5 Tips to Grow Your Sustainer Campaign
Use these five tips to recruit more donors for your sustainer program.
Guest Author: Megan Allison
Growing your sustainer program can seem more challenging than your usual fundraising campaigns because you’re not just encouraging someone to give to your organization—you’re motivating them to provide an automated stream of donations to your cause, often on a monthly basis. Because of this, sustainer campaigns generally focus more on upgrading gifts from people who’ve already donated to your nonprofit rather than finding completely new donors.
But growing your sustainer program is definitely worth the effort! Sustainers provide your organization with a stable source of revenue all year round while increasing your donor retention rate. Plus, the automation of recurring donations makes giving even easier for your sustainers. With a good marketing strategy and a well-designed donation form, your nonprofit can benefit from your sustainers’ recurring donations.
1. Market your sustainer campaign on social media
One of the best ways to grow your sustainer campaign is to advertise it on social media. Social media is crucial for nonprofits like yours trying to connect with more potential supporters because it helps passionate people find your cause. You can reach a larger audience if you don’t rely on organic traffic alone. Many platforms offer affordable advertising options that can help boost your sustainer campaign. To make the most of your ad posts, use targeting tools to ensure specific demographics will see your posts. By analyzing your donor data, you’ll be able to determine similar characteristics that your current sustainers have in common and create a donor profile for your sustainer donors. Targeting those demographics with your ads can increase your chances of finding potential sustainers to join your campaign.
2. Simplify your donation process
People are more likely to give to your organization if your donation process is quick and easy to complete. No one wants to sit around filling out forms when trying to support a good cause! There are a few ways to make signing up for your sustainer campaign easier on your supporters, and one of the best is using multi-step donation forms. Chunking your forms into short sections for your sustainers to fill out will make it feel shorter to complete than a single step would, even if you’re asking people to provide more information in your multi-step form.
Another great tip to make your donation process simpler for your sustainer campaign is to limit the number of fields your sustainers must complete by offering them digital wallet payment options. Digital wallets allow your donors to give without the need to fill in all the extra payment information fields that card donations require. Plus, as long as their digital wallet is updated, they won’t need to change their payment method on file with your organization whenever they get a new card!
3. Encourage joining your sustainer program directly on your donation form
You don’t need to limit your advertising for your sustainer program to your marketing communications. In fact, you can encourage your donors to join your sustainer program directly on your donation form with a well-placed call to action. Use your online donation form to advertise your sustainer campaign with a static image asking your donors to make their gift monthly. Or add a pop-up notification for your donors to upgrade their donation before the transaction is completed!
To show the benefits of joining your sustainer campaign, use impact statements or images on your donation form to tell your supporters where their money would be going and the direct influence their gifts can have on forwarding your cause. If you can, connect your impact statements to a suggested donation amount to motivate your sustainers to give more to your nonprofit.
4. Make thanking your sustainers an experience
Thanking your donors is an essential part of any fundraiser, but for your sustainer campaign, make an experience out of showing your gratitude to incentivize becoming a sustainer to your organization. Don’t settle for your normal thank-you letters when it comes to your sustainer program—go the extra mile with your acknowledgments. Use social media to publicly thank your sustainers by name in an important update from your organization or in a special social media post. This public acknowledgment shows how much you care about your sustainers and advertises your sustainer program to your supporters. Make sure you don’t thank just your donors—there are so many other people who help your organization succeed.
You can also create a special newsletter to thank your sustainers and provide them exclusive updates on projects that they support. Email a newsletter to your sustainer program once a month, thanking new sustainers for joining and giving your current sustainers a first look at what your organization is working on, further incentivizing the program.
5. Track your campaign data
A great way to grow your sustainer campaign is to track your campaign data for progress. By tracking your data, you’ll be able to determine if your sustainer program is growing fast enough to meet your campaign goals and see which elements of your campaign strategy need to be refined in order to continue your sustainer campaign’s growth. Monitor the success of different marketing efforts by how many signups they gain versus how many resources it costs your organization to use them to discover which strategies work best for your nonprofit.
Besides tracking your quantitative campaign data, you can also track qualitative data for your sustainer campaign by asking your new and current sustainers for feedback on your program. For your new sustainers, add a field into your donation form that asks where they found your organization and an optional field asking what drew them to your mission. For your current sustainers, send out an optional survey asking them what they love about your program and how you can improve.
Final Thoughts
Your sustainers are some of the most loyal donors you will have as a nonprofit, but finding them takes some work. However, optimizing your marketing strategy and your donation form eases the workload by incentivizing your sustainer program and making it easier for your supporters to give to your organization. Take these five tips and customize them for your nonprofit to grow your sustainer campaign!
Author: Megan Allison
Megan is a writer at Qgiv who takes pride in helping nonprofits. In her free time, she enjoys reading, music, and playing with her two cats.
Author: Megan Allison
Megan is a writer at Qgiv who takes pride in helping nonprofits. In her free time, she enjoys reading, music, and playing with her two cats.
About Qgiv
Qgiv is an online fundraising platform empowering over 20,000 nonprofit fundraisers to raise money for their causes. Through online giving and event registration forms, text fundraising, peer-to-peer fundraisers, and auction events, fundraisers can provide a more personalized giving experience for donors while keeping costs low. To learn more, visit www.qgiv.com.
About Qgiv
Qgiv is an online fundraising platform empowering over 20,000 nonprofit fundraisers to raise money for their causes. Through online giving and event registration forms, text fundraising, peer-to-peer fundraisers, and auction events, fundraisers can provide a more personalized giving experience for donors while keeping costs low. To learn more, visit www.qgiv.com.