your shop, first refusal on tickets to events, or access to exclusive content. If people feel like their donation is being appreciated they will be more likely to not just set up a recurring donation, but also to stick around for the long haul.

Lastly, think carefully about the long term. You want people to continue to donate to your program for years to come. Keeping donors up to date on what their money is being used for, and how it is helping, will ensure that they feel valued and an essential part of the community. This will increase the likelihood that they will continue to support your cause.

Final Thoughts

A monthly giving program will help drive sustainable and reliable revenue for your nonprofit and enable you to plan for the future. And by using a powerful and intuitive tool like Gravity Forms, you can quickly put your plan into action and begin signing donors up for monthly contributions to your nonprofit.

For more information on using Gravity Forms to grow your nonprofit’s revenue, check out these resources…

• Starter Guide: How to Create a Donation Form with Gravity Forms
• 3 Forms Your Nonprofit Website Needs (and how to create them with Gravity Forms)
• The Ultimate Guide to Taking Payments on Your WordPress Website with Gravity Forms

Ready to get started? Head on over to the Gravity Forms pricing page to make a purchase today!