How to Increase Recurring Donations (What Actually Works)

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Recurring donations are the single best thing that can happen to a nonprofit's budget. A donor who gives $25/month is worth $300/year, and they're far more likely to keep giving year after year than someone who makes a one-time gift.

After working with nonprofits for over a decade, I've seen what actually moves the needle on recurring giving. Here's what works and what doesn't.

The basics that most nonprofits skip

Make monthly giving the default option

This sounds obvious, but most donation forms default to "one-time" with a small "make this recurring" checkbox that donors overlook. The platforms that do this best (Donorbox and GiveButter) let you set recurring as the default option on your form.

In my experience, switching the default from one-time to monthly increases recurring donor rates by 20-30%. That's the single biggest lever you can pull.

Suggest specific monthly amounts

Don't just say "give monthly." Give donors a reason to pick a number:

$10/month provides school supplies for one student all year
$25/month feeds a family of four for a week
$50/month sponsors an after-school program spot

When donors see what their money does at a specific amount, they're more likely to commit.

Make it easy to manage

Donors who can't easily update their payment method, change their amount, or cancel will just call their bank instead. That's a terrible experience and you lose the donor forever.

Donorbox has the best donor self-service portal I've tested. Donors can log in, see their giving history, and manage their recurring gifts without emailing your team. GiveButter also handles this well.

What I've seen work in practice

The "founding member" approach

One organization I worked with launched their monthly giving program as a "Founding Supporters Circle." The first 100 monthly donors got their name on the website and a handwritten thank-you note. They hit 100 in six weeks.

The key wasn't the perks. It was the urgency and exclusivity. "Be one of our first 100 monthly supporters" is more compelling than "sign up for monthly giving."

The year-end conversion

December is when most one-time donors give. It's also your best chance to convert them. The approach that works: after a donor makes a one-time gift in December, send them an email in January that says:

"You donated $100 in December. Thank you. Would you consider giving $10/month instead? That's actually $120/year, and it helps us plan ahead."

The key insight: $10/month feels smaller than $100 even though it's more annually. And the donor already trusts you because they just gave.

The right platform matters

Not all donation platforms handle recurring giving equally:

Donorbox has the most flexible scheduling: monthly, quarterly, annual, or custom intervals. Best for organizations with sophisticated sustainer programs.
GiveButter offers solid recurring options for free, which makes it the best starting point for organizations just launching a monthly giving program.
Bloomerang connects recurring giving to donor engagement data, so you can see which recurring donors are at risk of canceling.

What doesn't work

Guilting people into monthly giving. Urgency works. Guilt doesn't.
Hiding the cancel button. This destroys trust. Make cancellation easy.
Ignoring recurring donors. They shouldn't only hear from you when you want more money. Send updates, impact reports, and thank-you notes.

Start somewhere

If you don't have a monthly giving program yet, just set one up. Don't wait for the perfect launch or the perfect platform. Pick a tool, put a recurring form on your website, and start asking.

You can always optimize later. But you can't optimize what doesn't exist.

Set up recurring giving with Donorbox