Beyond the Benchmarks: What Recurring Donors Actually Want
What if your next 100 monthly donors are just waiting for you to ask?
Abby Jarvis is back! Abby, Head of Research and Editorial at Neon One, was one of our very first Season 1 guests. She returns to the Sustainable Giving Podcast to dig into the brand-new Recurring Donor Report with host Dave Raley.
This time, Abby didn't just crunch the numbers. She talked to 718 recurring donors about why they start, why they stay, and why they stop. What she found: everyday people quietly changing the world one steady gift at a time, and a big, wide-open opportunity for nonprofits willing to invite them in. Grab your coffee (or your walking shoes) and join the data-nerd party.
Key Topics They Cover:
Eight Years of Growth (and Counting)
From 2023 to 2025, the average nonprofit saw a 32% jump in recurring donors and a 36% jump in recurring revenue. That happened even as total donor files shrank about 5.5%. More donors AND more dollars? That's multiplication, not addition.
The Ask Nobody's Making
60% of recurring donors set up their gift without being asked, and only 25% said a nonprofit invited them. Among people who don't give monthly yet, about two-thirds are open to the idea. Translation: the door is open. We just haven't knocked.
Meet the Recurring Donor
They're not mysterious unicorns! They're mostly established, middle-class adults giving under $5,000 a year. These are the same everyday donors the sector is losing fastest everywhere else.
Why They Start, Stay, and Stop
Donors start because of a personal connection, a wish to help their community, and (for about a third) a sense of religious or moral duty. They stay when they feel connected and can see their impact. The #1 reason they stop is affordability, so don't take it personally, and keep the relationship alive.
From "Giving" to "Donor"
Why the report changed one word in its title, and how putting people ahead of transactions changes everything that follows.
Also in this episode, they talk about:
Why donors aren't vending machines (stop perfecting the send time and start asking!)
Squishy data, Magic Eye pictures, and seeing the forest AND the trees
How a chat with a barista reshaped Abby's survey
A charity in Haiti now has local Haitian recurring donors, and a zoo grew from 175 to 12,000+ sustainers
How talking about your program does two jobs at once: it inspires new donors and keeps current ones giving
So here's our question for you: what's one way your organization could invite people into recurring giving this month?
Key Resources:
Abby's first visit to the show: Season 1, Episode 3, "Humanizing Donor Data: How to Stop Treating Donors Like Transactions"
Special thanks to our team at Sustainable Giving: Tom, Kirsten, Victoria, and Abigail.