(7 min read)

Sustainer giving can be hugely powerful for nonprofits.

The steady nature of a sustainer-giving program, if it's done right, can give you a solid base to build from. You can start to project your revenue on a month-to-month basis knowing that you have continued support from people who really care about what you're doing. This gives you the confidence to launch new programs and other things you wouldn’t have been brave enough to try before.

For nonprofits, this effects what you can accomplish over the long term.

Setting your goals

If you’re just starting your sustainer program, or want to build on what you already have, think about setting measurable goals.

While you want to hit yearly goals with your overall fundraising, think long-term for your sustainer program. Someone who converted their usual $100 gift in December to a $25 recurring commitment may not meet your goal for year-end, but you know that in the next year they are committed to giving you much more than their usual one-time gift.

One way to think about sustaining revenue is as a layer cake. Start small, with just one layer, and then build on those layers over time. Think about how many sustainers you want to add and how much you want or expect them to give. Then track how closely you are hitting those goals. Once you’ve created that first benchmark, you’ll have a reference to help you set the next year’s goal.

Over two to five years, as your number of sustainers grows, you will start to see your recurring revenue become more and more powerful.

If you are an EveryAction user, you can take advantage the predictive analytics in our Fundraising Optimization Guide to help you forecast outcomes for your sustainer program. This guide uses machine learning to apply the models developed by DonorTrends to predict future performance based on past donor history. Adjust your inputs to visualize different outcomes and follow the recommended action steps to start developing your program right away.

Read more about the Fundraising Optimization Guide (in EveryAction)
 

All fundraisers can also easily track progress from the Fundraising Management dashboard. You can filter the Summary section to quickly see if your Monthly Sustainer numbers are dropping or improving compared with the number you had last month, quarter, or year. This will help you gauge the effectiveness of your current campaigns and whether or not you need to pivot quickly to rectify any problems.

There is also a Monthly Giving section you can add to the dashboard that will let you see if you are meeting your revenue goals and how you are performing against last year’s totals. It will help you track any failing gifts and let you see more details on your program using Run Report.

Read more about Fundraising Management in EveryAction
Read more about Fundraising Management in NGP

Increasing monthly giving without sacrificing one-time gifts

One of the common worries fundraisers have is that focusing on more sustainer gifts will limit their success with donors who give larger one-time annual gifts. While there may be a few differences between the typical sustainer and the yearly donor, converting more donors into sustainers really comes down to your messaging and making the right ask.

Donors are guided by whatever the organization is telling them will be most helpful. If you do a good job stressing that the most effective thing a donor can do for you is to make a sustaining gift, that’s going to influence their choice. The National Audubon Society is an example of a successful organization with excellent messaging. They’ve said, “Your monthly support prepares us for every challenge and lets us plan for the future” and “Switch your gift to monthly to protect wild places all year long.”

If you couple that strong message with an amount that feels comfortable for your donors, you’re more likely to see conversions.

Getting to that comfortable dollar amount is easy with our customizable Online Actions forms. Create asks that give donors flexibility in how they want to give:

• Make the recurring commitment ask the default ask on your form. Donors will still have the flexibility to opt for a one-time gift.

• Set different amounts for each type of gift so you avoid asking too much for recurring commitments or too little for one-time gifts.

• Confirm the recurring gift option with donors before you process it by adding the Amount and Frequency merge fields to your Submit button.

• It’s also a best practice (and the default language in your form builder) to include the Recurring Frequency and Amount in your automated "thank you" to your donors.

• You probably will want to keep the Duration Options hidden to encourage donors to keep their recurring gift active for many years. There may be some special cases where you want your sustainer asks to happen during a specific time frame or to have an end date. We often see this when leading up to an event or an election day. For these donors, you may want to offer a weekly giving option that expires on a particular date.

Read more about customizing contribution forms
Read more about manually adding and editing recurring commitments

Deciding on the size of the ask

Deciding how much to ask is both an art and a science. Many organizations are still experimenting with what the right amount is for their community and for their donors. But you don’t have to make these guesses in a vacuum. You can use what you already know about your donors to start customizing your asks of them.

• Use an upsell lightbox

A great way to start is by using our Recurring Upsell Lightbox on your contribution forms. When someone selects a one-time gift amount, this popup appears and asks them to convert their gift into a recurring commitment. The suggested amount for the recurring contribution is automatically calculated as a percentage of the one-time gift amount the donor selected. This makes it much easier to make sure you are not asking for too much - or too little.
Read more about the Recurring Upsell Lightbox

• Add Smart Links

When you’re ready to go further, you can start to use the power of Smart Links in your Targeted Emails and Mobile Messaging campaigns to help you calculate suggested ask amounts based on your donor’s past giving history.

For example, you might want to suggest an amount of 10% or 25% of a donor’s Most Recent Contribution as a good place to start their recurring commitment. So, a donor who recently gave a one-time gift of $100 would see a suggested ask of $10 (10%) or $25 (25%). A donor who recently gave $250 would see $25 or $62.50.

Smart Links allow you to set up these automatic asks based on your donor’s Highest Previous Contribution or their Most Recent Contribution.
Read more about adding Smart Links in the Drag & Drop Editor
Read more about adding Smart Links in the Classic Editor
Reading more about using Smart Links in Mobile Messaging
 

• Customize the ask with query strings

Another way you can set and conditionalize ask amounts is to add query strings to the end of your form URL.

Query strings let you use what you already know about your donor to pre-fill your contribution form with personalized recurring ask amounts. They allow for more flexible customization and conditionalization of ask amounts than Smart Links, and allow you to customize ask amounts whether you’re linking to a form through a Targeted Email or not. Creating query strings is a powerful tool but will require you to understand how to build complex conditional statements using our macros and merge fields.

Example:

?recurringAm={{round_min_max(HighestPreviousContributionAmount*.25,5,10,250)}}&recurringAmtOpts={{round_min_max(HighestPreviousContributionAmount*.1,5,10,250)}},{{round_min_max(HighestPreviousContributionAmount*.15,5,10,250)}},{{round_min_max(HighestPreviousContributionAmount*.35,5,10,250)}}

Read more about query strings
Read more about using macros

• Personalize with conditional content

Finally, you can help make your case using conditional content in your Targeted Email messages. Thank your donor for the exact amount they’ve given in the past (using a merge field) and then show them how much more impact their monthly contribution could make with a customized ask based on their giving history.
Read more about conditional content

Next steps

Now that you’ve thought through your goals and launched your sustainer program using the ideas in this guide, your next challenge is to develop successful ongoing stewardship and planning campaigns that will encourage your donors to give even more.
Read our Success Guide for taking your sustainer program to the next level