Harvey McKinnon has been raising funds for U.S. and Canadian nonprofits for more than 30 years.  He understands the challenges of a competitive marketplace and has always stressed the importance of building long-term relationships with donors.  His focus is on monthly donor programs as a means to provide great service and cultivate sustained donor loyalty. Hidden Gold, first published in 1999, has become the seminal publication on monthly donors, and McKinnon an internationally recognized expert on the subject.

In this excerpt, Harvey challenges some of the common objections that fundraisers have to starting a monthly giving program:

1. It won't work with our donor base - A large European charity spent a fortune mailing to their entire list, an invitation with the wrong monthly giving proposition.  They may have asked for too much money, or too little.  The details don't matter.  The people in charge of fundraising concluded that their donors wouldn't go for a monthly giving program.  Just two years later, after developing the proper proposition, they were receiving more than 60% of their income from monthly donors.
2. Our donors aren't committed enough - In my experience, any nonprofit organization can make a significant amount of money from a monthly giving program. (Anyway, you don't know until you try it!)
3. It's a small amount of money - Guess again! I worked with a medium-sized Australian nonprofit that started a monthly giving program from scratch. Over 11 years the program grew from nothing to 11,512 monthly donors generating annual income of $3,492,381. The success of your program will be based on many factors: the product, the offer, the benefits to the donor, the media you use, your budget and the copy or pitch.
4. It's too much work - Monthly giving programs can easily be streamlined. For example, you could contract out the EFT and credit card processing to a service bureau. To reduce staff time and costs, you could decide not to offer a check option. A monthly giving club may be the most cost-effective element in your development program!
   

Not convinced yet? Then get this book, Harvey will help you get started. 

Purchase Hidden Gold for only $39.95.