Mistakes Every Leader Needs to AVOID
Last year, I published a Wave Report titled "6 Recurring Giving Mistakes Every Leader Should Avoid." I must have gotten really into the flow, and ended up listing ten mistakes. I didn’t catch it, and the piece went out. Oh, the irony – an article about mistakes to avoid, and there it was, a mistake right in the title. 🤦♂️
So consider this the corrected edition – same hard-won lessons, right number this time.
Charity leaders are leaving real money on the table without realizing it.
Over the past twenty years, I've worked with, spoken to, or advised thousands of nonprofit leaders. One thing I've learned is that every area of fundraising is its own deep rabbit hole. Major gifts, grants and foundations, corporate and church relations, single-gift and recurring giving – each is a sophisticated discipline that rewards deep expertise over time.
I've spent thousands of those hours specifically on recurring giving.
So today, let's walk through ten of the most common mistakes I see leaders make when building and growing their recurring giving programs – and how to avoid them.
Mistake 1: Not making it a priority.
The biggest mistake I see is leaders not prioritizing sustainable giving high enough in the organization. Should recurring giving be the #1 fundraising priority for every organization? No. But if it isn't a top-three priority, it won't get the attention and resources it needs to truly accelerate.
There's also a not-insignificant amount of evidence that charities that prioritize sustainer giving above other channels tend to grow the fastest. I call this a sustainer-first mindset, and I unpack it in Chapter 15 of The Rise of Sustainable Giving.
💡 Takeaway: If recurring giving isn't a top-three priority, it will be difficult to get the resources and attention needed to capitalize on the opportunity.
Mistake 2: Focusing on acquisition when the focus should be on conversion.
When it comes to growing the number of recurring donors, organizations are typically either acquisition-focused or conversion-focused.
Acquisition-focused orgs bring in new recurring donors from their very first gift. Conversion-focused orgs focus on converting existing single-gift donors into recurring donors.
In my experience, only a minority of organizations are truly wired to grow through acquisition. If you're pushing acquisition when you should be converting, you could be wasting significant effort and resources. Some clues that you should be focused on conversion: a solid existing donor file, a healthy source of one-time donor acquisition, real opportunities to reach those donors, and a sustainer offer that takes a little more understanding and commitment.
💡 Takeaway: Focusing on the wrong growth path for your program is a costly mistake. Consider whether your best opportunity is acquiring new sustainers or converting existing donors.
Mistake 3: Focusing on conversion when the focus should be on acquisition.
The inverse is just as common. Some organizations have exactly the offer, program, and channels to acquire new recurring donors from a first gift – and instead spend their energy trying to convert.
Some clues you should be acquisition-focused: your value proposition has broad appeal, addresses a highly visible need, offers a clear and easily understood solution, and justifies ongoing giving.
💡 Takeaway: Organizations with a visible need, broad appeal, and an easily understood solution that justifies ongoing giving should lean into acquiring new recurring donors directly.
Mistake 4: Lumping single-gift and recurring giving together.
One of the most common mistakes I see is treating the sustainer program as a bolt-on to the general mass-fundraising program.
Recurring giving is far more than a transaction type. At the organizations where it's most robust, it's treated as a holistic program – and the strategies and tactics to grow it differ meaningfully from single-gift fundraising.
Your recurring giving program deserves to be treated the way you'd treat a major gifts program or a grants and foundations program: as a distinct, valuable way for donors to engage with your cause.
💡 Takeaway: Your sustainer program should be treated internally as one of your core revenue-driving programs, alongside major gifts, single-gift fundraising, grants and foundations, and the rest.
Mistake 5: Not assigning clear responsibility.
When we begin our deep-dive Sustainable Giving Growth Assessment, one of the first questions I ask is who is responsible for growing recurring giving. If the answer is "everyone" or "it's a shared responsibility," then the real answer is that no one is responsible.
There are too many competing priorities for a program this important to let it fall through the cracks. And without a clear owner, recurring giving loses the internal advocate it needs.
💡 Takeaway: One person should feel the weight of responsibility and accountability for growing sustainable giving – even if it's not their only job.
Mistake 6: Not equipping those responsible.
If an organization is wise enough to assign someone to recurring giving, the next mistake is failing to equip that person to succeed. It usually shows up in one of four ways:
They lack expertise. They're new to the deep rabbit hole of recurring giving, or new to fundraising altogether.
They lack time. They have so many other demands that they own recurring giving in name only.
They lack influence. They can make recommendations but don't have the authority to make things happen.
They lack resources. They don't have the budget, people, or support to pursue the opportunities in front of them.
The good news is that each of these is more solvable than it looks:
Lacking expertise – Exposure to good teaching is powerful. Subscribe to newsletters (like The Wave Report), send them to a conference with a strong content reputation, invest in coaching, and put a copy of the book in their hands.
Lacking time – Time is usually found by re-prioritizing, either shifting tasks to others or moving recurring giving up the list.
Lacking influence – This is more nuanced. Their leader either needs to grant that authority or formally expand their role.
Lacking resources – Resourcing should follow the priority level and the ROI of growing the program. And sometimes the highest-leverage resource is outside expertise – an advisor who can help you move faster than you would on your own.
💡 Takeaway: Equip the person responsible for recurring giving with coaching, capacity, resources, and the authority to advocate for and grow the program.
Mistake 7: Burying the program.
Not long ago, a charity told me their recurring giving program was very important to them. But when I went to their website, I couldn't find it – not on the home page, not in the main giving navigation. I eventually located it on a third-level dropdown, where it turned out to be the regular single-gift form with the monthly option toggled on.
If growing recurring giving matters to you, it should be prominently featured across every channel. For too many nonprofits, it's all but invisible to donors – buried in communications, rarely mentioned, absent from onboarding, and surfaced maybe once a year.
💡 Takeaway: Is recurring giving featured prominently across all channels, year-round? Are you proud of your program, or is it treated as a secondary option to one-time giving?
Mistake 8: Not building a program.
Many nonprofits still treat recurring giving as a checkbox – something a donor can opt into once they've decided to give.
A true sustainable giving program goes well beyond that. It has a strong offer with an ongoing value proposition, a branded identity (a name, a visual identity, clear messaging), a pricing strategy that maximizes donor value, incentives for action, program benefits, an intentional onboarding experience, and ongoing cultivation – including upgrades and additional single-gift asks.
That may sound like a lot. It's exactly why resourcing the program matters.
💡 Takeaway: Recurring giving is more than a one-time ask made monthly, or a checkbox on a form. It's a holistic program that creates significant ongoing value for both the organization and the donor.
Mistake 9: Not growing giving from existing sustainers.
This is the thread I've been pulling on all summer, because it may be the most overlooked opportunity of them all: your recurring donors are worth more than you think.
Consider this – roughly 97% of the value of a sustaining donor comes after their first recurring gift. Sit with that for a moment. The vast majority of the value from your recurring donors is still ahead of you. If you truly believed that, how might it change the way you treat and cultivate them?
In The Rise of Sustainable Giving, I unpack four ways to grow giving from the sustainers you already have, beyond additional single gifts: increasing the gift amount, upgrading the payment method, moving into mid- and major-level giving, and, ultimately, the legacy gift.
Most charities I know are focused on acquiring or converting donors to recurring – and then, once those donors are on file, giving them very little attention. If you were a business owner and knew that 97% of a customer's value came after their first purchase, how differently would you treat them?
💡 Takeaway: Most of the value in your recurring donors is unlocked after the first gift – through their ongoing giving, additional gifts, larger amounts over time, more reliable payment methods, and legacy giving.
Mistake 10: Not knowing the numbers.
When I speak at events, or talk with leaders interested in working with us, one of the first things I ask is two questions: how many and how much? How many active recurring donors do you have today, and how much are they giving monthly and annually?
You can't get to where you want to go until you know where you stand. I quote my mentor and friend Bobb Biehl often – Bobb has mentored more than 5,000 executives over 50-plus years. He once told me, on the subject of boards: "Dave, boards fundamentally want to know two things – first, does leadership know what's going on, and second, do they have a plan to do something about it?"
Do you know what's going on in your recurring giving program?
💡 Takeaway: You have to understand where you are today. The four core recurring giving metrics are 1) number of recurring donors, 2) how much they give monthly and annually, 3) what percentage of your overall giving is recurring, and 4) the long-term value of recurring donors. In Chapter 20 of the book, I unpack twelve metrics, from beginner to advanced.
I'm optimistic about the future of recurring giving. Never before have more charities been more able to build a strong, growing source of sustainable recurring giving.
The subscription economy paved the way – first reshaping how we consume, and now reshaping how we give, particularly in North America.
I wrote The Rise of Sustainable Giving to shine a light on these shifts and help leaders everywhere grow generosity by seizing the opportunity in recurring giving. If you haven't picked up a copy yet, you can grab the book or the new audiobook edition.
And if there's someone you know who'd benefit – a fellow leader, a pastor, a colleague – don't hesitate to grab an extra copy for them.
Until next week… Surf's Up! 🌊
- Dave
P.S. If your organization already has an established base of recurring donors and you're ready to map your next moves for growth, that's exactly what we do through our Sustainable Giving Growth Advisory – an Assessment and Roadmap built around your program. You can learn more at sustainablegiving.org/grow.