Key Blocks and Breakthroughs in Sustainable Giving
One of the most essential skills in life and in leadership is pattern recognition. To be able to see connections between things.
Patterns help us make sense of the world. Patterns help us see, understand, and seize opportunities.
When you’ve worked directly with as many charities as I have (143 to date), you start to see patterns. And these aren’t just organizations that came to a workshop or a training – these are the ones I’ve worked closely with. Gotten to know them. Seen what’s worked for them and what hasn’t. In many cases, I’ve learned from them as much as they’ve learned from me.
One of the most satisfying things about focusing on sustainable recurring giving with as many organizations as we have is that we’ve been able to hone our ability to see patterns across different types of charities. To understand the specific ways that these organizations can take advantage of the rise of sustainable giving.
But recognizing patterns is useless unless you actually do something about them. Author and coach Tony Robbins makes a compelling case that while pattern recognition is the starting point of great leadership and life skills, the next stage is pattern utilization – where you put the recognition to good use. You leverage those patterns.
Here’s an interview with Robbins describing the value of pattern recognition (note, strong language inside).
Over the past three years, we’ve worked closely with 35 organizations and helped raise an estimated $41 million in additional annual recurring revenue. I’ve also met and spoken with hundreds of leaders over the past couple of years during my travels.
As I think about the many patterns we’ve seen that lead to sustainable growth, four types of patterns have emerged.
These four types of patterns either hold organizations back or unlock growth: strategy, systems, communications, and performance.
Strategy
The structure of the team, the nature of the sustainer program, and the presence of strategies around acquiring, converting, and cultivating recurring donors. These patterns are not just in the strategies they use but also in how they approach sustainable giving.
💡 Takeaway: For many charities, sustainable giving strategy is treated as an add-on to the single gift fundraising program. But if the structure is aligned and the right foundational strategies are in place, the program will grow.
Systems
The support systems, technology, people, and processes to enable and support recurring giving. Systems patterns are about the right combinations of tools, roles, and methods to grow.
James Clear wrote in his book, Atomic Habits, "You don't rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems."
💡 Takeaway: Systems, like technology, won’t grow your program. But they can be either your biggest barrier or your best ally in SCALING your program.
Communications
Here, communications are the activities that support growing recurring giving across channels. This includes outbound proactive communication channels, inbound channels, and an always-on, sustainable-giving presence.
Communications is also about what and how we say to prospective and current donors, our ongoing value proposition, making a compelling, specific, and timely case, and caring for our community of sustaining donors.
💡 Takeaway: Communications are where the rubber hits the road when it comes to growing sustainable giving. The activities that are leveraged to proactively communicate and invite donors into sustainable giving, and then cultivate them, are key.
Performance
Having a clear picture of what is going on in the program – not just the high-level metrics, but truly understanding what’s working, what’s not, and what to do about it.
In speaking about what boards want from leadership, Bobb Biehl says that it’s two things: that leadership 1) knows what’s going on, and 2) has a plan to do something about it. I’ve seen organizations that make sustainable giving a priority take this to heart across the organization. They understand what is happening in their program, and they have a plan to address it.
💡 Takeaway: It’s key to have both accountability to know what’s going on, and to have a plan to do something about it. When recurring giving is treated as a nice-to-have and is not invested in, performance lags potential.
Identifying your patterns – a tool designed for you
Where are the biggest areas of opportunity for your organization to grow recurring giving?
I think we can help.
We’ve taken the findings from writing The Rise of Sustainable Giving, combined them with lessons from teaching and training hundreds of leaders, and distilled everything into a simple self-assessment tool that we call the Sustainable Giving Self Assessment.
It takes around 7 minutes to answer about 30 questions, and you’ll receive a summary report of which type of patterns are likely holding you back the most.
If you’d like to get a read on which areas of your recurring giving program represent the biggest opportunities, we built this tool for you.
The assessment is free, and I developed it to help leaders get a glimpse of the most effective way forward for their charity.
👉 Take the Sustainable Giving Self Assessment
I hope you find it helpful!
Until next week… Surf’s Up! 🌊
- Dave
P.S. The AUDIOBOOK edition of The Rise of Sustainable Giving releases next week, February 3. 🥳 You can still pre-order on Audible and Spotify, but just for a few more days.
I’m grateful for all of your support. I hope that the audiobook will help make the message of sustainable giving more accessible to more leaders than ever before.