Your donor base is evolving. They are younger, increasingly online, and engaged both politically and with the causes they care about. And while Millennials and Gen Z may not yet be ready to make large one-time gifts, they are highly interested in making an ongoing commitment to monthly giving programs.

Monthly donors can have a significant impact on your organization, giving at nearly twice the rate of those who give one-time gifts – but first, you need to reach them.

Here, we’ll highlight some of the benefits of modernizing your donation platform and automating monthly recurring gifts – and how Salesforce makes it simple.

Recurring Donors: A Snapshot

To understand why recurring donations are more important than ever, you need to understand who your donors are:

  • 55% of donors worldwide prefer to give online with a credit or debit card
  • 51% are enrolled in a recurring giving program
  • 45% have contributed to an online campaign benefitting an NPO

Online donations are key to attract, serve, and retain this core constituency – and these are some of the top reasons why nonprofits need to automate recurring giving.

Reason #1: Increase Donor Retention

The Nonprofit Quarterly analyzed giving records and found:

“…it typically costs nonprofits two to three times more to recruit a donor than a donor will give by way of a first donation. It can take twelve to eighteen months before a donor relationship becomes profitable.”

Donors who commit to a monthly donation are worth considerably more to your organization – up to 200% more in donor lifetime value.

That is a significant difference – one that has a real impact on your organization’s budget.

Reason #2: Improve Communication and Relationships

Donors enjoy engaging with charities and foundations, but they don’t always appreciate receiving letters and emails asking for contributions to a fundraising campaign. With recurring donations, they’ve already pledged their commitment to giving monthly.

Instead, you can focus your donor communications on the impact of your mission and let your sustaining members know how their donations have helped. Improved communications help build an ongoing relationship with your biggest supporters, and as a result, they often feel more engaged.

Reason #3: Make it Easier for Your Donors

Your donors want to give, but they don’t necessarily want to log in to your platform’s donation page regularly to submit their contributions – and they definitely don’t want to mail a check.

Collecting recurring donations can be simple and efficient, with a recurring giving system that automatically charges a set donation amount to the payment method on file. This subscription model is familiar to most people since they already pay for other monthly commitments like cable, internet, and content subscriptions this way.

Bank transfers or ACH payments are another option for automated donations. People may change credit cards often, but they tend to keep the same checking account for the long term.

Reason #4: More Stability for Your Organization

Recurring donations aren’t just preferred by donors, but they are much better for your organizational planning as well.

With traditional models (one-time gift or pledge-based), accurately projecting future donations can be challenging, if not impossible. Money that was pledged but never realized can seriously impact your budget. Recurring donation systems create consistent revenue streams, giving you a much clearer picture of current and future funding.

Reason #5: Salesforce Makes it Easy

NPOs using Salesforce have the advantage of accessing robust payment applications like Chargent for their online fundraising. In addition, Salesforce can handle everything from sending receipts, to gift acknowledgments, to donor communications, all via Salesforce email templates and the SFDC marketing automation suite.

Establishing a system for collecting recurring gifts and donations can be straightforward with the right payment solution in place. Choose a flexible solution that automates collections, streamlines communication, and fits the needs of both your organization and your donors. If you use Salesforce to manage donor relationships, Chargent lets you take payment from any Salesforce object, connect to dozens of payment gateways, set up one-time or recurring giving – and automate the entire process.

Read more on our blog about the Nonprofit’s Playbook for Recurring Giving or How to Choose the Right Salesforce Donation App – or, simply get started today!