 We're all excited for Giving Tuesday, which will be here before we know it. And here at Mighty Cause, we spend a ton of time talking about how we can help our nonprofit partners make the most of their Giving Tuesday campaign. And a topic that we haven't focused on a ton in the past is recurring giving. This is a tool set, a strategy that's really useful year-round for nonprofits. But I think it often is not connected to a standalone campaign like a Giving Tuesday campaign. So excited to have the chance to chat with you all today, give you some suggestions for how to really prioritize recurring giving as a part of your Giving Tuesday campaign to help you raise more money that day, but also set you up for better, more sustainable year-round funding for your nonprofit, which is, of course, critically important, especially small to medium-sized nonprofits. So we'll start with just a few basics on Giving Tuesday, talking about why recurring donors are so important for those small to medium-sized organizations. Make sure you're familiar with the tools available on the Mighty Cause platform that make recurring giving easy for the donors, but also for you as the nonprofit to manage your recurring supporters. And then we'll focus on really how you can build out a recurring giving campaign this year in your Giving Tuesday fundraising campaign. And then, of course, it doesn't end at the end of Giving Tuesday, once you've hopefully secured a bunch of new recurring donors, what kind of things do you need to set up and keep in place so that you can engage those sustaining donors on a year-round basis, keep them active and engaged in giving to your organization? We'll also leave some time at the end for questions, so feel free, if you do have questions, as we go throughout the presentation, type into your GoToEvanR control panel on the right-hand side of your screen, and we'll make some time to answer those questions when we get to the end. So, again, starting with just a few basics on Giving Tuesday, most of you may already know this, but just in case, want everyone to be on the same page, of course, Giving Tuesday is the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Simon Monday, and to really become a global movement around giving back. Donors are hearing about it, nonprofits are, all nonprofits really are hosting a campaign, so today is here and it's happening, so you have an opportunity to just be a part of it and make the most of it for your own organization. Mighty Cause has hosted our own event on our platform for Giving Tuesday for many years now, and it's really just our opportunity to invite nonprofits that use our platform on a year-round basis to come together in an organized event that really helps to encourage and grow Giving For Giving Tuesday. So, for our event, we do require registration, it's just a short form that gives us some information, I'll mention more in a minute, and we do open Giving early, so of course Giving Tuesday happens, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, as I already mentioned, but you can start the fun a little bit early, get your donors thinking about giving, get your donors making their donations before they even go home for Thanksgiving break before they spend their money on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, so you're able to kick off your campaign, start early giving right at November 19th. So, you may ask why should we sign up and register for Giving Tuesday on Mighty Cause, we have a donation page on our website, I hear Facebook's doing something for Giving Tuesday, and I think really kind of the key things that we like to make sure that you're all aware of is first, we do have a pricing guarantee that we put into place, that we will make sure that your nonprofit does not pay more than you would pay, in fact, you pay less than you would if you just had a PayPal donation button on your website. We give donors the option to cover the full platform and credit card fees associated with using the Mighty Cause platform, but if they don't cover those fees for you, we promise that you'll never pay more than 2.2 and 29 cents per transaction. Most non-profits actually end up paying much less, just over 1% because so many donors are very used to and happy to cover fees on your behalf, so you can be guaranteed that you will pay less than you'd pay for just a PayPal button on your website, but you get lots of great additional tools that you won't get with that peer-to-peer fundraising for individuals, peer-to-peer fundraising for groups, through teams and events, which kind of make your peer-to-peer fundraising competitive and fun, really great customizable fundraising and donation tools, you can add matching grants to your campaign, you can customize the checkout experience, set suggested donation levels, build a thank you page that donors see, you can also add a widget on your website and just like PayPal, you can put a button on your website with the Mighty Cause widget, you actually let donors stay on your website to complete that gift, take advantage of all of these great things we've already talked about, but you're not sending people off to a separate PayPal page to make their donation, so we feel like it's a really great option for your nonprofit, so hopefully you will consider it and if you're ready, if you haven't yet, definitely come to givingtuesday.mightycause.com. You'll see a big button right at the top of the page to register, again, just a short form, gives us a little bit of information about your organization, what kind of training and resources are helpful for you. One of the key things of Mighty Cause hosting this event for Giving Tuesday is that we want to make sure that we share resources and expertise wherever possible with our nonprofits, we want to help you raise more funds, that's what this webinar is all about and the more information we get from you, in terms of feedback, what you're looking for, the more we can tailor those resources to be helpful for you. All right, so now kind of getting into the meat of what we're really here to talk about today, which is recurring giving. Hopefully you already know the value of recurring donors, you may conceptually understand the importance of the value of recurring donors, but for many nonprofits, especially small nonprofits, you're going, going, going, doing 10 jobs at a time and you don't really have the opportunity to set aside time to invest in building a recurring donor campaign or a recurring donor structure within your organization. It feels like a project that's just too hard to get to, you've just got to go from one thing to the next to the next. So this is just a little reminder of why it's worth setting aside a little time to build this out. According to AFP and almost all sources that track this have similar data and results here, less than half of all new donors that you acquire will be retained and stay with your nonprofit long-term. And that means that you are spending a lot of money and effort for donors that don't stay with you long-term. And that's really donor retention is a huge missed opportunity if you will in the fundraising sector. And recurring donors or having a strategy around recurring donations is really a key way to improve your overall donor retention. It costs a lot more to get a new donor than it does to retain an existing one. And again, once you kind of get a donor into the cycle of recurring giving, they're much more likely to stay long-term for your organization. Without spending too much time here on some of the stats and the way that you can track this kind of thing, it's important when you think about the investment in building out a recurring donation strategy campaign, what have you, thinking about the lifetime value of your donors. Because of course, you might look at your Giving Tuesday campaign and think, I need to raise $10,000 on Giving Tuesday because that's my budget shortfall for the end of the year. So your goal is how to increase the size of gifts that come in on that day. And that absolutely is something that may be critical for some organizations. But when you think about recurring donors and the reason to invest in recurring donors, though they might give less on Giving Tuesday, you may walk away with less that is already in the door at that day because people tend to give smaller donation amounts, you're definitely setting yourself up for a larger lifetime value for each of those donors that signs up to become a recurring donor. And that means that overall, your average lifetime value of donors giving to your organization, that will increase. All of those things again, really good for especially small nonprofits, thinking about sustainability long-term. So just a couple of reasons why recurring donors are awesome for you as a nonprofit, they provide sustainable predictable revenue. So in a small nonprofit, you may have volunteers, you may have staff, you may have part-time staff, you certainly have recurring costs. So sustainable revenue, predictable revenue, knowing how much is gonna come in each month from these recurring donors, is going to do wonders for cash flow management and just kind of general sanity of knowing you will be able to pay the bills each month, you will be able to pay payroll. Beyond that, you're actually really starting to transition what we're one-time donors to more investors in your mission, investors in your work. These donors, because they have a deeper level of involvement and that grows over time, the more recurring donations process, they become prospects for not just being a donor but giving major gifts, bequests, getting involved as a volunteer, becoming a board of directors, whatever it might be, you're building a more engaged group of supporters in your recurring donation, your recurring donor base than your one-time donor base. For donors, there are definite benefits as well. So first, affordability. And I talked about this a little bit. You may have, if you decide to focus your Giving Tuesday campaign on recurring donors, you may at the end of the day walk away with less dollars in hand than you may have last year's Giving Tuesday campaign. That's a short-term, not a long-term problem. But the flip side from a donor is that you're asking for them to commit less upfront. It feels more affordable for them. They're not being asked to make a $250 donation which might feel like a burden or a tough decision to make. You're just asking them to give 10 bucks a month, 20 bucks a month, whatever it might be, it can feel more manageable for a donor that wants to support your work, that wants to really be invested, but might be more limited by a larger one-time gift. Again, predictability is good for the donor. They know when they get paid each month. They can choose what day of the month they want to manage their gifts. We'll talk about this more in a little bit when we get into the tools that are available on Mighty Cause, but say a donor makes their recurring donation on Giving Tuesday, that's December 3rd this year, but then they decide, you know what, I actually get paid on the 10th of each month, so I'd really rather push my donation back and I want that to process on the 15th of each month. They can easily log back into their account and change the day of the month that their donation processes. Also, recurring giving can be a little bit more fun than one-time donations. There's all kinds of great rewards and kind of recognition programs. We'll talk a little bit more in a bit, but this kind of adds more to the giving experience than just making a one-time gift cam. So now digging more into the tools that are available on Mighty Cause. Whatever platform that you're using, and we always hope that it's Mighty Cause, you have to make sure that it is really set up for your success in managing and encouraging recurring giving, but also for the donor. It has to be a really easy experience for them to use, otherwise you will either not get them to set up in the first place or you will lose them over time. So the very first thing is you have to make it really easy for a donor to give monthly. So with every donation page, check out that you see on the Mighty Cause platform. Donors have an option to give monthly versus one-time. Easy as clicking a button. Once they do that, their donation will automatically process the same date each month. We send receipts to them on a monthly basis that can log into their user account at any time to access the receipts for those and or a giving statement at the end of the year, which kind of captures and summarizes all the giving they've done year round. Of course, you as a nonprofit has great tools to see, track your recurring donors and manage the donations through a recurring report that I'll show in just a moment. But for the donor, as I mentioned, they have the ability to edit and manage their donation. This is really critical and not something that might be available on all of the platforms if you might be using a different platform right now. But on Mighty Cause, we've aimed to make it super easy for your donor to edit and manage their recurring donation. And that means they can come in and up the amount that they want to give on their recurring donation. There are certain platforms that you have to just cancel your donation entirely and remake a new one at a higher level. Always a risk when somebody has to cancel their gift. Editing the credit card information, for sure, is a key piece. If somebody's card expires, which is definitely something that happens on a regular basis with a recurring donor program, you will lose that donor unless they come in and edit their card, change the expiration date, if that's all they need to do, or just change the card that they want to use for that. So it's really easy for donors to manage that. And then finally, they can change the renewal date. So the date that it processes each month. Again, that gives them more flexibility to decide what works for them when it comes to recurring giving and puts them in the driver's seat. So all of these things make it easier for a donor to continue their recurring donation long-term with your organization. On Mighty Cause, there are email alerts set up so that we remind the donor in advance if it looks like their next recurring donation isn't gonna process because their card is expired, they need to update it, et cetera. So the system is proactive in trying to encourage them to stay ahead of it. And we have tools available for you as the nonprofit to make it easy for you to get ahead of that, manage and communicate with your recurring donors as well. So within your own Mighty Cause dashboard, you have access to a specific report that just shows you recurring donations and your recurring donors. From here, you can see when their donation was started, how much they give on a monthly basis, when their next one is set to process, so that you can be aware of that. You will also get alerts, email alerts, just like the donor does. If somebody's donation is likely to fail because they need to update their credit card, that puts you in the driver's seat to be able to proactively communicate with that donor, get them to make a change to make sure they stay active. You can also always see the status of a recurring donor in this report, if they're lapsed, if they're active, et cetera. Again, giving you the information that you need to stay on top of these donors, stay in communication with them. There is an email tool right here in this report where if you look and see John Smith has a $25 donation that's about to expire, you can click on the email icon, send an email directly to John through the platform, or you decide on a quarterly basis to do extra follow-up to anyone that might have lapsed during that quarter. Maybe you tried to reach out to them when they were lapsing, but you wanna do additional follow-up. You can always filter your report to see who has lapsed, who is no longer active, either download the report to do follow-up outside the platform, or again, use the tools we have to send an email directly through the platform. You also, through our supporters tool, which is our CRM tool that's available for our advanced subscribers, have access to additional information to really manage and understand kind of the full picture of a donor that might be giving to you. So you can track their donor history, how long have they been giving as a recurring donor, but add other information as well. As I mentioned, starting a recurring donation is really a gateway to further and better engagement over the long term. So this is your opportunity to track some of those other opportunities, some of those other interests, or potential avenues for this supporter to continue being involved. So now, hopefully, you are excited about the idea of building recurring donations into your coming Tuesday campaign and confident about the tools that are available on MightyCuz that you know it's gonna be really easy for both you and your donors to focus on recurring giving. So how do you get started building it into your campaign? The first two things here are to gather some information and use that information to set your goals. So take a look at any existing data that you might have. Do you have any recurring donors that give to your organization currently? Is this something that you've ever tried before? What kind of success have you had in the past? If you do have recurring donors, how many, what is the average gift amount for these recurring donors? Use that and kind of compare that to non-recurring donors and see how does the average gift amount change, whether they're a one-time donor versus a recurring donor? See who you might have in your donor database, in your donor list that might be good prospects in particular for a recurring donation ask. We'll talk a little bit more about the audiences that you have in a moment, but really starts with understanding your data and how have people given to your organization in the past. Next, use that information to prepare specific goals for your Giving Tuesday campaign. And I think this is really a key piece because if you don't decide that recurring giving is going to be a key focus, if not the key focus of your donation campaign for Giving Tuesday, you're not likely to see a lot of success here. For example, if you just decide it would be great if we could get more recurring donations on Giving Tuesday and you don't really set a hard goal, come up with ways that you're gonna track it, plug it into all of your messaging, use that as a guide as you define your different segments for communication, you're not gonna likely move the needle in terms of getting new recurring donors signed up. People really need to be prompted and asked if they're going to sign up in this way. So depending on your data and kind of where you've been, set a reasonable goal for what you can really do and what you can hope for in terms of engaging recurring donors as a part of your Giving Tuesday campaign. Next, we'll talk a little bit more about these last two here as we continue, but of course defining your audiences, looking at the different lists of donors, supporters that you might have at your disposal and think about how you should segment and break them up so that your message can be most effective and then really finalize that message, figure out what you're gonna do in terms of presenting the ask, offering rewards, et cetera, that really make it an appealing call to become a monthly donor. All of those things together will set you up for more likelihood to secure new recurring donors this year. So first, creating these key segments. So every single nonprofit will have some kind of a different breakdown here in terms of what segments really make most sense for you, but every nonprofit should have multiple segments that they can break their overall donor list into to be more successful. So first, look at people that have given more than once over their lifetime to your organization. Somebody that has already given maybe multiple years in a row or maybe they've given more than once in a specific year, those are really good candidates for a recurring donation ask because they've already shown some level of interest which makes you think they might be interested in that repeat process. Next would be looking at donors who've made a large annual gift. The beauty of recurring donations, donors can give a really small amount at a time and it really adds up throughout the year. So for those that have given a large amount, this is a new way to ask them to get involved. Again, better because even though you might get the same amount from them at the end of each year, it's a more predictable coming in on a monthly basis and then you have the ability to kind of move them up the ladder, increase their giving in this way. Existing recurring donors. This is definitely a list to consider if you do have donors that are already given to you on a recurring basis. Of course, you wanna be super careful with how you communicate to these donors. You wanna make sure that you already are recognizing them for this really amazing support that they've given to your organization over the years but it's a great opportunity to consider them to give them the opportunity to ask them to bump up their recurring gift. Maybe they've been giving $15 a month for the last year or two. Why not see if you can bump them up to $20 or $25 a month? Lastly, include plans for volunteers and staff members. You may think, oh, volunteers do enough. Staff members work hard enough. We can't ask them to give on a monthly basis. First, you certainly can still ask them. Oftentimes, your volunteers and staff members are people that are most committed to your mission so they really understand why it's important. They may have smaller amounts that they're willing to give so adjust your ask appropriately so it is asking for a smaller amount. But even if you're not asking them directly, think about how you can bring them into your process, help you spread the word about what you're really attempting to do with this year's campaign. Get them on your team for recruiting new recurring donors. So I've mentioned rewards a bit in the past and this is something that can really help to set recurring giving apart from just a standard one-time gift. And of course, many times, donors are not making their gift just because of or solely because of the rewards package. Many of your recurring donors will make their donation because they believe in your mission. They support your organization. So it's important not to think that, oh, you have to have this really incredible rewards package if you want people to sign up at this level and you certainly always wanna keep cost in mind. So it's not worth building out a package that costs a lot of money and will take away from the value of their gift. But just a little something, a sticker, a tote bag, whatever it might be, packaged and presented in a fun way that it makes them feel like they're being recognized. It makes them feel like they're being appreciated for their special gift. This time of year, some kind of a holiday card is a really great thing to consider as a part of your reward package. But beyond tangible rewards like a postcard or a sticker or a tote bag, think about other ways that you can create value for your donors. Label them as part of a specific club or tier, your monthly champions club, whatever it might be, that is language that makes sense for your organization, even just giving them a special name kind of elevates their status and that doesn't cost you anything. Create a recurring donor newsletter that you share on a monthly or quarterly basis that provides customized content for this group of people that have shown that they're interested and invested in seeing your organization be successful. Go beyond just a traditional thank you, maybe think of extra special ways that you can do that, whether it's a personal phone call from your executive director, handwritten letter from your board member, some kind of fun creative way video, perhaps from the constituents, the people or the communities that you serve. Give them insider access to things that you've got going on at the organization, whether it's just an invite for a private tour of one of your facilities or early access to buy a ticket to one of your events, maybe a discounted ticket to one of your events and especially if this is one of the first times that you're really kind of digging into a tool or to a recurring donation strategy, consider creating a welcome or onboarding packet for these donors, just like you wanna do with a first-time donor making a one-time donation. It's really important to properly welcome these donors into this new experience, recognize them for the commitment that they're making, but also give them the information, give them that validation and the reinforcement that they've made a really good decision by giving to you on a monthly basis. So once you've kind of identified maybe what that reward package may look like, again, tangible or not, it's time to kind of build that into your campaign messaging. So first and foremost, as I mentioned earlier, you really need to commit to this focus for your campaign and lead with the ask of setting up a monthly donation. So your ask for, you know, throughout your GivingTuesday campaign really has to be focused on recurring giving, make a recurring donation, set up a monthly donation, really build that as the core of your messaging so that donors know what you're asking of them. Also, it's a great, it can be a great additional source of information to let them know why recurring donations matter. So especially if you are a small nonprofit, you know, run and buy your bootstraps and just doing whatever you need to have the most impact that you can on a monthly basis, helping donors understand why their recurring gift matters, why it matters differently than a one-time donation can be helpful in them really considering this option. Make sure the amount that you're asking for makes sense. As we've talked about a little bit, it's likely gonna be smaller than your traditional ask. So take that into account. You don't wanna scare somebody off by asking for too much and then asking them to make that gift on a monthly basis. But it's also important to look at your donor's previous giving history. This is something you can do partially with some of that segmentation that we talked about before. And don't ask every single donor in your list to give the same amount on a monthly basis. If you have somebody that's given $100 in the past year versus somebody that gave $500 in the past year, you'll want to ask for a different monthly gift amount for each of those people. Based on what they've shown you, they're willing and able to contribute on an annual basis. And something that can be really helpful with monthly giving in particular because the donor has to be willing to let their card be charged on a monthly basis, you have to make it feel like an easy decision for them. So to connect it to something that they can relate to, a cup of coffee is probably one of the most common ones that you'll see used, but there's all types of things that you can do to really kind of downplay the amount. You're asking for a small sacrifice from them on a daily basis, on a weekly basis, on a monthly basis, whatever it might be. Your monthly Netflix account or et cetera, something that your donors will respond to, make it easy to feel like it's a easy decision to commit to that gift, but also think about it in terms of your mission. So just like we encourage with one-time donations, using the suggested donation levels that you have access to in setting up your checkout page, do the same thing with recurring donations. Help a donor understand what $5 a month actually means for your organization. They may feel like, oh, I could do a recurring gift, but a $10 a month, it can't really do that much for them. So maybe I shouldn't bother and I'll just give a one-time $50 gift. That feels like it might make more of an impact. So helping them understand the value of the impact of that monthly gift at whatever those key donation amounts are can really help to make that decision-making process easier for your donors. One thing that you can do to kind of help beef up this year's Giving Tuesday campaign is host an event kind of to supplement your online efforts for your campaign. It's important. Well, each on-profit is different and you may find that your event is gonna be the centerpiece of your campaign and that's great. But if it's not and you're just looking to supplement your efforts, then you'll wanna keep the event low-key and low-cost. So don't spend so much time focusing on hosting a live event that you forget to build out a really strong email strategy and at the end of the day, you'll walk away with higher cost and less funds. So think of something easy like a happy hour that you can organize at a local restaurant and open house at your facility, something like that. And then at the event, you can use that opportunity to make a direct appeal. Again, all those same things that are going into that message that we were just talking about in your emails on your donation page about making it feel like an easy ask on a monthly basis, including information on why recurring giving matters. You'll have a captain audience in person at this event to make that direct appeal. Having giving stations available at the event where people can just take action, sign up and start their monthly gift right away. Even taking advantage of a text to give, another tool that we have available for our advanced subscribers, create a text to give keyword, all the people that are there in person at the event can text, that will give them, they'll get a text in response that they can click on the link and jump right in to the process of making a donation to your organization. And finally, when you do an in-person event, it gives you a little bit more of an opportunity to create some kind of fun visual display to show monthly giving. So I've seen it done in all kinds of different ways, but just something that kind of represents and gets the donors and supporters in person at this event excited about seeing the impact of what they're really doing when they sign up to give on a monthly basis. So as I mentioned at the beginning, giving Tuesday is not the end. Once you get somebody to sign up for a recurring gift, you have just as much, if not more of a role, a reason to follow up and stay connected with them on a year-round basis. So first and foremost is, of course, gratitude and thanks, above and beyond your traditional one-time donors. It's important that you find really great ways to thank these recurring donors all year-round, not just once when they sign up for their recurring donation, but make them feel appreciated all year-round, whether that's on your website, at events, recognizing them in regular newsletters and communications, putting them in your annual report, et cetera. If you have a system like the Mighty Cause supporters tool, you have the ability to keep track of donor preferences. So having a survey that you do throughout the year, or just taking notes as you have interaction with these recurring donors, understanding what appeals to them in terms of recognition and gratitude, et cetera, you can track that kind of information, keep it available in your CRM tool, and be smarter about the way that you engage those donors and express your gratitude year-round. But in general, even more so than you wanna do with your regular list of donors, you wanna build a sense of community between these recurring donors. You wanna make them feel like they're a part of something special. That's going to encourage them to continue and really see the value in what they're doing. So maybe have special events that are only available to recurring donors. You can consider starting a Facebook group. We already talked about some kind of separate recurring donor newsletter, creating special dedicated space for them at events, or even just a reception, a monthly donor reception that you have at the beginning of an event before you kick off the rest of it. Again, just finding ways to create opportunities that make these donors feel special, make them feel valued for the commitment that they're giving to your organization. And really at the core of all of that is staying in touch. I think we're often worried about sending too many emails, bothering our donors, but especially for donors that have made the commitment to give on a monthly basis, you absolutely want to communicate with them on a very regular basis, keeping them in the loop about everything that you would tell your traditional list of supporters. But again, what extra information might they be interested in knowing about because they've shown this deeper level of interest in your organization, giving them early notice about events and things that you've gotten going on. Have some kind of a regular system to check in with these donors. That doesn't mean you need to call them every single month, but find some ways to have a more regular personal check-in, keep them on track, get feedback from them, share information about what's going on with your impact and your programming. Get to know these donors so that you can again, build better, stronger, long-term relationships with them. And as we talked about a little bit earlier, stay on top of their gift. Understand when they might be going to expire. Understand when might be a great time to ask them to increase their gift amount, et cetera. And with that, we've covered hopefully a good bit of information that gets you excited about recurring giving and some tools that you can use to start building it into this year's campaign. So I will take a look and see if we've got any questions that have come in so far. Looks like no questions as of yet. So with that, I'll go ahead and give everyone a couple of minutes back in their day. If you do have any questions that you think of after you hop off today's webinar or as you're trying to plan for how to build in recurring giving to your Giving Tuesday campaign, please feel free to email us at supportatmlydiecause.com. We look forward to helping you out and good luck with your Giving Tuesday campaign. Thanks so much.