Recurring giving can be a fantastic way to acquire new donors -- lowering the entry point for your community to give back, increasing the value of their overall contribution, and creating easy, natural habits for your donors that will turn them into proud, life-long givers.
Getting your donors to sign up for their first recurring gift can be a challenge, but there are easy, lightweight ways to optimize your forms and encourage that behavior!
Here are a few easy tweaks to make to your Giving Forms and Campaigns:
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Update your recurring gift label: The default for the recurring gift check box is 'Make this gift Recurring.' Consider updating this to something that feels more branded for your school or reiterates the larger impact they'll make with a recurring gift. Here are some ideas:
- Support our students year round with a monthly gift.
- Join the Sustainer Society
- Make a larger impact with a recurring donation.
- Offer Recurring Gift Suggested Giving Amounts: In addition to suggested gift amounts for one time gifts, consider also offering a range of recurring gift suggested ask amounts. Including the words 'per month' or 'per year' in the recurring gift labels will help clarify for donors what they are choosing, and any of these recurring suggested asks amounts will automatically check the box to opt the donor into a recurring gift.
- Offer Indefinite or Indefinite as the ONLY recurring gift option: When the only option is to make an indefinite gift, that will remove one choice that they need to to make! And with GiveCampus' auto-card updater, and the ability for donors to easily update their recurring gift, these donors can set it and forget it, keep that running in perpetuity, and even upgrade that gift later on!
- Don't Forget to Market this Option! Setting your forms up to encourage this behavior is a really important step. But we also recommend being more explicit in your communication about recurring gifts as an option. Mentioning this as an easy option in your email marketing (maybe with a really explicit ask for a recurring gift for your younger and loyal donors) is a good way to go, but also be sure to reiterate that on your campaign page -- both in your 'Form Text' and your 'About Section'!
- Incentivize: You can also offer recurring gift incentives! Provide something special to your donors who set up a recurring gift. For example, donors will get free registration to their next homecoming if they set up an indefinite recurring gift, or will get a pack of post-cards with student artwork if they set up a 3 year recurring gift, or they will get a social media shout out for setting up a 2 year recurring gift. Have fun with it, and remember they don't have to cost you and your team any money in order for them to be effective! Lightweight and experiential stewardship is often free and can go a long way for your donors.
- (Social Fundraising Only) Recurring Gift Match/Challenge: For Social Fundraising campaigns, donors now have the option to restrict their matching gifts or challenge gifts to donors who set up recurring gifts. This option is available both in the Match/Challenge form that donors see, as well as within the Offline Gifts section for admins who are setting up offline matches or challenge on behalf of donors.
- Update Donor Notification Emails: You can customize the emails that are sent for donors who set up a recurring gift, when that recurring gift is updated, when a card fails or the gift comes to an end. Be sure to customize these for your branding and provide links for the donor to update or modify their recurring gift. This is a great way to encourage upgrades and steward donors throughout the lifetime of their recurring gift.
Have questions about leveraging any of these tools? Reach out to support@givecampus.com.