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
2026 Monthly Giving Prediction #3: Pause Isn’t Failure - Flexibility Becomes Non-Negotiable
Donor flexibility is the quiet superpower of retention - and it’s about to become non-negotiable.
We dig into why giving supporters control to pause, downgrade, skip, or shift billing dates doesn’t fuel cancellations; it prevents them.
Pulling lessons from the subscription world and real stories that celebrate customer milestones, we translate those insights into practical steps any nonprofit can take to keep monthly givers connected through life’s ups and downs.
If you’re ready to reduce churn, lift lifetime value, and build trust that lasts, this conversation will give you the blueprint.
Subscribe, share this with a colleague who manages recurring giving, and leave a review with one change you’ll make to your donor portal this quarter.
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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.
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Welcome back to Missions to Movements. Today's prediction is, I think, a little juicy, very important, and I think maybe the most overlooked in our sector. And that is in 2026, donor flexibility becomes a non-negotiable. Welcome back to my 2026 monthly Giving Six Predictions for the Year. And we are in prediction number three. If you are wondering what number one and number two are, you can go back to the previous two bonus episodes. And then the first episode of the year on January 7th was the overview, kind of highlight to the signals, the data, the reasoning for why these predictions are to be. So if you want some context, go back and listen to the episode released on Wednesday, January 7th, if I have my days right. So in prediction number three, pausing is not a failure. Flexibility becomes a non-negotiable. And in the subscription economy, it was this stat that I read from the recurly state of subscriptions data, which is when subscribers were offered a pause option, over half stayed instead of canceling. Wild or not. Is it? Think about our own behavior with these things. If we're pausing, is it about the money? Is it about the value? Is it about the trust that's happening? What happens when they leave? And what happens when donors actually do cancel? Because I would wager that most donors don't leave because they stop caring. They don't leave, they don't stop giving monthly because they stop caring. They're leaving because either life got too expensive, oftentimes, a lot of times, credit cards expire. So if you can, anytime you can, ask people to switch to direct, like ACH payments, debit payments, something unexpected happened. But if the only option when those things arise is to cancel, then yeah, they'll probably leave entirely. And I was reading an example the other day on LinkedIn that I have pulled up that was about Bobby. Bobby is a subscription formula. I used it for my daughter Kennedy when she was a baby. After she was about like, I think she was like nine months old or something, we started to get her on formula. And this LinkedIn post is referencing when her youngest turned one, she canceled her subscription to Bobby. And instead of getting a we're sorry to see you go email or discount code to try and get her back, Bobby did something which she noted is remarkable. They threw her a graduation party, a full digital celebration. There's a diploma, confetti, a message that said you did it, the bottle shaking, the nooks and crannies, plastic parts cleaning, which my goodness. I remember those days of cleaning bottles, and that is so true. The temp adjusting, late night snuggling, and obsessive poop color checking. This moment is for you. Like that copy, it was so good. It's so good. It's so right. It's so in the moment of what this person is going for. And I love this. That same thing with your monthly donors. We should celebrate the impact that they've made instead of going immediately into like transaction mode of, oh, wait, let me get your gift back. And if the only option that we're giving them is to cancel, then yeah, they're probably gonna go with that if there's something going on in their life instead of a pause, instead of maybe a downgrade. And I think what flexibility does in this case is it builds trust. I will never forget back in the day when I used to give to one of like the child sponsorship programs, and you had to call on the phone and it was like turned into this like very forceful kind of conversation and felt a little icky. And that is not how it should be. Flexibility builds trust, whether it's to pause a gift, reduce a gift, skip a month, move a billing date, these aren't weaknesses that somebody is choosing. They're saying we trust you, I trust you. I want, and you are saying, I want you here when you can be. And that's what keeps people connected long term. So, what does this mean practically? In 2026, this year, what I would recommend is audit your donation platforms. Look at your donor portals. What do they look like? What do they feel like? Do they feel transactional? Are there these options? Which one stands out the most? Push your platforms to improve this area or move. Or is there an AI tool that you can build that can help curtail some of this? And if you can't switch complete platforms, also, how can we normalize pause language in donor care or downgrade option? Instead of flexibility feeling like churn, how do we just like reframe that? Flexibility doesn't increase cancellations, it prevents them. Let me say that again because this is so huge. Having flexibility in your donor portal for the donor to take control will not increase your cancellations. It will prevent them. And so the reflection question for today's episode is if a donor needed some grace today, would your system as it stands in this moment offer it or would it push them away to cancel? Would it create a bad feeling? Would it create that ickiness? So make a note, check your donor portals, what options are available, message your tech team, right? AI is crazy these days, or is there something that can be built? What emails are sent right now when someone cancels pauses or downgrades? Is there an email that's sent right now? How does that look? How does that feel? Okay, so this is a big one to look at, to audit, to assess, because when we look at our retention rates, I think so much of this, we want to keep people once they're in. And so by giving this flexibility, I think we can see even higher retention rates than we have right now. I mean, our space is an anomaly. Like Bobby has a formula. There is a reason why somebody is ending their child is in a certain age, they don't need formula anymore. The average retention rate for somebody there is probably a year, and that's about it. We have an average retention rate of eight years. Like we are so beyond anything that the subscription spaces. I mean, obviously, except for probably some entertainment subscriptions that we've had forever, talking about myself and Netflix. But all I mean, yeah. And our bills that are monthly. Anyways, you get the point I'm trying to make. In the next episode, in prediction number four, we are going to talk about the quiet force changing donor retention behind the scenes. And that is AI, kind of just teased it a little bit in this episode, but AI powered donor care and why I think it's becoming essential and not optional. Um, we are coming closer and closer to the monthly giving summit. If you have not already RSVP'd, I am hoping to sound semi-like a broken record at this point, but it is honestly my favorite event. Our goal is 7,000 of you from all over the world to talk about monthly giving, to grow monthly giving, to celebrate what we're doing together. Monthlygiving summit.com. I hope to see you there. And I will see you in the next episode for prediction number four.
