Ep. 119: Increasing Your Monthly Donors with Recurring Giving Expert, Erica Wassdorp
EPISODE 119
Increasing Your Monthly Donors with Recurring Giving Expert, Erica Wassdorp
About the Episode:
I am thrilled to speak with Erica Wassdorp, a monthly giving expert with over 41 years of experience, today. Monthly giving is on the rise and we’re sharing how to start or grow yours. And the best news from Erica? Your long-term success is more about investing time than money. She highlights the importance of shifting mindsets to see monthly donors as loyal, long-term supporters instead of smaller donors. When you listen in, you will hear practical strategies for engaging your database, from leveraging simple tools to crafting compelling value propositions. She stresses the power of personal connections, testimonials, and automation to enhance the donor experience. Listen to the full episode to unlock the transformative power of monthly giving for my organization!
Topics:
Opportunities in monthly giving: Investing time rather than money to focus on younger donors who are comfortable with tech and subscriptions
Cultivating the right mindset: Understanding that growing your monthly donor database is often a long game but the more profitable option
Creating more options for donors: How to constantly plant the seeds of giving for every person in your database via extended campaigns, buttons, testimonials, and more
Optimization for your monthly donors: Helping your donors feel individually seen in each of your campaigns and how to infuse more personal content within automation
Learning from experience: Erica’s insights from being a part of over 50 monthly donor campaigns and why she wants you to take just one step
Think you’ve reached out to “everyone” in your network? Out of ideas to get noticed and get funded? Generate leads for your nonprofit or social impact business: https://www.splendidcourses.com/prospect
Christina’s Favorite Takeaways:
“Donors can’t read minds, you have to tell them that their donations will help your mission sooner or longer.” – Erica
“Matches are really magical. They work for anything which means they work for monthly giving as well.” – Erica
“I'm a very strong proponent for recycling and repurposing, because we as nonprofits want everything to be new and fresh. But guess what? The donor does not remember what you sent them yesterday.” – Erica
“Keep it simple, keep it doable, but try to work in some personal things where you can." – Erica
“When it comes to monthly giving, the biggest thing you can do is just take one step.” – Erica
“You can do anything you set your mind to.”
About Erica:
Erica Waasdorp, President of A Direct Solution, located on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, lives and breathes direct response and fundraising and can be considered a Philanthropyholic. She works with non-profit clients all over the country as well as internationally, helping them with their appeals and monthly giving. Erica Waasdorp published two books and other resources: Monthly Giving. The Sleeping Giant, and Monthly Giving Made Easy, a How-To Guide, the Monthly Donor Road Map, the Monthly Donor Retention Play Book and more. Erica is an AFP Master Trainer, and she regularly blogs and presents in person or virtually on appeals, direct mail, and monthly giving.
Connect with Erica:
Episode Resources:
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How to Work with Christina and Splendid Consulting:
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Christina Edwards 00:00
Hi, welcome to the podcast. Erica vostor, I am so excited to dig in to this conversation, because I was reading your bio and I was like, she knows what's up when it comes to monthly giving. So first things first, I want you to tell our listeners about you, about your work and you're not new to monthly giving. So tell us what we need to know, set the stage.
Erica Wassdorp 00:21
No. Thank thank you so much for First of all, inviting me. So, yeah, I love, love, love, month of giving, but I have been doing this for 31 years. I mean, if you add my subscription experience before that, my direct mail and subscription, I've been doing this for 41 years, so, but I'm still learning from you, you know, from from organizations that are doing it. So that's why I, you know, I'm really, really excited about all of the new things, you know, because a lot has changed in this whole monthly giving world, for sure, especially the last 1012, years, you know. So that's, that's really exciting. So
Christina Edwards 01:00
we were saying in the green room, monthly giving is having a moment, which is part of why we're doing this series on the podcast. So what are you seeing as the opportunities right now? And I'm sure you have a lot of clients coming to you that's that are saying, hey, we want to, like, build or grow our monthly giving program. And you're probably like, Yeah, I told you. So like, what are some of those opportunities for organizations who are thinking about really investing in this, or curious about, yeah,
Erica Wassdorp 01:29
so I guess the thing is that it's not so much investing money, per se, it's investing time. So I think that's really the, you know, why I think the monthly giving is having a moment. Because the reality is that organizations are losing donors, I mean, but donors are getting younger. I mean, you know, there's going to be this new influx of, this new flow of younger donors that are hopefully going to come into the mix so, and they are already comfortable with subscriptions they're giving on their phone, you know? So, so I think that's why it's like, really exciting to to to say, Okay, well, look, we have the tools. I mean, everybody has a website, everybody has online donation platforms. It's just a matter of, like, in and I like what you said, it's that mindset, right? It's just a matter like, having that mindset to say, look, let's just focus on bringing in some monthly donors. Let's focus on trying some new things. I mean, you know, one of the things that I always talk about is like, let's try a button. Okay, add a button in an email and, you know, see what happens. And yes, that's not necessarily a whole program, but it's like a way to say, or to start planting the seeds, to the to the donors, and saying, Oh, hmm, you know what? I'm not, you know, ready to write $100 check yet? Or I can't, you know, give $150 online, but I can do 20 bucks a month, right? So, so it's all about, like, what they give me. It's like, it takes a little bit of time for the donor say, oh, yeah, I saw that here. I saw it online. I saw that button in the email. I saw something on social and, you know, you might even add a postcard or perhaps a mailing to the mix. So, so it's all about like, you know, we're all multi channel, right? I mean, you're on YouTube. Guess what? YouTube is great, you know, and some of the big organizations have been doing this for a while, so, so they're seeing that, that that growth especially, right? So, so I think that's it. It's, it's, but it is time. It's like, okay, what am I saying in my welcome email series? Do I have a welcome email series? Guess what? You have the tools, you know. So,
Christina Edwards 03:57
so use it to my ears. Our listeners know they need an email. Welcome series, yes, yeah, welcome
Erica Wassdorp 04:03
to I mean, they again. So there's so many tools out there now that again, they've really come up over the last 1012, years. I mean, before that, you know, but when I started a monthly giving 31 years ago, guess what? It was mail and phone. Okay, online did not exist. People, I mean, websites, you know, had no donation opportunity, right? So again, now it's like you have to drive people to go there, and you you have the tools, but, you know, and again, I think a lot of things, donors can't read minds, so we have to tell them that this is going to help us, you know, fulfill the mission. You know sooner, you know longer, you know. So, so I think that's, that's the key to just really start, start driving donors to consider a monthly gift. Yeah, let's Yeah, dig
Christina Edwards 04:57
into some of the messaging. What do you like to see? Yeah, it's kind of funny. I'm thinking of organizations who are like, Okay, we want monthly giving because we need sustainable recurring revenue. And I'm like, Yes, that is not a sexy value proposition to the donor. What does it look like to come up with some of the essential elements of with a messaging piece for monthly giving?
Erica Wassdorp 05:20
Yeah? I mean, it's, it's, it's kind of like the value part, I guess you have to kind of look at it's like, what is, what is your mission as an organization? And, you know, yes, you need short term revenue. You need to, you know, execute certain campaigns, or you need to help animals, or, you know, clients, or what have you, but you also have to think about long term, right? So it was like, What? What does that look like? Uh, okay, and then say, All right, well, you know, monthly gifts will help in the long run, will help, you know, us keep, the lights on, help more animals, you know. And again, it helps save a lot of money at times as well, in some in some cases, especially so, because, you know, you you don't have to, it's kind of like you don't have to be the hamster in the wheel the whole time. You know, if you if you can say, Okay, well, you know, monthly gifts will help on an ongoing basis and will make this possible. So, so a lot of the things that you're doing in fundraising as a whole, like, Okay, well, how do you let the donor understand how their gift is making a difference now with one time gift? Well, okay, well, what does that look like for monthly gifts? So in monthly gifts tend to be lower, right? So because, in other words, like, if you're on your online form, if you say, Well, I'm asking for 2550 100 to 50, well, monthly gifts might start at 10, you know, 15 and 20 and, you know, and maybe have an $85 a month option, right? So, but, you know, you typically want to ask for, like, smaller amounts on that monthly giving piece of your of your website. So, but yeah, I mean, it's like, yes, we can count on it, you know, so, so a big thing is, like, we can count on the money to be there, to execute these campaigns, or to be prepared if there is an unexpected influx of animals coming our way, or, you know, whatever it is that that your mission focuses on, try to think about, like, what? What does that look like long term? Yeah, so, so I think that's, that's one of the value propositions that you that you need to build in. But I think the other piece is it's also very positive for the donor. So again, one thing again, is very donor centric, right? So it's like, allows you to support us in a way that's convenient for you, and you know, like that helps you spread out your giving. Because a lot of people are saying, well, you know, I can't afford the I'm just not able to do this big amount, but I can certainly spread out my giving over the year. So,
Christina Edwards 08:11
so with those monthly donors, they're coming in $10 $30 kind of a lower monthly or, you know, lower donation amount. What is your school of thought on? Can we send them the regular appeals? Can they give on top of it? That tends to be one of the sticky points for a lot of organizations. I'm thinking about though, you know the donor who you can count on for a $500 annual gift, $1,000 and going, well, I don't want them to stop doing that. What do you think? Yeah,
Erica Wassdorp 08:41
so, so, again, this is like, I think that when I do presentations, one of the questions I always ask is like, how often do you reach out to your donors? Now, okay, and you know, a lot of organizations are saying, maybe twice a year, maybe four times a year. Some like more often than that. But the bulk of bulk of organization does not necessarily appeal to donors that often, you know, I think not as often as probably they should. And, you know, they always like already, question like, Oh, is that not too much as is, you know, so So again, this is why monthly giving comes typically from donors that are not able to write the $500 checks, right? So that would be the group of people that you would exclude from a monthly game giving appeal when you when you first like generate them, right? Um, so, so that way you're not you never want to downgrade any donors, right? So in other words, you never want to downgrade a $500 or $1,000 donor to a $10 or $20 a month. But again, this is where you know, like you, you look at your your segmentation, and say, Okay, well, that's the group of people that I'm treating them as mid level donors. I'm going to ask. Them for another $500 or another 1000? Yeah. And if the donor says, Look, I would love to do this on a monthly basis, then of course, you can open there and say, Well, how much would you like to give? And they might say, Oh, 200 $300 a month, right? You never know. But that's like, that's more of a personal conversation. Just
Christina Edwards 10:17
about to say that you're giving everyone a hot tip, which is, personal conversations. The need for those haven't gone away. Even though we have technology saving us time, automating, doing all of these amazing things, please still have the personal, absolutely
Erica Wassdorp 10:32
personal. And in fact, that whole personal connection is huge, especially with with multi doors. I think if you look at monthly donors, at your mid level donors, right? Because, again, some, you know, I think Abby's, Abby's, like, report was like 70 plus. Can't remember the exact number, with $74 a month, or something like that, with some a huge amount that monthly donors tend to give. But it does differ a little bit of the type of organization you are. So they your mid level donors, and they're going to give for years and years and years on hand. I mean, I was talking to an organization last week, and, you know, they were like, Yeah, well, we want some monthly donors, but we also want the one time gifts. And I said, look, let's take a look at your lifetime value. And they saw that the average monthly donor, their lifetime value was $3,500 Oh, wow. Okay, so and again, the neon one starting eight year lifetime value, guys. So it's not a one time gift, right? So it's really, really a long term, a long term investment. So it's worth doing something special, like what you're doing for your mid level or your major doors right pick up the phone. You know, kind of make it making a little bit personal. But to come back to your question about, should you send monthly donors additional appeals during the year? And the answer is, unless they have told you that they're giving a month a gift because they don't want you to spend money on appeals. I mean, it's totally fine to send them some extra appeals a year, but it depends, right? So in other words, if you're sending two appeals a year, go for it. Send them both of them. If you're sending four appeals, typically still okay. Or if you have, like, a membership card or something special where you say, Wow, I know our special donors would would appreciate this, then, by all means, include them. If you're doing a capital campaign, include them in there, right? So basically, think about it's like, what would it be that the donor would be upset about if they didn't know about this, right? Because these are monthly donors. They're invested in your mission, right? So, um, so just, just something to that. So don't assume you know that the donor doesn't want it. Just say, what would it be that the donor would be upset about if they're not they're not getting it with that, though. One key thing is that you do again, personal connection, ideally, so so highly recommended if you do, send them an extra appeal that you send a hand write a personal note on the letter, um, do a little personal intro in an email saying, I know you're already giving monthly, really, really appreciated thought you might want to see this appeal, you know, thought you might want to, you know, see this, um, special message that we're sending out, you know, something like that. So again, oh, yeah, I'm special. I'm special, all right, you know, so um, because if you, if you pretend that you don't know them, then, yeah, that's bad. That's bad, right? I
Christina Edwards 13:45
love that. I didn't know what you would say to that question about sending them extra appeal. So I'm glad that you were in my camp of like, it's okay, but the nuance there too, of really understanding these are your warmest, engaged people, and I'm thinking about there's like, an arts art studio that I go to that's a nonprofit, and they do a lot of fundraising. And it's like, I already pay them to go to all their art classes, and sometimes I will give a one time gift annual. And it's like, I would want to know if they were doing a capital campaign, if they were expanding programming, if they're building out summer camps. And like, I want that appeal. I would be like, What the heck you guys if they excluded me? Yeah, that's a good kind of litmus test.
Erica Wassdorp 14:25
If they don't want it, then they will tell you too exactly,
Christina Edwards 14:29
or they just will. They'll just put it in this the mail with other stuff, or they'll just put it in the the trash of the email. And that's okay too. Like, that's okay.
Erica Wassdorp 14:39
Yes, it's one email, it's one appeal. And yeah, so
Christina Edwards 14:43
I'm curious what you would say to organizations that are like, listen, Erica, we have tried this. We've got the monthly form on our website. We've sent out a postcard. We've talked about it, and like, you know, we've had like 11 people. Doing, what the heck? What gifts we're doing? All the things, okay, want this, right?
Erica Wassdorp 15:05
Okay, so here's the thing, don't look at him like 11, $20 a month. People say, okay, what are those 11 donors worth? Annualized, after one year, after three years, after five years, okay? So, and then all of a sudden, it's like, whoa, they're worth like, you know, like, even if it if a donor gives you 20 bucks a month, so they're worth a lot of money, right? And again, you know, that's money that you can count on, right? So, so, I think, don't again, to your point, it's like, it's all about the mindset about, oh, we brought in 11 loyal donors that are going to be with us for a long time. And spoiler alert, they, if you do it right, they're also going to leave you, and they will okay. So, I mean, I was like, talking to one of my UK colleagues, and they do a lot of research in the UK about, like, Legacy gifts and what have you and, and they saw that, I asked him. He said, Richard, okay, what, what do you think about, like, how many Monte donors, you know, leave organization they will? And he says they're six times more likely to do that. So they're like, not able to write the big checks now, but they care about you. They're like, you know, investing in your mission. And you know they're gonna leave you in their will, as long as, obviously, you can plant the seeds about that, right?
Christina Edwards 16:38
So smart, like, sometimes we have to zoom out right and go, What is the total value? And I'm thinking about an organization who was just given $100,000 and through, through the will, and it's like that changed everything for their year. And it's like, yes, Oh, what an opportunity to really develop. Okay, so great, long term, long term. But then they're saying, Okay, I'm with you. The value of these, these beautiful people are awesome, and we need more, right?
Erica Wassdorp 17:12
So again, let's do that again, so you can do, you know, a quarterly full on what I call like a sustainer drive, right? So, yes, send the postcard, send, you know, an email, or send a couple of emails, you know, post it on social, and again, really, really focus, and then if you can find a match. So, and it doesn't have to be a lot, right? It could be like your board wants to support this, right? Because they're all about long term, or they should all be about long term, right? So, so then send a match and say, oh, okay, if we generate like, 25 new monthly donors by this deadline, then we're going to get another $5,000 to help, you know, the animals, or whatever, the clients, whatever it is they or, you know, put on more arts programs, whatever their mission is, right? So, so matches are really magical. They work for anything, right? So, and they work for for a monthly giving as well.
Christina Edwards 18:10
So I think that's a great piece you just offered, and it's kind of funny. I think sometimes we're all in the pool like we're all drinking the same, you know, cool, or whatever. And so I've heard a little of like, do people even care about matches anymore? Does this even matter? And I will tell you, every single year this happens to me. The PTA says today only match gifts up to $1,000 that's my day. I'm like, Well, I want them make sure they get that full match. I'm my own, you know, test subject there, yes. So I think they still work. I think you're saying they totally still work. Yeah, yeah,
Erica Wassdorp 18:44
okay, yeah, absolutely. So I think one of the other things that is sometimes people forget about is donors, like hearing from other donors, right? So it's kind of that social proof. It's like, oh, you know, we're like, yeah, Christina, you've already done it. Now you're asking other parents, right? Like, Hey, would you join me? Because I just gave my you know magic so well. The same applies for monthly donors, right? So if you have not done this already, even if you just brought in 11 monthly donors from this one campaign that you just did, reach out to those 11 say, Wow, so grateful. Would you mind sharing what made you decide to make a monthly gift, and you have no idea what they're gonna say, but you might say, wow, hey, that's wonderful. You know, Mr. Mrs. Jones, would you can I, you know, use that to reach out to other monthly donors. And elections is like, well, of course, you know. So you now have got this testimonial, and you can put it in an email, you can put it on the website. I mean, you can literally have an email come from a monthly donor who already did it, right? So, you know, so again, it's like, there's, there's really no end to it, but it's, I guess. What I mean to say is one thing you have. It's not a huge brand new, oh, my thing. It's little things, yeah, it's literally like, Okay, well, let's try a button. Let's add an email. Let's, you know, so let's, like, go back to these donors and and ask them for testimonial. Let's add, you know, an option in a welcome email, right? So it's, it's literally a lot of little things that are going to add up, but you got it, and it's not like, Okay, well, I'm doing something in January, and then I don't have to think about the rest of the year, right? So it's like, you know, there's a lot of different things that you can do throughout the year to constantly be planting the seeds about it.
Christina Edwards 20:44
That's right. You want to talk about it more than that one time, more than that one launch. More than that one. Yeah, yeah. I want to shift here and talk a bit about the donor experience. As a monthly donor, I think that I see kind of one or two things happen for organizations who are really in the like, beginner stages, maybe even intermediate stages, of having a monthly giving program, one is they're like, I do not have the bandwidth to, like, do all of these personal touch points. And oh my gosh, are we supposed to send them a welcome kit and swag and a hat and a pen, right? Or I see them just do nothing, meaning, lovingly, meaning they lump them back in the sort of general pool of just comps. So what is the, what is the attainable kind of best practice here that you've seen over the course of your expertise, your years of like, this is how we like to do it.
Erica Wassdorp 21:40
Yeah, so I am very I, I like to keep it very simple, okay, because I know, like nonprofits is a lot of turnover and what have you, especially so. So when you when your monthly donor first comes on board, that's when you must send them a thank you note. Thank You letter, right? And by all means, if you can have a personal note on that, that is fantastic, or if you can make it really personal, and if you don't have the bandwidth, well, maybe a board member or a volunteer would want to come in once a month and say, Hey, I'm going to help you write some personal notes here. Okay, so that's, that's one so, so you just like, must send them something. And in that, you say, if you have questions, here is the person to contact. Okay, because monthly donors may have questions, right? So, so make that is the first personal connection. Um, and, you know, because, and you want to make sure that whomever that person is is actually going to then act on it, or actually going to be responsible when a monthly donor asked something, right? So that's kind of your first part. So if you're, if you're joining, that's, that's the first step. When you send them the confirmation email saying, here's what's going to happen. You'll receive, you know, here's your email confirmation. You'll get a thank you note in the mail and, oh, but, and you're going to receive updates on how your monthly gifts are making a difference. You don't have to specify how often that is and what that looks like. You just say, during the year you're going to get some updates on how your monthly gifts are making a difference. Okay? So keep it very simple, and then say, and you will receive an overview of all of your giving every January for tax purposes. So that's so basically, just tell them, they're going to get updates, and they're going to get a Tax Overview, right? Yep. So then and then, during the year again, look at if you're a bigger organization, maybe you have something going on in your mid level or your major donor program. Can you tag along with that? So say your executive director does every half year, does a video call? Yeah, invite your monthly owners for that. They may not come, but that doesn't matter. You've invited them, right? So it's something that's already happening, or if, again, you know, like, so there's so many opportunities if you post something on social media, well, maybe pop it into an email, right? So I'm also a very strong proponent for recycling repurposing, because we as nonprofits are just not we want it to be new and fresh. But guess what? The donor does not remember what you sent them yesterday. They really don't, right. So, um, so just so if you put something on social media two weeks ago, that was really powerful and a great story about, you know, something, pop that in an email to your monthly dog, and then I think the other thing is, like you it is important that you tag them or group them, or, you know, segment them in your email program and in your database, so that way you can do something special. But that's. Special is typically just a version of what you're already doing to your donors. So smart, yes, so if you're doing an email newsletter once a month or once a quarter, all right, include your monthly donors in that, and make copy of that. And then thank you so and then on the in the intro, saying, Dear you know Christina, thank you so much for your ongoing monthly support. Here's this month's newsletter. There it is. It's one line. People, okay, so, but it is a version, right? So donors,
Christina Edwards 25:32
yeah, know you. We know you, we see you. You are not on the general list, right, right. So
Erica Wassdorp 25:39
smart, yeah. But I mean, and then yeah, depending upon how many monthly donors you have, it's like it is ideally, if you growing to assign somebody who could become the monthly donor specialist, or the monthly donor contact, you know, in your in your organization, but, but again, you don't need to work. But, mean, you know, especially if you're smaller, don't I guess I should have worn my T shirt. Says, Hold on, let me overthink this. Okay, so I literally have a T shirt, okay? It says, Hold on, let me overthink this. Because, again, we nonprofits tend to overthink things. And it's like, it's keep it simple, keep it doable, you know, but try to work in some personal things where you can, yeah, and by all means, recycle, repurpose and engage other people. I know board members, some of them love to write thank you notes. Well, you can do something surprising, send them a thank you note in the middle of the year, right? Thanks so much for your ongoing monthly support. Really appreciate it, you know. So, um, so just,
Christina Edwards 26:51
yeah, just, I love this.
Erica Wassdorp 26:53
Keep it so, so and again. You know, if you're sending an appeals a couple a year, that's an update too. So that's one of your updates on you know how your monthly, monthly gifts are making a difference, and, oh, by the way, we need you right now for a very special occasion, right? So how
Christina Edwards 27:09
do you feel about anniversary? So the year anniversary, etc. Are those like, are we? Are we wrong if we forget to celebrate? No. I mean, I see some Is there a way to automate it? What do we what do we think?
Erica Wassdorp 27:25
Yeah, that's the thing. There is ways to automate it. And I mean, I'm only really seeing it from very large organization that do have the staff to really focus on it. But yes, you can set it up to add to automate it. I mean, you know, I like getting, I personally like getting birthday emails or birthday cards, right? So I think that's much more important, because it it's about me, the donor. It's less about the fact that I was giving, you know, for such a period of time. Interesting. So, yeah, so again, this is like, you know, if you, for example, if you can automate the welcome to a new monthly donor the third or the second or third email. Could say, Can I, you know, just a quick survey, hey, what's your birth month or something, right? Yep, so. And then, you know, as long as you put it in the database, and then now you can set that up to trigger based on a certain date. You know, so but, and again, the tools are there. So but, like I said, Yeah, Anniversaries are good. I mean, it's but it's not, I would say it's not crucial. It's much more. I think it's less about the transaction, about the giving, than it is about, what can you do to make the donor feel really special? And well, guess what? A lot of people don't get birthday cards anymore, right? So it's so funny,
Christina Edwards 28:49
like, I get a the first birthday card I get every single year. It's not for monthly giving, but it's from my financial advisor, their whole their team. I, I don't know. I mean, I love it. It's, yeah, they always hang out with their signature every year. Yes, right? And it's so funny, if they sent me a card that said, Christina, it's your 10th year anniversary of putting money in your Roth or 401, I'd be like, All right, like, so that's an interesting shift. One's not right, one's not wrong. But no, we're laying out some options for organizations to decide on, right? That's really cool. Yeah? Like that, yeah.
Erica Wassdorp 29:24
So, so I think that's that, that's, yeah, there's, there's lots of different things that you can, you know, do to make them feel special. But again, don't, don't start. I mean, if you're just starting out, don't go crazy about that yet, right? Not that relevant, you know. So
Christina Edwards 29:38
we're going to layer them on. We're going to layer on these strategies. As you get going, what organizations do you feel like are doing it right, or doing it well, or have really, and this could be any size organization where you're like, Yeah, their monthly giving is rocking and rolling.
Erica Wassdorp 29:54
Well, I mean, yeah, I obviously get a lot of you know, I joined like four. To your 50 monthly, monthly donor programs. So, wait, pause, yeah, you did,
Christina Edwards 30:07
oh yeah, in just being a case study researcher, or in just wanting to or
Erica Wassdorp 30:13
kind of a combination. So it's like some organizations I wanted to be because, you know, like, I mean, all of my clients I join anyhow. So it's like the first step, typically saying, What could go wrong, what could go right? So usually, that's usually my first step, but, but, yeah, it's a mix of, like, I there's some organization I really care about and other organizations because I like doing and curious, right? So, yeah, I mean, you know, ASPCA has been doing this for a long time. I mean, Greenpeace, like PETA, sort of in the animal world, they've been do all doing this for a long time. So they've really perfected a lot of these things. But they also have the staff, right? Yes, they have programs. So they have the staff, right? St Jude. I mean, obviously charity waters is great from an online perspective, but again, one thing to remember is they purposely made that mindset change, right? They really said, You know what, we like the one time gift, but we really, really like those monthly gifts, right? So, and that's that's been sort of a whole shift. So if you take anything away from the Charity Water piece, it's like that was the big first step that they took, and then everything sort of fell into place, um, but yeah, I mean, I'm just trying to think, uh, I mean, I make a wish. I mean, you know, um, Habitat for Humanity.
Christina Edwards 31:44
So since you've been in that many, you've you've been a part of that many monthly donor programs. Was there, is there any thing that happened as a monthly donor that, like, surprised and delighted you, or really stood out to you, where you're like, man, well,
Erica Wassdorp 32:00
like, I mean, you know, like, I was just thinking about, like, again, I should have, like, had the whole list here, but, like, half for international, for example, right? I'm one of their, their monthly norms. They, they do these cute birthday emails. And every year, I was like, Oh, I wonder if they're gonna send it to me again, you know, whatever. So, um, so I like that. I mean, ASPCA does send me anniversary postcards, you know, so, um, I think the, I think some of the bigger organizations, sometimes I'm surprised that, um, you know, when I get the extra appeal that they did not, you know, like, a lot of times there's, like, one line that says, make A monthly gift on the re on an appeal reply form, and they had that on there when I'm already giving monthly that's like, surprised me, sort of in a negative way, like, how come they couldn't have exclude? I mean, it's just a laser version, right? So they could have just removed that line, right? Yeah. Um, so, I mean, I think, you know what, what I think, if I look at, sort of the the different types of organizations, because I'm I've joined, like, some small ones, some mid size, some large ones, yeah, it's like, a lot of times the smaller organizations actually do a better job of making it personal. I mean, there was this one organization. I mean, she writes, I mean, she, she sends me an upgrade campaign every year, I mean, and she personalizes, you know, and writes a note on it, and she's busy. I mean, she, and she's really grown her monthly giving program. I mean, they do an amazing job with, like, special emails, you know, thanking for for a monthly gift. So, I mean, I don't think there's anything, yeah,
Christina Edwards 33:45
I think those are some really great examples. And this conversation has been Thank you. It's been so wonderful. I'm already like, Ooh, my wheels are spinning. So I'm curious, before we wrap up, is there anything just coming on that you wanted to share with the listeners about monthly giving that we haven't already discussed.
Erica Wassdorp 34:06
Um, I mean, again, I think, yes, I think the biggest thing is take one step, start do and do one thing, yeah, and and create. Because people ask me, like, oh, yeah, but I'm so busy, right? And, you know? And I get it right, but take one hour a week start there, and maybe every Monday morning, between nine and 10, that's when you start, and then you're done for the rest of the week, right? Saying, okay, that's my one hour a week that I'm going to focus on my program. How many do I have? What's it worth? Oh, wow. Hey, you know, what can I What can I do this week to generate some more of these? That's so that's, that's just like, I mean, keep it simple. But by golly, do it. I think that's, that's really. Yeah, doing we had,
Christina Edwards 35:00
we had an author on the podcast, Laura Belgrade, and she was probably a year into her book launch, so she's like, talking under about her book on month 11. And I asked her how she kept momentum up, because she really was New York Times, made the list, did the thing copywriting Pro, and she said, I'd wake up in the morning and say, What's one thing I can do for the book today. And so you're saying, What's one thing I can do for monthly giving this week? And it's like, not everything, just one, just
Erica Wassdorp 35:27
one thing. Just keep it simple. Yes, absolutely. Yeah.
Christina Edwards 35:31
Now we ask every guest on the podcast to share one thought that they like to think on purpose. This can be an affirmation, a mantra, just a go to that keeps you moving, would
Erica Wassdorp 35:41
you? Yeah, it's really, you know, and I don't know, I mean, I'm Dutch, right? So, and, you know, I moved here 31 years ago, so, and, I mean, I never thought I would write two books, and, you know, be, become like known in the in the area of monthly giving. But again, my dad always said you can do anything you set your mind to, and that's, that's one of my affirmations, like you can do anything you set your mind to, and that's true with every, every day, you know, building my business. But also, like, you know, working on, working on monthly giving and just, you know, living in living in general, I think so, oh,
Christina Edwards 36:24
I love that. Where can everyone find you? Erica, where do you like to hang out online? And we'll include it in the show notes. Yeah.
Erica Wassdorp 36:30
So I'm on LinkedIn. I think that's probably my, my most favorite social media post, most social media area and and I have a website, a direct solution.com. So and I have resources, free, resources, paid resources, you know, so,
Christina Edwards 36:47
yeah, amazing. All there. Thank you for this conversation. It has been such a juicy one, and we, I know everybody is going to leave motivated and ready to take that next step.
Erica Wassdorp 36:57
Thank you. Thanks. Applause.