Fundraising Update

Welcome to Fundraising Update. This week, we look at strategies to bolster monthly giving as a hedge against economic uncertainty. We also dig into Lambda Legal’s recent campaign, which exceeded its original fundraising goal by $105 million.

I’m Nicole Wallace, features editor at the Chronicle of Philanthropy. If you have ideas, comments, or questions about this newsletter, please write to me.

Thanks to our sponsor DonorPerfect for supporting Fundraising Update.

Nonprofits are facing a lot of financial pressure right now, chief among them federal funding cuts and the threat of a recession. Monthly giving can provide stability for your organization by creating a predictable and dependable revenue stream, reports my colleague Lisa Schohl.

Monthly donors tend to be easier — and cost less — to hang on to than other supporters. One study found that the retention rate for sustainers typically is around 90 percent, compared with an average rate of about 45 percent for all donors. “Even with the processing charges, at the end of the day, your costs to keep them active are so much lower because you’re not constantly renewing and resoliciting these donors,” says Alicia Meulensteen, director of nationwide membership at the American Civil Liberties Union.

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The ACLU has been heartened to see that many donors are choosing monthly giving in the current moment, despite the shaky economy. Those who are returning to the organization are becoming sustainers, and existing monthly donors are proactively upgrading their pledges, she says. “People already understand why it’s so important. They get it. They can see that we’re all in for a marathon and not a sprint. And I think ... that answers why they’re choosing monthly giving.”

There is a place for recurring support at every organization, no matter your mission, Meulensteen says. Even if it never becomes the biggest slice of your fundraising revenue, it can help you build a more consistent annual giving program and ensure your nonprofit keeps its mission alive through times of change and volatility.

The ACLU offers donors the option to give monthly “everywhere,” Meulensteen says.

“It’s rare that something goes out that doesn’t have an option for someone to choose monthly, even if it is ostensibly a one-time ask,” she says. Mailings and online donation forms, for example, always include a checkbox to give monthly, so people can easily become sustainers if they feel ready in that moment.

Even if a donor makes a one-time gift online, she says, the message they see afterward thanks them and asks if they are interested in switching to monthly giving.

At Rainforest Action Network, an advocacy group focused on climate change and deforestation, some tactics that help expand monthly giving seem counterintuitive, says development director Zanne Garland. For example, the organization has run digital ads promoting monthly giving, but those promotions attracted fewer new sustainers than ads focused on their mission. It’s more effective to ask donors to help make an impact, she says, and offer monthly giving as a very easy option or the default way to give.

For more advice on how to supercharge your monthly giving, read Lisa’s full story.

$105 Million
— How much the nonprofit Lambda Legal exceeded its fundraising goal

The nonprofit legal aid group Lambda Legal, which advocates for LGBTQ+ rights, has raised $285 million at a time when attacks on the rights of gay, intersex, and transgender people have again intensified, reports Thalia Beaty, who covers philanthropy for our partner the Associated Press.

Lambda Legal CEO Kevin Jennings announced the results on Thursday, saying the group exceeded its original fundraising goal by $105 million.

“I think this is a statement by the LGBTQ+ community that we will not go back,” said Jennings in an interview.

Jennings said since its founding in 1973, Lambda Legal had received three gifts of over $1 million. In this campaign, 14 individuals, two foundations, and one law firm gave at least $1 million, with several giving tens of millions, he said.

“It was really individuals in the community who stepped up and made this campaign happen,” he said. “It wasn’t corporations. It wasn’t law firms. It wasn’t foundations.”

To learn more about the campaign, read Thalia’s full story.

• How One Nonprofit Leader Makes Hard Choices After Federal Funding Cuts

  The Boston public broadcaster GBH has had to lay off more than 50 employees, in part because the organization expects its federal support could be zeroed out.

  Susan Goldberg, GBH’s president, told our colleague Alex Daniels that as a leader, it’s important to level with employees about the challenges the organization faces and how management is trying to solve them.

  “I try to provide a path forward, and that means not stopping everything,” she says. “Some things you might have to do more slowly, some things you may have to stop, but we do need to keep marching into the future as best as you can.”

  Read Alex’s interview for more on Goldberg’s insights on leading during difficult times.

Carole and Daniel Kamin gave $11.5 million to support free admission to the Heinz History Center and its Fort Pitt Museum, both in Pittsburgh, for children 17 and under, including school groups.

Daniel Kamin leads Kamin Realty Management, a commercial real-estate firm in Pittsburgh that was founded by his grandfather Herman Kamin in 1916. The couple have given significant sums to Pittsburgh-area nonprofits and appeared on the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 list in March for $90 million they gave to Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh.

For other notable gifts this week, read more in my colleague Maria Di Mento’s Gifts Roundup column. To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated regularly and has data going back to 2000.

7 Ways to Earn Foundations’ Trust and Win General Operating Support. Three experts explain how to get to know foundation program officers and best position your nonprofit to secure flexible funding.

Why the Quiet Collapse of a Crowdfunding Platform Should Alarm Philanthropy. Nonprofit crowdfunding platforms get money to the people and places big for-profit platforms ignore, but they need funding themselves to survive.

As many of the billionaire signers of the Giving Pledge die or approach the end of their lives, their children are seeking guidance and fellowship in the task of giving away trillions of dollars to charity, Bloomberg reports.

One outlet is the pledge’s Next Gen group, launched in 2014 with 24 members. It now counts 300 members who share the rare experience of growing up with vast wealth and being charged to give it away upon their parents’ deaths. Others are becoming more involved in their family’s philanthropy and thinking about how to ensure that future donations honor their parents’ legacies. (Bloomberg)