How To Build A Monthly Giving Program That Works

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Hey, lovely listeners!

This episode of the Just Be Cause Podcast is packed with practical wisdom and inspiration as we sit down with Erika Carley, the nonprofit monthly donation queen and chief development leader at National Angels. 

We're breaking down the secrets behind building resilient monthly giving programs, and tackling tough questions like: 

- Why do so many nonprofits overlook the power of recurring donations? 

- How can cultivating authentic donor relationships transform not just revenue but your entire organizational culture? 

- And what simple stewardship tactics can help you retain supporters for years—even decades?

Listen in as Erika shares her proven strategies for donor retention, operational systems, and heartfelt stewardship that’s changing the game for chapters across 14 states. 

We’ll discover how nonprofits can leverage mindfulness, consistency, and community to overcome scarcity thinking and secure a thriving future. Plus, hear real-world stories of transformation in foster care and fundraising alike, and walk away ready to make recurring giving the backbone of your nonprofit’s success.

Ready to unlock new ideas, reimagine your donor experience, and infuse some joy into your fundraising strategy? Tune in and get inspired!

Connect with Erika Carley and her work

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Angel Alliance monthly giving program

National Angels

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Thanks for listening to Just Be Cause Podcast! I'm Katherine Lacefield the founder and head consultant of Just Be Cause Consulting.

My goal is to partner with YOU nonprofits and philanthropic organizations to help you make a positive impact in your community.

With over 20 years of experience in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors, I help organizations optimize their operations with key knowledge in various domains, such as fundraising strategy, grantmaking research, communications, and development.

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Transcript

0:00

Support kids experiencing foster care just because every kid is one caring adult away from being a success story. Welcome to the Just Because podcast. In a space in which the scarcity mindset has been normal for far too long, discover how we're helping nonprofits finally take back their power, find their true purpose, and even use mindfulness to manifest their dream solutions into reality. I'm your host, Catherine Lacefield, a lifetime nonprofit professional. Together, we'll master the tools needed to overcome limitations, rise in times of adversity, and understand the interconnectedness of all causes towards a more conscious philanthropy. Just because it's the right thing to do. Hello, everyone, and welcome to yet another episode of the Just Because podcast. And I am very excited to have Erica on this episode because I feel like we've known her for almost two years through the magic of LinkedIn and webinars and conferences. And in my mind, she really is my monthly donation expert alongside Dana Snyder. I have heard her talk about how she developed monthly donation programs forever, and I'm so excited for her to share all of her knowledge with us today. But Erica actually has a much bigger that she's not just a monthly donation queen. She's also an impact of a nonprofit operations strategist, something that I do not have much experience with. And in her fifteen years of development and management, she has implemented long term strategies for business development, recurring revenue generation, partnerships, and donor stewardship, which have resulted in industry leading retention rates. So she's basically the queen, as I mentioned before. Over the course of this career, she's launched programs, campaigns, and events that have raised tens of millions of dollars to support overlooked and underfunded causes. And Erica currently serves as the chief development for National Angels where she partners with 19 chapters across 14 states. So she's a very busy lady, and I'm very happy that she took the time to be on this podcast with me today. So thank you so much, Erica, and welcome to the show. Thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here. I feel like we've been talking about this for a long time, so we're finally here. Yes. I know. I feel like the the podcast, it sometimes takes so long to finally book the call. And when it does, it's like it almost helps that it takes time because we end up having many more conversations and exchanges. So it's actually much more warm when we actually get to their productings. So it's great. Yeah. So, of course, like, as we I've mentioned in my mind, I know you are very much about recurring giving, but I would love to kind of hear about how you got into the nonprofit world to start with. Was it in the monthly giving space, or was there another way that you got it? And so maybe just giving us some background of, like, how you got into this space to begin with. Yeah. That's always such a great question, and it's fun to think back to how it all started. Honestly, when I look back at my childhood and my experience growing up, I was always very sensitive and, very empathetic. I also felt like a bit of an outsider, and that I just wasn't, understood. And that drove me in some ways, I think, to seek out people on the outside. I'm doing, like, air quotes on the outside, people who were overlooked, and that initially started with volunteering with kids in my school who had additional needs. That turned into working at summer camps for kids with terminal and life threatening illnesses when I was in college. Shout out to Camp Korey. It's a serious fun camp in Carnation, Washington, the most incredible time in my life. And then after years of actually working in the film industry in Los Angeles, really honing in on my production and storytelling skills, I dove into nonprofit headfirst. So while film and nonprofit might seem like two totally separate worlds, for me, there was actually significant overlap between them. Production and nonprofit development, the can do attitude. You won't take no for an answer. You're not afraid to vocalize what you need. You've gotta be strategic in the way you're coordinating things, organizing things, your relationship building. So development actually felt like a really natural fit and totally filled me up from the beginning. So after working for some organizations that were based in Los Angeles where I lived, I moved to Austin, Texas in 2015. And that's when I started working for an organization called CHIVE Charities. They were in year three at the time. And over the next seven plus years, I led their development efforts and eventually operations, and monthly giving was totally central to our strategy. So a few years into my tenure there, we made it to 2,500 monthly donors, then 3,000, then 4,000 at the top. And it made up a little over 70% Mhmm. Of our annual revenue. So it was a total game changer. And as a fundraiser or as an executive director, the weight that is lifted when you have that much of your revenue secured and sustainable is unbelievable. It feels like magic. You have so much more time to strategize and vision cast and advance your programs and build meaningful relationships with your supporters at every giving level. So this really laid the groundwork, for my passion for monthly giving, and I've taken that with me to the organization I work for now, which is National Angels. So much there. And I totally feel you on the kind of feeling, like, a black sheep. Like, I think a lot of people that are, like, black sheep, we tend to connect better in the nonprofit space because we're kind of, like, the weirdos then that we need help maybe more, or we tend to empathize more with those that are a bit out of the norm or what we would say is the norm even if what is the norm at the end of the day. I remember when I first heard you speak, it was when you were still at Chives Charities. And when you were throwing out the numbers out there of your retention rates and the loyalty that you had developed with your monthly donors, I was so impressed because I think that's a big question, especially nowadays with retention rates or plummeting generally in the nonprofit sector. But I feel like it's very different in the monthly giving where what I'm reading from different reports is that, generally speaking, monthly donors are much more likely to stay for over three years. They're much more likely to also even give more on an annual basis because, because it's much more easier to budget. That's how I see it. And I kind of had a similar experience when I was working at an animal rights organization based in in Montreal, Canada, where we also were able to build up a monthly giving program of about 2,000 people. And, of course, that took about five years. But once that had been done, it just that weight that gets lifted and this is why my question of, why don't more nonprofits put more energy into developing their monthly giving programs? And I'd love to hear kind of from your perspective, like, what do you feel is the strongest arguments of why nonprofits should focus more or promote more their monthly giving programs? Yeah. That's a great question. I mean, look. Subscriptions have boomed in popularity. Right? Millions and millions of consumers subscribe to thousands of products and services across literally every industry. Yep. And and even more so today than than they were three years ago, four years ago. And every one of those subscriptions represents an exchange. You invest consistently to receive something consistently. And applying this to big social issues and to changing people's lives feels like the very best application. Mhmm. I mean, it feels like a no brainer. It's easier said than done because it takes a lot of work to build a program. But some of the big reasons, you know, why I'm such a big promoter of it is the opportunity for relationship building, being a part of a donor's charitable evolution. You have the opportunity and the gift of long term relationship building with donors of all giving levels. I had a I had a guy named Matt. Won't say his last name for I was talking about this guy named Matt. And him and his wife, they signed on in May of twenty twenty four to be monthly donors at a hundred dollars a month. And he reached out to me after getting his, recurring donation receipt. I changed that receipt every single month to tell a specific story, the impact that donors have made possible. He reached out and he said, hey, Erica. I'd I would love to, up my monthly giving amount. Can I get on the phone with you? And and I said, absolutely. I said, hey. There is a new donor portal. If you wanna go in there, you can change your payment informations, but also so happy. Would love to get on the phone with you. He said, yeah. Just give me a call. So I was able to get on a phone call with him. And by the way, when he signed up for his monthly gift initially, I called him. He was shocked that I called him, and we had a lovely conversation. And I learned about why him and his wife wanted to do this and their interest in it. Well, I'm on the phone with him. This was literally, like, a week ago. And and I said, well, what are you thinking about doing? What do you wanna up it to? And he said, I wanna double it. I wanna go up to $200. Damn. And he said, you know, my professional situation has changed, and so, you know, my wife and I, Sarah, wanted to to make this this bigger investment. And so we had a just a wonderful conversation about that. I was able to thank him in a really personal way and tell him what he's making possible. I mean, that's a a big investment, $200 a month. That's a lot. I've very rarely seen$200 a month. He's like, 200 is more like an annual donation type thing. It's a lot. And he then said, hey. I I'm meeting with one of your case managers, Julia, on Wednesday to discuss becoming a Dare to Dream mentor. So then, of course, I get off the phone with him, and and I emailed Julia. And I said, hey, Julia. I just wanna let you know we have this donor. So when you're talking to him on Wednesday about the Dare to Dream program, you know, you could mention how grateful we are for his, you know Of course. Incredible investment. So it's like all of these touch points that just create this culture of giving and impact. And, so, anyway, I love that. I also think, you know, your your program can become a pipeline for potential major gifts. That's a big thing. You know, but it's good to remember that, like you already mentioned, monthly givers typically give more over time than those who give one time gifts. You know, 70% of first time donors don't give a second gift, which is crazy. That's insane. And the average you had mentioned that, like, monthly donors will give on average, like, three years. From the most recent recurring giving report that Neon One did, I love Tim and Abby over at Neon One. They're amazing. I I think boiled down their reports. Amazing. Them all in my desk, and I just have them all, like, tabbed out of, you know, every single little here it is. Oh my goodness. Not lying. I have all my report. Have the we have the proof. We have the proof. You don't see video, but I I'm just limited that much. But a recurring the lifespan of an average recurring donor is almost eight years. Over how long? And there's a this is another but I'd be curious as to, like, how long it like, on average, how long they look back. Because if you're obviously building a new program, like, you don't have those kinds of numbers. But, anyways, that's long. Totally. But if you're doing, you know, the right thing in terms of stewardship to get that retention, that's the potential. Right? Mhmm. Like, that's, you know, longer than a lot of organizations are have even been around, you know, who are building their monthly giving program. So I I love that. You know? But also, consistent financial support is an organization's dream, and it has to be our number one priority. So whether that's through monthly giving, multiyear pledges, multiyear partnerships, we should be thinking about recurring, recurring, recurring for every revenue stream that we can apply it to. A %. That kind of sustainability allows us to plan short, medium, long term. And when you can plan like that, you have the opportunity to be so much more strategic with your planning. You can be more proactive versus reactive. It's a huge benefit. So, you know, there are so many benefits to a monthly giving program. And I love what you said about the the the that strategic aspect because I also find one of the biggest strong, like, plus points for individual giving generally is the fact that a lot of them tend to be, like, open ended. Like, you know, they're not attached to any particular program or service. You can, and that also has different advantages if you might wanna create a program that is just funded by monthly givers that does have its own benefit. But compared to, let's say, grants, I do a lot of grant development for organizations, there's tends to be a lot of strings attached. When you have a whole bunch of monthly donors that allow you to have a significant budget on a regular basis, and it can be going to whatever you want, there's just so much more flexibility from an organizational perspective that I think people don't tend to understand. Yes. It takes a few years to develop into that bigger pool of donors. But once you're there, it's a lot easier to maintain than constantly running after new grants, constantly having to apply and spend months developing them. I think I strongly believe in diversifying revenue. I think you should do a bit of everything. But the power of monthly giving is that sustainability and the relationship development potential. And I'd like to tap into that because there's a lot of touch points that you mentioned, the calls, the the new receipt with the email, with the new story every month. I actually noted that down for a client of mine. I'm like, oh, that's a great idea. So I'd love to hear about the work that you're doing now at National Angels. Maybe if you can give us a bit of background of just, of course, what the program is. And, specifically, we had talked about you were building up their monthly donation program. So I'd love to hear kind of what are the things that you've been implementing since you started there that you feel have the most impact on retention and acquisition of monthly donors? Yeah. That's that's great. Okay. So I'll start with National Angels. So I work with our incredible visionary CEO, Susan Ramirez, to drive our growth strategy. And I work hand in hand with our marketing and events teams. Our goal is to scale our programs into every metropolitan city in The United States. So there are a lot of those. Hundreds and hundreds. Right now, we have 19 chapters in 14 states. But we truly believe that we have identified a solution to the many crises that are associated with foster care. I mean, our programs are truly transforming the foster care experience. It's just a total honor to be a part of it. So fifteen years ago, Austin Angels, which is the founding chapter, which, you know, Susan launched, she identified two big challenges associated with foster care. So one, the outcomes for children who experience care, the statistics and odds that they face are extremely poor, especially as they enter adulthood. I mean, when it comes to academic instability, homelessness, incarceration, I it's it you look at all these downstream issues, you look upstream, and you see foster care. Mhmm. The second big challenge was that families who open up their homes to kids experiencing care do not have the support and resources they need to thrive. So the statistic nationally is that 50% of foster homes close within the first year. It's just too hard. So this makes relational permanency and normalcy near impossible. It is our belief that what changes foster care are deep, trusting, consistent relationships. So now we have big foundations that like, Stand Together Foundation whose mission is to really eliminate poverty, and they've identified our programs as a solution to this big, big problem. So our mission is to walk alongside children, youth, and families in the foster care community, and we do this through consistent support, intentional giving, relationship building, and mentorship. And our vision is that every single kid who experiences care has the opportunity to reach their fullest potential, and every family who fosters is radically supported in their journey. So it's it's a really beautiful program, and we're so dedicated to measurement and to data. It's really, really important to us, especially because we have 19 chapters. Quality control is everything. Measurement is everything, to ensure that our programs are actually changing statistics. And the data that we've been able to gather through, you know, third party, research has just been unbelievable. I wonder because the programs themselves are so focused on building strong relationships, having extra support, I can definitely see a connection of that same kind of culture of action being implemented into your development programs. And realizing that I can kinda see the same thing happening of, like, most of our donor like, both donors will leave after a year, kind of like the foster families will close because they don't feel supported. They don't understand what's going on. They don't know how to really show up. And so if we kind of can understand that same mentality for donors, I feel like we've just changed the game. You can apply that same level of relationship development from a mentorship perspective for your foster families to your donors. You're just, like, putting the same theories together. I love, love, love, love that you made that connection because it's so true. And I tell our our network, our chapters all the time that people need people. Right? Through the power of people, we are changing foster care, and organizations need partners. And we need that consistently. I think that relational aspect paired with a consistency is everything. So when it comes to you you asked the second question of what have we implemented Mhmm. Since I I started. Well, the one of the biggest projects I took on really right when I started was the implementation and configuration of a CRM system. So the challenge for the network was that, you know, we have chapters that have, you know, revenue of a million plus, and we have chapters that are much lower than that. And so we wanted, you know, in the spirit of consistency and being able to steward our chapters along their journey, through the national division and and the team members who are dedicated to that work, we needed everybody to have access to the same CRM so that everything that we developed at the top, every email template, every message, and the and the training that we could develop, could be deployed across the entire network. So we identified Neon CRM as a CRM that was gonna be the one for us, and it I mean, that was just a massive project because, you know, as you know, you've worked with so many CRMs and so many organizations. CRM is only as good as the person using it. So, you know, you've gotta get all of your data in there. You've gotta clean up all of your data, and then you have to identify ways to leverage the tools that it provides in a way that will support your stewardship and your retention efforts. So that's been a huge part of it. We have increased our one to one communication big time. We wrote a stewardship guide, that we deployed to the network. And, you know, it's thorough, and we utilize the CRM, in a way that helps us achieve it. So, you know, if, say you're a a new monthly donor, most of that stewardship falls on on my plate. My desk is filled with cards and stamps and envelopes and stickers and an angel wing that you get when you first join our monthly giving program. But when we get a new donor, I sit down, I write them a handwritten card, I get it in the mail that day, put stickers in there, like I said, the angel wing, and then I apply, an activity template that pings me every three months to make sure I can have a meaningful touch point with that donor. So it's easy for me. Just this morning, I had two activity reminders. Hey, Erica. It's time to reach out to, you know, Susan who who joined the Angel Alliance three months ago. So it'll tell me voice memo them, text them, call them. If you don't have their phone number, then write them an email. So that's been huge to implement our system and then to really begin to figure out ways to leverage the tools, all of the workflows, the welcome series, the you know, on and on and on. I mean, there's so much that you can do, but the reality is that it takes a lot of time. And resources and understanding and support and training. And that's where I feel there's the implementation of the tech tools, but then there's, of course, the follow-up. There is making sure that everyone understands how to use it properly. Because let's say you can implement the system if you have this guide of, yes, every few times, but is the person remembering to put the ping, to put the reminder, and then actually fulfilling those tasks. If not, it's just a checklist that you can say, hey. I'll get it done, and then you don't. So I think that this is where a lot of times it has to be built into this, and there has to be time awarded to stewardship, which I think is a lot of times that Yeah. The fundraising person is a one person show, sometimes also managing communications and marketing. And so I understand. So there's some times where I'm like, you do as much as you can, but those individual touch points are so important especially for recurring donors. I think it it can be a game changer. And just calling them not when their credit card has expired or when you need something from them. Just having those touch points that make them feel like when you call, it's not just to get something more out of them. It's also just to thank them and to have their opinion about something. I remember when I was doing I was doing a lot of phone fundraising for that animal rights organization. And I remember this guy, I forgot his name. It's been so long now. But when I would call him, we I wouldn't know it was gonna be a half an hour conversation. Like, we were at the point where we would have debates about the dairy industry that he worked in and what's the ethical reason. Then he would have just these fascinating discussions. And, yes, of course, I would I would touch base with them. Like, hey. How's it going? Making sure all of your information is okay for your tax receipt, etcetera, etcetera. And it became, like, not I wouldn't say a friendship, but to the point where almost where I knew, like, oh, is your wife home? Is she still forcing you to sign petitions? That is the level at which I always trained my fundraisers to be like, you should be able to mention two to three personal details about your donor within x amount of time. If you have not, it's that you're not building that relationship that makes it feel like they're part of your community. I think that's also something that's really important for monthly giving programs. A hundred percent. And, also, then you need to after you get off the phone, you need to take notes and put it in their constituent profile through the CRM so that, you know, if you were to leave the organization, then somebody coming into your position can pick that up, and they already have this treasure trove of knowledge about this donor. And while it's gonna take time to build that trust in that relationship, they will be seen and feel valued immediately. So, you know, the documentation piece does take a lot of time, and I I certainly fall short, you know, some days. And I but I I try and just take notes, you know, on my notepad so that if I, you know, have time in the day later on, okay, just get as much as you can that you remember back into their profile. And and then if you can also then trigger another activity. If you have that meaningful touch point, you know, alert you know, give yourself an alert to check-in again. I think that's really important. I mean, for me, life is it I'm in a very busy season of life and like everybody is. And if it's not in my calendar, if I'm not getting an alert or a reminder, it's not happening. It's not. So we've gotta do that. We've gotta be diligent about that. We also put in our team National Angels calendar. Every one of our monthly donors, their birthday is in our calendar. So if it's their birthday, we can give them a call. We can do a voice memo. We had been doing punk postcards before it went out of business. We were pretty devastated about that. We got something for you after the call. Oh, good. Good. Good. So, you know, all those little touch points, those less obvious engagement points, I think, are the ones that really, can have the most return. So we've really been diligent about implementing all of that, coaching the network on that. And then thirdly, I think the the other thing that we've really been implementing over the last eighteen months has been our brand voice, really elevating the way that we're talking about our work. You know, we we really are being recognized as a game changer here. And so in order to be on those big stages, we've gotta be talking about it in that way and sharing our data, sharing our our outcomes, in ways that will, you know, inspire invitations to those things. I mean, we're just so proud of this work. So we're we're really excited to continue our growth. And there's so oh, gosh. Like, we could talk about so many things, but I I really wanted to talk about the fact that you do have 19 different chapters, and you implemented this throughout of all of them. And, of course, from what I can assume, and, like, you were saying there's different sizes, there's different structures. What do you feel are kind of, like, the the points of, like, no matter what size you are structured, these are, like, the key points. Like, no matter who you are, this is what should remain the same in the monthly giving program versus things that might need to be taken into consideration based on size, based on maybe location? Is there anything that you would feel would be different to kind of, like, similar points across chapters and maybe some distinguishing aspects? Yeah. So, I mean, when I think about this, I also think about, like, more broadly what remains the same for our chapters and then what differences. Like, for instance, I said we are all about measurement and quality control. We care deeply that kids and families supported by our love box and dare to dream programs in Austin, Texas have the same radically relational and tailored experience that kids and families have in Bakersfield, in New Jersey, in the Olympic Peninsula. So our our national angels division pours into our chapters. I mean, we have chapter success coaches, that partner consistently with each each chapter. Now when you have that kind of quality control in terms of your programs, what that does in terms of your monthly giving program is that it is a breeding ground for impactful stories and transformation. So when you are inviting people to become a a part of your angel alliance, which all of our monthly giving programs across the 19 chapters is angel alliance for everybody. That's something that's the same. Mhmm. You know, their impact as a monthly donor is gonna be essentially the same no matter what chapter you're partnered with because the impact is the same. The numbers might be different, but the level of impact that gets you to, you know, a point of actually transforming their experience of foster care and their outcomes is the same. So being able to communicate about that and invite people into that is huge. Now the differences that need to be taken into consideration are it's exactly what you said. I mean, it's capacity. Right? We have limited capacity for every single one of our chapters, even our flagship chapter, Austin. It's hard Yeah. To to check off every single box. And the most important thing is our programs. So when we're building new chapters, the first hire after the executive director is a case manager who can actually get these programs out into the community, start impacting kids and families. But as you grow, what we do from the national angels division is we coach on how to prioritize what hires. When it comes to your stewardship tactics, which ones are gonna have the greatest return? Sometimes you have to test and learn on that and see what is working best for your community. You know, we have some chapters that they just tell me, Erica, I cannot get my donors to to go on a cup of coffee date with me. Okay. That's just they've identified that. They have tried for sometimes years to prioritize that, and it's just not working. Okay. Let's go to voice memos. Let's make sure we're having meaningful touch points over a voice memo, a voice mail, a video that you're sending to them. It's it's all about testing and learning what's gonna be best for your community. So I think every organization that has a monthly giving program, and there's so many stewardship tactics that you could deploy, but you've got to figure out what works best for your community and prioritize based on that. There are some that I will not let go and that I encourage every chapter to implement, which is if somebody signs up to be a monthly donor, pick up the phone and call them. Say hello. Introduce yourself. Get to know them. Ask them how did you learn about us, and what moved you to join us. If they don't answer, great. Leave a leave a voice mail. They will be delighted by that, and then send them a handwritten card. And, you know, when I have, monthly donors cancel, which is very rare, you You know, we had a monthly donor canceled. She she emailed and said, you know, I just bought my first house, and I'm just financially, you know, wanna get to a point of more sustainability, and stability again. And, you know, so great. Send them a little housewarming gift. Send them a card and say, you know, to us, you will always be a part of our Angel Alliance family. Your impact has been undeniable and has ripple effects in the community. And if you ever have the capacity to come back again, our arms are wide open. Mhmm. And we're we're we honor and celebrate everything you've done and, and celebrate you as you close this chapter. You know? I think it's huge. And I think that is so important for just general life experience of of people sometimes they're at a different stage in their life. Imagine a friend that's like, right now, I'm just so busy with work. I just don't have the time to go out and see you anymore. And if you start acting okay. Fine. Well, this is over. If you leave now, like like, you're just cutting the relationship. And I've seen that many times of, like, are you sure you don't wanna go? Are you sure? And then they send an email. Oh, if you could stay on for, like and I understand to a certain degree. I've had conversations with people where we end up finding a compromise. I'm like, okay. Well, they're like, oh, it's only just for the next couple months. I'm like, well, do you want us to put a pause on your donations? And they'll restart this. Oh, that would be fantastic, and then I don't have to think about it. But sometimes, like, it's not relevant. It's not, what would be the word? It's it's not appropriate to kind of offer those situations if they're going through something. And I feel like you're so much more likely to get them to come back if you kind of thank them for what you've done so far. Like, housewarming card, like, enjoy your new house. I hope it looks as great as like, they're so much more likely to either maybe not come back as a monthly donor, but they might still think of you for an annual gift when they're still gonna be on your news line. Tell their community about it, or they might post on social media and say, I cannot believe this experience I've had. You know? Like, we talk about it. Susan is, like, white glove, white glove, white glove, like, white glove experience from beginning to end for our kids and our families and our donors and every stakeholder in this work. We have to think about it and pause. Pause in any situation where, you know, a donor makes a gift or they cancel or whatever it is. Think about how can I make this experience for them something that's gonna make them feel good, feel valued, feel, you know, feel our gratitude for them? So, yeah, I I think that's that's just totally critical. So I would so for every chapter, I'm like, don't sleep on those things. Yes. There are things that you definitely don't need to do. You don't have to call them on their birthday and get that. Right? Like, that's great. That's, like, surprise and delight cherry on top, but there are some sort of core tactics that I I would say I would definitely prioritize. I agree. And so how many how many monthly donors are in this program that you're individually calling? What would but how much do you have now at the current moment in your program? Yeah. So we have a couple hundred, and we're our goal we have a big goals to grow this. I mean, I and I I'm really interested to see how this year goes. Our biggest win last year in terms of converting new monthly donors, was at an in person event. Mhmm. So that's something that I'm gonna be huge on this year, and I'll be coaching the chapters on as well that I mean and and I talk about this quite a bit, but, I mean, you've gotta put it into practice. Every single time you have an opportunity to be in front of people, you've got to promote your monthly giving program. And, you know, in every partnership that you have, build monthly giving into it. Right? Go to have ask for an opportunity to go to the office to present on this work, to engage the employees, see if that partner will match Yeah. Those donations. I mean, you just have to think about how can I push recurring give it giving into every little, you know, applicable, opportunity? And so I was one of those annoying people that were doing street fundraising for many years where I'd like to learn about such and such. Yeah. And so I did a lot of that face to face. And I really feel that the conversion rate of course, it's difficult. People use because you see it one by one. But if you look from an email perspective, what's the actual click through conversion rate from emails? Like, in person is much higher. So it's a lot harder to say no to someone in person. And I'm not saying that we're forcing them or, like, convincing them in a in a forceful way, but it's just you take more of the time to learn and talk to the person if you're a good fundraiser. And what we would do is we didn't have the option of giving or we would always put the one time gift kind of as a last resort, almost like we don't want your one time gift. And if we were just prioritizing, this is what we need from you. We are almost exclusively looking for monthly giving. We're putting that at the forefront. I'd rather you give $5 a month than give me $200 right now. And they're like, but what it's gonna take? I'm like, no. No. This is what we want because we want that stability because we can't plan. Okay. Great. You're giving me $200 today. What about tomorrow? What am I gonna do tomorrow? I don't know. So having that stability and focusing on just monthly giving as almost a separate program, I think, is super crucial. I did a campaign this year where, an an organization were really trying to boost up their monthly giving, and we did a specific ask of on the donation page, the only option was monthly giving. There wasn't a onetime donation option. It was for a specific program. Of course, you can put in a PS, like, hey. If ever this doesn't work for you, you can always make a onetime gift here. But for that specific campaign, it was we want monthly donations. Because I feel if you're putting that at the forefront of what you're looking for and you're putting the right arguments, it's just so much easier to get people to understand why to go in. Because if not, I've seen so many where they're like, yeah. We have a monthly donation program, but they don't put it forward. And the donation form the monthly donation doesn't have any specific information about why giving monthly is better. So I would love to hear your thoughts on on that kind of aspect before we we move on to kind of just the a couple more questions before we close off. But specifically on focusing on monthly giving, what have been some tactics that you found to push that program forward instead of, let's say, an an individual giving program? Yeah. I mean, it's educating on how critical it is to our mission, for sure, you know, and and what you're connecting it to. I would say, you know, once we get them through the door, the acquisition strategy, the in person has been the most successful for us. Like I said, we had an event in person. And, I mean, I was tracking it. I was not at the event. I was tracking it at night. I was in DFW, and it the event was in Austin. And I it was, like, incredible. I mean, it was, like, sign up after sign up after sign up. And we had $5, you know, donations, and we had hundred dollar, you know, monthly gifts. So that's gonna be critical. Any in person opportunity you have, also for campaigns, huge. So we have May for us is big. It's national foster care awareness month, and we focus heavily on the acquisition of new monthly donors during that entire month. And we're gonna be testing out some paid ads and geotargeting, this year. So I'll report back to let you know how that goes. But I'm excited to to see what we can do there. Now it's also important when you are prioritizing monthly donor acquisition, in your campaigns and in your email comms and, you know, at your events that you're also finding ways to leverage your existing recurring donor base. So when we have national foster care awareness month, we write two separate email campaigns. One is geared towards, you know, new monthly donor acquisition, and one is going to our existing recurring donors. And they can make a onetime gift on top of their recurring donation, or they can share about our mission. They could you know, you can kind of give them a couple of ways to support. They could upgrade. So it you don't wanna sleep on activating your existing recurring base. So I think that segmentation is really important. If you're at an event, you know, you very well may have recurring donors there. So being able to honor them and, you know, shout them out. And is anybody here a recurring donor? You know, raise your hands. Like, you are critical to this work. Like, really, kind of demonstrating to the rest of the room how important that partnership is. I think that's a a really, successful tactic. I think segmentation is something that I I've I've pushed forward so much with a lot of clients because it's just been in existence in a lot of organizations. So I remember I just launched the end of year campaign for my clients, and I had three segments. I had the existing monthly donors that got the same emails, but without a direct act. It was really just, like, showcasing, like, this is what you've allowed us to do. This is our plans for next year. Thank you so much for being part of our program. And, of course, at the end of the year, we would say, if ever you wanna make an additional end of your donation for tax purposes, like, we would put it, but the wording would be different so that we're really recognizing that they are are ready in their case, it was a democracy builder. So we had named the program, which is also something I'd love to talk about. But then from a segmentation perspective, before we move on to that, I think it's important to also recognize people that were maybe a lapsed monthly donor. They're not the same as a someone who has not given before. So thank you so much for your support. We had you can we had done an objective of the like, we're trying to you know, we have a global objective of reactivating x amount of monthly donors. But making sure that you're recognizing the fact that they were once part of this of this the community is important. Or else you're gonna be like, well, yeah, I've already been a monthly donor. Like, don't you remember? And they don't feel as much, like, seen. And I found what we also did for one of those activation is that we actually had reached out to a new monthly donor who had recently converted and said, like, what what motivated you to join our program? Because it wasn't a monthly donation specific campaign. And he made this amazing quote that was just like, we need to use this. And we asked, can we use this quote? That became the subject line for one of the emails. And it had a really good open rate. Like, 66% of our lapsed donors opened the email. Like, we can really tell. And for that person, like, Alan, his name is Alan, we just did an amazing touch point from a stewardship perspective. And, of course, you can have everyone share their their quote email and as a subject line, but even asking them and building up this database of quotes or of passages that you can share in stories, not just of your programs, but also of your donors, I think, is something that I loved hearing about of, like, how many touch points can you have to share your existing monthly donor stories as well. Yes. I just have to say one thing on lapsed donors because I've recently implemented a new strategy that I has been working for us. Oh. So we when we transitioned over to the new CRM, we, you know, migrated our recurring donors. But as anybody who has done that knows, like, it could be such a headache. And our legacy system was, like, somehow still running expired credit cards. Like and and that can happen. That happens all the time. You know, and it's anyway, so that's all to say. We had, like, a, you know, maybe 15 lapsed donors, and we've been communicating with them over the past year. I mean, I they get a a payment failure notification email that's, you know, really beautifully worded and designed every single month. And we just weren't getting responses. I was reaching out, doing one on one emails, you know, kind of breaking down. Here's how you can, you know, get it back up and running. So I worked with our team, and I said, okay. Here's what we're gonna do. We are going to call each one of them. And I got, like, two people on the phone, but the rest of them, I I sent them, a voice a voice mail. And what I did was I gave them the option to opt out first. It was, you know, hey, Catherine. I just wanted to call because you have been a recurring donor of ours since this date. You've invested this much. It's I mean, it's truly been so so unbelievable for our mission and for the kids and families in our program. I know your donation has been lapsing and, you know, the payment has been failing for the last nine months. You're getting pesky emails from us every single month, and I wanna be able to eliminate that for you because that's not fun for everybody. So I was just calling to see if I could cancel your monthly gift on your behalf. I can do that in your in your system. And if you ever wanna sign back up or if this was just on the back burner and you weren't you know, it wasn't on your to do list, which I completely understand, here's how you can sign back up. It was like, give them the option to cancel first. Yep. And we saw such a big return. And then for those that we never got a response from because there, of course, there was a group of those too, I had our accounting coordinator, Jules, she's amazing, send an email after the donor lapsed and got that payment notification. She just sent an email with a big thank you, you know, visual and said, I'm gonna I'm gonna cancel you know, this is how many times your, you know, your gift has, lapsed, and we just wanna thank you. And, you know, we'll close this chapter, like I said, in a cancellation, you know, card. Like, we're here with open arms. We just we really want you to know how much we appreciate you. And yesterday Someone called back. Recurring donor who I'm I kid you not has been lapsed for, like, a year signed up after getting the we're making your gift inactive. So I I you know, don't be afraid to do that and put, like, hey. I can cancel this for you first and and, you know, see what happens. But that's been a really interesting tactic and strategy that we've seen a great return from. It's so interesting because so Jess Campbell, who's, in my opinion, like, the emailing queen, she did a similar tactic. She's a star. Yes. Incredible. And she had a similar suggestion for people that are not active on your newsletter, and they're kind of, like, of the option to unsubscribe. And she's like, do you still wanna hear from me? Or, like, do you want me to unsubscribe you? And kind of the similar thing. And that's where she's like, I'll get people who will finally, even if they haven't opened my emails for a year, be like, no. No. No. I'm sorry. Like, I don't unsubscribe me. Like, I still want to be on the list. And I think that that's a great option. The calling is something I used to do for people whose credit card dates expired or information is and I'd just be like, hey. Just touching base. I'd love to make sure that all the information that we have on file is up to date, and it has, you know, it's been lapsed for x amount of times. I even and I don't know if this was a bit too forward of me, but I would always ask, like, would you be willing to make a one time gift to make up for those lapsed gifts? And could you not, there was a good percentage of people, like, yeah. Sure. How many months was it? Six? Okay. Sure. Make a hundred dollar donation today, and then we'll restart as of normal as of next month. Bing, bang, dong. It was amazing. Yeah. Love it. And especially when you had them on the phone, you can offer that's always asking, like, do you have a favorite number? And they're like, I don't know why. And, like, well, why don't we integrate your favorite number into the amount of your gift? That way, every month, they'll be reminded of how amazing you are or, like, a symbolic amount. So I always end up having, like, twelve ninety six or, like, twenty one twenty one, and it just became we were it was almost like a joke. We were thinking of a special number instead of a dollar amount, and so we would also be able to, like, slightly increase their donation amounts by having those one on one calls. So all of these strategies are made for them. It was really fun. And, of course, like, how old is your dog? This was an animal rights organization or, like, whatever. So all this to say, so these are all amazing stewardship strategies, all great, like, retention, lapsed donor strategies. Now I'm a new nonprofit. I don't have a monthly donation program. Is there, like, one or two things that you would suggest starting to really launch the program? Yeah. Oh, okay. One or two things. There's, like, a couple of things that I would do yeah. There would be a couple of things. I mean, one, I would look at your existing donor base and who's been with you, and I think you can do and I think and Jess Campbell talks about this too. I love her content and just eat it out. Amazing. But doing, you know, one to one sort of mini recurring, giving appeals to your onetime donors. Or if you see that you know, audit all of your donor information, especially your LiveBund and CyBund list. And if somebody gave a hundred dollars last year, then email them. And you can say, you know, we'd love to we you gave a hundred dollars last year. It was so impactful. This is what we are able to achieve through the support of people like you. Would you consider making a $10 a month gift to our organization, you know, moving forward, invite them into the program, connect it back to the amount that they gave last year, well, then they'd be giving a hundred and 20 in in this year. You know, you're increasing that gift, and you're stewarding stewarding them along in their journey. So I think you can start there of, like, thinking of ways to activate your existing donor base and being very, tailored to the amount that they've given. You know? Mhmm. Look how much they've invested and then base your specific ask, on that. I also think that executive directors or, you know, development folks should post coaching sessions with your board members and instill in them the responsibility they have to partner with you on your fundraising efforts and highlight your monthly giving program in general because monthly giving is such a low lift. I mean, you're asking people for $10 a month, 20 5 dollars a month, $50 a month. A lot of board members are terrified of fundraising. Mhmm. I've been coaching the boards across our network and basically saying, like, our executive directors do not need cheerleaders on the sidelines. They need players on the field running plays with them time and time and time again. And this is a way that they can do that in a way that doesn't feel super scary. So you've gotta educate educate your board members on the importance of monthly giving and the benefits. So to make it super relevant, you could give them a breakdown of numbers. Like, if every board member in this room, say there's eight board members, inspired three monthly donors to join at an average gift of$35 a month, that would equal over$10,000 annually. Mhmm. And the life cycle of a monthly donor is nearly eight years. That's $80,000 plus in long term revenue. So when you educate on it, then board members or, you know, supporters, team members, woah, eyes wide open, like, moment. That low lift can generate generate so much of a return. I would also and this is what I tell board members, which is, like, a little bit off topic. But I tell board members just like I tell myself, you need to set a goal for yourself. Right? Yeah. Inspire three new monthly donors a month for this organization that you have, you know, demonstrated your passion for, that you should be consistently demonstrating your passion for. And put a calendar reminder in your phone, whether it's at the end of every week or at the end of every month. What have you done to drive values for Austin Angels this month? And if you haven't done it, get on your phone and text three people and invite them and say, you can blame it on the executive director. Say, I'm a board member. I'm on fire for this work, and I've been tasked for identifying people in my network that could be as on fire for this work as I am because we are transforming the lives of kids and families. Right? Like like, make it about seeing them and and the first person that popped into your mind was that person because of what you know about them and how much they could care about a cause that's bigger than themselves. So I think that's huge. Leverage your board all day, and do those those many, you know, monthly giving appeals. I think that's huge. More broadly, I would just make sure that you're taking a pause before you send out an appeal, before you're building out a fundraising, you know, partnership proposal. When you're outlining a script for an event and what you're gonna say, ask yourself, is there an opportunity to leverage our monthly giving program here? You know, sometimes it's the less obvious opportunities that end up being the most fruitful. You know, you also do need to if you're talking about just building a monthly giving program, you do have to go through the steps of Okay. You know, building out the name and the giving page and all of the stewardship that's gonna go along with that. But I would say don't wait until you have everything perfect. Get those foundational things in place. Make sure that you can steward these donors, you know, in a way that feels really good. It doesn't have to be over the top, which is really good. And then get to work. Get to work making those calls, sending those emails, coaching your board. And, you know, if you need someone to help you build out your monthly giving program, then do it with Dana Snyder. Yes. She's amazing. And she has a monthly giving summit, which I can also I don't know what time this episode will air, but we can share that as well. Okay. Okay. My dog is is annoying. I the way the way you've described it with the boards, and you can even see it as, like, almost like a peer to peer campaign, but for monthly giving. So the same structure that people would be like, you you want to, like, support me because I love this organization, or I'm reaching out to you because I know that you would also support it, and this is what we're asking for now. So, of course, you're not gonna get as many individual donors as, let's say, if it was just a $10 1 time ask, But that's not the point. Yeah. Like, we want that recurring giving because then we know from peer to peer campaigns that the retention rate of those donors is very low. But if we're retain if we're getting monthly donors, then we've just changed the game on that. One thing you had also suggested in the in the last call that I would like to, you know, just mention that, I thought was really cool is having a founding member's program of when Yes. You have a first, tech launch campaign. You're like, okay. The first fifty or the first one hundred or however many you want, you will be founding members. No matter how long you stay as a monthly donor, you will be the founding members of our program. That makes people feel like kind of like a sense of exclusivity, this sense of like, okay. I'm starting something. I'm an innovator. I'm a pioneer for this monthly donation program. It can also act as an extra motivation. I thought that was really cool as a suggestion as well. I just wanted to bring that I love I love the founding member idea. And and, you know, I think you can also even if you have, like, an existing monthly giving program that isn't that big, you can appeal to your existing donors with that and say, you know, we're switching things up. We're building out this program. You're our founding members. You can have post a virtual sort of fireside chat to to talk with them and to, you know, again, like, really make them feel like they're a part of something. They're a part of a community. This is a part of their identity being in this monthly giving program. You know? So I love that. You can also think about, you know, low lift, low cost benefits. You know? If you wanted to invest in some stickers in a sort of, like, founder's club of of this monthly giving program or a coffee cup, you know, that that has your logo on it and some some kind of thing. Like, you're a change maker, something that's gonna remind them, like, I'm really making a difference, and and I'm a part of something really special. Yes. I love that. Thank you for bringing that. I feel like we could talk about stewardship monthly donation strategies for hours. So I will unfortunately have to stop it here. But for anyone I know that you were have always been very generous with your time. For anyone that wants to follow what you're doing, to connect with you, to learn more about, like, doing a National Angels, what would be the best way for people to connect with you? Yeah. Connect with me on LinkedIn. You can also email me erica@nationalangels.org. I love talking about this stuff. And, you know, I think while we're trying to build out these monthly giving communities, it's also important that as people who are in fundraising and development that we are a part of a community as well. I mean, we're all in this fight together, and we're all trying new things, testing new things. So I love the knowledge sharing, and I have, you know, learned so much from my peers, and and love to pay that forward when I feel like I have, you know, a good idea or when I've tested something that ends up, you know, being successful. So, LinkedIn is probably the best way, and, and I'd love to connect with anybody out there who's interested in talking shop. This is exactly why I launched this podcast is I feel that the more we connect and collaborate and exchange ideas, the more the whole nonprofit sector. Because, yes, for foster families, we need this. But maybe we also need a food security organization to also increase, and we need and to avoid youth being incarcerated. I think there's different complementary services that if they can also benefit from that same knowledge, then we can all just increase the chances that the whole society can improve. As much as that's so utopic sounding, I strongly believe that the nonprofit sector has the potential. We just need the right tools and knowledge to bring it all up together. So I mean, systems systems across the globe were never built to build deep trusting relationships, and only people can do that. Right? And so for all of these causes that you're you're talking about, it's about the people. Yeah. We have the power to change these things, and we have to stop relying on the system and just calling it a broken system, and there is too big to fix. You know? We we can do a lot. We can do a lot. And that's where I feel to finalize is that's why we can have one on one conversations with monthly donors and make them feel like they can be part of that change and that the long term impact, that is how we will change these systems because they are not broken beyond repair. Maybe they just need to transform a bit. So on that note, Erica, thank you so much for your time, your amazing insights. I know I took thousands of notes for myself on how I can help implement a lot of these strategies for other clients of mine. So thank you so much, and, godspeed. With all of this National Angels work, I can I can feel, like, how much you love it, and it's really powerful empowering and inspirational? Oh, thank you. And to the audience too, to learn more about our work, nationalangels.org. We're gonna be growing. We're gonna be opening up chapters across the country. So if you want to learn more about investing in the work, please don't hesitate to get in touch as well. I'll, of course, include all the links to her LinkedIn website, email, anything. Probably not the email, just from a safety perspective because of thoughts. But, for anything, I'll put that all in the show notes of the episode, so feel free to reach out. And once again, Erica, thank you so much. It was an absolute pleasure. Ditto. Thanks, Catherine. Thanks for tuning in to the Just Because podcast. Are you enjoying the content we're creating? We'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback. Thanks for leaving us your wonderful review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and hitting that subscribe button to have access to new episodes as soon as they drop. All of our affiliate partners are hand selected to offer you only tried, tested, and true tools to give your organization the absolute best. Signing up to any of them using our code or link directly supports the podcast, and it's a great way to say thank you without any extra cost for you. Thanks for being part of the community.