How to Start a Monthly Giving Program: The Clarity You Need to Finally Do It

You’ve already heard the buzz: It’s crucial for your nonprofit to have a monthly giving program—not only is it an essential component of your strategy, but it also delivers impressive results.

But where in the world do you start? You and your team already have plenty of work on your plate.

I’m going to cut the fluff and get right to the point: Starting a new giving strategy is a lot of work, but doesn’t have to be complex.

With the right foundation, you’ll get your program started with long-term growth in mind.

Here’s what’s in this 6-phase playbook:

1. What you need in place FIRST to start a program for monthly donors
2. Creating your fundraising campaign “product” or “offer” for donors
3. Choosing monthly donor levels and impact
4. Developing a program brand and incentives to create community with recurring donors
5. Securing the right tools to create a successful monthly giving program from the ground up
6. Acquiring your first monthly givers

📝 Important note: This article is completely free of affiliate links. I do mention 4aGoodCause and its benefits, which is our easy-to-use monthly giving software, but the insights shared here come freely from my 25+ years of hard-won experience working with nonprofits.

Phase 1: 5 things you need in place FIRST to start a monthly giving program

It’s easy to assume that you start a monthly giving program by just… jumping in and asking your donor base for recurring donations.

But when I’m helping a client start or grow their monthly giving program, there are a few things I make sure they have in place first to ensure they start off this new fundraising strategy on the right foot:

1. Get leadership and board buy-in.
2. Set up tools to manage payments.
3. Choose a dedicated member of your team to lead the program.
4. Analyze your existing donor’s journey.
5. Set measurable-yet-attainable goals

1. Get leadership and board buy-in

Make monthly giving campaigns a “thing”. If you’re going to test out this type of donation program, you won’t see meaningful results if you commit for 6 months and then let it slide off the list of priorities.

Every member of your team—including your board—should embrace a “recurring-first” mindset for giving.

And that could mean reducing time spent on other fundraisers in the first year of building your monthly donor program.

However, there are plenty of benefits of monthly giving.

This can be a challenging case to make at first, but we created a free guide with a slide deck and list of talking points to help.

Get it here: Why Have a Monthly Giving Program

2. Set up the systems to manage all those payments

You need to set up your tools and systems: Ensure your donation forms, donor database (CRM), and payment processing systems can handle recurring gifts efficiently.

If you’re using multiple spreadsheet-based systems or tools that aren’t designed to optimize recurring giving, things can get messy. I’ll talk about this more below.

3. Choose a dedicated member of your team to lead the program

Who will be your nonprofit organization’s point person to start and grow the program?

How will work be divided among your group?

Select one person to get your monthly program initiative off the ground and record and monitor new processes.

4. Analyze your existing donor’s journey

Review how you currently acquire your donors, what current donation options they have, and how they first heard about you.

Talk to your most loyal supporters and new one-time donors. Think through questions like:

• What made them initially decide to give a one-time gift?
• What was the reason they gave a second time?
• What does it take for a potential donor to become an actual donor or regular supporter?
• What needs to change about that process or experience to encourage monthly donations?

5. Set measurable yet attainable goals

Setting benchmarks ahead of starting your program will keep you on track.

Monitoring your progress toward your monthly gift goals will help you know what’s working—and what isn’t.

Review the results of your efforts with your team at the predetermined benchmark periods and adjust as needed.

📚 Learn more: How to Set Fundraising Goals That Will Grow Your Nonprofit

Once you’ve prepped your team and board to install a recurring giving strategy, it’s time to work through the rest of this playbook.

💡Did you know? North American nonprofits generated 2.4X more revenue through recurring givers than single gift donors in 2023. (Source: 2024 Recurring Giving Benchmark Report.)

Phase 2: Create your monthly giving fundraising campaign “product”

Now that you’ve set the foundation for a monthly giving program, it’s time to design your fundraising campaign “product”—the offer you present to potential monthly donors.

Essentially, Phase 2 is where you make progress on your brand-new giving option, drawing on insights from conversations with your long-time and loyal donors.

Here, you’re going to:

• Define your offer
• Identify your target donor

This phase is about crafting a compelling package that makes regular giving both appealing and impactful.

Define Your Offer

Your “product” isn’t a physical item, of course, but rather a value proposition that explains what monthly giving means for both your donor and your organization.

Your monthly donors might support a specific cause, need, or initiative—or they might provide ongoing support for your entire organization.

Or it could be both. You get to choose.

Here’s how you define your offer, step by step

1. Clarify your goal: Determine what your nonprofit aims to achieve with monthly giving.
2. Identify your core need(s): Decide whether the program will fund a specific program or your general operations.
3. Craft a clear value proposition: Explain why the monthly donations matter, how they’ll create impact, and what sets your program apart.
4. Define recurring donor benefits – Brainstorm perks (e.g., exclusive updates, impact reports, donor recognition) that will set your monthly giving program apart from one-time donations.
5. Test the offer: Share your offer with a small group of core donors or volunteers for feedback before moving forward.

Let’s go through an example together

Let’s say you’re the Director of Development at the Bruce Wayne Bat Sanctuary, a philanthropic organization that was (fictionally) developed to help study and protect bats in Gotham City.

For years, you’ve been hosting fundraising events—including fun-runs and galas—and soliciting one-time donations from social media, direct mail, and email marketing outreach campaigns.

You have raised significant amounts of money but your organization has struggled with donor retention, constantly chasing new donors to replace those who don’t return.

This approach has taken a toll on your staff, leading to burnout from the relentless effort required to sustain one-time contributions.

Your organization plans to expand its satellite research facilities, eventually reaching all 50 states, and seeks a more sustainable way to fund these efforts.

You take time to define your offer, meaning you and your team clearly articulate the value and impact of your monthly giving program.

This involves detailing what donors may receive—like exclusive updates, tangible outcomes from their contributions, and flexible giving levels—to ensure they understand the direct benefits of their ongoing support.

This “offer” may be different from how you solicit one-time or annual gifts.

After a brainstorming session with your team, you decide on the following:

The Bruce Wayne Bat Sanctuary will launch a monthly giving program that directly supports ongoing efforts to research and rehabilitate bat populations across North America, which will allow us to set up research hubs within local nature conservancies in all 50 states to support and protect the bat population nationwide.

Here’s how you got there:

1. Clarify your goal: You determined what exactly your nonprofit aims to achieve with a monthly giving program: Researching and rehabilitating bats outside of Gotham City and across the U.S.
2. Identify your core need: Your team decided to focus the monthly giving program specifically on research expansion.
3. Craft a clear value proposition: You explained why the monthly donations matter. They “support and protect the bat population nationwide” by partnering with existing nature conservancies.
4. Define recurring donor benefits: You plan on offering your recurring givers exclusive updates about the tangible outcomes from their contributions, which will set your monthly giving program apart from one-time donations. (You’ll dig into the specifics later on.)
5. Test the offer: Before you move forward, you talked to your top 10 annual givers of different giving levels. You also asked for feedback from your 20 most dedicated volunteers. The response was overwhelmingly positive, with some volunteers emphasizing their excitement over sharing more about their work with their friends and family.

Identify Your Target Donor

The next step in Phase 2 is to pinpoint who your ideal monthly donor is.

Understanding your donor base will help you tailor your offer. Any initial donor research and interviews you completed will come in handy during this part of your work.

Here’s how you identify your target donor, step by step:

1. Review your existing donor data: Look at past donation patterns to identify supporters who have given consistently or who have expressed ongoing interest in your mission.
2. Segment your audience: Consider the demographics, giving history, and engagement levels of your donor base and how these characteristics relate to one another. What is the largest age bracket of your audience? How often do donors attend events? Are most of your prospective donors likely to be first-time donors who might appreciate an easy entry point—or will they likely be long-time supporters ready to make a more significant commitment? (If you’re a 4aGoodCause client, you can use the tagging features to easily segment past donors while you research.)
3. Tailor your messaging: Once you know who you’re targeting, you can communicate your program in a way that connects with your audience. Customize your campaign messaging to speak directly to their interests and values. And make sure to use language that emphasizes how their ongoing support will make a difference.

Let’s go through an example together

🦇Back to the Bruce Wayne Bat Sanctuary.

First, you reviewed your existing donor data, and noticed the following patterns:

• Most new donors over the last 5 years were acquired at the gala through an invite from a friend or colleague.
• These donors were likely to give over $250 in a one-time gift on top of their event ticket costs.
• Out of these new one-time givers, only 35% gave again the following year.

Next, you segmented your audience and were able to clearly see that the majority of your donors:

• Were in the 45-65 age demographic
• Fell into upper-middle to upper-class income brackets
• Give to other animal- and nature-conservation causes, according to an anonymous donor survey you conducted last year

This data suggests event attendees as a logical target monthly donor and the typical higher retention rates of recurring givers (as high as 90%) as a possible solution to current donor churn.

Doing this work in Phase 2 ensures that your fundraising “product” resonates with your audience of future program participants, setting the stage for healthy, long-term donor engagement and sustainable revenue.

After this work, you’re well on your way to launching a successful monthly giving campaign.

Phase 3: Select monthly contribution levels

In this phase of your playbook, you’ll create a clear and compelling structure for monthly contributions that communicates the direct impact of each giving level.

Start by outlining specific outcomes for each giving level—detail what a $10, $25, $35, $50, and $100 monthly gift might support, whether it’s providing crucial supplies for a program or helping a certain number of beneficiaries in your community.

You could create offers for all 5 giving levels mentioned above—or just a few. Some charities build just one core offer, like the Wounded Warrior Project at $19 per month.

Whatever you choose, by connecting each donation amount with a tangible result, you help donors understand (and get excited about) the real-world difference their recurring support makes.

📚 Learn more: Check out some of the best monthly giving program examples we could find for inspiration.

In this phase, you will need to:

• Outline clear impact: Explain exactly how recurring gifts will support your mission. For example, outline what a $10 monthly gift can accomplish in terms of services, programs, or financial support needs. 4aGoodCause makes it easy to add impact statements like these on your donation forms.
• Create flexible gift amount options: Offer various giving levels so donors can choose an amount that aligns with their budget, making the commitment less intimidating. Make sure to include a custom, flexible recurring gift amount option, too. And consider offering one-time suggested donation amounts for special causes.

Here’s how you plan out your monthly contribution levels, step by step

1. Choose 3 to 5 giving levels to feature on your campaign page. Decide where you’ll start your lowest monthly giving level based on your donor base research.
2. Map a tangible result to each giving level. These impact statements or giving outcomes should be real and clearly demonstrate the financial benefits of each gift.
3. Include an open, flexible option on your donation page. Every budget is different. Allowing donors to choose a custom amount puts them in the driver’s seat.

Let’s try this out

🦇 Over at the Bruce Wayne Bat Sanctuary, you realized in Phase 2 that the majority of your donor audience are higher income and comfortable with giving larger gifts.

Based on this information, you design your giving levels to include:

• $25 per month, which provides testing and monitoring for 3 bats in rehabilitation
• $50 per month, which provides testing and monitoring for 10 bats in rehabilitation
• $75 per month, which provides testing and monitoring for 20 bats in rehabilitation
• $100 per month, which provides testing and monitoring for 50 bats in rehabilitation
• Other, which allows your donor to self-select an amount that feels best

Phase 4: Develop a program brand

Here comes the fun part!

In this phase, you’re going to customize and incentivize your brand-new recurring stewardship option.

Customize: Create a program brand that resonates

Developing a strong program brand is key to setting your monthly giving program apart from your one-time donations. You need to establish clear branding to distinguish it from one-time giving.

A distinct brand creates a recognizable identity that not only highlights the unique value of recurring support but also fosters a sense of community among your donors.

I highly advise my clients to create a unique program name, one that makes the community feel special for monthly givers.

Why?

Well, by establishing a brand for your program, you’re signaling to donors that their commitment is part of a larger, ongoing mission—one that directly impacts the sustainability of your organization’s overall goals.

But don’t overthink this step too much. A unique name is important, but you shouldn’t spend months trying to come up with one. It should take you less than a week.

Love real-life program examples? So do I!

Check out Foothills Animal Shelter, one of our 4aGoodCause clients, and their PAW Member program, which is their branded recurring giving program.

Here’s how you create a name that resonates

1. Consider your audience. Think about your donors and what kind of name would make them feel special and connected. Is your mission or audience fun, lighthearted, and youthful? If so, don’t be afraid to get creative.
2. Brainstorm keywords. List words related to your mission, impact, community, or donor involvement.
3. Look at other examples. Research successful nonprofit programs for inspiration and naming patterns.
4. Keep it simple and memorable. Aim for a name that’s easy to say, spell, and recall.
5. Make it exclusive. Use words that give donors a sense of belonging (for example: circle, club, society, or alliance).
6. Test a few options. Narrow it down to 2-3 names and get feedback from staff, donors, or board members.
7. Check availability. Ensure the name isn’t widely used by another nonprofit and that a matching domain or social handle is available if needed.

Then, don’t overthink it—pick your strongest option and move forward!

🦇Here’s a quick example using Bruce Wayne’s Bat Sanctuary:

This organization attracts many of the high-society animal conservationists in Gotham City and beyond. Donors care about preserving nature. Groups of bats are called colonies, and the word guardian resonates with the purpose of the program and its founder, Bruce Wayne.

After brainstorming as a team, you come up with a few options: Bat Conservation Guild, Bat Guardians Colony and The Colony. After feedback from a group of volunteers, you decide on The Colony, as Bat Conservation Guild is too similar to another organization and you love the short, catchy title.

You like possible marketing taglines of “Join the Colony” and “I’m a member of the Colony” to build community among the donors.

Incentivize: Your current monthly donors should feel part of something special

Enhance your monthly program’s appeal by incorporating exclusive perks into your offer.

Let prospective monthly donors know what’s in it for them.

And no, this doesn’t mean you have to send them merch on a regular basis. But merch does have the ability to share your brand and make donors feel a part of an exclusive community.

(Just don’t spend too much on swag! A simple thank-you gift will do the trick.)

Consider providing your recurring givers things like:

• Personalized impact reports
• Behind-the-scenes insights into the work your team does
• First priority for event ticket selections
• Special acknowledgments that honor new monthly donors or donors that reach certain milestones
• A personal thank-you phone call from the CEO or one of your board members when they upgrade to the next level of recurring giving

Even exclusive content incentives can be a lot of work, but creating templates and processes can help make this work sustainable for your team long-term.

When you offer incentives, you show appreciation to your monthly program donors and offer proof of how their contributions are making a difference.

These incentives let them know they’re integral members of a dedicated community—not just another bank account.

And we all know that engaged donors increase those higher retention rates!

💡Did you know? In 2023, the average retention rate for recurring donors was 83.6% compared to just 45.2% for single gift donors. (Source: 2024 Recurring Giving Benchmark Report.)

Phase 5: Optimize your systems to accept monthly donations

You’ve almost made it to the final phase: Way to go!

Phase 5 is all about securing the right tools and processes to create a successful monthly giving program from the ground up.

Start by integrating a robust tech stack that seamlessly connects:

• Your website
• Donation pages
• Donor management systems, and
• Secure payment processors that store debit and credit card data.

4aGoodCause’s dedicated Monthly Giving Toolkit can take care of your program from start to finish.

It helps your nonprofit grow and keep loyal supporters with easy, mobile-friendly donation options. Donors can manage their gifts hassle-free, while automated thank-yous and reminders keep everything running smoothly.

With the right systems in place, you can automatically process payments, send email receipts, and track donor data. That way, you can easily and accurately understand your monthly donors’ lifetime value, donor retention rates, and more.

Something to keep in mind: Developing a clear, repeatable process for welcoming and thanking your new donors is vital.

A warm, automated thank-you sequence—ranging from immediate acknowledgment emails to personalized follow-ups—helps reinforce the value of their support and fosters a deeper connection.

(If you’re a 4aGoodCause client, you can easily integrate with MailChimp to support your email marketing and communication efforts. Learn how.)

By getting your systems right and ensuring that every donor feels appreciated from day one, you’re laying the groundwork for sustained donor retention and program success.

📈Not every fundraising tool is created equal. Learn how 4aGoodCause can help you start and grow a recurring giving program that can help your team move mountains. Book a demo today.

Phase 6: Acquire your first monthly donors

Once you’re organized and ready to go, you’re now ready to launch your program.

It’s time to acquire your first monthly donors. You can get the full details in my Monthly Giving 101 webinar, but I’ll hit the high notes here.

1. Discover: Identify 25 top prospects who are deeply committed to your mission. They can be donors, volunteers, and past or current board members (go back to your target donor research).
2. Invite: Personally invite this group to be the exclusive “founders” of your monthly giving program.
3. Honor: Celebrate their commitment with special recognition for being a founder in the program.
4. Begin: Launch with your founder group and ensure systems and software run smoothly before your full launch.
5. Refine: After 2–3 months, solicit testimonials from the founders to include in your promotional materials for your broad launch.

Let’s wrap up our fictional example

🦇For a moment, let’s go back to our Bruce Wayne Bat Sanctuary example.

In Phases 1 and 2, you interviewed your donor base, outlined your offer, and reviewed your past donor data.

You discovered that the majority of your donors:

• Were in the 45-65 age demographic
• Fell into upper-middle to upper-income brackets
• Heard about your organization through a friend or colleague
• Are likely to attend the yearly gala
• Give to at least one other nature- or animal-related cause
• Gave one-time gifts of $250 or more on average, usually in December
• Donated through online fundraising after attending a live fundraising event, especially your recurring annual donors

After you gathered that knowledge, you completed Phases 3, 4, and 5.

Based on your research gathered in Phase 1 and 2, you decided to:

• Start your lowest-level recurring giving options at four levels of impact: $25, $50, $75, and $100 per month
• Offer a customized giving level, where supporters could select their own “pricing”
• Brand your program “The Colony,” to connect with your target group’s interest in supporting nature- and animal-related causes
• Launch your program at this year’s gala, which is highly attended by one-time donors
• Incentivize recurring givers by offering exclusive updates on bat research on a monthly basis
• Incentivize longevity by offering your monthly donors a chance to name a bat at their giving anniversary each year
• Develop automatic email-ask templates that invite members to increase their giving to the next level after 18 months of membership

Good job, Bruce Wayne Bat Sanctuary team! Go you!

Fictional examples aside, you now have the complete 6-phase playbook to start your monthly giving program—and you’re ready to take action.

Next up, you may be wondering how to acquire new monthly donors for your new program after your initial launch, and we’ll be digging into how to grow a monthly giving program and acquire new donors in Part 3 of this guided series.

Set yourself up for fundraising success with 4aGoodCause

If you take the time to lay a strong foundation, you’ll build a monthly giving program blueprint that can transform your fundraising efforts.

Ready to put this playbook into practice?

Whether you’re a seasoned nonprofit or just starting out, get in touch to learn how 4aGoodCause’s monthly giving software can help you do more good—even if you have a team that’s on the small side.

Let’s make healthy, recurring support a reality for your organization—together.

Some more helpful resources

• Looking to grow your monthly giving program donor base? Check out our guide to acquiring more monthly donors.
• Here’s a guide about how monthly giving programs offer long-term sustainability, boosting your nonprofit’s impact and ensuring future financial stability.
• Learn how to craft an incredible monthly giving program offer here.
• Could you exceed yearly fundraising goals with monthly giving? Yes! Learn how to earn more with monthly giving.
• Find out more about why donors are likely to give monthly.