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Your board cares about your organization. There’s a good chance they were involved in your nonprofit’s founding, were invited to join by the CEO or another board member, or that they’ve contributed significantly to your organization.
Your board is there for you. They have valuable connections that can benefit your organization's growth. They believe in your cause and they want to see that you are being proactive and adopting the latest tools to succeed. Remember this when presenting the idea of recurring giving to your board. They want to see you succeed. You’ve found an incredible tool. So, your job is to communicate that excitement.
- Begin the conversations at the top with your CEO (if they’re not on board already) and your board chair.
- Make sure they’re both signed up and onboard (get it) for your monthly giving program. Take the time to explain its benefits.
- Consider what questions they might ask and have the answers prepared. Are you going to do monthly giving only or also round-ups?
- Know the answer to the questions above, ones that deal with implementation and strategy.
Below we’re going to cover several talking points to help you communicate the value of recurring giving to your board.
How many monthly donors there are
When dealing with a pledged or one-off donations, some people may give year in and year out, and you can never really be certain they will give again.
With subscription giving, you can expect that next donation because they’ve subscribed to your cause (with a credit card). Quite simply, knowing how many monthly donors there are — both in individual campaigns and overall — is incredibly helpful. It lets you measure the health of your organization and campaigns.
Measuring who sticks around and who goes
By tracking churn and retention you’re able to estimate and forecast, by the campaign, if your donors are sticking around.
Maybe one campaign isn’t working as well as you’d like. Once you compare giving campaigns, and get the results, you can adjust campaigns at a macro level, or the more granular levels such as emails.
These are powerful tools in reach and if you’re telling your board the impact they're making on your cause, you’re most likely excited.
Share your excitement
It’s hard to get your board excited about something if you’re not.
You can present this like Apple’s famous “One more thing.” You are presenting something incredible. You’re presenting the opportunity to create a stable source of revenue for your mission so you can grow.
You’ll be able to forecast donation revenue to better set goals and plan ahead. What board wouldn’t love that? Your board cares (or should) care about the long-term financial health and stability of your organization. You’re excited about a new tool to do that. Let them know and don’t overthink it.
Try approaching it like you’re telling a friend about a fantastic movie you just saw — however this time you’re backing it up with statistics and success stories.