Getting Started With Sustainers
I’m encouraged.
This week, I was blessed to give the opening keynote at the Citygate CEO Summit in Chicago. Being in a room with CEOs of some of the most impactful human services charities in the nation was heartening.
Above: Sharing with CEOs at the Citygate Network. Social services charities stand to gain the most from the developments in subscription giving, so it was special to be able to share with the group and announce our new Sustainable Giving Accelerator, launching this October.
Historically, social services charities have been left behind when it comes to growing recurring giving. However, there is good news. This doesn’t have to be the case anymore, thanks to the way the subscription economy is transforming the way people give to charity.
I believe that human and social services charities stand to benefit the most from tapping into this movement of growing, strong, sustainable recurring giving.
My prayer going into this week was that an entire group of CEOs would see a vision of a future that could be possible for them. A future that is sustainable. A future where they can scale the impact of their organizations while reducing the stress of meeting their annual budget. A future that will be, but does not yet exist.
As I return home, I’m encouraged by the momentum and enthusiasm that was felt this week. And not just by the organizations represented in the room, but for the 41 million+ acts of service that members of Citygate make annually. Every one of those acts of service represents a person. It’s humbling to think of what could be possible.
The first sustainer program I worked on was more than 20 years ago, for Union Rescue Mission in Los Angeles – one of the largest rescue missions in the United States, and the oldest in Los Angeles.
Back then, if your nonprofit wasn’t doing child sponsorship, missionary support, or membership, it was extremely difficult to build a vibrant base of ongoing monthly supporters. The vast majority of nonprofits were left out, unable to tap into the steady, predictable, and renewable source of regular giving.
Then, starting about nine years ago, I noticed how the explosive growth in the subscription economy was starting to transform donor behavior. Donors were increasingly willing to give to causes on a recurring basis, causes that would not have historically seen significant sustainer giving.
That has led to the rise of a new third category of recurring giving programs, which I call subscription giving. If you’d like to learn more, I wrote about it in an article titled “Subscription Philanthropy 📈Three Types of Recurring Giving.”
This represents a tremendous opportunity for an estimated 1.1 million charities that have historically been left behind.
Over the past couple of years, even as single-gift fundraising has struggled with declining donor counts and retention, one consistent bright spot has emerged repeatedly – recurring giving continues to grow.
When I first started speaking about the new opportunities in recurring giving, I had to convince the audience that it was a trend worth paying attention to. That is no longer the case – almost every nonprofit I speak to today not only sees the trend but also believes it’s an opportunity and wants to take advantage of it to grow its recurring giving program.
The question today is where to start. That’s what this Wave Report is dedicated to.
Getting Started with Growing Sustainable Giving
Every nonprofit I’ve ever worked with already has some form of recurring giving. Typically, it begins with a small group of donors who have chosen to give monthly.
Later, a charity might make an effort to separate its monthly giving program, even giving it a name – Friends of the [Charity], [Charity] Partners, or similar. But at this point, it’s not really a central part of its fundraising effort.
As nonprofits recognize the value of recurring giving, they invest in building it out, developing a program, and making it a core part of their fundraising strategy. This includes developing strategies and tactics, from acquisition and conversion to upgrading and retention (more on that shortly).
There are four primary “stages of maturity” that nonprofit sustainer programs fall under:
Starter – Just starting out. There are a small number of recurring donors and very basic giving options, such as a monthly giving checkbox on the donation page.
Basic – Some dedicated effort, maybe even a named program. Occasional promotion, but still not a core fundraising effort.
Intermediate – More significant effort, including regular recruitment and promotion. Some elements may be in place, such as new sustainer onboarding and program features like name, benefits, and an articulated value proposition.
Advanced – Sustainer giving is a central pillar of the fundraising effort. It has fully dedicated resources and strategies for acquisition, conversion, cultivation, upgrading, retention, cancellation, and reactivation. It operates across multiple channels and has strong technology and measurement systems in place.
Take a moment and consider – which stage of maturity is your program at?
💡 Takeaway: There are four stages of maturity for sustainer giving programs, from just starting to advanced. Growing recurring giving begins with understanding where you are.
Now that you have a sense of where you are, let me suggest three next steps to grow sustainer giving.
Step 1: Take Stock of What You Have
It’s hard to know where you are going if you don’t know where you’ve been. The first step, regardless of your level of maturity, is to understand where you are by benchmarking your program.
Start by answering two simple questions – how many and how much. How many recurring donors do you have right now, and how much are they giving, on a monthly and annual basis?
Start with the following four core metrics:
Total number of active sustainers (gave at least one recurring gift in the last 12 months)
Revenue from sustainers (total giving from those sustainers in the past 12 months, including any single gifts)
Percentage of total revenue (divide the total revenue from sustainers by your organization's total revenue)
Long Term Value (LTV) of sustainers (60 months of total giving from new sustainers is ideal)
A note on LTV – this is the most important metric, but also one that charities have a hard time calculating, often because they don’t have readily available data.
If you need to estimate your five-year LTV for now, take your average recurring gift and multiply it by 40. So, a $45/month donor would have an estimated LTV of $1,800 ($45 x 40) - this is a quick, conservative “napkin math” way to estimate LTV. Some organizations will have higher LTV, and a few lower, but it is a good place to start.
If you are at a more advanced stage, you will want to look at other metrics – I unpack 12 total metrics in The Rise of Sustainable Giving.
💡 Takeaway: Understanding where you are is essential to charting where you want to go. It’s also highly motivating – nothing inspires like results.
The next step is to evaluate your program as it currently stands.
Step 2: Evaluate Your Current Program
One of our privileges at Imago Consulting is assessing recurring giving programs and making recommendations. Evaluating existing sustainer programs involves three components.
Go on your donor’s journey.
One of the most effective ways to identify significant opportunities and issues is to experience the same things your donors do. Put yourself in your audience's shoes and walk through the journey, making notes along the way.
When we are brought in to work with a charity on its recurring giving program, one of the things we do is conduct secret-shopper-style research, experiencing every step along the journey.
Inevitably, there are major insights that come from this insight – either a process that was thought to be in place but didn’t happen as intended, or a glaring gap or frustrating experience stands out. Likewise, there can be unexpected delights that provide clues to ways to amplify the experience.
Talk to your donors.
Look for opportunities to speak with your recurring donors, either one-on-one or in groups. The reason to do this is twofold: to gather insights and to stay close to the donor.
The learning opportunities are there if you ask the right questions and listen. Ask questions to draw out the donor's underlying relationship to your cause, what giving means to them, what initially motivated their involvement, and why they continue to stay involved.
The other reason to talk to donors is the same reason store owners like to work the floor of their stores – to keep their finger on the pulse of the customer. In this work, it is very easy to get lost in the mechanics of fundraising and marketing. We remove our “human hat” and put on our “fundraiser hat,” which can lead to some pretty poor experiences. Connecting with donors keeps us grounded in the human experience.
Assess your value proposition.
Consider your offer and value proposition. The clarity of your offer and the strength of your value proposition need to exceed the friction of taking action.
Your offer should describe what the donor’s ongoing gifts will accomplish:
The problem or opportunity.
How the nonprofit is addressing it.
How much it will cost.
How the donor can be involved.
A timeline that evokes a sense of urgency.
The consequences of not acting (implied or declared).
Do you have a clear offer? Does it justify an ongoing giving commitment versus one-time?
Nathan Hill, Vice President of Training at fundraising platform Avid, wrote while at research lab NextAfter that "A nonprofit value proposition answers one fundamental question that every donor asks when considering giving to your organization: Why should I give to you, rather than some other organization, or at all?
“Why should I give to you, rather than some other organization, or at all?”
Recurring giving has to justify itself differently from one-time giving. Committing to give recurring gifts is a different kind of decision from giving a one-time gift, which can be given on impulse or in response to a momentary need.
Consider other elements of your value proposition as well. What benefits do you offer donors, either tangible or intangible? Are there incentives for joining, such as a match or a premium for signing up? Does the program have an attractive identity that attracts donors?
Recurring giving is an ongoing commitment and needs an ongoing value proposition.
💡 Takeaway: Subscription giving requires a clear offer and a strong value proposition. Consider whether yours is where it needs to be to maximize growth.
The next step in growing sustainer giving is to consider three key elements in a loop: design, recruitment, and cultivation.
Step 3: Think: Design, Recruit, Cultivate
Tactics are important, but given the importance of the sustainer value proposition, ensuring that you have a program worthy of donors' attention and participation is also important.
Design and launch (or relaunch) a compelling program.
From the first two steps, consider what you might do to improve the design of your program. You may need to design a program initially, or you may identify specific actions you can take to enhance the program's attractiveness.
Consider the core elements of your program – a high-quality value proposition, a clear identity, an offer that justifies monthly involvement, benefits for being involved, a dedicated presence on your website, a great onboarding experience, and ongoing cultivation.
Recruit everywhere.
Your sustainer program should be clearly a central pillar of your fundraising effort. Consider every channel and every campaign and strategy as an opportunity to grow the presence and value of your sustainer program should be clear.
As a starting point, here’s a list of channels I often see in programs I’m working with:
Artist or Influencer Relations
Collateral
Content/Earned Media
Corporate or Church Engagement
Digital Media
Direct Mail
Emails
Events
Face-to-Face/Canvassing
Peer-to-Peer/Crowdfunding
Phone/Telemarketing
Radio
Receipt Inserts
Search
Social Media
Texting/Mobile
Video/TV
Website
Cultivate, upgrade, and retain.
Long-term value (LTV) is the most important metric for sustainer giving, so how you cultivate, upgrade, and retain them becomes critical.
Start with welcoming them as the faithful core insiders they are to your charity, and treat them specially. They should receive additional asks throughout the year, but not necessarily every single appeal and ask. Even better, if you have a more mature program, send them special, extra gift requests.
Look for opportunities throughout the year to invite them to increase their recurring giving strategically. The justification should always be focused on the donor and the timeliness and impact of increasing their giving.
Ensure you have solid processes for updating payment information, ideally automatically. Communicate with donors before any payment methods expire and promptly after any failed payments.
No matter what you do, donors will leave your recurring giving program. There are many reasons – financial hardship, decreased interest, a bad experience, or they may not know that payments have stopped. It’s essential to have intentional strategies to encourage these donors to renew their recurring giving or, at the very least, to make occasional single gifts.
💡 Takeaway: Consider whether your program needs to be redesigned or designed anew to maximize recurring giving. Recruit new sustainers from all channels and audiences. Once they join your program, treat them like the faithful core supporters they are, and invite them to additional opportunities to stand with you through renewing or increasing their giving.
Accelerating your Sustainable Giving Growth
Over the past few years, we’ve been blessed to be a part of unlocking more than $40 million in sustainable recurring giving.
We’ve taken everything we’ve learned from working with organizations, from writing the book, and growing recurring giving, and put it into our newly redesigned Sustainable Giving Accelerator.
Sustainable recurring giving is more accessible today than at any other time in history. Donors are already living in the subscription economy—your organization can too.
Through the Accelerator, we’ll help you:
Identify hidden recurring revenue within your donor base
Spot your biggest opportunities for growth in the next 3–6 months
Map and execute your next moves to grow monthly giving
This isn’t theory. It’s a proven process already helping nonprofits at every stage generate predictable, resilient funding.
Enrollment for the Sustainable Giving Accelerator is open now, and we have a limited number of spots available each month.
This program is designed for organizations with 1,000+ recurring donors or $500,000 or more in annual recurring revenue. (If you are smaller but serious about investing in growth, you are still welcome to apply.)
The next step is to apply for a 30-minute sustainable giving strategy call. During this complimentary call, we’ll discuss your opportunity to grow recurring giving, identify key areas of focus, assess the potential fit for the program, and outline next steps.
👉 Apply for a free 30-minute strategy call to grow sustainable giving and explore our Sustainable Giving Accelerator.
Interested, but not sure just yet? Here are some recent quotes from clients:
“Imago transformed our struggling monthly sustainer program within a year. Dave's wisdom, expertise, and team-building approach positioned our organization for long-term growth.”
“Dave Raley and Imago Consulting are helping us take sustainer giving to the next level. Dave’s analysis of our program and strategies for growth are clear, incisive, and genuinely helpful.”
Enrollment is limited, and slots tend to fill quickly each month—so don’t wait.
Until next week… Surfs Up! 🌊
- Dave
About the Author | Dave Raley
Consultant, speaker, and author Dave Raley is the founder of Imago Consulting, a firm that helps nonprofits and businesses who serve nonprofits create profitable growth through sustainable innovation. He’s the author of the book The Rise of Sustainable Giving: How the Subscription Economy is Transforming Recurring Giving, and What Nonprofits Can Do to Benefit. Dave also writes a weekly innovation and leadership column called The Wave Report, and the co-founder of the Purpose & Profit Podcast — a show about the ideas at the intersection of nonprofit causes and for-profit brands. Connect with Dave on LinkedIn.
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