Communicating with Donors About Monthly Giving

Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Janet. I’m happy to be your trainer today to learn about communicating with donors about monthly giving. And just in case it’s been a while since you have joined us for a webinar, I would like to do a little bit Read More

Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Janet. I’m happy to be your trainer today to learn about communicating with donors about monthly giving. And just in case it’s been a while since you have joined us for a webinar, I would like to do a little bit of housekeeping just to tell you how to get around the webinar program, in case anything changes with your equipment. So on the left hand side of your screen, we have our presentation. And on the right hand side, we have our GoToWebinar control panel with what we’d like to pull a grab tab and on this grab tab, we have a few notable icons, the white arrow on the red background allows you to expand and collapse the control panel, keeping it in collapse mode allows you to have it not cover up the presentation. So we certainly recommend that the black square on the white background is a shortcut. It’s a shortcut over here to the questions pane. So feel free to send me any questions or comments you may have during the course of the presentation, I will do my best to respond within the context of where we are, if we’re either running late, or the questions are out of context, we’ll simply save those until the end of the presentation. And then we have another body here we’ve got a little hand for hand raising. I’d like to think about this as an informal poll. So if you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to do one right now. Please raise your hand it just tells me whether my microphone and your speakers are working well together. Right now. I’m just going to wait a few moments. We do have a large group today. So I just want to give a moment for everybody to hear me to respond. Christina cannot ah one moment I can go on to send a quick message about what else a moment please.

Okay,

thank you for your patience. I just sent Christina message, and she fixed the problem. So that is fantastic. And thank you everybody for responding. Seems like we have a good majority of everybody that says that they can indeed hear me. So thank you again for your patience. The audio settings here if that computer audio was for a headset or speakers, and the phone call is if you’ve called into the phone number that came with the link to today’s presentation. If you have a change of equipment during the course of the next hour, clicking on phone call will indeed display a phone number two, there’s no need to go back to a reminder email to check for a phone number. Next, we have our handouts. So please check this out. Go to your GoToWebinar control panel, find this section called handouts and click to open it up, you’re going to see a red icon that represents PDF and next to that the name of today’s documents communicating with donors about monthly giving dot pdf to go ahead download that at earliest convenience. If you’ve got a printer within arm’s reach, my recommendation is indeed to send it to the printer. This handout like all of our handouts, includes an outline of the presentation. Great place just to follow along what’s coming up next topic wise place to take notes, jot down some questions whether they are for me or for you and your colleagues after the presentation. Mike is asking if we miss a webinar in this series. Is there a recording available for a missed session? Yes, there is my within DonorPerfect the Help menu there’s a section called on demand webinars and we’re actually going to be uploading in the next couple of weeks this series from this week and next week so it’ll be all five updated webinars will be there. Right now it’s they’re just older presentations of the same material. So you’ll you can go there any time so again, that’s in the Help menu on demand webinars right from within Joan are perfect. And then of course on the bottom here of our control panel, we have a direct access to the questions pane so you don’t need the shortcut. use the questions pane throughout love to have these engaging conversations. We’re all together for the common topic. Love to keep that engagement going and have everybody learn from each other. So let’s start out with a quote from our monthly giving starter kit. No matter when you ask. Just remember to tell the donor how their money will be used. For example, $10 a month will rescue a dozen puppies who are $20 a month will help feed 50 children. So what do you think for those of you that were with us yesterday when we are looking at the online forum As I was pointing out some of the impact statements in the value of the impact statements where we literally tell people, not just the money that we’re asking them to give it giving $1 choice, but we’re also putting the words behind it what how can this dollar amount help provide some kind of benefit to those beneficiaries associated with your organization? Anybody have any thoughts on this? Are you already doing this? Are you already using those impact statements, whether it’s on your form, or part of your marketing materials, on what your needs are, what your mission the mission is, of your not only your organization, but this particular monthly giving program? Is there anybody that wants to share what they’re thinking about what they’re doing? Any kind of discussions? In general, of course, since we know that everybody’s out there for the same purpose. So if you feel like sharing later, feel free to do so I’m happy to share with the group. Nancy says people like to know what their money is doing? Absolutely. We want to know that there’s a purpose that is going to be used the best way possible, not just that it’s necessarily going into a big pot, we know we need that as well. So thank you, Nancy. Lisa says good for thanking donors to to tell them how much their donation means spot on again, Lisa, just like as Nancy said, we have to know that our money is going to a good purpose. Right. And, and reminding them of this, and the value of it is all part of that communication. Before we before we do the ask in all the process when they’re when they’re making their payments. And of course, later on all the good that it’s doing. So I think we’re all here, it’s all this on, we’re on the same page. So that is really nice. So what are we going to be talking about today? Well, we’re going to learn about the when the how, and the why, and the watch, of all about monthly giving. And of course, reminding us all saying thank you and keeping that engagement going. So let’s start with the when when should we do this? Well, donors who just gave are most likely to give again, or join your monthly giving program? Right, anytime of the year. Has anybody have any experience? And are any thoughts about that? What has been your experience? Right? Those that are already involved are likely to stay involved. Bottom line is if there’s no bad time to ask. Right? And you can ask as often as you want. Right? Does anybody have any ideas that they would like to add to this? Any thoughts? Is that people doing it every season? Are you just alternating with your other appeals? Are you having different groups different targeted audiences for your target recipients, I should say for each of your mailings. Christine says we keep trying to include a line about monthly giving with link to the form whenever possible. Absolutely. So email signatures, so email signatures, you newsletters, etc. Absolutely. I think that is great. Nancy says on our online donation form, there’s an option for monthly giving. Exactly. Sometimes we have that going. On our right, I’m going to say on our general donation form, you know that there’s the opportunity for the one time or the recurring monthly giving others when we’re talking specifically when we have that project now, specifically for the monthly giving, we’re just going to be asking about monthly giving most likely, because we’re going to be focused just on that. And that’s what we want to gear our donor to. But what you’re also saying here, of course, is that is always out there, it’s always out there as an option, which is super nice as well, we need to do that. We always need to do that. And then of course, say thank you on the other end for exactly what they joined as part of 100%. Fantastic. So what about the house? Right? Communicate how they can participate? Right? So we have an online forum at your website. Make sure that is pretty clear and obvious. I sometimes I see really beautiful, undertake large buttons, some kind of a color, special font, all of that. Other times that I have, unfortunately, I’m going to say see more than it looks like typeface. So make sure it stands out right so that they’re going to your website. You want them to find that button pretty quickly, whether it’s a header about the program itself, and they’re going to go there to get to your form, or they’re going to get your website and it’s going to be powered. It’s going to be right there. Right now. I have this special monthly donation form sent directly to them. Right? How about when you are communicating, you could be asking them to join. And you’ll might be, they might be filling out a form, and then you’re gonna be manually entering the pledge without, without them going to an online forum. So make sure that there’s different ways of doing it, right the different ways that they can participate. Yesterday, I believe I was mentioning that even like having a QR code, you’re having a mailing, and there’s going to be some people that might not be so inclined to be clicking on a link of going to, you know, typing in the URL or something like that, you might have a QR code that’s literally printed on that letter, you know, on that appeal letter, that will take it to them, they don’t have to do any typing, no clicking or just, you know, going through the QR code. Again, it’s a matter of training everybody that this is one of the ways that I’m gonna say that times are changing. And this is simply another option, certainly not the only option. Right. So we are getting out there and communicating all different ways. And just making sure that everybody can get to where you want them to go, in an easy way.

Right, immerse your website all about what you’re doing. Right, we want to make sure that everything is very clear, you know, with weathers colors, buttons, that your website is clear for what’s going on, and what options that they have available once they get there. Because I know that a lot of the times, the hard part is getting somebody to your website. And once we get to your website, we need to make sure that it’s going to be an easy way around your website, that our eyes are not going to be kind of floating around, it’s going to be it’s going to be appropriate for all the different uses. What do I need from the website, whether it’s different menus or different events, appeals, whatever it might be all about the benefactors, and how they that donors can help on this journey on this mission. And be joining that club of viewers that group of yours that special group of loyal donors that we are always talking about with our monthly donors, right? Try asking after their first gift, ask them to join. Right, they’ve given instead of the maybe the traditional way to get them to become a repeat donor, ask them to join, they supported you once, let’s ask them again. But this time with a different angle. Right? Maybe they gave because it was a tribute. Maybe they gave because an event or appeal or some other kind of social media, you were in the news? They you got them once, let’s ask them again, again, a directed ask, and everything that you do. And as Christine had already said, Write direct mail letters, newsletters, emails, whether it’s printed, or whether it’s electronic, just have every option there so that whether somebody wants to click on something, or use that QR or type in a URL, let’s make sure that everything is there make it easy for everyone. So how does everybody listen? Just a quick pause here. Just how does everybody communicate? Does anybody have any other comments or suggestions to add to what the others have already said? Right. What do you think are good ways to communicate about programs? Has anybody found any particular methods successful that they would like to share? So right getting too personal here? We’re just in general, what are good times good methods. Christine says mostly e newsletters, okay. And of course, I’m sure that there’s a targeted group of that, that they’ve signed on or opted into those e newsletters. Paley says social media has become a more common way to communicate to donors. Fantastic. Right. Make sure that again, it’s pretty clear, obvious and make sure again, that link is there to your online form. Brenda says, at our annual spring dinner, very nice. So Brenda, do you have materials there that they’re taking? Maybe there’s also something that they can just click on? Fantastic. Tom says to annual campaign mailings and in weekly newsletters, fantastic, right? There’s options and it’s out there, right? It’s always out there. And when you also put information out there, they’re gonna see what that club is doing. And you can have thermometers, you can have, you know, notes about how many people or whatever the mission is, in whatever industry you’re in, so I don’t want to hone in on any one particular industry here, but you know, you’re gonna have different men Sherman’s and different numbers and different accolades and say, of how have what’s being helped along the way with this loyalty group of yours. So yes, we’re going to be bringing it up all the time. And it’s going to make people interested. And if you have a special little logo that goes with it even better, Christine says, we have an exclusive monthly donor newsletter that speaks to the unique impacts of monthly giving. Very cool. And don’t forget everybody to ask if they would like, you know, give them the reminder to forward it to other people to say, hey, let’s share this out with others, right? And then that’s the group is going to grow and grow. Right? So I love to hear this is great. So we’re just getting out there, we’re reminding ourselves that we’re not going to rest on our laurels for let’s say, even a good or great response already. We just need to keep it going and keep it building and building. The last two days, people were saying they’re joining for this, these conversations this week. And next because they they have some of them have a program and they want it to grow. So we’re trying to share ideas and see what what we can now think of what’s going to spur our minds to to other options and opportunities that are out there. Right? Very nice. Well, what about the whys, right? Why we’re doing this? Well, we’re when we break down our all of our fundraising targets, our goals for the year for the short, I’m gonna say they’re short and the long term, right? We ended up with smaller projects, right? And we need to break it down to say, what are we doing? How are we doing it? Right. So this is now one of our smaller projects, but small in the big scheme of things, we everything is a project, right, each event, each mailing each newsletter, they are all different projects, right? So we want to focus in this is simply one of the projects that we’re working on. And this is, donors feel like they’re making that they make a bigger impact on achieving the goal. So when I think about, sometimes we think about being a small fish in a big pond, or a big fish in a small pond, you know, we want to we break it down into small pictures, like small projects, when somebody is there, they’re going to make a big impact. So we’re now looking at a small pond, and we’re saying everybody really makes a difference. And we want everybody to feel that, which is why we have all of those impact statements, right? When when when the old adage is like if you, if you tell somebody you need a million dollars, you’re gonna say, Well, my $100, or my, you know, $500 is barely gonna make a dent. But if you tell somebody that your your goal is, let’s say, much smaller, let’s say it’s $10,000, they’re gonna say, wow, my money’s gonna make an impact. And if a bunch of people do the same as many, we’re gonna get there that much faster, they’re going to feel like they’re making a difference. So that we’re going to make people feel that they’re making an impact, and helping your organization indeed, achieve the goal towards that mission of yours. Right. So we want to make them feel that way. Right. So as this final bullet point just sums up, I think what I was just saying, right? You want your donors to feel that they were the reason that this phase of the bigger project was successful. Right. So everything that we’re doing, just make it feels make sure that the donor feels that they were making a difference. Right. So what do you think about what do you can you think of of a small project that you might share with your donors, right? Anybody want to share anything right now, this would be a great way to just bring together some of the points we have been making. I’m just going to wait a moment to see if anybody has anything to share.

Ah, Nancy says adopt a student or musician. That’s pretty cool. When we are looking at the bigger picture. There’s a lot there’s a lot of adoptions needed a lot of that that’s needed. But when you feel that when you are making a donation and that monthly payment is helping to do exactly that makes us feel good. We’re making things happen. Right. And when you’re talking, Nancy, about that, adopting a student or musician, you’re probably also saying what it’s going to cover how much it’s going to cover or how many students are musicians, right. Oh, it says they would get to invite to a special urine concert. Isn’t that great, right? Have you ever seen people that I can’t come to the event, but I’m going to donate so that somebody else to this money will cover the ticket for somebody that can’t afford to go there. Or you can say, for a student as fancy as say, for student to go to that year and concert, maybe it’s buy one, get one, I buy a ticket for me, I buy another ticket for somebody to go to that concert. I think that’s a fabulous idea. Thanks, Nancy. Haley says 80% of our teens are able to go to college, because of the club. Wow, we want to bring that number to 100% with contributions. Wow, well, so you’ve got like a thermometer just built into that process that you just mentioned. So it’s really out there. And it’s going to make everybody feel that they’re helping getting closer to that 100% mark. So it’s like telling somebody, every small amount helps. There’s nothing that’s too small. Right? So when you want 100, purchase 100% participation, when you want to send that 100% of the teens that to go to college, you know, that’s what we need to do, we need to remind everybody what it’s for. Me says we offer two grants, one maxed at 1000, the other maxed at 2500. And ask of 2500 might be too large to right up front, but spread over a year might be possible. Absolutely. When I when we were talking the other day about sometimes, when you’re thinking about how much somebody can afford, we might not be able to afford to write out a $2,500 check. But if you’re going to say, well, what if I give a smaller amount over a period of time? Maybe I can do that in smaller chunks? And yes, and then I got to that 2500 not as steep a way of getting there. Right? Or that $1,000 that’s needed for for that lower scholarship. And I can’t might not be able to find that that scholarship right now, at one time. But if I say you know what, I’ll have that to you by the end of the year, can I give it to you in 10 $100 payments? You’re gonna say, of course, let’s let’s set it up. That would be fantastic. So love that Ami. Leslie says Amazon has a new program called donation driver that we’re looking to implement on our website, we’ll be able to create wishlist for educators that donors can pick buy or delivered to our location. Isn’t that wonderful? Fantastic. So these are all wonderful ideas. So does this spur on anybody else? Like getting ideas? Or does this? Does this help anybody? When they’re thinking about what else we can do, and how we can do it, right? It’s all really, it’s all of us coming together, making sure that we are all reminding everybody giving everybody different ways to learn about us, as well as then to support us. Right. So we need to get all those chat all those communication channels working. Right, we need to be out there in all of these channels that everybody’s been mentioning. Oh, yes, as Stacey. I agree. They are everyone everybody’s been sharing have been fabulous examples. And that’s what why we’re here, we’re here to not only learn about and get reminded about some of the different methods, but we’re here to learn from each other, right, we all give and take from each other. You know, and I think because we weren’t really all doing the same thing. We’re trying to get that disposable income. And we’re trying to get everybody to say, You know what, let’s help these others. And let’s do it on a regular and affordable basis, we can get there, we’re just going to do it a little bit at a time, big, smaller or bigger chunks to get there. But we can do that 1000, we can do that 2500 It might be might take us 10 months, it might be $100 for 25 months, we’re going to get there, we’re going to be able to sponsor that student, right, we’re going to be able to buy those, those concert tickets, we’re going to make sure that everybody can get there. So this is fabulous. So thank you all for these really nice participation. We’re going to do a little bit of review from on Tuesday when we talked about the ask. So this is all really important. It all comes together. So a little bit of reminder, I know that this is might not be exactly the same group as on Monday. So we have we get Tuesday, Wednesday and today and then this series continues. Next week, Monday. I’m starting next week, Tuesday and Wednesday at the same time, one o’clock Eastern. So I know that a lot of people are probably registered for all five sessions, but we know that everybody is Not. So we’re a little bit of a review. Okay. So when we’re thinking about how much do we ask, what do we put on our forms? Right? When we talk about this, we look at everybody’s average annual amount, what they’re giving you, right? So there’s a nice gifts by date report that we can look at our, our data, see what everybody’s been giving, right. But we also need to realize that they can’t always do that when we’re asking for specific longer term goals. So when we’re asking for longer term goals, we’re really saying to ourselves, let’s see what these average amounts are. Unless asked for 1/3 of it, on the average, okay, so we’re going to be offering somebody they’re going to think about what they can afford. So if the average annual gift is $50, we’re going to ask them to be able to give us $17 a month, much more affordable to do $17 a month. So for many people that were that $50, that annual amount of $50, might have been a stretch, and they were waiting to give that to you. Think about it right, the $17 more affordable, they might be able to do that over a longer term. So the process of all of this, we have one of the experts in the industry, Erica was your if you were joined us for the DonorPerfect community conference back in June, early June, about six weeks or so ago, Erica was one of our presenters on exactly this topic, monthly giving. So here she’s got a book out on monthly giving the sleeping giant.

So when we pull it all together, there’s a few things, there’s a few different reports and a bit of that how we’re doing everything, right. So when we’re thinking about asking for a certain amount of money, and we’re looking to see who could afford it, we’re looking for a target audience to make sure that we know and we’ve sort of called through, we’ve analyzed our data enough to say, This is who we’re going to do have as our target audience. So when you’re thinking well about that, we’re going to get down to a group and we’re gonna look a little bit more deeply into the metrics within their details. Okay, and one report that’s really nice to do is the history list report, because we’re gonna get some high level metrics about them in general, we’re gonna we’re gonna do that. And then we’re going to see their giving history, right, we’re going to see the the gifts and the pledges in the date range, maybe you’re looking for the last year or last two years, okay, you’re going to be able to see all of that, which is pretty nice. It certainly is important because we need to not only see the big picture, we need to take the deeper dive right into into the details to make sure that we’re confident at the at the target that we’re looking at the export to file. I don’t know how many of you are exporting data, but it’s going to give you the metrics in a way that you can manipulate it within Excel. And I know a lot of lot of people love to do that. So it’s another tool in your toolbox, right that you can do to help you indeed go down that path to support everything that you are doing, I’m going to be doing a little bit of demonstrating to go along with a lot of what is here. So we’re just right now taking an opportunity to simply bring it up into conversation, see what anybody else has to offer. A few have been using these reports and other reports. So when I’m thinking about how do we go about it, how are we getting this information out to people? How are we doing some of our solicitations? Well, if you were using Constant Contact, or maybe you’re using another email marketing company, but Constant Contact is in, you might have an integration of with constant contact with your DonorPerfect database, right? Whatever that email, that group email that you’re sending out, make sure of course, it has the link to your online form. Right? Make sure that when you have your letter, right make that if you’re doing a merge into a letter for a direct mail piece, make sure that there’s a URL is in that document, right make sure it’s easy to easy to type out so that it’s a it’s an easy statement to enter. So when we think about that, ask again, right? We have that average ask remember looking at that those dollars, right divided by three to get that average out there. So that we have I’m going to say the right and appropriate options for the donors when they’re looking at how much you’re asking. them to give, right? Have those lower dollar amounts, of course have a little bit higher as well. We don’t want to lose, we don’t want to bring somebody down on the average, we want to help lift them up. And I love those impact statements, as we talked about earlier, saying what the dollar amounts mean to everybody to the not only to the recipients, but what as the as the donors are looking at it, what can they do? How can they help? So the the comment earlier about this tickets, who said that a Nancy mentioned like a DACA, students or musician, wouldn’t it be great if one of the options said to buy one ticket or five tickets or whatever it may might be to get students or musicians to be able to go to that concert. I know physically, I get to envision that the smiling faces and everybody that really wants to be there, and I’m allowing them, I’m helping them to get there. So it’s really nice to be able to make sure that it’s that the dollar amounts are appropriate. And I think that those impact statements really go a long way. So I think I’m going to hop into database now. And let’s do a little bit of examples here. So right now want to come in, and I’m going to use that history list report that I mentioned earlier. So I’m going to come into reports and Report Center. And if I’m not sure where the history list is, or maybe it’s not here listed on the top of my favorites, I’m just going to search for that. And here is my history list now, just with a search. And what I’d like to do right now is I’m going to run this report, but I’m going to ask right now that somebody’s most recent gift was in the last six months. So I know that they’ve been giving, they have given recently, not only asking for how many times that gave in the last six months, but I’m asking for who gave in the last six months. So I’m going to start off at the top. Remember, the top here is on the left, this is my sidebar in the report options and filters, I’m going to set a donor filter, I am not going to include no male names, because I want to make sure that anybody that does not want to receive my mailings is not going to get this right now. But if you know that your data has certain options for no mails like you know, maybe once a year or certain types of solicitations, then maybe you’re going to have a different, you might actually be checking that box off. For the demonstration right now, I’m not going to be concerned about the anonymous donors, I am going to sort my list alphabetically. And I’m just going to come in here I’m going to click Clear values. And what I’m going to do is I said I’m going to ask the database. So here is add new filter, I’m going to ask the database who has given within the last six months. So that means I need my the date of the last gift. And that date of the last gift is a main field. It’s a calculation based on all of the gift transactions, what’s the date of the very last gift transaction. So in main bio, let me see my favorite fields, I have the last gift date. So I’m going to say the last gift date, I’m going to say greater than or equal to. And since we’re, we’re right now just about that six, six and a half month mark in this in this calendar year, I’m just going to actually go back to the beginning of the year. So let’s do it this way, I’m going to say who’s given whose last gift is on or after greater than or equal to January 1 of this year. So I’m going to click Continue. And click Done. And let’s take a look at this report to see what it has to offer in its presentation.

Okay, so you can see here, I this is whatever alphabetical. So I have the Aardvark Foundation, a few metrics. And I see their lifetime giving up at the top here ran total lifetime giving, okay, and I have their lifetime giving also spilled out transaction by transaction. Now, I do want to comment that if I don’t want to go all the way far back to this, okay, then I could also change my filter to be a gift filter and then modify my filter a little bit as well to work with that. So that I only see maybe the giving history in the last three or five years, whatever it might be. Okay, but I know that everyone here has given in 2023 Because I did ask specifically for that. So right so this is exactly what I was expecting, of course, at least one transaction in the year 2023. And then it goes on to the next and I get the same kind of history. But you remember, as we’re looking at everything we see Some of the details will you know, whatever might be important. Here I have, I have the address. So I have a sense of geography, I have a sense of some other relationships with the flag options here, right with a flag codes showing some relationships, I like seeing the fact that I have an email address as well. So it goes on and on, I have one record after the next with the same kind of details. And when I look in my test system here, I’ve got 128. Right now that if that was my target, that’s where I’m starting from. So again, your target is going to be specific for how you’re also going to be working for it. Thinking about whether I’m going to do a lot for I’m going to have a lot of personal follow up. So everybody’s going to be assigned follow ups might need to have a smaller group in the end than a really large one. But I might have some carrots out there a little bit further out. But the closer ones, yes, I will might have follow ups being done. So something indeed to think about. So once we have perfected the actual group that we are doing, okay, in this case, I have 128. If I need to hunt it down based on dollars, or geography or something else, I want to remember that I want to take that into consideration. So if I was using that for the next, if I’m going to say with this particular group, and now I want to export certain metrics, I will come into again, reports, Report Center. And I’m going to come into export to file this time, and it happens to be right at the top of my list, so I don’t have to search. Now I’m going to what I’m doing a list, because I’m going to do that big export. But again, I’m going to review it now a little bit different way, maybe a few other metrics that I’m going to be adding to my Excel file, because I want to see and take a closer look. So I’m going to do main bio, because I’m going to get everybody unique donor ID, okay, every unique donor ID in this group, I have 128 A not including remember, I was not including no male names, my filter came over with me. So when I come down here, if I look at it, this is exactly what I asked for this. So it carried over with me. So I have those that gave in the last six months. And when I come down here for my export template, this is where I get to have details that I’m looking for, we’re not going into an export to file webinar right now. So I’m just going to use what’s here. And I know that I could, with this process here, I could make sure I have all the metrics that I need. And if I’m going to just do a preview, just to give you an idea of some of the data, that’s possible, okay. And of course, I would do an export if I was using this and was going to start manipulating it. But you can see that I have a lot of information on some of the basics. And then I have a date, and the amount of those I have the date and amount of last gift and the first gift. And then I go back several years of calendar year giving, lifetime giving and the lifetime number of gifts. So it’s all really good, useful information. The big question now is, who do you want to have in your target group? Right, you might want to add more to this, you can easily do that. We can show you how with training support, and of course, our webinar on exporting as well. So what happens if you’re now saying, Okay, I did a little bit of research, I have my list. But now I want to create a constant contact list so that that list is ready to go out with my next group email. Okay, so I’m going to come in to mailings and constant contact email. So what I’m going to do now is we’re going to come here, and we’re going to create a list. Alright, so when I come into lists management, again on that mailings, constant contact email, and I came over to list management, all I want to do right now is simply set up a dynamic list. Dynamic lists get updated every night. So all I’m asking is who gave a gift this calendar year is just closes July right now, that’s why it turns out that way, but I could have asked separately, I could have done it a slightly different way to get it. I could have done six months. So I’m going to create a list. So here it is add new list. And I’m going to say in this particular case, I’ll say new donor from the website, not new donors, I’m gonna say donors since one 120 23 And I’m going to create a list and I’m going to make this a dynamic list and I’ll tell you why interested Second. So again, we’ll speak more about this when we have our constant contact webinar. But what I’m going to do is I want to have a list that will get updated every night so that when I’m ready to run might actually send out my group email, this list is ready to go. So in between, I have a new donor joining us, I have a donor that gave last year that finally another say finally gave came back and gave this year, they’re now going to be in my list. So I’m going to come in here set associated filter, I want to use my last filter I actually want to use right this those who gave their last gift date was this calendar year, I’m going to say that here, I’m going to give it a name, and I have to give it a name in order for it to be updated every single night. So that’s how I have to have it saved. So I’m going to say, donors, since one 120 23. Okay. So it’s not first time donors, it’s simply donors, I can say donors this year, donors in difficulty that donors in 2023, that might be a little bit easier. So what I’m also going to say is, I want to say that these are constant contact filters. And the reason I say this, this is a reminder that this filtered, although you could use it any time this filter is used in a constant contact list, and we need to remember that because if you change the filter, it’s going to change the list. I’m going to share it with my colleagues and click Done. I will use my additional email addresses that’s on the addresses screen. I’m going to preview and then update my list. And I now have a list that says 102. Right here. Remember, this is my list, but I have to have email addresses. So that itself, of course, is super important. My List of 128 did not all have email addresses, okay. And some of them might have had an email address on their addresses screen. All right. So we’re going to next jump into the topic of you know, the amount to ask you remember that 1/3, we’re going to come back into Debbie says, Could you say donors over the past six months, which would cause the start date to keep moving? I’m gonna say yes, Debbie. But I and we do have the generic way of doing that literally to go back six months. But this right now is not the platform to be talking about how to make generic filters. But if you want to Debbie, go into the knowledge base, if you go into our Help menu, and then the knowledge base typing date expression, okay, if you type in date expression, you should get a document that has some amazing set of generic filters, right, and you can reach out to the support team, we have all different ways to make it generic. The date expression is one of my favorites to do is right now this just this scenario with this moment is just not for that. But that is my preference Debbie, and 100% is indeed to make it generic. Okay, so let me but so thank you for asking, because that is, I’m gonna say in the long run, that’s what we all want to do. So if this was a private trading session, or that other webinar, we would be doing that.

So this was that monthly giving calculator that we looked at the other day, and we’re doing this part, again, as a nice review for everybody. Because we’re always asking ourselves, How much should we ask, what should that form be saying, Okay, we need to have a choice of numbers to recommend. So we also want to kind of put it into the bigger picture of all of our goals. Remember, this is a project of ours, and we need to set our goals for this particular project. So we’re gonna, what we’re looking at right now is going to be something that is actually you can access through our, our resource hub. So I’m going to show you that and I’m going to share that with you also momentarily. But right now we’re coming out to the monthly getting success. Alright, so I’m going to come down here a little bit and where it says Y monthly giving, I’m going to click here. And now I’m going to come down a little bit more. And I’m going to come into WebSphere. Now here in select, make an estimate. Here we go estimate revenue. And I’m just going to save this and this is really pretty cool. So I’m going to open this up enable editing. So this is a this is an Excel spreadsheet spreadsheet with a lot built into it behind the scenes. So if you say to yourself, you know what I don’t have the number of active donors, I don’t have five sales. And let’s say you’re gonna say I’ve got 2500. So you can put in 2500, and hit enter. And wow, it everything just adjusted, right. And if your average monthly pledge amount is maybe not 20, maybe that’s I don’t know, let’s say 25. It now just adjusted, I just have to widen this a little bit. And then now we have the dollars and cents display, this need to make this over. I probably made this a little bit too big there. So we have here we’ve got it all calculate it out. For us, we have targets, we’ve got the goals. So putting your numbers, okay, I’m going to click I have in the chat. I’m going to click said. And I just sent the access to this. So one second, I’m going to come back to here in our monthly giving hub. So I just sent you in the chat within our meeting right now, I sent you two things the for the monthly giving starter kit, as well as the monthly giving hub. Right now we’re in the monthly giving hub, so you can use that particular link to get to that calculator. Okay, got that Excel document. So super, super nice. If any questions about that, just let me know. Right. So it’s really nice. So if you’re also looking on how many might be in my group, remember that there’s various reports that you could use within the database, such as count records. And on Monday, we use the gift range report. So there’s a lot going on, go back, if you didn’t join us on Monday, or even if you did want to review, join us look at that recording of Monday’s webinar about beginning steps, a monthly giving program. So that itself, it’s a nice review, another way to look at your data to help you decide what you’re asking amounts should be looking at that big targeted group, what do they typically give those smaller the dollar amounts. Remember, we’re not looking at the major donors here, because they’re going to give you anyway, we’re looking at the others. And so we have other strategies to help us find that group. And then of course, when we get that group, we then need to decide on what those ask amounts are. So becomes just a great way to be looking at your data. So of course, once we get all that done, we of course cannot finish the process without really making sure we say thank you, right, making sure that that automated email after they sign up online is spot on for thanking them for all of what they are doing now and what they will be doing. Okay. Remember, you can always follow that up with another communication, right? Everything is about making the communications right and spot on and making sure we don’t simply stop either we don’t want to stop with a thank you. Okay, we want to have that and continue on. So have an official thank you letter, right, thanking them for joining all sorts of things, lots and lots of options, right? Best done sooner rather than later. A lot of our industry experts are all saying best done within 72 hours of joining gets a communication out there get it all ready, before you even get started. Okay, have it ready because you know what, that first one is going to come in and then it’s going to start rolling for you and you want to be able to be ready you might just be asking how do I send it out but have that document ready? We’re here to show you how to do that merge how to get it done, okay, but write those documents have those all those carrots out there all the the pictures of the beneficiaries have everything ready to go right? If you want ask your donor for clever send out what your office I’m gonna say organization policy is about whether you are send out a thank you every month or you wait till the end of the year, January for us February for if we have any Canadian friends here. So we want to make sure that everybody is thanked the way that they want. So you might say in your letter, our organization practices such as such and if you want it the other way just please let us know. Like if you say that we do it what we send out in addition to today’s thank you for the beginning of course of their joining your club or loyalty program that you’re going to be sending out a urine statement come January or February, if they would like it to be monthly. Then just let’s have them let you know. So you absolutely can do that clarifications, right. So let me come into DonorPerfect and just show you We’ll just show you around a little bit. Okay. So I’m going to come right now, into apps at the top here, online forms. So right now what I want to show you, before I get there, what I want to show you is where to go to set up your email options. So I’m going to first come into here, my online forms classic. So if you were with us yesterday, I did come into here yesterday, and I’m going to come into that monthly giving I was in paws and claws are going to edit this. So when you’re doing your setup, you have an option right here that says Send Email Options. And you get to make sure that you set this up just the way that you want you ever this part is automated. Right? When you come in, let me come to the other one, let me come into apps, online forms that come into my other one that drag and drop form builder. We’re not trying to create it right now. But I just want to do an edit for you. Let me come into edit the form. And in one of our settings, here we go. In one of our settings here, there’s a setup for a thank you email. And there’s a couple of really neat options, which is a little bit different than in our classic forms. But like everything else in each of our forms, products, start at the top and work your way down, then you don’t forget anything. So when you’re working your way down, you’re not going to forget your settings here. And then the other form, you’re not going to forget to where it says set email options. So that itself is you know, something that we should all literally we should all be doing that, right. So I’m going to come into, I’m just going to come into here, I’ll come into my record. And I’m going to come into gifts. And remember when we’re saying thank you, we want to make sure that we have an appropriate Thank you option. So I’m going to pretend that I’m adding a gift here only to come to this field. So we’re doing our data entry, we’re always thinking about what message we want to send out. One second here are we Oh, I’m sorry, I was just reading the same message from before.

Sorry about that I was reading Debbie’s message, I didn’t know if another question came in. So here we’re in our data entry. And we are looking here at the difference to mark to make sure that we mark the different messages that we want to send to somebody. So I happen to already have one that says monthly general Thank you pull it monthly recurring, maybe put in your loyalty, club name, whatever it might be, make it obvious to you make sure that you have an option here so that you could make sure that you send that you’re marking each of the transactions that you can then merge and send out the appropriate letter or email. A likely this is when there’s going to be a letter because you’ve already done an email that automated email. Right. So another point, what’s to be conducted here. So yesterday, as we’ve talked about, and a little bit today, as well, think about the form that you are setting up, right. So when we’re setting up that form, if it’s specifically for that monthly giving, make sure it’s just for that you’re gonna have a general donation form likely anyway, that will have that one time and recurring option. But this is now focused for this particular purpose. Right, so we’re going down that slightly different path there. Right. So when we have all of this information in right leads us the form, or maybe they feel that a pledge format and event, you know is you know, you have somebody earlier made bread dimensioned at our annual spring dinner, if you have pledge courts there, right. So if you do that, somebody just might be filling out a form, in which case, you’re just gonna come into here, fill out the pledge screen, you know, when you want to make sure that you ask whether they want to be part of automatic payments or not make their make their task easier. They’ve made the decision. Now let’s say okay, we know we can make it really easy for you. And again, it’s all about this communication. So setting ourselves up for success all the way through. Right. So when we’re doing that, of course, we’re all really talking about tasks monthly giving, and turning on the automatic processing, if somebody’s if they’re giving permission, giving your organization permission to process these electronic payments, right. And when it’s all said and done, we’re going to be saying thank you, right, we’re going to be doing that as a group. So when we come into our receiving area, we’re going to be using a very bottom here where it says generate receipts. I’m not going to run anything right now but it’s all going to be grouped together. Okay. I don’t have any For the recurring right now, but look at this, I have an option here that says monthly donor. So when I go and do this merge is going to merge my letter, I have want to have my letter ready. So I can do this in the moment, I can group merge this particular Thank you. Right, so we can keep up that pace of responding quickly after that commitment has been made for somebody joining our online program. So let’s come back in here and just do a quick recap here. Right? There’s never a bad time you started off with this right? Never a bad time to ask a donor to become a monthly donor. Make sure we always communicate details about our monthly giving program. Lisa is asking, is there a cc email option for those receipts? We’re talking, Lisa, you’re talking about the email right? There is a BCC and SCC actually, for the email receipt templates? For sure. So join us with our sort of, oh, yes, yes, yes. This correct CC and BCC for those otter receipts. When you’re in that setting, when you’re on that screen, there is the CC and the BCC right on that screen. Remember, of course that we are DonorPerfect, send out all of these emails for you, it looks like you’ve done it. So a lot of people will see that it came from you make sure you’re in that BCC, because we’re doing that sending for you. Right, so that you want to make sure you’re in the BCC so you can get that. Thank you, Stacey. Thank you, Lisa as well. Like to make sure that we’re simply communicating well, a better program, you know, plenty of engagement before that. It’s not just a short and that shot in the dark. And we’re going to make sure that we do all of the appropriate cultivating the stewardship, all of that so many different options. Several people made mention of these options earlier website, newsletters, direct mail, keep it going, right, keep everybody up on the status, somebody’s gonna realize, Hey, look at what’s going on, I want to be part of that too. I sent you out just before I sent out the link to the monthly giving successor, as well as the monthly giving starter kits. So use both of them and get started, get some resources for yourself. Right, you can also go into our DonorPerfect community group. So when you’re going out to our donor proof community from our help venue, it’s right. You know, you can go look, join that a discussion out there where there’s others just like you, and other nonprofits, you know, wanting to know how you’re doing and giving each other advice out there. So oops, sorry about that. So this was step number three, the third webinar in this series of monthly Giving Tuesday we have the ins and outs of monthly giving it on Wednesday, we have reporting on the success of monthly giving. So I’m hoping that many of you will join us at these webinars as well. I am happy to stay on for a little bit and answer any questions that you may have. So I’m going to stay here in general perfect. And just in case and don’t forget, of course that we do the handout in today’s session so if you didn’t already download that feel free and take this opportunity to do so. And look forward to seeing you many of you next week and have a wonderful day. Carl is asking Will there be recording so I can watch again. Absolutely Carl, it says it will be sent out give or take about an hour from now. Absolutely.

My pleasure Christine, thank you. Thank you all for participating it’s great to hear from everybody it’s great when we can share

coral was not able to make it yesterday of coral add on our website will actually let me come here within help. I didn’t mean website within General perfect. In our Help menu we have our on demand webinars. And in this group here is these are all recordings. And we update we do update them periodically. We are literally taking this week’s in next week’s webinars is our plan right now. So within a couple of weeks, these five right here for the monthly giving series that this particular setup list we can actually will be here but these are the same topics. So if you want to get to that right now Carl, you can do that. Otherwise, just waiting probably a week or two maybe and these will be updated. Oh, joy lane. You did not receive the recordings. Huh? I am not sure what was going on. Julian, can you send me your email address? Let me see what I can do about that later. Okay, so maybe I’ll try to catch you up for those few days. Heidi, can you show where today’s handout? Oh, Heidi Do you have a section called handouts on your GoToWebinar control panel? Oh, great. Thank you, Carl. Oh, so Heidi, do me a favor, send me your email address and I will send you the handout from today’s session. Okay. Be happy to send it sometimes it’s a matter of how you come into the go to go to webinar sometimes sheets of matter of how you’re joining that, that there’s a question or two that you might be asked and sometimes that prevents you from seeing that handout option. Thank you. Hi. Do you appreciate that

are there any other questions I can help you with today this is exciting. I love having the everybody is you know excited about monthly giving program so it’s really fabulous

Joy Lee you didn’t get a reminder for for what for the session

recordings. Everybody that’s here should have gotten a follow up email after the session that has a link to the recording. So I will ask about that. On the administrative side afterwards. No problem. Sure, my pleasure.

So good luck to everybody with your monthly giving program. This is fabulous. Glad to work with everybody. So we’ll see you next Tuesday. Take care. Have a great day everybody. Bye bye.