Smart Appeals: Recurring Donors

Did you know that the expected lifetime value of recurring gifts is nearly 10x the value of one-time gifts? That's why we created Smart Appeals for Recurring Donors, a low-lift way to renew your most loyal recurring donors and capture those who just lapsed.

Pro-Tip: Establish a retention focused Recurring-Only Giving Form. Keep the content and visuals really donor-centric and help these recurring donors feel known. 

Accessing Smart Appeals for Recurring Donors

Currently, Recurring Donor Smart Appeals is enabled for Advanced Platform Partners. You can find this feature within the Online Giving Dashboard > Smart Appeals. If you do not have access and would like to use this feature, reach out to your Partner Success Manger. Note that utilizing the Data Importer is required to use Smart Appeal.

🤔 Understanding Recurring Donor Statuses

These statuses will tell you who is coming up for renewal next month, who is currently up for renewal, and then who lapses once their recurring gift has ended. Check out the FAQs below for more information on how Donor Statuses for Smart Appeals are defined.

• Upcoming: An ‘Upcoming’ recurring donor is a donor for whom the last gift installment is coming up in the next month. 
  • For example, today is January 1 and the last installment of this donor's recurring gift is set to run on February 10.
• Current: A ‘Current’ recurring donor is a donor for whom the the last gift installment is this month! 
  • For example, today is February 1 and the last installment of this donor's recurring gift is set to run on February 10.
• Lapsed: ‘A Lapsed’ recurring donor is a donor for whom the last gift installment date has passed and they didn’t renew their gift during that prior month. 
  • For example, today is March 1 and the last installment of this donor's recurring gift ran on February 10.
    

⏰ Time to solicit your Recurring Donors!

Step 1: Create Email Templates

• Head to Smart Appeals > Email Settings 
• Select Template to Create / Modify
  • Recurring Donor Upcoming
  • Recurring Donor Current
  • Recurring Donor Lapsed

• Add Email Template Copy Pro-Tip: These are the email templates – think of them as your starting place and content that’ll be helpful for most of the year. You will be able to adjust the content each month when sending your emails to reflect seasonal content, point to different giving forms, etc. For example, during the month of September you might have content that reflects nostalgia around the start of the school year and in December, you point to a special giving form that notes a Calendar Year End incentive, but you’ll start from the same base template each time.

• Define Your ‘Custom Link’ Experience: Check out the FAQs below for more information on Custom Links.
• Before you Embed Custom links into your email templates, define the link experience for each template! 
• Select which Form / Campaign it should point to
• Customize the custom link text (ex: “Give now!” or “Renew Your Recurring Gift!”)
• Decide whether to allow recurring donations to start on a future date
• Decide whether to include an auto-filled ask amount. Should that pre-filled amount be the same as their last recurring gift installment amount or scaled up by a certain percentage?

Step 2: Email Recurring Donors

Option 1 (Recommended): Email Recurring donors within GiveCampus. 

• Use the ‘Filter’ selection to determine which group(s) you’d like to email - you can choose from Donation Status, Email Status, or Recurring Frequency
• Select All or hand select the constituents you’d like to email
• Click ‘Email Selected Donors’
• Select the relevant email template.
• If you’d like to make any adjustments to make this month’s outreach feel timely and unique, you can make those edits! This will just adjust that particular month’s content (not the template itself). 
• Send yourself a test. 
• Send email!

Option 2: Export a list to solicit Recurring donors using your own email marketing tool.
Creating email templates within GiveCampus (Step 1) is not necessary if using your own email marketing tool

• Use the ‘Filter’ selection to determine which group(s) you’d like to export - you can choose from Donation Status, Email Status, or Recurring Frequency
• Select All, or hand select the constituents you’d like to export and click ‘Export Selected'
• Determine your export parameters:
  • Do you want to include a Custom Link?
  • Which form or campaign should that link point to? 
  • Do you want that link to pre-populate an ask amount? 
  • If so, should it be the same amount as their last gift or scaled up to a certain amount?
  • Export! 
  • This will give you a spreadsheet with the donor’s name, email, last gift date, last gift designation, recurring gift installment, their recurring gift donor status, and their Custom Link
    

ℹ️ FAQ's:

Are Recurring statuses only informed by gifts made on GiveCampus?
Great question. Yes! Smart Appeals for recurring giving are only powered by recurring gifts on GiveCampus. An imported constituent file in the Data Importer is required to create the Constituent Record enabling the Smart Appeal.

What is a Custom Link?
Custom links are similar to GiveCampus' Personalization functionality. They create a tailored, easy giving experience for recurring donors using the data you have about them.

• Greets the donor by name: “Hi Jane”
• Pre-populated suggested ask amount: This ask amount will be based on the gift that prompted the solicitation opportunity – their last recurring gift. 
• Allows recurring donations to start on a future date: This allows the recurring donor to set a future start date for the new recurring gift subscription so their current and future recurring gifts do not overlap! 
• Pre-Selected Designation: The designation of their last recurring gift. 
• Payer name: We’ll pre-populate the payer name and not require the donor to fill this out. This is based on the person’s name from their last recurring gift.
• Email, Country, Zip: Instead of re-asking for the person’s email, country, and zip, we’ll suppress those fields but pass through the data into your reports. This passed through data will be based on their last recurring gift.

What type of analytics will I get on email status?
Email Status will display the following status: Delivered, opened, clicked, bounced.

What do I do if I am having trouble setting up or sending Smart Appeals for Recurring Donors?
Check out this 'how-to' video resource or reach out to support@givecampus.com and we'll lend you a hand!

What if I do not see Smart Appeals for Recurring Donors enabled on my dashboard?
Great question! Currently, Recurring Donor Smart Appeals is enabled for Advanced Platform Partners. 

Want more information about Basic and Advanced Platform features?
Check out this resource guide and reach out to your Partner Success Manager for details about upgrading to the Advanced Plan!