Missions to Movements
This isn't just another nonprofit podcast - it's your weekly invitation to think bigger, take bold risks, and create lasting change in an ever-evolving social impact landscape. Meet Dana Snyder, your guide through the evolving landscape of nonprofit innovation. She's on a mission to help change-makers like you push the boundaries of what's possible in nonprofit marketing and fundraising. Each week, Missions to Movements serves as your personal mastermind session, delivering actionable insights and bold strategies that challenge traditional nonprofit thinking. Dive into revolutionary approaches to digital fundraising, discover how to build magnetic monthly giving programs that create lasting donor relationships, and learn to amplify your voice as a thought leader in the social good space. Whether you're reimagining your organization's impact or forging game-changing partnerships, you'll find the ideas, insights, and inspiration to take your mission further than you've ever imagined. Ready to turn your mission into a movement?
Missions to Movements
Want More Donors This Summer? Try These 5 Website Fixes to Spark Monthly Giving
I'm sharing five website tweaks I've discovered while working with eight organizations through VIP intensives since March. These simple changes can transform your website into a catalyst for evergreen monthly giving growth, even during the summer fundraising slump.
Book your VIP Intensive here.
• Make your homepage message unmistakably clear - ensure visitors immediately understand what you do, who you serve, and why it matters
• Create a dedicated monthly giving landing page that explains your program, builds community, and makes recurring support a no-brainer
• Add strategic pop-ups to your top five most-visited pages with urgent, emotional language specific to your cause
• Make your email signup irresistible by replacing generic "join our newsletter" language with compelling, mission-aligned messaging
• Clean out subscribers who haven't opened emails in 60+ days to improve deliverability and focus on truly engaged supporters
Don't buy into the myth of summer fundraising slumps! Giving Tuesday's Data Commons team reports consumer spending actually spikes during summer months, representing a potential 25% increase in giving worth $22.5 billion annually. Make your website work for you while you're on vacation!
If today's tips helped, send me a DM on Instagram or a quick note on LinkedIn to let me know what you're implementing.
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My book, The Monthly Giving Mastermind, is here! Grab a copy here and learn my framework to build, grow, and sustain subscriptions for good.
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Hey there, it's Dana here. Welcome back to Missions to Movements. This is another quick fire, impromptu episode that I just felt inspired to record today. So it is literally being recorded today and uploaded live today, right before the July 4th holiday. So I hope you are staying cool and enjoying the summertime.
Speaker 1:And that's kind of what I wanted to talk about is this summertime slump period, so this might be a time where you're seeing fewer donations roll in, and that might be because you're just not asking. This isn't a big time of asks, but I have been working since March with eight different organizations through VIP intensives, so I've had eight VIP intensives and there's been some pretty consistent patterns that have emerged when I'm doing these intensives, and so I wanted to kind of break down five tips for you on how we can specifically refresh your website slight tweaks so that it's working harder for you year round, even during this summer period, and really can become the catalyst for evergreen monthly giving growth. So not that you have to send an email to get somebody to your website, but if someone is on your website, if they're landing there, are they inclined to give a recurring gift or do they leave right away, or do they maybe just give one time. So through these patterns, essentially over these VIP intensives in this episode, I wanted to break down the most important tweaks that you can really make this summer, maybe before you put that out of office on, to really kind of drive some evergreen gifts. So number one is to make your homepage message unmistakably clear. So when someone lands on your website, can they immediately understand what you do in the header before they even have to scroll specifically on mobile. Do they know what you do? Do they know who you serve? Do they know why it matters? Or is your language too broad? So too many homepages, I've realized, are reading like they could belong to a dozen other organizations, and I know this might be hard to hear because you're like, wait, but our mission does, and okay, but you know that, but the person landing on your page doesn't.
Speaker 1:So what makes your specific work unique? Super important Is the option of monthly giving, visible right away. Is it in that top header? Does it have its own button? Is there a banner If you have a donation form right on your homepage? So not just a button, but an actual form. Is monthly giving an obvious choice? Is the value proposition there of why to give.
Speaker 1:So an example of a recent episode I just had Kate on from the Trevor Project and she shared that adding this one line of text to their donation form, which was monthly giving, powers our work. That line, that tiny change, led to a 50% increase in monthly donations Wild right. So do we want to call out the fact that this is what powers your work, that it's so important? Number one is is your messaging unmistakably clear and distinct to you? Tip number two is do you have and you've heard me probably say this before if you listen to other episodes do you have, a specific monthly giving landing page? So does your website have a dedicated page that explains your monthly giving community and program, what it's called, why it exists, what you as the supporter make possible through this gift? This is your space, this is your real estate to cast the vision, build that sense of community, tell people why monthly donors matter so much to your mission. This is not just a button, this is not just a form. This is a space where you're building that capacity to be able to showcase what the mission does. So when someone always asks me do I really need a separate monthly giving page? Yes, because just like how we are on sales pages sometimes of purchasing. We want all the information, so make it a no brainer for people to support your organization.
Speaker 1:Tip number three adding a pop-up to your top pages. So this is something I just went through with an organization during a VIP intensive that I'm working with them on is check your Google Analytics and find what are your top five most visited pages. Oftentimes it might be a blog post that you have, maybe it's your about page or it's your team page, like you might be surprised what your top five pages are, and then ask is there a donation ask on this page? Is there a way for someone to give? Pop-ups are an easy win opportunity to grab somebody's attention, especially if they're scrolling. Whatever, you can set your pop-up parameters to be where they pop up at 30% scrolling or this many seconds.
Speaker 1:But what's really crucial is you want to ditch the generic language. We want to make it feel urgent, we want to make it feel emotional and we want to make it feel on brand to your cause. So I am loving working with the Woodhull Freedom Foundation shout out to that team and I was working on rewriting or really creating their pop-up copy, so I wanted to share this example with you just to showcase how it's not basic at all, very specific to them. So the header will say freedom needs funding Super clear, bold. The body copy says we're up against policies and platforms threatening basic rights. Monthly donors and the Vanguard Society help us resist, respond and protect what matters every day. So it is showcasing a little bit what their mission is. It says the name of the monthly giving program and what you're helping to do and the call to action button says yes, I'm in. So intent, powerful, right. So think about what could your pop-up say to move someone to action.
Speaker 1:Tip number four is make your email list sign up irresistible. So oftentimes on websites I've been realizing the join at the bottom in the footer. Normally there's an area where somebody can sign up for your newsletter and it quite literally says that Join our newsletter, sign up for our email list. And I'm not sure how active yours is on people actually doing that if that is the language. But I don't join those typically because it sounds pretty boring. Join our newsletter. Well, what am I going to get? What's it about? Why would I join this? So for Woodhull, we wanted to create some really compelling language. No one wants another newsletter. Let's retire the statement, join our newsletter. So for them.
Speaker 1:The header says the resistance has a mailing list. Oh, that just gets me like so fired up to say that. The body says sign up for news, action alerts and bold ideas for building a future rooted in freedom and justice, and then the button says join in. That is bold, it is clear, it speaks to belonging and that's what we want. So how can you make that copy more powerful? Test it, watch it over two months time and see how it differs from your previous conversion on that form.
Speaker 1:Okay, last tip, we are at number five Clean out your email list. So I just did a campaign. The team and the email open rates were super low, and so we want to revitalize that list. We want it to showcase a higher open rate. We want to get rid of people that are just really drawing the list down. So if people have not opened your emails in over 60 days 60 days plus it is time to remove them, because they are just dragging down that email open rate and they hurt the deliverability of your emails. So we really want to focus on building a list of engaged supporters that doesn't have to be a big one. Who are the engaged people that are actually going to take action? So here's the kind of like kicker to all of this and why I'm sharing this now.
Speaker 1:We know that traditionally there's been a lull in giving during summer months, but Giving Tuesday's Data Commons team tells us that there's a major missed opportunity here. If we look at consumer retail spending during June, july, august, it actually spikes. There's a bump right now. Why? Well, think about the text messages or the emails or the direct mail pieces you're getting right now from those businesses. There's July 4 sales. There's going to be Labor Day sales. There's vacations happening. Naturally, there's been a consumer bump in the past, so usually that is a pretty consistent trend. So what if we leaned into making an ask during this time? If you do, giving Tuesday has projected there's a potential for a 25% increase in giving during the summer. That represents an annual impact of $22.5 billion yes, billion with a B.
Speaker 1:So let's not go quiet. Your website, your emails, the pop-ups they can be all part of a system that captures attention now, not just in December, but right now. Not just in December, but right now. Go on vacation, but make your site work for you when you're not there. So if today's tips helped I hope they did I love to hear from you. Send me a DM on Instagram or a quick note on LinkedIn and let me know what you're implementing, let me know what you think. I hope you stay cool out there, inspired by what everyone's doing in the space right now, and I will see you officially with an episode on Wednesday. Hope you're having a great summer.
