On repeat: How recurring donations can inspire legacy gifts

These days, it seems as though there's a subscription for anything you need. A recent study noted that the average consumer holds approximately 4.5 entertainment streaming subscriptions alone. With the world continuing its shift toward convenient subscription options, it makes sense that your donors are happily moving in this direction as well.

In 2023, a year when revenue from one-time online giving decreased by 5 percent, revenue generated from monthly giving increased by 6 percent. In a more recent study, revenue from monthly giving outpaced revenue from one-time giving by 10 percent. Monthly giving is continuing to trend as an attractive giving option for donors. Here's why that's good news for you:

Recurring givers are committed

If you start a subscription for a new product or service, it's likely that you're pretty committed, or at least believe in the product enough to subscribe for multiple months. Monthly givers are no different. A study tracking donor trends from 2018 - 2022 showed that nonprofits had better than average retention rates for recurring givers. Indeed, if a donor starts a recurring gift, there's a pretty good chance they're bought into your mission and will be around for the long haul.

Recurring givers make it easier to plan

With one-time donors, it's difficult to know how much they'll give from one year to the next. Turbulent economic conditions, busy family lives, or flat out forgetting to give can always affect your bottom line giving totals. With recurring givers, you can often expect a similar amount month-to-month, helping you plan your short-term budgets and expected income. Indeed, 91 percent of recurring donors have their gifts set on "autopilot" by automatically charging their credit or debit cards.

Recurring givers often donate more than their regular gift

While recurring donors are already contributing a great deal to support your mission, 50 percent of recurring donors also make additional gifts throughout the year. Whether through regular communications, solicitations, or year-end gifts, recurring givers are excellent candidates for major gifts, endowment gifts, planned gifts, and legacy gifts. 

Just because a donor has set giving on autopilot, though, it doesn't mean the donor doesn't need cultivation. It's actually the opposite. How are you caring for your recurring givers and building a community of some of the most faithful, committed partners to your work? And how are you optimizing your communications and training your team to bring in new recurring givers that will be around for the long haul, especially to ultimately make major gifts and leave a gift to your organization in their estate plans?

The community foundation team is happy to help you explore ways to elevate your stewardship strategies to deepen relationships with recurring donors so that they become strong supporters for your endowment or legacy program.

This newsletter is provided for informational purposes only. It is not intended as legal, accounting, or financial planning advice. For more info, please contact Brian Reitz, Director of Agency Engagement & Endowments, at breitz@akroncf.org.