How to Find and Keep Recurring Donors

Listen on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, and Spotify

Summary:

During this episode of the 7-Figure Fundraising Podcast, host Trevor Bragdon speaks with Ben Greene, Chief Development Officer for Food for the Hungry, a Christian nonprofit with over $100 million in annual revenue that works to end all forms of human poverty worldwide. 

Ben has worked in fundraising and development since 2003 and first joined Food for the Hungry in 2009 as the senior director of sponsorship acquisition. Ben also has worked with the Museum of the Bible in Washington D.C., returning to Food for the Hungry in 2018 to take on his current role.

How it started

Ben studied psychology in college, but it wasn’t until his senior year that he became interested in humanitarian relief and development work. He loved the nonprofit World Vision and began working for them when he graduated. 

1:37 “My love for fundraising really started out more so with a love to help people and a want to help people, and that desire really turned later on to a love for fundraising.”

Ben shares that in 2009, he got a call from Food for the Hungry asking him to help grow their child sponsorship program. With the experience he had gained at World Vision, Ben joined Food for the Hungry and launched an artists program, which is a partnership with musicians who take a moment to talk about Food for the Hungry during their performances.

The power of monthly recurring revenue

Ben says nonprofits should make monthly recurring revenue a top priority, and he shares the following statistics about monthly recurring giving:

• Monthly recurring giving has grown 70% since 2013

• A recurring donor is twice as likely to give beyond one year than a single-gift donor

• Over the lifetime of their giving, a recurring donor gives on average four times more to your nonprofit than a single gift donor. The average recurring donor will give 42 percent more in one year than those who give one-time gifts.

Ben suggests that nonprofits provide a monthly recurring donation button on their website. He says to educate donors and prospects on the benefits and power of monthly recurring giving and to take advantage of widespread, accessible automated giving. Ben also says monthly recurring giving is a fundraising method that endures uncertain economic times.

9:22 “What I’m seeing across the [nonprofit] sector is my friends that oversee large development programs that are solely based on major donor funding start to get really nervous during these [uncertain economic] times because they realize heading into the year-end . . . it can really impact [donors’] giving. . . . (10:14) We have seen over the course of time that, in a way, monthly recurring giving can be kind of recession-proof.”

Monthly recurring giving, Ben says, further lays the foundation for sustainable giving.

Keeping donors connected to the nonprofit

Ben shares that keeping donors connected to the organization, in addition to the child they sponsor, is one of a sponsorship program’s greatest challenges. 

11:17 “When you’re looking at donor retention, the best thing you can do for the long term value of each sponsor is first to deeply engage with child. So, the child comes first. The child is who they respond to. It’s the power of one-to-one. . . .  I can’t save the world but I can do something for this one. We create that on the acquisition side.”

Ben shares that the key to donor retention is ensuring each donor understands within the first few months of giving how their gift is changing the life of the particular child they’re sponsoring. So, for the first six months of sponsorship, Food for the Hungry focuses on the donor’s relationship with the child. Then, as donors continue their sponsorship, Food for the Hungry shifts that focus toward educating donors on the organization as a whole. 

Ben says they combine communications about the organization and the child as they move forward with donors. For example, donors receive the child’s report card and an update on his or her activities and community, as well as materials on Food for the Hungry’s other projects.

13:59 “You want [donors] to stay connected. And honestly, the greatest retention tool that we have . . . [is] keep people connected, to hold onto them, is writing to their child.”

Starting a sponsorship program

Ben says starting a child sponsorship program is possible for nonprofits of many sizes, and he shares some factors to consider:

• Decide how many communities you plan to work in/sponsor.

• Determine whether your communications team can handle regular, detailed communications with all the donors about the child being sponsored, projects and the organization.

• Understand your sponsorship demographic.

• Develop a plan for acquiring donors, such as partnering with social media influencers and using their platform to share your nonprofit’s need for child sponsors.

Ben says the more donors a nonprofit has, the more donor acquisition cost will go down. He has seen monthly recurring donor acquisition outpace the return on investment on almost all other fundraising strings nonprofits puts forth.

20:12 “The great thing is that we [Food for the Hungry] know every sponsor who comes in the door is worth more than two thousand dollars to us over five years. With every sponsor that comes through the door, we know that’s going to be the long term donor value.”

For nonprofits thinking about starting a sponsorship program, Ben recommends:

• Implement a back-end program that allows donors to give via credit card or direct withdrawal

• Calculate the lifetime value of a donor

• Look at what percentage of a donor’s lifetime value is used in acquiring that donor; use that percentage to estimate future acquisition costs.

Ben says to continually improve fundraising efficiency. His nonprofit has 140,000 monthly recurring donors — and they’re still working on improving their efficiency.

25,000 donors in 18 months

Ben shares that he beat his goal of acquiring 25,000 donors for the Museum of the Bible in 18 months by actually aiming to acquire one million donors.

27:39 “We launched our ‘One Million Names’ campaign and were able pretty quickly bring on those 25,000 donors and many more.”

Though he did not reach the 1 million, Ben acquired several hundred thousand donors for the Smithsonian-quality museum. Ben says a key to acquiring so many donors so quickly was the desire to honor each of them in some way. This was an idea that stemmed from a big donor family who believed the museum was for everyone. Ben shares the fundraising itself took shape through social media, live events, partnerships with musical artists, events at the museum and across the United States, and through direct mail.

Now that he’s back at Food for the Hungry working as chief development officer, Ben says the shift into a mainly leadership role has been an adjustment.

34:43 “The challenge for me has been to be ok with giving direction, pointing us in the right direction, providing leadership, providing insight from experience . . . and settling into this idea of leading this organization and making sure that I’m seeing around every corner.”

Ben leaves listeners with two takeaways:

• There is nothing more important to a nonprofit than its staff and donors — and both must know how they fit into the nonprofit’s mission.

• Don’t rely on one stream of revenue; diversify and invest in monthly recurring donors.

For more information on Ben and Food for the Hungry, visit fh.org.

To find out how to become an expert fundraiser, visit 7figurefundraising.com.