Why Monthly Donors Are Your Nonprofit’s Most Valuable Asset — And How to Get More of Them

Insights from CBA’s Coffee Chat Webinar on Sustainer Programs. Watch the full conversation below, or read on for the key takeaways.

One strategy continues to outperform everything else in today’s uncertain fundraising environment: monthly giving. At a recent CBA Coffee Chat webinar, fundraising veteran Erica Waasdorp, a 43-year direct response expert who has been running monthly giving programs since before email existed, shared a practical roadmap for growing sustainer programs at any stage of development. Here’s what every nonprofit needs to know.

Monthly Donors Keep the Lights On

The case for sustainers starts with one simple truth: they provide reliable, unrestricted operating revenue that you can count on regardless of what else is happening in the world. As Erica put it, “We’re in wars, we’ve got bad storms, we’ve got all these different things happening around us that we can’t control — but we can count on money coming in from these wonderfully loyal sustainers.”

If your fiscal year starts July 1st and you have a monthly giving program generating $100,000 annually, that money is there from day one. No waiting for year-end appeals, no crossing your fingers on a Giving Tuesday campaign. That kind of financial predictability is a game-changer for nonprofit operations.

Monthly giving also solves the donor retention rate problem that plagues the industry. The typical retention rate for a one-time donor hovers around 30–40%. Convert that same donor to monthly giving, and retention jumps to 80–90%, and even higher if you’re processing gifts directly from a bank account.

The Numbers That Should Be on Your Bulletin Board

Before you build or grow a sustainer program, you need to understand what you already have. Erica recommends starting with a few foundational benchmarks:

• How many monthly donors do you currently have?
• What is their total value on a monthly and annual basis?
• What is their 5-year, or even 8-year, value?

That last number often shocks people. Research from NEON One found that the average monthly donor stays with an organization for 8 years. The 5-year value of a typical sustainer can range from $1,200 to $1,500 or more. Multiply that across hundreds of donors, and the case for investing in your sustainer program becomes impossible to ignore.

And here’s a bonus statistic worth hanging on your wall: monthly donors are 6 times more likely to leave a gift in their will to your organization. These aren’t just donors, they’re your most deeply invested supporters.

Monthly Giving Is Growing. One-Time Giving Isn’t.

In 2024, monthly giving accounted for 31% of all online revenue for nonprofits, and that share is expected to climb. Meanwhile, one-time online donations have actually declined. The competition for a single gift has never been more intense, but organizations that can convert donors into recurring commitments have a distinct advantage.

Younger donors are a big part of this trend. They’ve grown up with subscriptions for music, TV, and software, and they think about giving the same way. A $10-a-month donation fits naturally into their financial management. Organizations that frame giving as a subscription are speaking a language this demographic already understands.

The Myth You Need to Stop Believing

One of the most common mistakes organizations make is removing monthly donors from their general fundraising communications. The thinking goes: they’re already giving, I don’t want to bother them.

This is wrong.

As Christina McPhillips, VP of Client Partnerships at Carl Bloom Associates, pointed out: “You should continue telling people the wonderful things that you do so that they upgrade their gift over time and stay with you as a sustainer.” Monthly donors who stop hearing from you are monthly donors who eventually stop giving.

That said, you can be thoughtful about what you send them. Think about what a loyal monthly donor would genuinely want to know about: a capital campaign, a matching gift opportunity, a Giving Tuesday initiative. Customize the volume and content of your outreach without going silent.

Getting Started: It’s Smaller Than You Think

The biggest barrier to growing a monthly giving program isn’t resources, it’s inertia. Erica was emphatic on this point: you don’t need a large investment, you don’t need a complete overhaul, and you definitely don’t need five months with your communications team to draft the perfect message. You need to start.

Here’s a practical starting checklist:

1. Craft Your Value Proposition

In one or two sentences, explain what a monthly gift actually does. Not “support our mission” — something tangible. “A monthly donation is the most effective way to help families year-round.” Or: “Your monthly gift helps sustain the program services military families rely on.” Keep it short, keep it concrete, and get it in front of people.

2. Add a “Give Monthly” Button to Your Website Homepage

In a tested example Erica shared, simply adding a second donation button to the homepage, one specifically for monthly gifts, doubled the number of monthly donors. That’s a change that costs nothing and takes an afternoon.

3. Optimize Your Donation Form

Make sure your form clearly distinguishes between one-time and monthly options. Offer different suggested amounts for each. A donor willing to give $50 once may not be ready for $50 a month — but they might be very comfortable with $15 or $20. Start low, let donors self-select upward, and remember: $5 a month is still $60 a year.

4. Add a Monthly Option to Every Appeal Reply Form

A simple checkbox, “I’d like to make this a monthly gift,” plants a seed. Testing has shown it does not reduce one-time response rates. You’ll get some conversions every single time.

5. Use a Pop-Up or Modal During the Giving Process

When a donor is about to complete a one-time gift, a well-timed prompt asking if they’d consider making it monthly is remarkably effective. Just don’t run it during year-end giving season, when donors are already primed, and you don’t want to create friction.

6. Put a Sustainer Ask in Your Welcome Email

New donors who make a second gift within the first 30 days are twice as likely to become long-term supporters. Your welcome email is the perfect moment to plant the monthly seed: “If it’s easier on your budget, please consider a monthly donation.”

Don’t Forget: Someone Needs to Own This Program

Monthly giving programs decay without attention. Credit cards expire. Billing addresses change. Donors who intended to give indefinitely quietly disappear because no one reached out when their payment failed.

Erica shared a cautionary tale about an organization whose monthly giving program quietly collapsed when the person responsible left, and no one picked up the work. The solution isn’t necessarily a full-time hire; it’s clear ownership. Someone in your organization needs to be the steward of your sustainer program: monitoring lapsed payments, reaching out to donors, and looking for conversion opportunities.

If no one owns it, no one grows it.

Navigating a Database Migration Without Losing Donors

Research suggests organizations can lose up to 30% of their monthly donors during a CRM migration if they’re not proactive, but most of those donors don’t actually want to stop giving. They just haven’t been asked to update their information.

Erica’s advice: take your time, use every channel, and frame the transition positively. “We’re moving to a new system that will save money and help us serve you better” lands far better than any messaging around security or safety concerns. Start with donors whose credit cards are already expiring, and don’t rely on email alone; mail, phone, and text all have a role to play.

The Bottom Line

Monthly giving isn’t a niche strategy or a nice-to-have. It’s the foundation of sustainable nonprofit fundraising. As one-time revenue becomes more competitive and donor retention remains a persistent challenge, the organizations that thrive will be those that have built recurring revenue they can count on. Pick one tactic from this list and start today; the donors are already on your list. They just need to be asked.

Want to hear the full conversation? Watch our Coffee Chat webinar with monthly giving expert Erica Waasdorp below.