10 Recurring Giving Mistakes Every Leader Needs to AVOID
Charity leaders are leaving millions of dollars on the table and not realizing it.
Over the past twenty years, I have worked with, spoken to, or advised thousands of nonprofit leaders. One thing I’ve learned is that each area of fundraising is a deep rabbit hole. Major gift fundraising, grants and foundations, corporate or church relations, and single-gift and recurring giving are all sophisticated disciplines in their own right, and they benefit from deep expertise gained over time.
Cumulatively, I’ve spent thousands of hours working on, studying, implementing, and speaking about recurring giving.
Today, let’s look at ten of the most common mistakes leaders make when building and growing their recurring giving programs.
Mistake 1: Not making it a priority.
The biggest mistake I see leaders make is not prioritizing sustainable giving high enough in the organization. Should recurring giving be the #1 fundraising priority for every organization? No. But if it’s not a top three priority, it will not get the attention and resources it deserves to truly accelerate growth.
Further, there is a not insignificant amount of evidence that charities that prioritize sustainer giving above all other fundraising channels tend to grow the fastest. In my research, I call this a sustainer-first mindset. I write about cultivating this mindset in Chapter 15 of my book, The Rise of Sustainable Giving.
💡 Takeaway: If recurring giving is not a top three priority, it will be difficult to get the resources and attention that are important to taking advantage of any opportunity.
Mistake 2: Focusing on acquisition when the focus should be on conversion.
Organizations are typically either acquisition-focused or conversion-focused when it comes to growing the number of recurring donors.
Acquisition-focused orgs bring new recurring donors to the organization from their first gift, while conversion-focused orgs focus on converting existing single-gift donors to recurring donors.
In my experience, a minority of organizations are wired to grow recurring giving through acquisition.
If you are focused on acquisition instead of conversion, you could be wasting significant effort and resources. Here are some clues that you should be focused on conversion: You have a solid existing donor file, a healthy source of one-time donor acquisition, opportunities to reach donors, and a sustainer offer that requires a little more understanding and commitment.
💡 Takeaway: Focusing on the wrong growth area for your organization and your sustainable giving program is a mistake. Consider whether you should focus on acquiring new sustainers or converting existing donors to recurring ones.
Mistake 3: Focusing on conversion when they should focus on acquisition.
The inverse of the previous mistake is that some organizations have an offer, program, and channels conducive to acquiring new recurring donors from their first gift.
Some clues that you should be acquisition-focused include: Your value proposition has broad appeal, is a highly visible need, offers a clear and easily understood solution, and justifies ongoing giving.
💡 Takeaway: Organizations with a visible need, broad appeal, and an easily understood solution that justifies ongoing giving should consider focusing on ways to get new recurring donors.
Mistake 4: Lumping single-gift and recurring giving programs together.
One of the most common mistakes I see is organizations treating their sustainer program as a bolt-on to their regular general donor mass fundraising program.
Today, recurring giving is far more than just a transaction type. At the organizations where recurring giving is the most robust, it’s treated as a holistic program. Further, the strategies and tactics to grow and sustain a recurring giving program differ from a single-gift program.
Ultimately, your recurring giving program should be considered in the same way your organization might have a major gifts program, a foundations and grants program, or a church relations program. It’s a distinct and valuable way for donors to engage with the organization and should receive the attention it deserves.
💡 Takeaway: Your sustainer program should be thought of internally as one of the core revenue-driving programs, alongside major gifts, single-gift mass fundraising, grants and foundations, etc.
Mistake 5: Not assigning clear responsibility.
When I am brought in to do our deep-dive Sustainable Giving Growth Assessment, one of the first questions I ask is who is responsible for growing recurring giving. If the answer is “everyone” or it’s a “shared responsibility,” then the answer is no one is responsible.
There are too many competing priorities for any program as important as recurring giving to leave it to fall between the cracks. Also, when there is a lack of ownership from someone in the team, recurring giving lacks a critical role needed to advocate for the program.
💡 Takeaway: It’s important that one person feels the weight of responsibility and accountability for growing sustainable giving, even if they have other responsibilities.
Mistake 6: Not equipping those responsible.
If an organization is wise enough to assign someone to be responsible for recurring giving, the next mistake I see is that they don’t equip the responsible individual to be successful. Each organization and each individual are unique, but there are a couple of ways this plays out:
The individual lacks expertise. They are new to the deep rabbit hole of recurring giving or maybe even new to fundraising.
The individual doesn’t have time. They have so many other responsibilities demanding their time, that they are responsible for recurring giving in name only.
The individual lacks influence. Although responsible, they lack the authority or influence to grow the program. They make recommendations but ultimately have no way of making things happen.
The individual doesn’t have resources. They don’t have the budget, people, or resources to bring in others to take advantage of opportunities to drive growth.
There are solutions to every one of these challenges that are more doable than you might think.
Lacking expertise – Getting them exposed to fundraising teaching is powerful. Subscribe to newsletters like the Wave Report, send them to a conference with a good reputation for teaching content, and invest in coaching. This is a great way to equip them and level them up. Pro tip: At Imago Consulting, we offer Sustainable Giving Growth Coaching for leaders. If you have 100-1,000+ recurring donors and are interested in details on the coaching program, contact us here. Also, consider getting them a copy of the book!
Lacking time – Time can be gained by shuffling responsibilities, either to others or by re-prioritizing recurring tasks above other areas on an individual’s plate.
Lacking influence – Influence is more nuanced – either their leader needs to provide that authority, or they need to be given more authority.
Lacking resources – Resourcing should be based on how much a priority the program is within the organization and on the ROI of growing the program.
💡 Takeaway: It is critical to equip those responsible for growing recurring giving with coaching, access to resources, capacity, and the authority to advocate for and grow the program.
Mistake 7: Burying the program.
The other day, a charity told me their recurring giving program was very important. However, when I went to their website, I couldn’t find it – not on the home page or in the main giving area of the navigation. I eventually found it on a third-level dropdown menu and discovered it was pretty much just the regular single-gift donation form, with the monthly option toggled on.
If recurring giving growth is important to you, it should be prominently featured and incorporated into every channel.
For too many nonprofits, recurring giving is all but invisible to donors. It is buried in communications or rarely mentioned. It’s not prominently displayed on the website. It gets a passing mention in new donor onboarding communications. And outside of perhaps a once-a-year effort, recurring giving doesn’t even register in donors' consciousness.
💡 Takeaway: Is recurring giving prominently featured across all channels, year-round? Are you proud of your program, or is it treated as a secondary giving option to one-time giving?
Mistake 8: Not building a program.
Many nonprofits still treat recurring giving as a checkbox – an option once a donor has decided to give a single gift.
A true sustainable giving program goes well beyond a checkbox on a website. It recognizes that a holistic program incorporates a strong offer with an ongoing value proposition, a branded identity including a name, visual identity, and clear messaging. A holistic program also includes a pricing strategy that maximizes donor value, incentives for action, program benefits, an onboarding experience, and ongoing cultivation, including upgrades and additional single-gift asks.
That might seem like a lot. That’s why resourcing your program is important!
💡 Takeaway: Recurring giving is more than a one-time ask made monthly, or a checkbox on a program. It is a holistic program that creates significant ongoing value for the organization and donors.
Mistake 9: Not growing giving from existing sustainers.
97% of the value for a sustaining donor will come in after their first recurring gift. Think about that for a moment. The vast majority of the value from your recurring donors is yet to come. If you thought about it that way, how might that impact how you treat and cultivate your recurring donors?
In The Rise of Sustainable Giving, I unpack four important ways to upgrade sustainer giving beyond additional single gifts: increasing the donation amount, increasing the payment method, increasing the mid-/major-level gift, and increasing the ultimate legacy gift.
Most of the charities I know are focused on acquiring or converting donors to recurring, but once they are on the file, they receive limited attention. If you were a business owner and knew that 97% of the sales you’d get from that customer were after their first purchase, how might that influence how you treat them?
💡 Takeaway: Most of the value you’ll unlock in your recurring donors is after the first gift – in their ongoing giving, additional single gifts, and ideally, increased gift amounts over time or “upgrades” to more reliable payment methods, larger gifts, and legacy giving.
Mistake 10: Not knowing the numbers.
When I speak at events or talk to leaders who are interested in working with us, one of the first things I always ask is two questions – how many and how much? How many active recurring donors do you have today, and how much are they giving monthly and annually?
You can’t get to where you want to go until you know where you stand today. I quote mentor and friend Bobb Biehl often. Bobb has mentored more than 5,000 executives over 50+ years. Bobb said to me once, when speaking of boards – “Dave, boards only fundamentally want to know two things – first, does leadership know what’s going on, and second, do they have a plan to do something about it?”
Do you know what’s going on in your recurring giving program?
💡 Takeaway: It’s critical to understand where you are today. In recurring giving, the four core metrics are 1) number of recurring donors, 2) how much they are giving on a monthly and annual basis, 3) what percentage of your overall giving is recurring, and 4) long-term value of recurring donors. In Chapter 20 of the book, I unpack twelve total metrics, from just starting to advanced.
I’m optimistic about the future of recurring giving. Never before in history have more charities been more able to build a strong, growing source of sustainable recurring giving.
The subscription economy paved the way, first reshaping how we consume, and has now been reshaping how we give, particularly in North America.
I wrote The Rise of Sustainable Giving to shine a light on these shifts, and help leaders everywhere grow generosity by taking advantage of the opportunity to grow recurring giving.
If you haven’t picked up a copy, you can do so directly from us at a discount (including bulk pricing) or via Amazon. Either way is fine with me!
I’ve heard many stories of folks picking up copies for their local charity leader, their pastor, clients, prospects, and colleagues. So don’t hesitate to pick up an extra copy (or 10!) and give it to someone you know would benefit.
Until next week… Surfs Up! 🌊
- Dave
About the Author | Dave Raley
Consultant, speaker, and author Dave Raley is the founder of Imago Consulting, a firm that helps nonprofits and businesses who serve nonprofits create profitable growth through sustainable innovation. He’s the author of the book The Rise of Sustainable Giving: How the Subscription Economy is Transforming Recurring Giving, and What Nonprofits Can Do to Benefit. Dave also writes a weekly innovation and leadership column called The Wave Report, and the co-founder of the Purpose & Profit Podcast — a show about the ideas at the intersection of nonprofit causes and for-profit brands. Connect with Dave on LinkedIn.
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