The Build Good Fundraising Podcast #19: Viktoria Harrison — How charity: water built a $17m monthly giving program — and what you can do to make yours succeed
Over the last few months it’s become clear to many nonprofits that monthly donors are the heroes we need, but don’t deserve.
During COVID, most revenue streams have been shaky and unpredictable. But what seems to have remained very stable is monthly giving. And that has caused a renewed interest in acquiring, retaining and upgrading monthly donors.
The problem is, most monthly giving programs are notoriously bad. You sign up, the charity charges your credit card once a month...and that’s it.
And most monthly giving programs grow really slowly. They idle in the background, with very little thought or care put into them.
But done right, monthly giving has the potential to completely change the future and scale of your mission.
And to help you build a stronger monthly giving program, today on the podcast we’re talking to Viktoria Harrison – co-founder of charity: water.
Viktoria was part of the team at charity: water that built The Spring over the last few years, a monthly giving program that will raise $17 million dollars this years from more than 50,000 donors all around the world.
Along the way, she has learned what works when building a monthly giving program — and what doesn’t. And now she has developed a program called The Monthly Giving Launch Guide to help organizations maximize their donor potential.
In our chat, Viktoria walks through 5 reasons monthly giving programs fail, and why it’s worth investing every penny to get it right.
Today we’ll cover:
- [3:47] - Why Viktoria went all in on developing a premier monthly giving program
- [11:00] - How to make sure your monthly giving program is a flagship program, not just an afterthought
- [16:45] - The most important components of a strong monthly giving program
- [20:48] - The importance of creating inspiring content for your donors
- [24:04] - How to follow up with your donors in the most encouraging, honouring way
- [28:22] - The keys to keeping things personal with your donors when your organization is scaling up
- [31:14] - Working hard to make sure your donors understand what their money is going towards and the impact it is having
- [36:10] - Ideas on how to make sure your donors feel like a valued part of your community and not simply like a means to an ends
- [41:29] - The right frequency for thanking your donors
Viktoria would love to connect with you. You can find her on Instagram, or learn more about her work at The Branded Startup.
Enrolment for the Monthly Giving Launch Guide is open now.
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