This document discusses best practices for building and optimizing monthly giving programs. It provides tips on acquiring, retaining, and engaging monthly donors through targeted messaging, personalized experiences, and automatic payment updates. Metrics for measuring program success include the average donation amount, donor retention rates over time, and revenues generated from monthly giving.

1. Miracle-Gro Your Sustainers PRESENTED BY SALLY HEAVEN, LORI BORG AND RACHEL SIMON

2. Take-away statement Sustainers Are Our Future #bbcon
2 #bbcon
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3. Stuff You’ll Learn
•Emerging trends from the latest research and campaigns.
•Online benchmark data to gauge how your program is performing.
•Key performance indicators to measure program growth.
•Best practices to acquire and retain monthly donors.
•Tools and tactics to optimize your monthly giving program.

4. Sustainers are Awesome
•Monthly donors will increase your annual income
•Convert a donor who makes two $25 gifts per year to $10 monthly giving and the annual gift increases to $120.
•Build better relationships with donors
•Monthly giving programs broaden engagement and deepen support, .e.g. prospective planned donors.
•Donors stay with your organization longer
•With CC and EFT retention rates increase compared to one time annual gifts.
•Monthly giving revenue is predictable
•Allows organizations to forecast as well as provide designated funding opportunities for donors.

5. 2014 Luminate Online Benchmark Report
~800
Non profits & affiliates
18 M
Donations
17.6 B
Emails sent
$1.27 B
In revenue
8th Edition
Report started by Vinay Bhagat, founder of Convio

6. Total Year Over Year Fundraising Growth
Trend: The median online revenue from recurring gifts of $38,456, a 16.8% increase. Recurring giving represents 8.6% of online revenue.

7. Build, Enhance, & Optimize Your Monthly Giving Program

8. Build Foundation

9. Establish the Sustainer Experience
•Sustainer programs should be branded and carry special benefits, premiums, etc.

11. Expand the Reach
Welcome series emails
eCards and Tell-a-Friend
Web 2.0 widgets
Site home page
Social media tools
Direct mail and/or phone

12. Cross-Promotion: Gift Type Parity

14. Enhance Acquisition

15. Define Sustainer Treatment
Receive specialized online communications, e.g. VIP opportunities.
Manage experience using Luminate Online’s Service Center.
Suppressed from general one-time asks (critical or extraordinary one- time appeals excepted).
End-of-year cumulative tax receipting.
Receive membership card, welcome kit, premiums.
Quarterly conference calls with Executive Director/ president.

17. Target Audience Test Framework
Target Audience
Email Approach
Donation Ask String
Stewardship Communication
Current Donors: MRC $25 to $100
Three-part email series with personalization based on previous giving history, honor/memorial geography and/or other known variables.
A/B Test: Pre-set vs. Dynamic (.5x,1x,1.5x,2x)
Sustainers giving at the $50/month or less level receive regular sustainer messaging.
Those giving at more than $50/month receive regular messaging + special one-off communications from leadership.
Current Donors: MRC $101 to $250
A/B Test: Pre-set vs.
Write-in only
Lapsed Donors: MRC $25 to $100
Pre-set:
$10,$25,$50,$100,other*
Lapsed Donors: MRC $101 to $250
Pre-set:
$15,$25,$50,$100,other*
Non-Donors
Pre-set:
$10,$25,$50,$100,other*
Advocate/Donors
A/B Test: Pre-set vs. Dynamic (.5x,1x,1.5x,2x)
* Standard values shown here can be replaced with non-regular but comparable price-point values unique to programs, etc. for testing (i.e. $11, $23, $47, $98, etc.)

18. Donor Upgrade Series
Action +7 Days
Action +14 Days
Action +21 Days
Education/ org success
Ask for support/ value-proposition
Success stories/ program impact

19. •Triggered appeal to donors who have given multiple gifts over a distinct period of time.
•Query built using engagement factors and criteria to target past giving trends and donor status.
Auto-Prospecting

20. Single Gift Upsell
Convert one-time donors to sustaining donors.
Utilized the Donations API to create a one-time gift form that presented an opportunity to convert the gift to a sustaining gift.
Over the 5 months, 10% of one-time donors converted to sustainers.

21. Optimize Retention

22. Autoresponders

23. •Triggered messages to notify sustainers of expiration date.
•Use queries and sustainer criteria to identify target groups.
•Send more specific email with instructions as to how to update credit card info.
•* The best credit card recovery emails (retailers) get ~10% response rate.
Failed Payment Notification
Pre-Exp Date
Post-Exp Date

24. And When All Else Fails, Call!

25. Gift Service Center
•Donors have the tools to be in control of their experience via the Service Center.
Donation form configuration options
Logged in view for donor

26. Advanced Credit Card Features (SDPs)

27. Retain Donors When Their Credit Cards Expire or are Lost or Stolen

28. Retain Donors
•Your sustainer’s card changes…
•Data Breach (Target, Michael’s, Sally Beauty, P.F. Chang’s, Harbor Freight Tools, Home Depot) etc.)
•Credit cards expire
•Cards are lost or stolen
•Sustainers often opt out when their card quits processing
•Automatically updates credit card data for recurring gifts

29. Retain Donors
Keep Credit Cards Up-to-Date Automatically
•Automatically update credit card data for recurring gifts
•Visa, MasterCard, and Discover cards from participating U.S. banks can be updated monthly for:
•New or replacement credit card numbers
•Expiration dates
•Updated card data is obtained securely
•Reduces time spent calling or emailing to re-establish a sustainer gift
•Blackbaud’s Credit Card Updater service is just $0.30 per updated card or $30 monthly minimum (no charge if no cards are updated)
Available to organizations using The Raiser’s Edge and Luminate Online™ with Blackbaud Merchant Services.

30. Measurement

31. Metrics
• Monthly gift amount.
• Average # of months as a sustainer.
• Median # of months as a sustainer.
• Attrition per month by reason (e.g. failed, canceled, etc)
• Typical first month churn rates.
• Typical first month churn rates.
• Other revenue a typical sustainer might provide.
• Cost of acquiring a new sustainer
• Length of payback (if through outside acquisition).
• Engagement in other areas of the organization.

32. Performance Metrics
All Metrics Shown by First Sustainer Donation Month
Oct-09
Nov-09
Dec-09
Jan-10
Feb-10
Mar-10
Average # Months as Sustainer
Median # Months as Sustainer
Average # of Sustainer Payments
Median # of Sustainer Payments
Average Lifetime Sustainer Revenue
Median Lifetime Sustainer Revenue
Average # of Online Payments
Median # of Online Payments
Average Lifetime Online Revenue
Median Lifetime Online Revenue
Total Records With Email
Total Records With Usable Email
Total Sustaining Donations
Total Sustainers
Percentage of Total File That Are Sustaining Donors
Percentage of Usable File That Are Sustaining Donors
Percentage of Sustaining Donations That are Sustainers
Number of Sustainers Who Are Advocates
Percentage of Sustainers Who Are Advocates
Total Failed Count
Total Failed Amount
Total Skipped Count
Total Skipped Amount
Total Cancelled Count
Total Canelled Amount
Report Writer  Sustainer Performance Report

34. Our Strategic Services
•Strategic planning based on landscape analysis, research, existing resources
•Comprehensive online fundraising programs
•Digital outreach strategies for supporter acquisition, cultivation and stewardship
•Constituent-centric campaign performance optimization – including segments, messaging, timing & cadence, form and conversion optimization
•Continuous program performance analysis
•Interactive design for campaigns, websites and mobile devices
•Testing and adoption of emerging industry trends
OUR CLIENTS OUTPERFORM THE ONLINE FUNDRAISING INDUSTRY BENCHMARK
We can help you build, grow, and sustain relationships with constituents – to get the most out of every interaction.

35. Selected strategic services clients
80% of the
Top 25 CHARITIES

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