The Power of Regular Giving: Insights from our data

At Raisely, we believe in the power of regular giving to create a steady stream of revenue and make a positive impact on people and the planet.

In this article, we share some insights into the data behind regular giving, including the impact of regular donors on fundraising, the typical regular donor profile, and strategies to recruit and retain regular givers.

A small group with a big impact

Donors who participate in regular giving are a small group that can have a big impact on fundraising.

Across campaigns that receive regular giving only 6% of donors were regular givers. These donors contributed 24% of fundraising (excluding large donations above $1000). This indicates one regular donor contributes 4x the amount of a single donor when all their donations are added up.

🏅 We also see campaigns that use regular giving raising substantially more fundraising. Receiving regular donations was associated with doubling the size of a campaign fundraising in a recent analysis we conducted controlling for a variety of campaign factors.

24 is the magic number

Let’s take a moment to look at the typical regular donor and some key numbers to keep in mind.

How long do regular donors participate?

Across all of Raisely, the typical regular donor participates for around 24 donations or two years if they’re donating monthly. Some regular donors will participate for a shorter period and a small number will participate for a much longer period (we have donors who are still going more than 7 years after we launched regular giving).

We’re working to make sure regular donors stick with you. We’ve recently introduced smart rebilling to increase the chance of recovery for a regular donor who has a failed transaction. This works by identifying patterns in transactions to find the best next day to retry the regular donation.

What are the most common frequencies and donation amounts?

Overwhelming the most common frequency for regular giving donations is monthly. Nine of the top 10 regular giving donation amount/frequency combinations are monthly donations.

Regular giving donations are often smaller than one-off donations - typically $50 or less (in the UK £20 or less).

🏅 However, these smaller donations add up to a large amount. A £20 monthly donation typically results in £480 over the life of the regular donation. A $50 monthly donation adds up to $1200.

Regular giving doesn’t happen by accident

Regular giving is switched on by default on all of Raisely’s campaign templates and donation forms (did we mention we love regular giving?). But we still see a large number of organisations and campaigns that aren’t actually signing up any regular donors. At the moment, only around 40% of organisations and 25% of campaigns on Raisely have received regular giving.

This suggests it’s not enough to have regular giving set up - charities need a strategy to recruit and retain regular givers.

You might consider:

• Setting up a dedicated regular giving appeal
• Create an email journey for repeat one-off donors to encourage regular giving
• Create an email journey to share your impact with regular donors

We’re also working on a new feature inside our donation form to upsell donors to regular giving. This will provide a prompt to donors to convert their one-off donation into a regular donation as they move through the donation form. We’re seeing great results with substantial increases in regular giving uptake and overall fundraising with minimal impact on conversion rates. Stay tuned!

Key takeaways

Here are our three big data-driven takeaways for regular giving:

1. Donors who participate in regular giving are a small group that can have a big impact on fundraising. They contribute 24% of fundraising, indicating that one regular donor contributes 4x the amount of a single donor when all their donations are added up. Campaigns that receive regular giving typically raise 2x the amount of campaigns that don’t.
2. Regular giving donations are often smaller than one-off donations, but they add up to a large amount over time. Regular donors typically keep participating for 24 donations (two years) with a small group staying around for many years.
3. Charities need a strategy to recruit and retain regular givers, such as creating a dedicated regular giving appeal, email journeys, and upselling donors to regular giving as they make their donations.