What If You're Not Asking Enough?

A while back, I was working with a charity to map out a focused recurring giving campaign. The plan called for eight or nine emails over about three weeks. For this charity, a leader in social services in Central Iowa called Hope Ministries, it was more emails than they had sent before.

You could feel the apprehension.

As Melissa Tagg, Marketing and Communications Manager, later put it on our podcast, "I was a little bit like, oh my goodness, how are our donors going to respond to this?"

Despite their reservations, Hope Ministries ran the campaign anyway. And the donors? In Melissa's words, "they responded wonderfully." New sustaining donors. One-time gifts, too. 

The effort went so well, they've run more campaigns since – with another already on the way. In just six months of working together, the organization had seen its annual recurring revenue grow 16%. 

This is not an uncommon question we hear from organizations – how often is too often to ask for monthly giving throughout the year?

It's a fair question, but I've come to believe it's the wrong one. The better question – the one almost no charity is asking – is this:

What are we missing by asking too little?

There are a few assumptions that I think keep leaders stuck. 

Assumption #1: More Frequency Feels Aggressive

Frequency is a question of relevance more than of quantity. The same organization that sends 14 direct mail pieces, 12 newsletters, and a weekly email – nearly all of it asking for single gifts – wonders whether 3-4 recurring giving campaigns in a year are too many. 

When we lay out a recurring giving plan – invite every new donor, keep something on the website year-round, run a handful of focused campaigns – we’ll sometimes get a version of: "Wait… you want us to do all of that?"

But step back and compare it to everything you're already doing. Frequency is relative. We're not talking about communicating more than you already communicate. We're talking about pointing a fraction of that existing energy toward the most valuable, most reliable kind of giving there is.

A handful of campaigns a year for recurring giving isn't aggressive – it's what’s missing for charities that say recurring is important, but their donors don’t know it because they never give donors enough chances to hear it.

💡 Takeaway: Before you decide recurring giving asks feel like "too much," consider how often you already ask for single gifts. Frequency is relative – and most charities have far more room than they think.

Assumption #2: More Asking Risks Fatigue

Another question I get is what about subscription fatigue – does that apply to donors as well? Subscription fatigue is a real phenomenon, and we’ve all felt it. The average American juggles about a dozen subscriptions, and apps like Rocket Money now nudge us to cancel the ones we've forgotten about.

So the logic goes: if people are tired of subscriptions, does that mean they get tired of being asked to give on a recurring basis?

The short answer is, recurring giving and subscriptions are not the same thing, and while people do tire of too many subscriptions, there is no evidence that they tire of doing too much good through recurring giving.

I’ve not seen a charity yet that pushed recurring giving so hard it found the ceiling. Most organizations aren't asking anywhere near too much – they're nowhere near their own single-gift cadence. You can't exhaust donors with a message you're barely sending.

As Kathy Coady, Chief Development Officer at Hope Ministries, reflected afterward, "Our partners and our donors are tolerant of more than we think they might be." 

Kathy’s right. We're usually the timid ones. The donors are usually fine.

💡 Takeaway: Subscription fatigue is real – but there's no evidence it extends to recurring giving. We haven’t seen a charity yet that talks about recurring giving enough to find its limit. You can't tire donors out with a message you're hardly sending.

What Under-Asking Actually Costs You

One element that I think gets missed is that the best campaigns rarely close the deal in the moment. 

What they do is build awareness and create demand. Choosing to give on a recurring basis is a big commitment, and it takes time to cultivate understanding and the belief that giving on an ongoing basis matters and makes a difference.

Donors likely won’t reply to the first couple of messages, or even the first couple of campaigns. Why? Because they aren’t ready. Our cultivation can help them grow in understanding and commitment.

When they are ready, what they need is a trigger. That’s what frequent communication can do for you. Consistency gives you the coverage to be there and be top of mind when the donor is ready. When that particular time or that particular reason resonates with that particular donor. 

The more consistently you show up across the year, the more likely you are to be there in the moment a donor is finally ready to act.

You're not creating the yes with any single ask. You're making sure you're standing there when the donor is ready to give it.

This is exactly what surprised the team at Hope Ministries. As Kathy put it, a year earlier they would have said "two messages is plenty, let's stop there" – and they'd have missed the best part of the campaign. "We can talk to people multiple times about something," she said, "and the momentum will build."

That's it. The momentum builds. But only if you're there to build it.

💡 Takeaway: Consistent asks build awareness and create demand. We can’t decide when donors are ready to commit to recurring giving, but we can consistently ask in a variety of ways and provide the triggers donors need to respond. Frequency is how you make sure you're present when it comes.

So How Often is "Enough"?

There isn’t a rigid formula – every organization is different, and most organizations are underdeveloped when it comes to asking for recurring gifts. 

As a starting point, here's the shape of a healthy recurring giving rhythm:

• Invite every new donor to make an ongoing impact through recurring giving within the first 30 days of their first gift, multiple times, both directly and indirectly. 

• Stay always-on. Keep recurring giving visible year-round – on your website, in your newsletter, woven into how you talk about impact.

• Run at least three or four focused outbound campaigns a year – each with a clear goal, a deadline, and fresh storytelling.

Notice that last detail. When Hope Ministries ran eight or nine emails in three weeks, they weren't resending the same message over and over. 

As Melissa said, "You're mixing it up – you might be telling stories, you might be providing updates." Frequency without freshness is noise. Frequency with fresh, specific, deadline-driven storytelling is momentum.

If you’d like to listen to the episode with Melissa and Kathy from Hope Ministries on the Sustainable Giving Podcast, you can see that here:

Sustainable Giving Podcast S3:E3From Seasonal Generosity to Steady Support: How a Rescue Mission Grew w/ Sustainable Giving

The Proof is Already Out There

If you're still nervous, look at the organizations that arguably over-indexed on recurring giving for years – even decades.

Charity: water built The Spring into tens of thousands of monthly donors giving tens of millions of dollars a year. World Vision and Compassion International leaned into recurring support for decades, and both became among the largest charities in the world.

I don’t think the question is how often is too often, but rather what your organization could become if you stopped holding back?

Until next week… Surf's Up! 🌊

- Dave

P.S. If "what could we become" is the question on your mind, that's exactly what our Sustainable Giving Assessment & Roadmap is built to answer. We work with a limited number of organizations each year – typically those with 1,000+ recurring donors or $500K+ in annual recurring revenue – to map the path to growth. Learn more and apply at sustainablegiving.org/summer2026.