Monthly renewals are the foundation of any membership program and instrumental to donor retention. But unfortunately, with the time pressures experienced by many fundraising professionals, the Monthly Renewal Series is something that is too often left on autopilot – often to the detriment of the program.
Below are 5 things you can do this week to improve your monthly renewals:
1. Review Results by Effort
One mistake we often encounter is organizations who review renewal results by month, rather than by effort. While interesting, this way of looking at the data doesn’t provide any insight. You’re going to get those renewals out every month regardless of how February performs compared to May.
Instead, what’s more telling is to look at renewal results by effort (both for mail and email). Typically, we see that response rates are strongest early in the series, take a bit of a dip, rise again in the month of expiration, then slowly soften with each successive effort until the series ends.
Do your response rates follow this pattern? If they don’t and you’re seeing a dip somewhere else, that may be an indication of a letter that needs to be strengthened.
Also, how does the last effort in the renewal series perform compared to your lapsed campaigns? If the renewal response rate is much stronger, you may want to consider adding an effort to the end of the renewal series. Alternatively, if the last effort of the renewal series is about the same or weaker than your lapsed response rate, you might want to think about shortening the renewal series.
2. Audit the Ask String
Sad but true, the ask string is one of the most overlooked aspects of any campaign – especially monthly renewals. What should be examined is not only the ask string logic, but what field is driving the ask. Is it Last Renewal Amount… is it Current Giving Level (an amount in the Allegiance CRM which adds up all gifts in the donor’s membership year)… is it something else? Neither is right or wrong, but each will yield a different outcome.
Driving the renewal ask off of Last Renewal Amount is likely to result in a lower gift but a higher response rate. Driving the ask off of Current Giving Level Amount will yield a higher average gift but could lower the response rate. It’s important to understand your organization’s goals and then utilize the appropriate tactic.
Through testing we’ve developed an ask string that is more aggressive and focuses on upgrading early in the series, then gets less aggressive after the month of expiration.
3. Review and Update Copy
Assuming you’re not seeing anything in the results that indicates the need to strengthen a certain letter, you should still review copy 1-2x/annually and make any necessary updates. Have the benefits of membership changed? Are there programs listed that need to be removed…new ones added? Are there new local productions afoot? Has something changed in your market or are there environmental factors to consider? Are there new reasons to give? A new program/ initiative that needs funding, or has there been some new accomplishment that was only possible because of member support that you want to share?
What we sometimes see – and want to warn you against – is a membership renewal series where the letter varies monthly. So, everyone, regardless of effort, gets the same letter in January, and everyone gets another new letter in February, etc. We see this most commonly at NPR/Radio stations and smaller TV stations/joint licensees where the development team is writing and producing the renewals themselves. The reason we want to warn you against this is that while we understand your desire to have your renewal series sound as fresh and “of the moment” as possible, writing a different letter every months a) can be a burden on your team b) doesn’t allow for consistency in reading results. If the letter is different every month, how can you read results by effort and know what may need to be adjusted… but more importantly c) doesn’t create a narrative arc.
The renewal series should work as a series – getting slightly more urgent with each successive effort. And while all efforts in the series have one common goal – to renew the donor -- they should take different paths to get there with each letter talking about ALL the varied reasons to give but changing the emphasis of each letter.
And don’t overlook the postscript. The PS is where you should restate the case for giving in 1-3 sentences. It should sum up the whole message right there at the end before the donor moves on to the reply slip or donate button.
4. Consider a “Lapsed Shadow” series
I’ll admit the first time I heard of this I was skeptical, but we have data that shows how, in the right circumstances, this tactic can be utilized to boost overall donor retention. And with everyone bemoaning new donor acquisition, let’s not leave any stone unturned when it comes to successful renewal/recapture strategies!
With a Lapsed Shadow series you’re sending select letters/email from the membership renewal series to people who didn’t renew via the series a year later. As an example: if in month 12 donors receive effort #4 of your series, those donors who didn’t renew in 2024 will get effort #4 in month 24. We use this tactic judiciously, most often for donors in month 21 and 24 – but it does bring back enough donors at a very modest cost that we continue to leverage this tactic.
5. Ensure direct mail and email renewals are coordinated
Sounds obvious, but still, we find that in some organizations there’s a disconnect between the direct mail and digital teams. The email shouldn’t replicate the direct mail! But when you review the direct mail and Email series they should feel and sound like they are singing in harmony. The cases for giving should be similar, the email should be deployed to correspond with the mail in-home date, you’ll want to use the same signer, etc.
And don’t forget to add a “Midnight Renewal” an extra email that goes out on the last day of the month to those in month 12 letting them know that their membership expires at midnight tonight!
A “set it and forget it” approach is detrimental to your Monthly Renewal program. But taking these 5 actions will help ensure that your monthly renewal series keeps on running like a fine-tuned engine.
