The Ultimate Guide to Upgrading Your Recurring Donors

A shiny golden gift box with a shiny golden bow is set against a midnight blue background studded with golden circles and sparkles.

Erin Booker

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November 1, 2024

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4 minutes

Nonprofit Trends

How To Nonprofit

This article is part of a series

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Pop quiz time! What's one of the easiest ways to increase your fundraising revenue?

Answer: Ask your recurring donors to increase their monthly gift amount!

This is one of the easiest and most effective asks you’ll make to a donor segment. Your current donors are already loyal, happy givers to your nonprofit. Asking them to increase their gift by a small amount adds up and has the added benefit of showing you who your most dedicated supporters are. Let’s talk about the logistics and considerations for successfully upgrading your recurring donors.

When should I upgrade recurring donors?

This is the question on everyone’s mind! As you know, a donor of any kind is at their most engaged right after they make a donation. This means that they're more likely to make another gift sooner when asked or take further engagement action like attending an event or volunteering. But, becoming a recurring donor is a big leap in financial commitment... so is asking a new recurring donor to upgrade their gift within a few weeks too soon? Probably.

Generally, nonprofit fundraising experts say the best time to upgrade your recurring donors is 9 to 12 months after they join your monthly program. What this means for you is that you might be running upgrade campaigns on a rolling basis and not using a traditional appeal or campaign model.

Or you could choose to run an annual upgrade campaign and suppress donors who have recently become recurring donors.

But let us float an alternative: Give your entire recurring donation program an upgrade and start the recurring conversation from the beginning. Funraise's Recurring Upgrade feature gives one-time donors the opportunity to upgrade at the time of their initial donation. Recurring Upgrade automatically suggests a monthly donation option to one-time donors giving less than $100. Funraise customers can add this feature to any giving form with a simple on/off toggle.

And we know you know that Funraise's donation form has an astounding 50% conversion rate. So combining this high-performing donation form with a Recurring Upgrade tool is bound to result in more recurring donors.

So when's the best time to upgrade recurring donors? We'd say from the very start.

What are the benefits of upgrading recurring donors?

Upgrading your recurring donor base to increase their monthly contributions is a quietly effective way to significantly boost your nonprofit's financial stability and impact. Here are a few of the key benefits of encouraging your existing monthly or annual donors to give more:

Increased real and potential revenue
Cost-effective fundraising
Deepened donor loyalty
Increased impact
Program protection

Increased revenue and potential for additional giving

Higher monthly donations lead to a substantial increase in annual revenue without the need to acquire prospective donors. Plus, upgraded donors are more likely to make additional one-time gifts or participate in other fundraising movements.

Cost-effective fundraising efforts

Upgrading existing donors is less expensive than acquiring new ones, improving overall fundraising efficiency.

Enhanced donor loyalty

Regular donors who increase their giving often feel more invested in the organization's mission, leading to longer-term commitment.

Greater impact

Larger monthly gifts allow nonprofits to expand their programs and services, creating a more significant impact on their cause.

Improved program security

Higher recurring donations provide more predictable income, enabling better long-term budgeting and strategic planning so that your programming has a better chance of sticking around for a good long while.

By focusing on upgrading recurring donors, your nonprofit can maximize the value of your existing supporter base while strengthening relationships with your most committed advocates. This is a strategy that not only boosts financial resources but also cultivates a community of highly engaged, dedicated donors who are deeply invested in the organization's success. Seems like a slam dunk to us.

How do I ask recurring donors to upgrade their gift?

Let automation do the heavy lifting for you! As we noted above, your recurring donor upgrades can be done on a rolling basis, meaning you have year-round opportunities to increase the revenue from your recurring donor list. Awesome, right? This is where automation becomes your BFF.

Automated emails usually trigger through your CRM. Essentially, these are emails slated to go out to contacts who meet certain criteria at a certain time. In the case of recurring donors, an example of this criteria is a contact who 1) is a recurring donor and 2) has been a recurring donor for 9 months.

You would set up a corresponding email to be automatically sent once a contact meets these criteria. No running reports or having to press send daily. It all happens behind the scenes once you’ve done the setup work.

If automation isn’t in the cards for your nonprofit (which P.S. it’s something worth considering), you may put together a one-time email or direct mail letter to send out to your loyal donors to ask for the upgrade.

How much upgrade should you ask for?

One of the fundamentals of fundraising is that a specific dollar amount ask is always more effective than a generic ask. This means suggesting how much the donor should give instead of saying, “please donate today.” You definitely will raise more money by asking for specific amounts from donors; the same principle applies to your recurring donors.

When you're ready to upgrade your recurring donors, set up an ask array based on segments of recurring giving. This will make it easier to customize the ask in each letter or email you send.

Here’s an example of what we’re talking about:

Monthly donors currently giving $1 to $20 a month → $5 upgrade ask

Monthly donors currently giving $21 to $40 a month → $10 upgrade ask

Monthly donors currently giving $41 to $75 a month → $15 upgrade ask

Suggested Upgrade Amounts for Recurring Donors

Bonus! Funraise's fundraising and donor management platform offers machine learning that's designed to help you provide the right ask array to the right donor at the right time in the right place. Using donor activity-based signals and custom links, donation forms, and text messages, you can make upgrading an easy and obvious YES for your valuable recurring subscribers.

Which donors should I ask to upgrade?

Now the fun begins! Take a look in your donor database and let's get to segmenting!

Before we dig in, though, let's discuss the process of this stats shoveling. What information are you looking at, through what lens, and how can you best use the resources at your disposal?

Funraise customers have access to a state-of-the-art reporting system called Fundraising Intelligence, an advanced feature offering configurable nonprofit data reports and the most valuable toolkit for data-driven strategies. When comparing Funraise customers who have accounts with our Fundraising Intelligence features and those who don’t, the results show how valuable it can be with regard to recurring donors: Funraise customers who use Fundraising Intelligence grow recurring revenue 1.5x faster year over year on average

1. Upgrade repeat donors

First, break out current recurring donors from your one-time non-recurring donors. Then, zoom into the one-time donors to pull out supporters who have donated more than once. Definitely make an appeal to this entire list—they've already shown repeat support, the seeds of an investment in your mission.

2. Maximize current recurring donors

Back to the current recurring donors! Ideally, you'd try to upgrade them all, but let's be real; some of the folks on this list are major donors or board members or otherwise are already invested in your mission. You still want to get them to deepen their relationship with your nonprofit organization, but your fundraising team and development team (shout out!) likely have them in specialized donor journeys, funnels, or moves management programs.

Pull out all of the major donors, corporate sponsors, board and committee members, event hosts, in-kind volunteers, and members at the highest level of your monthly giving program. This is your second outreach list.

You can break down these lists any way that makes sense for your campaigns, comms team, and fundraising strategy, but these are your "Who". Focus on these two groups.

What tool is best to upgrade recurring donors?

If you're looking for a recurring giving platform that gives you robust, effective donor experiences and tech tools to make your online donation form perform even better, you need to check out Funraise. You get the best technology, the coolest tools, and a giving experience that your donors will love—all in a donation platform that's made just for nonprofits.

Bonus! Funraise has the industry's most impressive donation form conversion rate: 50%. When website visitors interact with one of Funraise's online donation forms, they complete a donation 50% of the time. And when you prioritize recurring giving, believe that subscription conversion rate goes up, too.

More Tips to Make Your Upgrade Appeal a Success

Before we leave you to conquer the world of recurring donor upgrades, we have a few final tips for you.

Make it as easy as possible for someone to upgrade their gift. Being able to do this with minimal clicks online is great. Having someone call your office may be a higher bar that impacts conversion.
Thank your donors well! Retention for recurring donors tends to be high and you want to keep it that way. Do something a little special to say thanks for their increased commitment to your cause.

Upgrading your recurring donors is a low-hanging fruit fundraising initiative that you need to put on your docket ASAP. These small upgrades really do add up and mean that your nonprofit can keep doing its amazing work.

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Upgrading recurring donors FAQ

How can I encourage recurring donations?

To encourage recurring donations, make monthly giving the default option on your donation form. Build emotional connections with supporters through personalized messaging and storytelling so that donors are invested in ongoing impact. Offer exclusive incentives for monthly program memberships, such as branded merchandise or VIP event access. Provide regular updates on gift impact to maintain engagement and demonstrate value.

What are recurring donations?

Recurring donations are automated, regular contributions to a nonprofit, typically made monthly. Donors agree to have a set amount automatically charged to their credit card or bank account on a recurring basis. This provides nonprofits with a steady, predictable income stream and offers donors a convenient way to support causes they care about.

What is the value of recurring donations?

Recurring donations provide nonprofits with a stable, predictable income stream, enabling better budgeting and long-term planning. They reduce fundraising costs and increase donor retention. For donors, recurring gifts offer a convenient way to make a significant impact over time. Studies show recurring donors give up to 42% more annually than one-time donors.

How do you maximize recurring donations?

To maximize recurring donations, optimize your donation page for monthly giving options. Implement personalized communication strategies to build emotional connections with donors. Offer exclusive perks for recurring donors. Regularly share impact stories and updates. Use segmentation to tailor outreach and upgrade requests. Highlight the long-term impact of sustained giving on your mission.

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Rock on with recurring giving