If you’ve been following fundraising conversations over the past few years, you’ve heard the pitch: monthly giving is the future. Recurring revenue is king. Build your monthly donor base and watch your fundraising problems disappear. There’s real truth in that. But there’s also a lot of hype.
Monthly giving is a powerful fundraising strategy that deserves a place in your development plan. But it’s not a silver bullet, and anyone who tells you it’s the only strategy you need is overselling it.
Why Monthly Giving Matters
The case for monthly giving starts with the math. A $25 monthly donor gives you $300 a year. That’s more than most one-time gifts you’ll receive from the same donor segment, and that revenue shows up predictably, month after month.
Monthly donors also stay longer. Research consistently shows that recurring donors have higher retention rates than single-gift donors. Once someone sets up an automatic payment, there’s less friction to continue giving than there is to make a brand new decision each time you send an appeal.
And there’s a compounding effect. Every monthly donor you add this year keeps giving next year and the year after (assuming you do your job with stewardship). Over time, the cumulative value of your monthly donor base grows without requiring a new ask every cycle.
But It’s Not Everything
Here’s where I part ways with some of my fellow consultants and authors.
Monthly giving is important. It should be part of your strategy. But it is not the be-all, end-all of nonprofit fundraising.
Your major gifts program will always be your biggest revenue driver. Events, grants, corporate partnerships, and planned giving: all of these matter too. If you shift all of your energy toward monthly giving at the expense of these other channels, you’re making a mistake.
Think of monthly giving as one strong pillar in a multi-pillar fundraising program. Build it. Grow it. But don’t treat it as a replacement for everything else you should be doing.
The Easiest Path: Convert Your Current Donors
The easiest people to convert into monthly donors are the ones already giving to you. Many organizations miss this.
These donors already believe in your mission. They’ve already made the decision to give. They’ve already entered their payment information at least once.
The barrier to saying yes to a monthly gift is dramatically lower for someone who gave you $50 last month than for a complete stranger who has never heard of your organization.
Start with your low-dollar donors, the people who gave between $10 and $100 in the past year. These are your best monthly giving prospects. A donor who gave you $50 once is a strong candidate for a $15 or $20 per month commitment, and the ask feels reasonable because they’ve already demonstrated they care.
How do you make the ask? A few approaches that work:
- Email sequence. Send a short series of emails specifically to low-dollar donors, explaining the impact of a small monthly gift and making it easy to sign up online.
- Phone calls. A personal call from a staff member or volunteer, thanking the donor for their past gift and inviting them to join your monthly giving program, is surprisingly effective. Keep it warm and brief.
- Renewal letters. When it’s time to send a renewal, include a monthly giving option alongside your one-time ask amounts. “Would you consider a gift of $20 per month?” right alongside the standard ask.
The key is making the transition feel natural, not pushy. You’re inviting them to support the work they already care about in a way that’s easier for them and more impactful for you.
Create a Monthly Donor Club
One of the most effective ways to encourage monthly giving is to create a named giving club or society for your monthly donors. This gives the commitment a sense of identity and belonging that goes beyond a recurring credit card charge.
Call it something connected to your mission. A food bank might have the “Nourish Circle.” An animal shelter could call it the “Guardian Society.” The name matters less than the concept: monthly donors belong to something.
If you need inspiration, I’ve put together a guide on finding creative donor level names for your nonprofit. The article focuses on giving level names, but most of the lessons also apply to choosing donor club names.
Give your monthly donor club a few modest perks. Maybe it’s a quarterly update from the executive director or an invitation to an annual behind-the-scenes tour. A small welcome package when they first sign up goes a long way too.
These don’t have to be expensive; they just need to make your monthly donors feel recognized for their ongoing commitment.
The club structure also gives you a natural way to talk about monthly giving in your communications. Instead of asking people to “set up a recurring donation,” you’re inviting them to “join the Nourish Circle.” That’s a more compelling conversation.
If You’re Serious, Run a Dedicated Campaign
If you really want to grow your monthly giving program, you need to go beyond simply adding a monthly option to your existing appeals. You need to run a dedicated monthly donor campaign at least once a year, where the sole call to action is signing up for monthly giving.
This means a focused campaign with its own timeline and messaging, built around a specific goal. Not a year-end appeal with a “P.S. you can also give monthly” at the bottom. A campaign where every email, every letter, every social media post is about one thing: joining your monthly giving program.
“We want to add 50 new monthly donors this month.” Set a specific target like that. Give it a name and a deadline. Create urgency.
This dedicated campaign should exist alongside your other monthly giving strategies, not instead of them. You should still be converting one-time donors throughout the year, still offering the monthly option on your website, still mentioning it in phone calls and thank-you conversations. But the annual campaign is what creates real momentum.
Asking New Donors for Monthly Gifts
Converting existing donors is the easier path, but don’t overlook the opportunity to ask new donors to start with a monthly gift. Many organizations do this successfully across multiple channels.
In direct mail, include a monthly giving option on your reply card alongside one-time gift amounts. Some organizations use a separate reply card insert specifically for monthly giving. Either approach works, as long as the monthly option is visible and not buried in fine print.
Online, your donation page should prominently feature a “monthly” toggle or button. Many donors who find you through social media or search are already comfortable with subscription-style payments. Consider making the monthly option the default selection on your online giving form. You may be surprised how many new donors choose it when it’s presented first.
In email, when you’re reaching out to new prospects or recent event attendees, test a monthly giving ask in your welcome series. Not every email in the series. One message that specifically makes the case for why a $15 or $25 monthly gift makes a bigger difference than a one-time gift of the same amount.
The key with new donors is framing the monthly gift as accessible and concrete. “For less than the cost of a streaming subscription, you can provide a week of meals for a family in crisis.” Connect a small, manageable amount to a specific, tangible outcome.
Keep It in Perspective
Monthly giving will strengthen your fundraising program. It gives you predictable revenue and stronger donor retention. And some of those monthly donors will eventually become your major gift prospects.
But your fundraising program is bigger than any single strategy. Build your monthly giving program and run that annual campaign. Create your donor club. Put in the work to convert your low-dollar donors.
And keep building everything else too: your major gifts program, your events, your grants, your planned giving. The nonprofits that raise the most money are the ones with diversified programs where monthly giving is one important piece of a larger puzzle.
Remember, start with your current donors. That’s where the momentum is!
Photo Credit: Eric Rothermel on Unsplash
