There’s a conversation happening in the nonprofit sector that is long overdue. Not about a new platform, not about the latest fundraising trend, but about a fundamental shift in how we think about generosity itself. Monthly giving for nonprofits — recurring, sustainable, automatic giving — is not a checkbox item on your annual fundraising plan. It’s the future of your organization. And if you’re not treating it that way yet, the clock is ticking.
I sat down with Dave Raley of Imago Consulting and the newly founded Center for Sustainable Giving to dig into why this moment matters so much, what’s holding organizations back, and what it actually looks like when a nonprofit fully commits to recurring giving as a core strategy.
We Live in a Single-Gift Mindset — and It’s Costing Us
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: most nonprofits have been built on a single-gift assumption. A donor gives once, maybe twice a year, and the organization celebrates that win. Recurring giving gets added as a quiet “upgrade” option buried in the checkout flow. Subscriptions are something other industries do.
“What if we broke that and assumed the default was monthly?” — Dave Raley, Center for Sustainable Giving
That mindset is a problem — and the data backs it up. According to the Fundraising Effectiveness Project, the average nonprofit is seeing net zero growth in new recurring donors. Meanwhile, every streaming service, software tool, and meal kit brand your donors subscribe to has mastered the art of predictable, recurring revenue. The consumer habits are already there. The question is whether your organization is ready to meet them.
Belief Precedes Growth
Dave put it plainly: belief precedes growth. And after years of working in this space, I couldn’t agree more. The organizations seeing real momentum in their monthly giving programs aren’t just deploying better tactics — they genuinely believe recurring giving is for them. It’s not the last slide in the board presentation. It’s the first conversation of the year.
Think about the organizations that have made recurring giving a cornerstone: Charity: Water built nearly its entire model around it. Operation Smile went so sustainer-first that they questioned whether they should even ask for one-time gifts in December. World Vision crossed the billion-dollar mark after decades of putting sustainers at the center. These outcomes don’t happen by accident. They happen when leadership commits.
The sustainer-first mindset isn’t a strategy — it’s a culture. It shows up in your messaging, your team structure, your editorial calendar, and most importantly, in how your staff talks about monthly giving in every donor conversation.
Your Organization Has Natural Resources You’re Ignoring
One of the most powerful reframes Dave shared is the idea of “natural resources” — the unique assets every organization already has that can be leveraged for recurring giving growth, but often go completely unnoticed.
He shared the example of a faith-based client with access to over 400 churches nationwide willing to host events on their behalf. That is an extraordinary pipeline for donor acquisition and conversion to recurring giving — yet the organization was treating it as routine. Your natural resources might be your volunteer network, a loyal email list, a signature event, or a hyper-engaged social community. The point is: you already have more than you think. The work is connecting those assets to your monthly giving program with intention.
The 10x Question That Changes Everything
Dave and I have both been deeply influenced by the concept from 10x Is Easier Than 2x — and it applies directly to how we think about monthly giving growth. When your goal is a 2% increase, you can basically keep doing what you’re doing, just a little harder. But when you commit to a 10x goal — say, growing from 50 monthly donors to 500 — you’re forced to think completely differently. You have to eliminate the things that won’t get you there and focus only on what will.
If you have 10 monthly donors right now, don’t let that number embarrass you. Let it fuel you. The organizations I’ve watched explode their recurring giving programs didn’t start with thousands of sustainers. They started with a commitment to grow — and then built everything around that commitment.
The Next Generation Is Already There — Are You?
Here’s what gives me so much hope for the future of monthly giving for nonprofits: the habits are already changing. Not because of anything we’re doing in the sector, but because the subscription economy has spent the last 12 years conditioning an entire generation to give in recurring ways. They pay for music this way. They pay for software this way. They pay for their gym membership, their meditation app, and their news this way.
Dave shared a story that stopped me in my tracks: his 12-year-old daughter — on her own — decided she wanted to give monthly to three charities. On an allowance of $12 a month. She went to their local Humane Society’s website and tried to set up a $1-per-quarter donation. To their enormous credit, the organization accepted it and sent her a welcome letter from the director. She was on cloud nine. That is a donor for life. That is the next generation of philanthropists being shaped right now — and they are ready to give in recurring, sustainable ways if we meet them there.
“How do we normalize this? How do we make sure this is a habit?” — Dave Raley
Taking Up Space — Because Someone Has To
During a recent major fundraising conference, I had a simple booth and asked every person who walked by the same question: “Tell me about your monthly giving program.” The responses were almost universally apologetic. We only have four. We have 20-something. Even organizations with hundreds of recurring donors seemed embarrassed.
That has to stop. We need to celebrate four monthly donors. We need to celebrate 25. We need to celebrate 200. Because if we can’t honor where we are, we’ll never build the belief system required to get where we need to go.
Monthly giving for nonprofits isn’t coming — it’s here. The subscription economy has done the conditioning. The generational shift is underway. The only question that remains is whether your organization will step into this moment with the belief, the ownership, and the investment it deserves.
The future of sustainable generosity is recurring. And it starts with you deciding it’s a priority.
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