We're considering implementing a Monthly Giving Program and I have a few questions for all the collected wisdom of the Fourm users:
- How do you manage the program in Tessitura? For example, do you multiply the gift by 12 and book a pledge and then pay it off or book each month seperately? And is there a script or report that you run once a month or do you process payments manually? Etc.
- How do you facilitate recognition/benefits for this donors? Again, do you multiply their monthly gift by 12 and give them the appropriate level recognition/benefits or do you have a special, separate recognition program for monthly givers? Etc.
- Last, but not least, for those who have successfully implemented such a program, what did you find out in actual practice that you wish you had known ahead of time?
Thanks in advance for everyone's insight and suggestions!
Hi Christopher,
I am on the forum looking for suggestions on this same topic. Any luck setting up your program?
Brooke
We don't do large batches of these but have a few that we do each month so hopefully my reply helps.
We do one pledge with the 12 pledge payments. We recognize each payment as they arrive with a note on their receipt like "Thank you for your first installment of $25 towards your pledge of $300. Your remaining balance is $275". The change of number of installment and balance each month in our acknowledgements are added manually by the person who processes them. Payments charged to credit cards can be processed all at one time for each campaign by using the Pledge Billing Report under Renewal Notices and Bills, you just need to set up the pledge billing type as Auto-CC Billing under TR_Billing_Type and attach that billing type to your monthly giving pledges.
And to reply to what we would do differently...that would be to establish one date each month for the date to charge all monthly giving donors and include this date on all documents and forms. Right now our donors are charged monthly on the date they first give. This means that we really can't use the handy dandy TR_Billing_Report to charge the credit cards because none of them have the same date for billing.
I wanted to follow and see what information the forum might have collected on this topic. We are thinking about doing it. Here are some of my questions:
1) Are the monthly giving/Sustainers in the same membership group or is a separate membership group created? [We are thinking of keeping it in the same membership group since benefits etc are the same]
2) Is the Sustainer membership program its own campaign? [We have thought this would let us track the donors year to year since we are not creating a unique membership group -- but not certain -- and of course this would allow for separate acknowledments]
Other items we will be creating are a new Renewal Type to exclude Sustainers from the normal renewal report and creating a unique Billing Type - to allow monitor of these credit card.
The new manager who wants to iniitiate this program also wants to call these members periodically to ask them to upgrade their membership. For this reason we are not looking to use the Auto Renewal Program since such upgrade would be considered exceptions.
If you have a sustainer program -
-do you message them differently that regular members
- how often do you ask for upgrades
- were there a high number of donors that "gamed" the system by signing up to get certain benefits and then canceling membership after receipt/use benefits
- how successful has the program been --- wondering if there is any real difference in having a Sustainer program to just letting folks charge monthly
Thanks
Leslie M. McKinley
Met Opera
Director, Development Finances
212/870-4550