Everyone likes reliability, and that’s exactly what an annual gift brings. A nonprofit can usually rely on these gifts to come in year after year. Most annual gifts are small, but their stability is reassuring.

But, as Andrea McManus wrote in “Nonprofit Management 101,” these annual gifts wouldn’t be possible without the gift renewal mechanism in an annual giving program. Fundraisers will tell you that it costs more to get the initial gift than to renew it, so it’s imperative to have such a renewal program in place.

McManus also lists six additional benefits that a successful annual giving fund can bring to your nonprofit:

• A reliable base of annual funding.
• A foundation for all other fundraising.
• Support for annual operating and program needs not funded by other means.
• A source for “undesignated” or unrestricted gifts that can be used by the organization where most needed.
• An excellent way to attract new donors into the organization with the potential to move up the giving ladder toward the major gift status.
• An increase in the profile of your organization in the community on a mass-market basis.

Share this story

Story tools