7 Key Elements of a Successful Regular Giving Program: A Comprehensive Guide for Charities & Nonprofits

Welcome to our comprehensive guide on 'Regular Giving' - a crucial component in the fundraising strategy of charities and nonprofits that aim for long-term impact.

Did you know that campaigns that utilise regular giving raise twice the amount compared to those that do not? Even though regular givers make up only 6% of donors, their contributions account for an astonishing 25% of total donations. That's four times more than a one-time donation!

The power of regular giving goes beyond the amount it can raise. It provides a predictable and stable income stream, allowing for the planning of long-term impacts. Regular giving lays a strong foundation for your charity and builds a base of stable, monthly income.

Whether you're new to regular giving or looking to optimise your existing program, this guide will serve as a roadmap to harnessing its full potential. Get yourself some pen and paper and let's get started!

The 7 key elements of a successful regular giving program

Alright, let's get straight into the building blocks you want to use for your program:

1. Goals: Set clear and achievable milestones to drive your program forward.
2. Program & positioning: Develop a compelling program and position it effectively to resonate with potential donors.
3. Online presence: Establish a strong online presence to reach a wider audience and facilitate easy giving.
4. Donor journey & retention: Create a seamless and engaging donor journey to foster long-term relationships and maximise donor retention.
5. Data & reporting: Utilise data and reporting tools to gain insights, track progress, and make informed decisions.
6. Conversion: Focus on converting existing donors into regular givers by showcasing the impact of their support.
7. Acquisition: Implement strategies to attract new regular givers and build a solid foundation of predictable monthly income.

By ensuring the first five elements are well-established, your program will be set up for success. The last two elements will then empower you to acquire more regular givers and build a sustainable base of support. Together, the 7 key elements lay the foundation for a thriving regular giving program.

Setting SMART Goals for your Regular Giving Program

Let's dive right into the importance of setting goals. We all get how important they are, but sometimes they can slip our minds when things get too busy. . However, goals play a crucial role in providing motivation, focus, and a clear pathway for achieving success within your organisation. That's why we love using SMART goals – they offer a fantastic framework for setting meaningful objectives.

So, what makes a SMART goal? Let's walk through them together!

Firstly, your goals should be specific (S), clearly demonstrating what you want to achieve. This ensures clarity and avoids any confusion.

Next, they should be measurable (M). It's essential to create goals that can be tracked and evaluated. Consider the data you'll use to measure your progress and determine if the goal has been met.

Achievability (A) is another critical factor. Assess whether you have the necessary resources, budget, and skills in place to reach your goals. Setting unrealistic objectives often leads to failure and demotivation.

Moreover, your goals should be relevant and results-based (R). They should align with your organisation's mission and contribute to tangible outcomes.

Lastly, make sure your goals are time-bound (T). Establish clear deadlines to create a sense of urgency and keep yourself accountable.

To put these principles into practice, let's consider an example of a SMART goal for building your regular giving program: "Convert 100 existing donors to regular giving by the 30th of June, with an average gift of $35."

By dedicating time to setting SMART goals, you'll gain the direction and guidance necessary to succeed with your regular giving program. Remember, you can also set SMART goals for the smaller steps along the way, breaking down your overarching goal into manageable milestones.

Shaping and Positioning your Regular Giving Program

Once your goals are set, it's time to dive in and truly define the essence of your regular giving program. Think about your proposition for regular support and how you can connect with donors to inspire action.

Coming up with a unique name for your regular giving program is a great way to kick things off, since one of the main reasons people commit to regular giving is to become part of a genuine community. By crafting a special name that aligns with your brand and resonates with them, you can effectively engage this group of donors.

An example of a charity that has nailed positioning for their regular giving program is the Fred Hollows Foundation. They do incredible work to help people with vision impairment. Their regular giving program is positioned as "Help restore sight, keep Fred's vision alive", and their regular donors are referred to as "Vision Rings". This clever positioning demonstrates the impact that their regular donors can have on people without sight, creating this sense of community among them.

Building a Online Presence for your Regular Giving Program

Next up is your online presence. As everything else in fundraising, ensuring your digital channels are optimised is really important when creating a regular giving program because many of your donors will actually sign up and become a regular giver online. So, when people visit your website, it's absolutely vital that it's fully optimised for regular giving.

Here are some practical ways to ensure an effective online presence:

Bring regular giving to the main navigation

One easy win is to add a "Give Monthly" button right into your main navigation. That way, donors won't miss it. Take a look at how Rural Aid does it on their website - they made the button stand out by using a different colour compared to their other call to actions. So simple, yet effective!

Promote it on your homepage

Make sure you're promoting your regular giving program right on your home page. That way, when people visit your website, they'll see a cool hero banner or even a full section about your program. This is the right time to capture your visitors with the unique positioning you crafted before! Make sure you're using a clear call-to-action and linking this section to your regular giving landing page (more on that in a minute).

Optimise your main donation form

For maximum conversion, don't forget to ensure that your main donation form offers the option to become a regular giver as well. If you're using Raisely, this feature is seamlessly built into the donation form - and it was proven to double the conversion from one-off donations to regular gifts.

Create a dedicated landing page

When it comes to creating a landing page for your regular giving program, there are a few things you should keep in mind. Firstly, you want to use a super emotive hero banner with a powerful image and a clear call to action. That's gonna be the first thing donors see, so it's gotta really grab their attention before they start scrolling.

Your content needs to be compelling too. Make sure it highlights your charity's needs and the impact that regular givers can have, especially in the long run. Videos are a great way to get your message across in a more engaging and easier way.

Now, let's talk about the donation form on your landing page. Best practice is to have three to four dollar handles that show the impact of a regular donor's monthly gift over the course of a year. Donors wanna have a choice and understand how their gift can make a difference. So, choose those dollar handles wisely, 'cause they can impact your average gift. And why not use some awesome imagery to showcase the impact your donors can make?

Landing pages are a really important aspect and worth taking the time to get right. They are there to motivate people to take action so ensuring your landing page is optimised to convert will help drive the success of your regular giving program.

Retaining your Regular Givers with Delightful Donor Journeys

Alright, let's talk about the fourth element of our strategy: retention. Now, I'm sure you've heard this buzzword in fundraising for years, but when it comes to regular giving, it's literally the most important thing to consider.

The key to a successful regular giving program is building a strong relationship with your regular donors. You want to make them feel appreciated, engaged, and informed throughout their journey. And how do you do that? Well, it all starts with a well-thought-out donor journey.

Creating your first regular donor journey

When crafting your own donor journey, think long term and focus on engaging with your regular givers. Start by creating a 12-month plan that includes all the key times when you'll communicate with them. Take advantage of transactional opportunities to engage with your donors, like your welcome email and your annual receipts. Think about those special moments throughout the year when you can make them feel truly special and appreciated. Acknowledge regular givers at key milestones, like their one-year anniversary, or surprise them with a personalised video from a beneficiary or your CEO, highlighting the impact they're making as regular donors.

And here's a pro tip: always look for opportunities to surprise and delight your regular donors. Invite them to special events, like a morning tea, where they can hear firsthand from a beneficiary about the impact they're having as regular donors. Make them feel like they're part of your inner circle by ensuring they're the first to know exciting news before it's announced to the general public.

These are just a few examples of how you can make your regular givers feel really special and valued within your organisation's community.

Auditing your existing donor journey

Now, if you already have an existing regular giving program, it's a great idea to audit all your touch points and test the user experience to ensure everything is working as expected. Many charities set up their journeys and then forget about it. But trust me, that's where problems can start. You don't want donors to hesitate or, worse, cancel their regular giving because something in your process isn't making them feel special.

Lastly, don't forget to personalise your communication to your regular donors. When including them in your annual appeal, make sure to thank them and acknowledge their regular support before asking for an additional gift. Remember, retaining regular givers is the key to a successful program. It's cheaper to keep an existing donor than to acquire a new one. So, once they're in, make them feel really special, provide them with a great experience, and ensure they want to stay committed to supporting your cause.

Raisely tip:

Check out our workshop on personalisation to discover how you can utilise it to create delightful experiences for your loyal supporters.

Using Data to Track and Optimise Your Regular Giving Program

We all know: in fundraising, data is king. It can make or break our campaigns and strategies. If you're like me, a big data nerd, you'll love diving into all things data. But where do you start? Well, setting up tracking of key metrics is crucial.

Begin with the basics. How many new regular givers are you getting each month? How many are lapsing? What's the value of your regular giving base? And what about the average gift? These insights will give you a clear overview of your program's performance.

Not only will this data help you report up and down the organisation, but it will also bring everyone on board with you. Whether you're hitting your goals or not, having these insights will allow everyone to realign and make necessary adjustments.

If you're using an external platform like Raisely for your regular giving, make sure you map out the process of importing regular givers back into your CRM, your single source of truth. Understanding how regular givers are profiled in your CRM is key for future analysis and reporting on their lifetime value and other important factors.

Setting up a solid data structure and reporting system is what sets a sustainable regular giving program apart. It provides the insights and actions you need to keep optimising your strategy. So, before you launch, take some time to map everything out correctly.

Converting Your Existing Donors into Regular Givers

At this point, you've covered some crucial groundwork, so now it's time to dive into the heart of your regular giving program: your donors. These are the real heroes who keep the momentum going. Once you've nailed those first five steps and you're itching to promote your regular giving program, get ready for the real excitement because this is where new regular givers come on board.

First things first, let's focus on converting your existing donors. These are the folks who already know you, making them much easier to win over compared to cold donors. Don't forget to target those donors who have given multiple times in the past year – they're your warmest prospects. It's all about working smarter, not harder, right?

Start by testing different channels like email, mail, SMS, phone, and newsletters. Find out which one clicks with your donors. You might discover that one channel outshines the others, or maybe a multi-channel approach is the way to go.

This is your golden opportunity to gauge how your donors are engaging with your regular giving program and whether it's hitting the mark before expanding to lapsed and cold audiences. Make sure your tracking and reporting systems are in tip-top shape. Check for any leaks in the bucket where you might be losing regular givers. Trust me, you thank me in the future for having all the key elements running smoothly before even thinking about higher-cost cold acquisition.

Grow you Regular Giving Program by Acquiring New Donors

Let's dive into one of the most popular topics that our community voted on when asked about their biggest challenge with regular giving: Acquisition.

We know charities love to see acquisition as a quick and reliable way to top up their funnel. But let me tell you, it can be quite an investment. Current industry standards show that charities are paying around $500 per donor in acquisition campaigns. To make that investment worthwhile, your newly acquired regular donor should stick around for at least one to two years. This is where your retention program comes into play. Remember, if you're spending $500 to acquire a new donor but losing them after just six months due to a flawed experience, it's not a sustainable tactic.

So, before jumping into cold acquisition, consider your own database first. Exhaust all the potential donors you have in your network. Cold acquisition may not even be an option for some charities due to budget constraints. We've had countless charities approach us, only to realise the high cost and say, "Well, that's out of our hands". It's an expensive endeavour, especially if you haven't laid the groundwork and optimised every step.

Instead, focus on cultivating your existing donors. It's much easier to get one-off donors on board than to acquire regular donors. Once they've joined your cause and you've created engaging donor journeys, you'll have better (and cheaper) opportunities to convert those existing donors. Consider this as a great starting point for your acquisition strategy.

Wrapping Up: Key Takeaways

Well, there we go! You just navigated the seven essential elements for a successful regular giving program. Pretty exciting stuff, right?

As you can tell, it's not just about getting a program up and running, but also about optimising it. Remember, it's important to set clear goals, position your program effectively, maintain an engaging online presence, and foster a healthy donor journey.

Don't forget the importance of data and reports in making informed decisions. They're your compass in this fundraising journey. And hey, let's not underestimate the power of converting existing donors into regular givers.

And finally, when it comes to acquisition, don't rush for cold donors. Instead, focus on cultivating relationships with your existing donors. It's not only cost-effective, but it also lays a solid foundation for your regular giving program.

So there you have it! With all these elements in mind, you're well-equipped to make your regular giving impactful for the long run. It's time to dive in, make a splash, and create waves of change. Here's to your fundraising success!

Get Started: Download Your Regular Giving Checklist

It's time to put these seven key elements into action with our hands-on 'Regular Giving Checklist'. This handy document will help you stay organised, manage tasks effectively and ensure no stone is left unturned in your journey to creating a successful and sustainable regular giving program.

Download the checklist now