Ep. 188: Monthly Giving Isn’t the Strategy. It’s the Result.
EPISODE 188
Monthly Giving Isn’t the Strategy. It’s the Result.
About the Episode:
What does the Winter Olympics have to do with monthly giving? More than you think. Watching Alysa Liu’s gold medal performance, I couldn’t stop thinking about magnetism, how some athletes make you want to cheer for them, root for them, watch them again and again. That’s the energy monthly giving requires.
In this episode, I explain why simply adding a “give monthly” checkbox to your donation form isn’t a strategy. Recurring revenue isn’t built through automation; it’s built through retention, campaign energy, and relational depth. Monthly giving is the result of belonging, not billing. If your recurring program has stalled or never quite taken off, this episode will help you see what needs to happen first, and how to build a system that compounds instead of resets. Monthly giving isn’t the engine; it’s what happens when the engine is working.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
Why monthly giving is the result, not the strategy
The difference between a payment feature and a real program
Retention before recurring revenue
Why trust-building must happen before asking for commitment
The role of campaign energy in monthly giving growth
Belonging vs. billing: creating identity for donors
How to know if your nonprofit is ready to launch
Why donors are absolutely “monthly people”
Subscription economy and donor behavior
How to integrate monthly giving into your full fundraising ecosystem
It’s not your stories—it’s how you’re telling them. If your amazing work isn’t getting the attention (and donations) it deserves, it’s time for a messaging shift. The Brave Fundraiser’s Guide guide gives you 10 done-for-you donor prompts to make your message impossible to ignore. Get it for free here! https://christinaedwards.krtra.com/t/xKuLs6tOiPZa
Christina’s Favorite Takeaways:
“Form is not a strategy, a checkbox is not a campaign, and billing automation is not a loyalty plan.”
“Monthly giving feels like a solution to the stress of the roller coaster of fundraising.”
“Monthly giving requires three key things: commitment, continuation, and loyalty.”
“Monthly giving only works when systems compound and when you have a system to support your monthly giving strategy.”
“Your donors see what's possible if they give at a regular frequency.”
“Borrowed trust must become organizational trust.”
“Monthly giving is about belonging, not billing.”
“Monthly giving isn't the engine; it's what happens when the engine is working.”
“Monthly giving isn't the strategy, it is the result.”
Learn more from the previous episodes:
Turning Audiences into Engaged Communities: Online Community Building with Carrie Melissa Jones
Charity: Water Ambassador Kayla Houchin Raised $147K—And Proved a Movement Can Start with One Person
FREE Resources from Splendid Consulting:
How to Work with Christina and Splendid Consulting:
Double Your Donations - Raise More From Your Laptop Without Chasing Grants or Galas
Easy Emails For Impact™ - Turn Your Inbox into an Income Stream
Donations on Demand: Build a $5K Email Campaign System in 30 min/week
The SPRINT Method™ - Fundraise Like a Pro, 5 Figures At a Time
Connect with Christina and Splendid Consulting:
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Christina Edwards 00:14
Today's episode is going to focus on monthly giving so you want more recurring givers. I get it. It is really the antidote to those spikes, those peaks and valleys that so many organizations experience, especially those who have a really back heavy fundraising year, meaning they make 5060, even 80% of their funding come in the last couple months of the year. So recurring revenue monthly givers can really help to even out those spikes so that your organization can grow on an annual basis and not have such a like peak and valley moment. That's why we love monthly giving. And a lot of people are coming to me right now saying, you know, we really want monthly giving. Monthly giving, like, it's such a big trend right now, and we're gonna, we're gonna dig into that today. And I called this episode, monthly giving isn't the strategy. It's the result, for a reason, because I want it to be like a moment for you. Okay, you want monthly givers. You want recurring revenue so badly you can feel it. Maybe you've got a few, maybe you've got a couple dozen, and you see the possibility of, like, hitting the gas on that, and what that could do for your organization. You're watching other organizations build monthly giving programs and thinking, why not us? Why hasn't this worked for us? What am I missing to call in more monthly givers. So you're adding a recurring option on your website, on your donation form, you have a checkbox that says, give monthly, and then you call that a monthly giving program, and sure enough, it stalls out. You just have your core dozen monthly givers, and that's it. So first, we're going to fix the belief before I dig into today's episode and the content, I just want to call out something that I have really loved and noticed online. So Winter Olympics. Winter Olympics at the time I'm recording this is like coming to a close, and it has been so fun, honestly, to watch even just the highlight reels on social has been so fun, but I want to call out a couple of standouts. So Alysa Liu is gold medalist, and she has been so magnetic, so joyous, so fun to watch. If you didn't see her gold medal winning ice skating, figure skating performance, you've got to watch it. She actually quit figure skating at the age of 16, and then she came back and did it her way, this version at age 20 for the Olympics here this year. And she absolutely has just been everywhere. Everyone is so drawn to her. She is so her. She is so joyous. You actually feel that she's doing this for the love of the game. And it's magnetic, and if we can just take, like an ounce, a little drop of her magnetism, and weave it into the stories you tell, weave it into how you show up in your campaigns, the emails you write, the fundraisers you launch, the phone calls you make, the thank you letters you write, I promise you, it will change everything. Because why do I know her name and not the dozens of others that performed in the Olympics? Because, like, her smile is infectious, her style is so alternate girl. It's so fun. She's a little bit of like, like a wild card, like an outlier, and she's so freaking into it that, like, watching her win, I watched her performance again and again and again, and then hearing her get interviewed, and watching, like, this idea of like a comeback, like, why did she choose to perform again? She didn't have to to compete again? And then just, it's just been so fun. And I want you to think about that, like, are people watching me? Are people watching our organization, cheering us on, really wanting us to win more than our core few, right? And if the answer is like, where is everybody? Why aren't we? Why don't we have more supporters? We're going to drill into that today, but it really starts with this, like magnetic energy, this magnetic story. The only way to be magnetic, this is, like a huge cheat code here is to be you, to show up as you, you the fundraiser, you the executive director, you the marketing lead, right? We want to hear your voice, your story. So Alysa has done that so beautifully in the Olympics. And like, watch her interviews too. Like she's so her and you just all you want to do is see her win. You want to see her win and win and win.
Okay, so let's dig into monthly giving. So the sector has said, you know, make sure you have it on on your website. We have a monthly giving program. And. And people will come to me and say, we have a monthly giving program. They will say that organizations will say that because you have a handful of monthly givers, those are people who are currently giving on a monthly basis. That is not a monthly giving program, that's a form that is an option. So if you join one of my programs, sometimes we offer payment plans, right? That is different. That is a payment plan, right? That is very, very different from somebody saying, I'm raising my hand. I want to be part of your core people. I want to be part of your your core supporters. I stand with you, right? That is very different. So a form is not a strategy, a checkbox is not a campaign. Billing automation is not a loyalty plan, and I think that's where we're kind of missing it. So if the only thing that has changed is somebody can now click Make this monthly, you don't have a monthly giving strategy yet, okay? And if you do, maybe you've named your monthly givers, maybe you've branded it out, which is like part of step one, right? But again, maybe you're kind of stuck, maybe you're plateauing. We're going to talk about why.
Christina Edwards 06:20
so having a payment feature does not equate to having a monthly giving strategy. Okay, features do not build momentum. So just because I take PayPal or Discover card does not mean I have a strategy to go after those specific customers in my business. You with me? All right? So you want monthly givers. You want that recurring revenue. You saw 100 new donors come in last year, and you're thinking, now we've got a pipeline. We've got more people. These are our perfect future monthly donors. And this is a common mistake that's not how successful monthly giving launches work. So if those donors came in, for example, through a Giving Tuesday or your your end campaign, you saw sort of an influx of new people, and there was no strong trust, building connective, intentional relationship, building strategy in place. After that, they're not ready. They're not ready. Think about, I don't know why this idea just popped in my head, but I believe that Panera has, like, a membership option where Panera, like the restaurant, where you can pay a certain amount each month and get, I want to say, coffee or sodas, or maybe it's like whatever drink of choice, like unlimited okay, we'll have to check that. Let's just say that that's what it was like join our, you know, monthly club, and you get as many coffee, teas and sodas as you want, unlimited refills, right? So that doesn't make sense to market to somebody who has, who has been to Panera. One time you with me if they have gotten a sandwich and some soup, one time they're not quite ready yet to take the leap to say, here is a membership I'd love to sign up for and pay on a monthly basis, right? There is a stewardship point, a relationship building point in the in between there, before they take that leap. And not every customer, not every donor, is going to be the person who's like, Yep, I want to sign up to be part of your membership. Okay? So similarly, this is what I see. Is we have an influx of new people, and then, boom, we're ready. Now. It doesn't mean we don't pick up some people who are just like, super warm and right out of the gate get us and those are amazing. But for the rest of we'll say 90% there needs to be some trust building. So have they been called? Has the person who gave because your volunteer Marco posted about it, even heard from you personally, right? And I'm not talking about a tax receipt. I'm not talking about a single form tax receipt. Have they received meaningful follow up? Have they been part of your bi weekly newsletter, are you sending meaningful, strategic storytelling, talking about the work you do simple but intentional touch points over the last few months? If the answer is no, then that audience that segment may not be ready. Do you have a welcome email series in place? Is there any touchpoint that they can signal out and go, Dang, this organization is awesome. Are they? Are is your organization staying top of mind? Let's say they gave to five organizations in December. Would your organization stand out to them because you went over and beyond? Now do not conflate this for me saying Christina's saying that I have to stop and DIY and one to one call and, you know, dial for dollars all the time. I just can't do this. But I am saying that if 100 new donors came in and you have a handful of board members between your staff and your board members, everybody could have called them. Everybody can have 10 names, 10 names, 10 phone calls. We can do that in an hour. You can give me an hour. This is possible. Okay?
Christina Edwards 10:28
now let's talk about why this is a trend in the first place. So there's been some great data out there that recurring givers. Now I'm going to use these, these words, recurring givers and monthly givers interchangeably. That is because most people think about donors giving on a monthly basis. However, we have clients in the club who their recurring givers are giving quarterly. They're setting up two donations twice a year, so recurring monthly, although most people are giving monthly. So just know that I'm talking about anyone who is signing up to make a gift at a particular cadence. You might even have people who choose to to make a gift bi weekly. Okay, so why is it such a trend? Well, I think leadership is seeing that that sustainability unlocks so much, so much predictability that says that sustainability has stability in funding that grant cycles don't have, that events don't have development teams are exhausted, right? And so it's like, oh, they see the possibility of, you know, we have, we have clients who are bringing in about $50,000 of recurring revenue a year, okay, if we can increase that by 20% that is significant. That is significant. So you're just start to see the possibility monthly giving feels like a solution to the stress of the roller coaster of fundraising.
Speaker 1 11:48
But what do we do? You rush it.
Christina Edwards 11:52
You rush to install it. You've got the form on your on your site, and when it underperforms, I see confidence drops, and then the narrative becomes, well, our donors aren't those kind of donors. I don't know what happened. This won't work for us. We shouldn't push it. Maybe we're over asking. And I don't want just people to give $25 a month, when they could give, you know, $500 a year. Christina, right? So it becomes this whole like, inner voice, Crazy Cycle. But the truth is that recurring givers Stay and have longevity with the organization that one time givers don't. So somebody who gives an annual gift has a much shorter lifespan. Monthly givers, we see, have over eight years of lifespan in your organization. So it really is a connection builder when done right. I really feel like we need the asterisk of when done, right? So monthly giving requires three key things, one, commitment, two, continuation and three, loyalty. But no most nonprofits are thinking and building transactions kind of spikes and resets. So if every campaign feels like a cold start, there's nothing to continue. We can't ask for a monthly commitment in a system that behaves episodically. Monthly giving only works when systems compound and when you have a system to support your monthly giving strategy. So one of the mistakes I see is we'll see an influx of monthly givers and then no real plan to retained them so many I want to say, like year one of the podcast, I had community builder Carrie, Melissa Jones on the podcast, and she's so wonderful in talking about what really makes a community. Community is such a buzzword in nonprofits, but what actually makes a community, and one of her examples was Harley David, Harley Davidson. And when you think about Harley Davidson enthusiasts, like, they are part of something, they are part of a membership, they are part of a club. Like, there's literal badges, there's literally identity markers, there's that knowing, right? And your monthly giving strategy should have even just 10% of that, okay, even just 10% of that, it is not I just give recurring, okay.
Christina Edwards 14:25
So because monthly giving is the result of retention, campaign, energy, relational depth, they see your donors, see what's possible if they give at a regular frequency, that's when they rise to the occasion. And let's talk about those three pieces retention, what happens after the first gift, not theoretically, like actually. And if you don't know the answer to this, if you don't have a strong standard operating procedure, SOP in place. This is your first step before you run the monthly giving campaign. Mean, okay, so what is their 90 day experience? If I give to your organization today, in the next 90 days, what the heck happens if you're like, oh, I don't know, or it's okay, or we kind of need to tweak it. Tweak that first. Tweak that first the other, the other piece of retention is, what about current givers? What about people who give annually. They give once or twice a year. What is their experience? What is their experience with your organization? Are there any personal touches happening throughout the year? Is there a second invitation to give? Sector retention averages around 20% meaning eight out of 10 donors only give one time. So you may be hovering at 40% or 50% even. But if you're not actively improving that monthly giving will feel heavy. So I want you to think about retention first. Next campaign energy. This is a huge one. Now we work on this in both programs, but you don't quietly open a monthly program. It is not something that exists on your website with a form to give monthly again, that's just a way to process payments. A true monthly giving strategy. A true strong result of having a lot of monthly givers is because you have campaign energy. You're creating sprints. You're creating strong campaigns with a defined window clear positioning a specific outcome urgency under a defined period of time. So people know, almost like a membership drive or or any sort of promo cycle, or like you might for a signature fundraiser or an event. You're doing this process. You're adapting it to call in monthly givers. Monthly giving needs a narrative. It needs that same energy that you would put to a traditional fundraiser.
Christina Edwards 17:10
And the third piece is relational depth, borrowed trust must become that organizational trust. So if somebody gay because Marco shared your post, they trust Marco, right? They trust their friend, their peer, that thought leader, that influencer. Have you earned that trust yet? Right? Think about that. If I gave because my friend Marco said, here's an organization I deeply care about. I'm personally trying to raise $1,000 towards their XYZ campaign. You should give. And I'm like, Oh, my God, I love him. Give. Has the organization yet earned that trust with me? No, I have the trust with Marco. I gave because of him, your job. Now I want you to think about, we're gonna use the Olympics example only. We're gonna do with Summer Olympics. Marco was in a relay race. He was the first one. He was right out of the gate. He's got the baton. Now he passed the baton to you. Now you got to run and hold the baton to keep me engaged as new donor. Okay, that trust starts with you. He passed it over a great peer fundraiser, a great social Street Team campaign. Is that first one out of the gate, but it the onus is with you. The buck stops with you, so that monthly giving is about belonging, not billing. I hope, if there's one thing you get from today, it is that, how am I creating this belonging? And it's really easy to be like, Oh my gosh, I don't have more time to create belonging and content and swag and membership badges. It's not about that. It is not about swag and stuff you can create belonging and in a quarterly update that happens, you know, again, four times a year, that's it. But it is about specificity. It is about saying, Have I done the work ahead of time to prep for this? Am I making a case for monthly givers to be called in right now. So when our clients add 25-50, even 100 new recurring donors in a single campaign, it's not because they flipped on a feature, it's because they did this. They prepared, they strengthened retention first, they built connective storytelling. They created a campaign that was like inflection point to bring people in. They created energy before asking for continuing. Continuation, okay? Monthly giving became the obvious next step for many people in their audience, not a forced upgrade.
Christina Edwards 19:48
Some common questions that I hear are, how do we know if we're ready? Okay, are you saying we're not? Ready? Are we ready? I want to, I want, I want to share with you a couple of responses and ways you can decide if you are ready. One, do you know your retention rate? Two, have first time donors received more than a single tax letter automation. Three, are we regularly communicating with our donors? What does that look like? Is it more and regularly, you guys, is more than once a month, some random long email regularly is at least twice a month. Okay, have we built any identity around belonging to this group? Who does this? Well, think about and take some time. Who does this? Well, what are other organizations who do this? Well, there are many organizations I'll pull for my really big one that just popped into my head, which is Charity Water. They have the spring. The spring is their branded monthly giving program. It is not called give once a month, right? Is not called monthly giving. Monthly giving is an internal word. So the spring is something that they've created that is specifically for this audience. For this you want to brand it out.
Christina Edwards 21:16
And does our system compound or reset? Meaning, are we just constantly starting back at zero after every campaign, or are our campaigns throughout the year quietly seating our monthly donors, quietly showing the power of that sustainable revenue? And if you're thinking, I don't want to over ask, I don't want to bug people, I don't want to take away from that $2,500 gift I get every year. What if I asked them to be a monthly giver, and then they give $25 a month instead of $2,500 Listen, the data is crystal clear on this, people who give significant one time gifts, or even significant is a subjective word. We'll just say significant one time gifts each year can still be part of your monthly giving program, okay? Meaning they may choose to give $25 a month. And then we see this again and again and again with our clients, they still will make a significant larger gift for a fundraising campaign. So one doesn't take from the other. That's just scarcity mindset. And I get it, it's real, but the data supports the exact opposite. So you don't need to worry about that. You're not over asking if trust has been built. If trust has been built. Remember, they have philanthropic goals. They want to see you win. I want to see Alyssa Wu win. She's not over competing. She's not over talking about figure skating, right? I want to see her. It win. I'm like, go skate again. Do the Olympics again? Try again. Keep at it, right? Our donors aren't monthly people. Maybe you're thinking that, let's just zoom out and think about your ideal, perfect, perfect fit monthly donor. How many subscriptions Do you think they pay for every single month, whether it's Netflix or Hulu or Spotify or the razor they get in the mail for shaving,
Christina Edwards 23:22
We are now in the subscription economy. So that's just a little lie, little sneaky lie. You're telling yourself, people are monthly people. Yes, people commit when they feel connected. That's human behavior, not sector specific behavior. And if you've tried it and it didn't work, you likely introduce that commitment into a system that resets every time, right? It wasn't part of a full ecosystem of your strategy, and that's why inside both my programs, we took time in q1 to plan q1 and q2 six months at a time, so we can see where the monthly giving sprints come in. And if you need help to actually brand and build out your monthly giving program. You need to join the purpose and profit club. That is my high touch fundraising accelerator, where we do this work together, where I can support you in branding out that that monthly giving strategy. What is it called? Who is it for? Who should join? How long should your first campaign be? What should you say? What are you doing to retain them, and it's not a bunch of hats and swag and pins and bobbles. How can you do this in a way that's scalable for your staff? You can do that inside the club, and I would love to support you.
Christina Edwards 24:40
And one of the things I love about monthly giving is it becomes part of your ecosystem, meaning that influence that you're already using, say your social street team for you can bring in to become audience amplifiers for a monthly giving. Push your campaigns are naturally building in that urgency and energy that retention is building in depth, and monthly giving captures that continuation. So when you think about the life cycle of a donor, it ends up being like a beautiful next step for somebody. So somebody who is already a strong donor, maybe they give $100 but they give $100 every single year for the last eight years, they are ready. They have been waiting for this, right? And somebody who gives $2,500 but has given $2,500 for the last three years, they are ready. They are waiting for this. It becomes such a beautiful signifier of their alignment with your work.
Christina Edwards 25:50
So inside the club, we build the system, not a check box, not an option, right, but the actual system. And once you build that system, once you can, very much run a campaign for monthly givers. So simply, it's like you build it the first time, and then you can look at your fundraising calendar for six months or for 12 months at a time, and actually see where those campaigns will ideally fit, because you'll see gaps in your fundraising calendar where you don't have, you know, a big appeal happening, a big event happening. And I'm like, let's do a monthly giving campaign. Let's call in your next 50. Because monthly giving isn't the engine. It's what happens when the engine is working. So stop installing monthly giving and hoping people come and start earning it, start being magnetic, start calling them in. So you're building that momentum, you're designing a retention plan, then you're launching with intention. Monthly giving isn't the strategy, it is the result. So if you want help with this, I highly recommend applying to join the purpose and profit club. The link is in the show notes. Or you can go to splendid courses.com, forward slash, join for details. I'll see you next time you you