0:00  
All

right. Welcome, folks.

We're just getting started for today's webinar, recurring giving Made Easy Tips and Tricks. This is session two out of five. Right, Erica? We're doing five total here, five total, five total. So we are so excited, a lot of you are too. So we're going to let folks kind of come into the room, so to speak.

We're going to get started in probably, you know, one or two minutes tops. But there was a lot of interest in here. I will go over our standard housekeeping items, which do include Yes, this is being recorded. Yes, you will get the slides and more. Now, Stephanie already has kicked off the possibilities for engagement. Thank you, Stephanie from Cincinnati, if you wanted to actually pop into the chat, who you are and where you're talking to us from. We would love that, Eric. And I can see that I'm going to be paying attention to the chat, as well as the q&a. So if you wanted to use the chat, hey, we got another another Ohio. Bethany Miller, thank you from Akron. So pop it on in awesome. Here we go. It's coming in Eric, I'll read all of that for you know where people are from. And, and then also, we do have if you want to make sure that we see a question. There was a q&a, actually, Heather, I can see Heather's more so than anybody else's, because she put it in the q&a. So Heather, you're all good. But you are in Harlem. I'm actually here in upstate New York in Schenectady. But I'm going to go ahead and just kind of clear that out. But if you want to make sure that Erica, our expert today sees a question, there is a question and answer section. But just like the Webinar Chat is you could pop some thoughts out, you can do that. But if you absolutely want to make sure a question is is seen use the q&a, but have some fun with the webinar chat too. We want to make this interesting. Let's go ahead and see where folks are from and then we'll recap some housekeeping and then get on into it. So we got Berkeley, we got Knoxville, Tennessee, Chicago, where neon one is actually based. We got Newark, New Jersey, Leesburg, Virginia. We got Begum to New York very cool more from Chicago. Hey, Catskill Animal Sanctuary Hi, Amber.

Longtime neon one users actually very cool. Montreal. So we've officially gone international Erica rate and

you love it. Oh, look at that personalization. At its best. We got Texas, we got a lot of great folks. A lot of great folks. So hey, awesome, very cool. Well, we are not here for me, all I am doing and you may notice, I don't look like salmon Island if you actually got the thing. So I'm stepping in as a guest facilitator for today's session. So we're gonna go ahead and get formally started. The first housekeeping item is yes, this is being recorded, the deck will be provided and the email will be sent no later than tomorrow. But we typically get the webinar up on the neon one.com website by the end of the day. That will include the resources, Erica isn't just providing us insights into the live presentation, she's going to give you some actionable things, this is one of the best parts of Eric law store is the wealth of knowledge that you're gonna get.

So,

so we're gonna get into types of questions and things like that. But a little bit about neon one before we go. Neon one is a nonprofit technology platform that actually provides a lot of different things. We have a native CRM, we have email communications, we have events, we have a website tool as well, that just got rolled out. And so a lot of the things that we're going to talk about from an acquisition standpoint, Eric has actually tagged in if you're neon one, users are exploring the on one technology where those slot in. So it's not a product webinar, this is actually going to be great for everybody. But part of the great part about why we're doing this series is we have a lot of people who really excel at recurring giving, and we wanted to make it easy to understand how you can implement that too. So I'll pop in every once in a while for that. But without further ado, I'm excited to introduce our expert Erica wall storm Erika, take it away. I'll jump in and you know, whenever appropriate.

4:49  
awesome, great. Thanks. And I literally had to take my cat outside so that she wasn't going to be jumping on the on the screen there every so often. So anyhow, so you probably know me. I've written

The book monthly giving the sleeping giant monthly giving made easy and I absolutely love, love, love, love monthly giving recurring gifts because it is so powerful.

If you didn't know, Tim Sarrantonio Here he is. I love that picture of your three kids. Tim, fantastic.

Three lovely daughters. That's great. And is it a snow day right now where you are? 

5:23  
No. And that's why we're going to have a good time today. And because if it was, we're actually out of snow days up here in Schenectady, which meant that it would be school learning if they stayed at home. So we're quiet over here. It's just awesome. 

5:36  
Great. All right. So the agenda for today's just a quick recap on the like the first section that we the first session that we did two weeks ago was like why recurring donors, we're going to talk about lots and lots of lots of different ways that you can acquire recurring donors, lots of examples. And then there's some time for q&a resources in next steps. But as Tim mentioned, please feel free to use the q&a button. And I'm going to ask you some questions as well. So use the chat for them. So great. So so just why we cry and giving? Well, if we look at the fact that you know, and again, this all depends on your organization. So take a look and say, What is your current average recurring giving amount now, so take a look at that. And if we're looking at across the board, it can range anywhere from like, $12 a month, 260 $5 a month, that's what we're seeing. So say, if you are on the higher end of the equation there, if you had a donor who gives you $50 a month, that's $600 a year. So if you had five monthly donors, that's $3,000. If you have 10 monthly donors that 6015 is $9,000. So you see how it really, really adds up? Right? So um, so if you haven't done this already, take a look at how many recurring donors you have now, what's your average gift? And especially what is their annualized revenue? And that's going to be your benchmark for today? Is it? Yes, I was in the session. That's how many we had when we start it. Now let's see, how can we grow that to the next level, our couple of highlights too, is like, you want to make sure that you have a driver in place somebody that's gonna direct this program to grow, right. And I'm going to assume that you're in the session today, you're the driver.

Always, always keep it as easy and simple as you possibly can. And, you know, the next session is going to talk about stewardship. And I always find that a lot of a lot of organizations are like, oh, yeah, but I got to have all my benefits in place, I get to do all these fancy stewardship things. And, and the reality is, you want to make sure that it's something that you can commit to, that's easy to to execute, no matter how busy you get, right. So I'm all for keeping things simple and keeping it easy. And then we're going to look at like your channels, your messaging, every organization is different. Every organization has different number of email names, different numbers of of donors, and how they came on board. But there's a couple of easy things that you can add to your, your plan, if you will, to your program that are going to help you grow to the next level. The key is that you always want to direct to your recurring page. I know there is some, you know, meta, like Facebook has, has tried to do some, some focus on recurring, giving around giving Tuesday last last year, but the reality is like to keep yourself sane,

direct to your page. So that way, it all feeds into your donor base CRM automatically, otherwise, you go crazy, right? So just kind of like bear that in mind, again, try to keep it easy. And then the more you do, you will, you will grow. I can guarantee you that. All right. So Tim, just like quick, this is an example of of a neon one form, correct, right? 

9:23  
That's correct. So this is native to the CRM that you're looking at right now. And you can default it to either have the option or just the recurring giving for the form. So there's just a few options. One nice call out here, because I actually use the CRM too, and and dedicated recurring givings great, because you can also adjust the amounts for the monthly giving as an example, on its own. So we're gonna have a sprinkling of some magic like this on the tech side throughout. But otherwise, you know, just we want to show one nice example but Eric has got tons of examples regardless of the tech stack, right? 

10:01  
Yeah. So So Thanks, Tim. So that's like the keys, like, what I would add, when I say, like, direct people to go to your recurring page is that you want to get them to a dedicated, recurring forum like this, whenever you ask somebody, specifically to, to become a recurring donor, so make sure that you have that in, in place. And of course, you know, you, it's always good to have like, one time and monthly combined. So it's sort of like you get that organic growth. But when you're directing people in a specific way that I'm going to explain to you in a minute, then you want to, you want to have this in place, for sure. Alright, so we're going to talk to you about the power of a button, because it is very, very powerful. So I wanted to share this study that our friends at next after have done in they do I mean, if you haven't checked us out, they're fantastic. They do a lot of research when it comes to online and digital,

only online and digital. So if you do a lot of direct mail, that's not where they focus on. But they do a ton of these studies on go to next after.com/research. And this was a really cool one you see here on the left, you see, it just says the red button says donate, okay. And they said, Well, what happens if we add a second button that says give monthly? And you see that on the right, you see donate and give monthly? And they tested this and said, Okay, well, what is that going to do? So do you have what do you think the impact was of that button and love to have you use the chat? In this situation? Like, did that generate a 5%? increase in number of recurring gifts that increase it 10%? What do you think was the impact of this button, adding it to the homepage, so please use your chat. And then Tim is going to check that to call out what people's guesses are.

12:17  
All right. And I'm going to be kind of a disembodied voice from behind the scenes for now. But let's read out what folks are doing. I've seen 40% 60% 10% 25 20%

Somebody said we have to and we increased our monthly donors. So 60 Or like 1520 seems to be the popular one. 

12:39  
Okay. Okay. So this particular task that next after did increase the number of recurring donors by 23%. So just the one button on the homepage, added the number of recurring donors by 23%. So if you can do that, what do you have to lose right? button, make it really clear to the donor that you want them to consider a monthly gift, right? So that's it, that's almost like a no brainer, if you're in the process of like redoing your website, or looking looking at some options to make it clear for the donor, that's a great way to add a button. Alright, and you see this, this organization did that as well. They have join, they have donate, they have give monthly and again, they found that they generated a larger number of recurring donors that just came in organically. And I keep seeing that, right. So it's not a one shot thing. It's not like for this particular organization, it's it's there, we just have to plant the seeds to the donors that they can make, make this happen. Right. So then, the next piece is that you also want to create like a tiny story. So I know like, you know, this is not a storytelling webinar. But there's a lot in this. There's lots of other great sessions about that, but you don't need much to explain to donors, how their monthly gift will make a difference. And you see this here, Your monthly gift will make a difference every day and every month. A monthly donation is the most effective way to help families year round. So it's a little notch, it's a little push to the donor to say, oh, yeah, you know, yeah, like, I can make a monthly gift, right? Because it's gonna make a difference to families year out, right. So that's what I mean by a tiny story. It's literally like a one liner, two liners that you can add to your donation page. And again, we're going to show you can add things to your emails as well. So a button and a tiny story are going to be even more powerful right.

Here is again

Another tiny story on an online forum go month, the gift will be put to work to make lasting progress, stabilize the climate, protect wildlife, make the world a safer place for everyone. It's one lie, right? So, so consider a tiny story on your online forum to plant the seeds about monthly about recurring gifts.

Now, the other way that you can create a knowledge or a little tiny story is by asking those donors that you already have that are making a recurring gift

for testimonial. And you can use and say, Why is some other donor making a monthly gift? Oh, okay. I can use that to push other donors to consider it. I want to support the work, the amount is not large. But I want to be one of the few people who's always there for the organization month after month, and disorganization. They just sent an email to their existing recurring donors. And they were blown away by the wonderful testimonials that they received from their recurring donors. So again, testimonials are great. So if you haven't done this already, I highly recommend that you, you reach out to them. And the other piece of this is like donors are going to be really honored that you're asking them, right. So use use whatever you can, donors that have already told you why they're giving money and say, Okay, I can make that into a tiny story.

The other area where you can add a tiny story is by a what we call like a monthly giving upsell popup, they've become really, really popular. And I know neon one is working on creating those as well, especially where they're, they're totally customized based on the gift that the donor is making. So a donor is ready to make a one time gift. And before they check out, it says would you consider becoming a monthly supporter, I'm making an even bigger impact. So they're ready to make a one time gift and then you're like, Yeah, I can make a monthly gift. And that monthly gift amount is then based on the one time it's, it's a percentage of the one time gift. So you're never going to ask for the same amount of for the monthly gift as the donor was making for the one time gift. And, again, these pop ups are really, really powerful. But you do need to have a tiny, tiny story there to say, Hey, why why should I give. But

this is what this particular example says, monthly support is provide consistent aid to our ongoing efforts, which helps us focus on our mission.

To be honest, this is in my book is not the greatest tiny story. So so when you look at this, and again, your popup might be having this as standard language and say, Okay, well, how can you make this better? What would you do in your organization? Because it's focused on our mission or ongoing efforts consistently? It's not very sexy, right? So it's not like really grabbing, grabbing the donors per se saying, oh, yeah, I really want to make a monthly become a monthly donor, right? So think about this and saying, this is sort of like, if you have nothing else, this is okay. But I think you can make this a lot better. So, so let's think for a minute here. And I'm going to have you, you know, just like use the chat for this is like,

I'm gonna give you minutes, like, What will a monthly gift do for the people, the animals, the clients that you serve? So in so so think about, like, what can your month can a month to give do for the people, the animals, the clients that you serve in your community? And then how can you explain that in one or two or three sentences. And of course, we're not going to have like a lot of time, but this is like an exercise that I recommend that you do later today, tomorrow and say, Hey, I'm going to sit down, I'm going to take a couple of minutes and I'm going to create a tiny story, because you're going to be using that in a lot of different ways. But Tim, I don't know if anybody has like has has already done this or maybe wants to share how would they sell a donor on on you know, like, What will a monthly gift do for them? What their tiny stories are? We have some questions, so I don't know you want. Okay, yeah, you can do the questions. Yeah. Yeah, some of them. Some of them do apply to where we're talking about now.

19:53  
But, okay, I'll share one tiny story Your monthly gift helps survivors of intimate partner violence live

safely. 

20:00  
Wow. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And I note and an interesting question and I know you're going to show examples of of things is do you have specific suggestions for nonprofits outside the social benefit sector in how to communicate the value of monthly recurring giving now, it would be interesting to kind of, you know, we all are defining things differently, right. But, but there we go, okay. We got a few others.

20:26  
Monthly giving provides ongoing access to food trading and mental health support for northern Rhode Island teens. Nice, Judy. Oh, God, hello, Judy, longtime Neonone folk. This is where we say donations are the foundation that makes the experience of Hubbard Hall possible by becoming a sustainer. You were making a lasting commitment to support the arts and education to help us plan the future. Now, here's an interesting question that also Stephanie had. My challenge is that we're a federation of 31 charities. Yes, I'm a new development director for my Oregon trying to get board Marketing Committee to create a case statement to kind of help tell the stories.

I did want to flag Kim's question by the way, it's more kind of technical on button position. I think we'll get to that later, by the way, but I think that's good. So we could keep moving. But those are few thank you for sharing those dudes. 

21:15  
That's wonderful. Thank you so much. Okay, so yeah, so just keep thinking about and again, I'm gonna share a couple of examples of, of, you know, what I've seen? And the reality is, there's not been that much yet, right? So, but if you look at this is obviously a huge organization. Okay. So if Worldvision does is, guess what? They tested it, okay. So it must be working for them, right? So why not borrow that idea. And then, you know, like, reach out to your donors, when you send out an email, right. So here's just one example like, you know, this, so they send out an email. And the first ask yours give now, and thanks to partners like you, blah, blah, blah. And then on the below, it is a lasting change starts with you. Giving monthly is the most powerful way to donate, when you give to World Vision Fund to equip kids and families around the world to thrive with reliable access to basics like clean water, nutrition, health care, education, and more. So it's two sentences, right? And then they have the button there. And they been doing this for a while. So again, if they're doing it, they know it works, right. So this is just one example of how you can do it. So they start this particular example, start with the one time gift, ask for it, and then the gift monthly is on the bottom. So that's one way of putting your tiny story in there.

You can also put that tiny story in your email newsletter, become a monthly donor one, ensure that those hurting interstate are getting the encouragement they need become a monthly donor, right? So that's, you know, and I always recommend that, again, when it comes to recurring gifts. It's a constant, like planting of the seeds, right? And sometimes donors need to see it a couple of times before they say yes, I'm ready to do it. So use your email newsletter if you have one.

Because it's, you know, it's it's an image and a little tiny story and a button, right? So, so make sure that you use every opportunity whenever you reach out, because you want to grow your number of recurring donors, right. And especially now we current giving is a great way for donors to support you in a way that's comfortable for them. So it's also very donor centric to do that. Ah, here's another example. This organization has been doing this actually, even since our early on in COVID. So what they do is every email they send, they have a yes, I will give monthly first with a button. And then they have a yes, I'll make a one time gift. Second. And every time they send an email, they're generating some new monthly donors. So again, it's a it's a small one liner with a monthly donation, you become an honored member of project Openhand Supperclub. And you will help ensure that we can provide healthy meals and deliveries to all of our clients. So so it's it's two lines, you know, so, so not doesn't take up much space. And again, it's that button.

So just think about where else can you include your tiny story in your organization, what else you sending to your, your donors, to your constituents, to your volunteers, even to your board members. Where else can you include your tiny story in in your organization? So yeah, just use the the chat to to tell me like maybe maybe some other ways that you can. You can consider adding something

All right, let's see social media posts. And Stephanie also had said, I'm signing up for World Vision subscription list right now, which I did say, hey, that's great experience the programs you respect. Absolutely. To get ideas, to blog posts teach blog post. Great. Yeah. Yeah. Excellent. Yeah. And Tim, that's a great point is like, and I mean, I give to 40 4050. I don't even know exactly how many I haven't done my taxes yet. So I gotta look like the list. But, but yeah, that's how I learned, right? So take a look and draw in a couple of organizations and you say, Hey, what are they doing? You know, what are they doing for stewardship? What? Were they reaching out? How are they communicating? Right, so I got one more good one to share, I can add, I can add it to the marketing materials for my board members. That's fantastic. Right. And again, a lot of organizations have board members that can't necessarily write the big checks, right. So so ask them, I mean, monthly gifts might just be a great way to do it. I still have an organization the other day, and they had one of their board members, join right away, you know, and, and then she came up with a match. And then they started sending out some emails to with the match and stuff like that. So that's how their program has been, has been growing. So and don't forget your volunteers, right? So don't forget peer to peer participants for walk and runs and all those good things. So. So there's lots and lots of areas where you can include your tiny story and that button, right? So yes, social media pose great, again, direct them to that specific, recurring giving page, right. So always Like Put, put a lot of tiny monthly gift guarantees nourishing meals and warm spot smiles. Wow, that's a powerful picture. short, little line, right?

But how about your email signature be a rockstar make a lasting impact? Right? Um, so one line in your email signature every time you send something to anybody, right.

And then, if you're doing welcome emails, consider adding the multi donation message on your little tiny story, to your welcome emails. And as you're doing that, I mean, you have a little bit more space. But this particular example is if it's easier in your budget, please consider a monthly donation that will provide a steady stream of income to be all year long, you'll help us be ready to act when environmental threats emerge, right? So, so again, you can add to your welcome email series.

And then, of course, think about how can you create a campaign that combines a couple of these different things together, right.

So now we're getting into you have some like, and again, I see some Valentine's Day campaigns coming up? Are they campaigns coming up special giving days coming up, there's so many opportunities, I think there's literally like, cause awareness, there's like five cause awareness days every day now or something like that, right? So take a look at some of the cause awareness days and say, Is there something that fits my organization that I can kind of wrap a campaign around, right, where I can send some short stories and some longer stories, right. Some special email campaigns that lead up to a deadline, for example, that that you can have some matches, like here, we've set a goal to welcome 50 new monthly donors by Friday, April 29. To help us be ready, right. So so this is just one example of a multiple email series that has some longer stories. But again, you see the buttons start a month, the gift on the image, right? Yes, I can start a month the gift on the button below.

And then they followed it up with another email that says donate this summer, or donate monthly and help families year out another button. And it's a tiny, tiny, tiny story on the extra button. Right? So, so there's lots and lots of different things that you can try

and and see what happens, right? Um, so you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. And I know that the big organizations where they've tested this, they have not seen this have a negative effect on their one time gifts. Because I know people are like, ah, isn't that gonna hurt my one time gifts and the reality is no, it's not. Donors will will choose Hey, there's two buttons, you know what I'm gonna do right now or I can do a month a year right? So um,

I'm you know, don't make it five choices, right? But just like one or two, two choices are totally fine. And again, you know, and you can play with colors. I mean, there's lots and lots of things that you can do to make it look fancier or not so fancy, but, but try it and see what happens. It's one email, right? So it and it works.

Again, you can even add it to the PS, if you're not sure, if you want to do button in the middle, at a PS 1250 can feed to hungry children for a day. Imagine 1250 A month can reach many more kids consider multi giving for lasting impact, right. So P Ss are all so great. So PSN is tiny button is, is fantastic. So this was an example of a campaign that this organization did. And they actually did it last summer. So so just to guess, what do you think, um, how this campaign did? I mean, you want to throw it some guesses? Like, what was the the impact of of that extra button and the PS and the emails, for example? What do you think we'll see what folks say, Karen also did point out as folks are kind of giving us their insights on how they think the campaign went, she saw an email from an organization sent on a Valentine's Day email, oh, yes, let's go steady. And it said something like, we've been friends for a while, but don't you think we should make it more permanent and then invited to give monthly? That's like, that's like, where you can create situations that are topical, top of mind without kind of violating the core branding of the program? Right? Yeah. I mean, you can get really creative with this, right? So um, you know, but And again, just as long as you remember that you want to drive people to that recurring only page, you know, the recurring preset page. And, and that again, you know, it's, it's, if you don't ask the donor to consider a monthly gift, you're not gonna get it. Right. So you need to just start asking and say, what are some of the ways that I can do this? That fit in my organization? I'll say that it looks like people are waiting with bated breath to have you tell us how Okay, okay. All right. Okay. So in this particular case, so just like 10% of the gifts were new sustainers from this duel button, right. So they got 10% of their, their donors to make make a monthly gift. So, so that was fantastic, right. Um, so that's, so that was one thing. And then the combination of the email series sale, also, he had like a little upsell pop up. So the upsell pop up generated 20% More sustainers. So overall, they get 30% of the people that they got, were converted to sustainers. So obviously, I can't guarantee that you're gonna get these results. But it's certainly not zero, right. So you have nothing to lose and everything to gain by trying some things by adding an extra button and a PS and an email, and, you know, so, so this, this, just like, no end to some of the things in and again, adding a button doesn't cost you much time doesn't cost you much work, it's just like, it's just a great way to, to grow your program. Right. But to your point there, Tim, this organization, they did like a postcard, they send a postcard to, to some of their donors that were giving less than $250. So that again, there's smaller donors, and then they did a whole email series, you have a secret admirer and you know, and it was all driving donors to consider to a become a monthly donor. And, and if that, if they reached 50, new multi donors, they would get an additional $5,000 by by a couple that matched was matching the these gifts. So, and again, they beat that goal, they generated 64 new monthly donors with this campaign. So this was a postcard with with a number of emails to support that. So very short timeframe, this was done, you know, so the the postcard went out, and then there was like three emails in the period of, of seven days leading up to Valentine's Day. So, so kind of short blip of a campaign. So so these are just a couple of things that you can do to you know, and again, you see there's a QR code that drives them to the web page, right? The those are just

is a couple of ideas that you can do in your organization. postcards are a great way to reach donors and, and even some younger donors as well. So, so add, you know, digital efforts with the short story on on your postcard. Again, this is like a one, a two liner here, Your monthly gift betters the lives of Palestine Refugees across the Middle East. And you can easily adjust or cancel your commitment at any time to so. So again, it's it's makes it really low entry. And pretty much any donor saying, Yeah, I can make a recurring gift, right. So so think about some ways that you can add these opportunities to your schedule.

35:47  
But

35:49  
as you're sending out appeal letters also include a tiny story on the back, right, make this a month, the gift provide blessings all year long, right. And in this case, you see monthly gift is first and then one time gift is second. So that's another way to use that tiny story that we just talked about. You can add a tiny story in a buck slip and insert in a letter in a thank you letter, um, you know, again, become a trailblazer.

Your monthly gift will support the program's you love most, right? So again, tiny story, it's not like you have to write a whole four page letter to sell donors on becoming a recurring donor.

And then this is one of my all time favorites. Repurpose your messaging, right. So once you've created that tiny story, put it everywhere. And then you know, look back add maybe an email that you use two years ago, that you said, Wow, that was really strong asking for one time gifts. Well repurpose it. And instead of asking for one time gift, ask for a month to give, right? So there's so many different things that you may have already done, that you can tap back into into the archives and say, You know what?

I can reuse that. Because the reality is donors will not remember what you told them last week, right? So so by all means, repurpose, reuse, repeat, you know, so. So you have so much that you've already created, that you can reuse. With small tweaks to it again, I absolutely am convinced of that. I see it all the time, right. So so absolutely repurpose that. And then the other pieces and you're going to actually get this planner is take a minute, and fill out you see here on the top, it says existing monthly donors. So that's where you're going to plug in how many monthly donors you have now and what the value is. And then below it, you're saying what are some of the things that I can do in my organization? What's the numbers? How many email addresses do I have? And then you know, chip away and say, hey, you know what my plan is, in the next three months, I am going to do three emails asking for a month ago, or I'm going to add a button to every email newsletter, right? So fill in the blanks there, create a tiny plan. And you know what they say when you have a plan, right? You are going to execute it. So you just got to have it somewhere in writing, and then set some goals to associate with this. If you have 50 Mountain owners Now, where do you want to get to? I mean, and I'd love to have you put that in the chat too, is like, do you want to double bad? Do you want to triple it? You know, do you want to add 10 new monthly donors, you know, because again, every organization is different. This is a plan that you're gonna get as an Excel sheet. And you can plug in the numbers. And again, at the end of this, I will share my contact information as well if you have any questions with this, but but create a little plan and say, you know, I did a special appeal or I did a special postcard and I generated you know, 10 new monthly donors. Great. Let's do that again later on. Right. So, because again, every organization is different, but start with a plan for sure. And then I've created a little checklist here. So create your tiny monthly donor story dedic create a dedicated page and then see if you can add a button on the home page. See if you can add a button in a tiny story in an E News in an email added to your welcome email, send some special emails, add it to your reply form, newsletters, social media, your blog posts, as you mentioned, right

And then do me a favor, celebrate your wins share with everybody in the organization. Yeah, we got five new monthly donors, and they are worse, the annualized amount of money, right? So say if you had five monthly donors that are giving you $600 a year, that's $3,000 a year, right? So that could be three big donors, right. So, again, the money is coming from the smaller donors right now. And we need to give them a low entry point. So celebrate your wins, annualize that, that amount, and then repeat and you will will generate results you will grow your recurring donors. So these are just a couple of practical tips that I recommend you start with in your organization.

So just to end with the key takeaways is create your tiny store again, you don't have to worry about four page ladders. Use some buttons to direct the donors to your dedicated page, celebrate your wins. And remember to annualize your results, repeat and expand and grow. Because the journey of 1000 miles begins with a simple search with a single step. And in this case, it begins with a single, tiny story and a button. Right.

41:24  
So so that's it for me. Um, Tim would like to open it up for q&a now. Yeah, yeah. Hold on. And I'll come back with this. So okay, we got some good ones. In fact, I'm typing the Karen. Yes. And what we'll do is, is we have some nice, healthy time for discussion, folks. I have a really critical one from Karen that I want to address. And then I see Kim's original question, as well as Katie's original question. A lot of button questions, basically. Yeah. So so there's some

I would say kind of iffy nests on the asking in the Thank you. Yep. That there's some some hesitation there. And I was actually typing out. Part of it is it depends. But what's your thoughts on that? Because, you know, there's conflicting information out there on Yeah, so there's, I know, there's, there's some people that say you can't be fasting, right? They take you asking Fasken. Great. So here's the thing, if you're not, you know, and again, it all depends, like, I know, like a lot of the bigger organizations, they ask, and especially animal welfare organizations, religious organizations, they tend to ask in thank you letters, because it does generate a lot of extra revenue for them all, and it basically helps more than pay for sending of the thank you letters. But if you're not comfortable with that, don't worry about it. So send a thank you letter. But then the key especially with new donors is that you try you want to try to convert them to give monthly as soon as possible. So within that first month is really you know, that's that's within the first month or three months is really critical to to convert them. And Tim, you had a you want to well just just some some Fundraising Effectiveness Project Data and regards to new donor retention rates, if you don't engage new donors that you receive, and let's say 2022 this year in a meaningful way, the height the likelihood of them donating again is only 18% At this point, and when you we know the retention rates for monthly giving are extraordinarily high. And so Karen did actually kind of talk in my opinion, Karen, you talked yourself through how to solve it for your own organization, which is perhaps a card about your monthly giving program could be included with a thank you to someone who gave a one time gift.

44:04  
I think that's appropriate and you had to feel it out for your own philanthropic community Yeah. But to into good to follow up on that. So so so trying to engage your donors within that first month to three months is really critical. So to get in some of the bigger organizations they use their Thank you, they involve like they put in that little Trailblazer example insert, like I shared with you, but if you're not comfortable with that, just like leave leave the thank you letter, great, send it out right away, right, that's the key and that that's uh, and try to make it as personal as possible, but then within the first month, send a special invitation. Yeah, so again, you know, if you're if you get your donors to give online well make sure that you have your welcome email series activated. Dad asked them to consider a monthly gift right and be the second touch point. The third touch point like folded into the welcome series. Okay. I want to get into the

45:00  
These button questions. Okay, Kim's question she actually asked this a while ago. So I want to want to do this legit look good logistical stuff does the month the give monthly button next to the donation button increase greater than having monthly as the default on your donation page or a pop up encouraging monthly when a donor starts a donation. So here's the thing you need. I mean, ideally you want to do it all right, so so if you have relates to Katie's question next, by the way, so yeah, so if you have like two right now on your website, if you have donate only, then if you if you have space, if you add that monthly gift multi button next to it, you will get organic, organic Google people that go to your website and saying, oh, okay, hey, I can I can consider a monthly gift right now again, it's like if you don't ask, you're not going to get so. So that's like, so try that all. And again, I don't have that in this deck. But But this organization that was sharing some examples of they had done that. And again, they saw like a 10% increase of people that organically pick the monthly monthly option, just by the fact that they had it there on on their homepage. And when we actually analyzed our data, which we had shown, I actually worked a little bit with Erica, when we were originally doing research on recurring giving, specifically through neon one usage and smaller organizations are very effective at driving this. So the donors are actually really interested, especially for the smaller communicate, community based organizations. And there's some really exciting research on email communications that also backs this up with button stuff to another button question. We got some really did we did we, you know, so I hope that was answering the first question. So no, that was like, put it on your homepage and then also put it in your emails and and and wherever else you can put it. So then it relates to Katie's question, we set up our donate page to the Donate monthly default weight, including both tabs, which which you know, neon forms for pretty much everybody if they're doing this well gives you you could do one or both, if you want. And several people accidentally made donations that they meant to be one time. Do you have any advice? How to avoid this? If we can't add two buttons to the homepage? Yeah, so that is like, you know, I was like, if the more you can put there that it says monthly, monthly, monthly every step of the way when the donor is entering the donation. So that's that's key. I saw one organization they actually had like, tick boxes next to you know that the monthly Well, the you know, sometimes the colors are, the colors are not clear what they mean, right? So if you have the toggle between two, two options on a form, I am typically not a strong proponent of pre selecting monthly on a one time donation. If anything, it's the opposite. It's the right. So so in other words, like if so if you say you have a button on the homepage, and it says Donate now, on that I don't recommend that you have a pre selected monthly there, I it's got to be Donate now. And you the donor wants to make the one time gift, and then they can toggle to the monthly if they so are so inclined. Right. But to your point is otherwise you get a really bad donor experience. Yeah. And then they're kind of turned off and they don't trust it. Right. So So that's also one of the reasons why we rolled out the news like embeddable button feature because if you had a dedicated monthly campaign, you can make a button with its own language colors even emoji on it. Yes. And embed that like some people said the blog, right, like you could put it anywhere on your website, and then some, but you can name it what you want, and people know, this is just going to be that.

Okay, so let me here's here's some fun practical stuff. And then I do see some chat going on. So

one actually share, I'm gonna go to a chat thing that Sharon said, which is how does monthly giving work? And I'm going to answer this one, Erica, because it's like the technical logistics. Sure, the owner initiated donation monthly on a website or authorization for org to charge their credit card for a specific amount on a monthly basis until cancelled. That's typically from a tech standpoint, it the research shows it's almost always on it. This is online. It's not somebody sending in a check monthly, they don't do that. And almost like more often than not, it's going to be a credit card. And what they're doing is it's entering through a form. Certain platforms, such as neon CRM allow you to enter offline.

Donations like if somebody writes out the card

At card number one,

50:02  
check your PCI compliance on that we offer this for free for the organization to walk you through how to do that. But if you don't have an opt in into that program, or don't use any on one, check it yourself, because if you're getting physical credit cards being written down, you have to do something for security there. But you can enter it into the back end, and it will charge it and set up the schedule to but more often than not, yes, it is doing it online through either a form or some sort of entry through depending on your your setup there. Yeah, yeah. Okay. How do you? How do you name your program? Oh, great question. Yeah. So we're going to get a little bit more into that stewardship. But again, don't overthink it. So I don't wait to start promoting it. So when I started in monthly giving, like 30 years ago now, I've always been here 30 years in this country, Tam on April 10. And 30 is immigration, and from the Netherlands. So when I started, it was, you know, the name was really, really important. And, you know, like, people needed to feel really part of a community. And you know, and it was like, the lead and the promotion was always like, become a champion for animals or become this or that, you know. So now, it's basically like the other way around. So you're asking the donor to consider a recurring gift first. And then say, once you do this, you will become part of this special community. And we're going to call you XYZ. And as such, you're going to get updates on how your gifts are making a difference. And you'll be really, you know, your we'll send you some special engagement things or whatever it is that you that you want to do, but just keep it keep it simple. And say once, once you join, you know, this is we're going to name you this now, how do you come up with the name? Brainstorm. So sit down and pull in, pull in a donor, right? Pull in a staffer or program person, you're a receptionist, if you if you have a you know, and to say, look, we want to come up with a name for a Biscay, a loyal program, or a subscription program, some people call it that we can live with for a long time, right? That's going to feel good. You know, that's, that really captures our mission. And then just like, write down a couple of options, right? And then say, you know, you you just brainstorm we have a couple of options. And then you say, Alright, we're gonna pick three. And then Hey, Tim, what do you think about this, you know, champion at what did what if we're calling a champion for animals, or sustainers, or partners, or, you know, champions for hope, or whatever, right? Is this so many different things, um, I actually came across a blog post, and I'm going to send it to Tim so that we can send it to the folks here on the on the call today, that has a gazillion different Sustainer program names that could help you get going on your creative juices, right. So because that's what it is, you sometimes have to get your creative juices, or sign up for chat. GPT haven't heard about that to grow for a few days, and it'll generate no matter what, like, keep it. Thank you. Yeah, keep it keep it mission. Try to from a branding consistency standpoint. Karen, I love it, too. But I'm not using that for writing donor copy. Don't do that. I don't either. No, no, just examples. So so we got a few few things. I actually some people were asking some some kind of back and forth about what the transcript is gold. So we're going to make sure that that's actually put into the Resource Center today, too.

53:53  
I dropped a link to our donor report that got into how people are acting generationally, race giving, like all this type of stuff. So there's some really cool things that that touch on that. I want to ask you some really, kind of, I'm gonna ask two more questions to kind of round this out. Because because I want to make sure that people get out on time to do you have an example of how to ask with a match. they've acquired one, but they don't know how to word it. So I think that's a nice practical thing that we can kind of knock out. Yeah. So So again, that that example that I showed earlier with the postcard, you know, that's a that's an example of, you know, like, here is like, Dave, this couple is like, offered to give an extra $5,000 If we're able to find any, you know, new so many new monthly donors by a certain Karen's paying attention. She said that one earlier slide. Yes, there you go. And then, um, it's like and then I think kind of leading well once you finish up your Yeah, and again, feel free to you mean, you know, I share my email address, so we're happy to send you some more

examples of like the email series that was associated with it, you're coming back us only Session Two out of five. We got we're gonna take a break in February because Eric has got off to do. Yeah. And we're gonna come back in March what? So let's,

but yeah, but yeah, so this is like she had to match have a deadline and set a goal, right and don't make the match too complicated. So that's that's another thing like try to keep it simple. So come up with a number like, Hey, we're looking for 25 new monthly donors by XYZ deadline. And if we reach a goal, we're gonna get so much money, you know, so. So that's just one example one, one thing that I want to also encourage folks is I'm going to pop into the chat here, our Connected fundraising community, it's actually a Slack community of over 400. Folks just like you, we just this, you know, earlier today, we shared some 2023 innovations in technology for small to mid sized nonprofits, we drop that in there, we dropped different research, we have conversations about things. And so what we'll do is some of these resources, like we'll put them into the thing. But Erica, when you get me that article, yeah, I'll put it in the community. Yeah. So check it out. It's free to join. You could join other folks. And we're going to try to continue to have conversations like this and monthly, community driven discussions to maybe if we can do one more question, we have one more question, what are easy to accomplish program benefits? Oh, great. Well, again, keep it simple. So tell them that they're going to get updates on how their gifts are making a difference? Yeah, so that's it. So once you become a monthly donor, you're going to get updates on how your gifts are making a difference. And no bags? No God, you don't, you don't need two bags, you know, so and then take a look at what you're already doing. So in other words, in the email newsletter could be a benefit, right? But you don't have to tell them that they're going to get a quarterly or monthly or however often, right? But if you get a message from a client, wow, you know, or a, you know, a drawing from a child, you know, that you're helping pop it in an email, you know, you can literally scan in a message from a client and pop it in an email thing. You make this possible, right? So if you have board members who want to help have them handwrite personal notes, you know, so but you don't have to tell them upfront what that's gonna look like, because otherwise you might end up like disappointing them, but just kind of saying, hey, as you're like, doing stuff, and we're going to talk about this at one of the next sessions, I want to make sure we're gonna end on you saying what's next, because we're gonna get the registration live soon. Always check out neon one.com. For our webinars, we have a lot still going. But once you round us out, what do we got? What do we got? Okay, on some of the resources, let's touch on resources. And then what sources? And then yeah, that'll round us out. Yeah. So you got a whole bunch of blog posts that are that you can link to right there. Once you get the once you get to slides. And like I said, that planner that I put in there that I showed you, that's going to be in the handouts as well. And then we're going to be talking about recurring donor stewardship, like Yeah, to your point is, what are you going to tell them that the benefits are, are of being a monthly donor, which is really all about? How do you engage them? Right? You know, because they're investing in your organization. So you need to keep them happy and in and, and feel good about the fact that they are making a monthly gift? And not saying anything to them is bad, right? It's you want to communicate with them? The absence of communication means that it's to the donor, it isn't, oh, they're not they don't want to I don't want to bother the donor. And boy, Eric, I was telling you a little brief preview, folks, do I have data to back that up that's coming out in April, in terms of you are not bothering your donors, you're not right, they want to hear from you. So Erica, speaking of a pleasure, thank you again for this you want to come thank you. We're gonna have you back on the 29th We're gonna get that registration up soon. But we got a lot of other things folks and we put these out in our emails or you know, you'll see it on LinkedIn and stuff like that and join the community anything else to round us out for today Erica, otherwise no, just thank you and go go go try something with that button then with that tiny story by all means, let us know the next time see how it goes. love it love it a Stephanie's buying your books right now.

And and we always love having you here. This is why we've developed this and and, and also hearing this type of chat hearing what is exciting people and what your struggles are. That's why we're building a technology around that not what we think works. It's what donors want. You know, we're so grateful for your time today like yeah, thank you guys. Yeah,

Awesome well we'll talk to you soon we'll be getting this out and we'll be in touch see it see you later folks have a good Thursday bye bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai