Missions to Movements
Missions to Movements is the nonprofit marketing and fundraising podcast that helps you grow recurring donors, scale monthly giving programs, and build digital campaigns that convert.
Hosted by Dana Snyder—speaker, strategist, and founder of Positive Equation—this show is packed with actionable nonprofit growth strategies, social media tips, and fundraising best practices.
Each week, you’ll hear how organizations are increasing donor retention, building thought leadership, and using digital fundraising to drive real impact. If you want to learn how to attract monthly donors, master nonprofit marketing, and transform your mission into a movement, this podcast is for you.
Missions to Movements
A Subscription-Economy Lens on Monthly Giving (And What It Means For 2026)
We’ve officially entered what I’m calling the retention era. Recurring GivingTuesday gifts are growing year over year, and nonprofit benchmarks are showing 80%+ retention rates for monthly donors.
In this solo episode, I’m breaking down three powerful signals that are shaping monthly giving RIGHT NOW across the subscription economy and in the nonprofit sector.
I’m covering Recurly’s 2025 State of Subscriptions analysis of 67 million subscribers, including what brands are doing to combat slow acquisition and churn, and the GivingTuesday trends emerging around mobile-first, recurring signups.
This conversation sets the foundation for the next few episodes, where I’ll share my 2026 monthly giving predictions.
Resources & Links
Check out Recurly’s 2025 State of Subscriptions report.
LettrLabs is the proud presenter of Missions to Movements.
LettrLabs helps nonprofits build lasting donor relationships through real, handwritten mail that’s fully automated - turning moments of intent into meaningful connection. From thank-yous to impact updates, they help you cut through with mail donors actually open, remember, and trust.
Register now for the FREE Monthly Giving Summit on February 25-26th, the only virtual event where nonprofits unite to master monthly giving, attract committed believers, and fund the future with confidence.
The Mini Monthly Giving Mastermind: A high-touch Mini Mastermind + optional in-person retreat (May 6-8) for nonprofit leaders that have an existing monthly giving program and ready to take it to the next level with 1:1 and peer support. Apply now!
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Giving Tuesday is becoming one of the strongest recurring donor acquisition moments of the year across multiple platforms, across multiple partners. I have seen this. We are seeing overall higher conversion rates for recurring giving. We're seeing higher average gifts with recurring than usual. And we're seeing much, much stronger mobile behavior, which has been expected as the rise of forms being easier to use on mobile phones and a significant growth in recurring signups. These donors aren't just casually browsing, they're deciding. And these high-intent moments, like a Giving Tuesday, are exactly where these habits are being formed. Happy New Year and welcome back to Missions to Movements. If this is your first time listening, I'm your host, Dana Snyder. And I started this podcast four years ago, this year, for nonprofit professionals ready to amplify their presence, ditch the ordinary, be challenged by bold ideas, hear what's working from leaders and peers. So together, we are going to explore how you can revolutionize fundraising through digital innovation, creative storytelling, bold strategies, and dive deep into the power of monthly giving. We are going to build sustainable revenue together while fostering lasting donor relationships. You'll also learn how to elevate your personal brand, thought leadership, to stand out in this social goods space, create unique, impactful partnerships that truly amplify your mission and expand your reach. So, to kick off the year, I wanted to bring in some insights from a recent LinkedIn article I shared on my 2026 monthly giving predictions. What we've learned from Giving Tuesday, what have we learned from the subscription economy? So in this past year, if you have listened to anything I've talked about, this is going to kind of be like a kickstart to the new year. So I want to ground us in really talking about signals. Because before something becomes a quote unquote trend, it usually shows up quietly in behavior, in data, in patterns across different sectors at the same time. And so over the past year, I have been watching these two worlds very closely: the subscription economy and what monthly giving looks like inside our world of the nonprofit sector. Because here's the fact donors don't stop being consumers when they give, right? They bring the same expectations, psychology with them. And right now, both of these worlds are pointing to the same truth. We have entered the retention era. So signal number one for us is the subscription economy is maturing. So let's start outside the nonprofit world for a moment. Recurly is an incredible platform that tracks a ton of subscription data. And in their 2025 State of Subscriptions report, they analyzed 67 million subscribers. And what they found was striking. Subscriber acquisition rates dropped. And I mean significantly dropped over the last few years. It's not a blip. That's not a structural shift. But here's what mattered the most during this time. The subscription companies didn't really seem to panic. They responded by not shouting louder at chasing growth at all costs. They matured their model. And it looks like they asked: if it's harder to get new people in the door, how do we keep the right people longer? And the answer wasn't around pressure. It was this concept of retention first thinking, around flexible plans, the ability to pause options, personalization, how to rethink smarter retention systems. And how do we design for the renewal as just as important as the signup? And I think that mindset shift is so important because they weren't trying to squeeze the most out of people. It was truly about building trust. Okay. And so we always think about acquisition, but how do we think about retention in the forefront? Signal number two that came up Giving Tuesday is no longer just a one-day spike. Zooming back into our world, for a very long time, Giving Tuesday has been treated as this one-day fundraising moment. It's a spike, it's a surge, it's a big volume play. And it is, but this 2025 data tells us a much more interesting story. Giving Tuesday is becoming one of the strongest recurring donor acquisition moments of the year across multiple platforms, across multiple partners. I have seen this. We are seeing overall higher conversion rates for recurring giving. We're seeing higher average gifts with recurring than usual. And we're seeing much, much stronger mobile behavior, which has been expected as the rise of forms being easier to use on mobile phones, and a significant growth in recurring signups. These donors aren't just casually browsing, they're deciding. And these high intent moments, like a Giving Tuesday, are exactly where these habits are being formed. And what's especially telling is that Giving Tuesday gifts grew dramatically year over year, even when we've seen a pretty consistent one-time giving remaining relatively flat. I don't think that's a coincidence. I think that's behavior. And then signal number three is that recurring donors are proving their resilience. If you have looked at this in your own organization and across the sector, when you stack nonprofit benchmark data on top of this, the story is so clear. One time donor retention continues to struggle. Returning donor retention remains strong. I don't need to say the numbers. We know them, they're high, 80 plus percent. Monthly donors overflat, they just stay longer. They are giving more over time. And what they are truly doing is they are providing predictability in uncertain moments. And that is power. Monthly giving is not just outperforming, it is stabilizing relationships and organizations, which is why he keeps saying this: that monthly giving is no longer just a fundraising tactic. It is truly becoming infrastructure. So here's the thread. When I step back and I look at all of this, when we're looking at the subscription economy, when we're looking at Giving Tuesday behavior, when we're looking at what we're seeing from monthly giving benchmarks in our space, I don't see separate stories. I see one story that's showing up in two places. People are stretched, they are feeling overloaded, they are saying yes to fewer things. But when something feels manageable, when it feels meaningful, when it feels flexible, and when it truly feels aligned with who they are as a person and their beliefs, they stay. And that's the signal that I think sets the stage for 2026 in this retention era. So in this episode, my whole point was one thing to set the foundation. Because in the next few episodes, I am going to start to break down my 2026 monthly giving predictions for you one by one. These are not to be hype. They shouldn't create any fears or pressures, but as an invitation to, I hope, build programs that actually match how people are giving right now, how people are buying. So if you're planning your year, if you're setting up your goals, or you're rethinking maybe how monthly giving fits into your strategy, this next series is for you. And I hope to see you in the next episode to kick off the 2026 Monthly Giving Actions.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode of Missions to Movements. If you enjoyed our conversation and found it helpful, I would love for you to take a moment to leave a review wherever you're listening. Your feedback helps us reach more change makers like you and continue bringing impactful stories and strategies to the show. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button too so you'll never miss an episode. And until next time, keep turning your mission into a movement.
