Sustainable Giving: Opportunity, Risk, and What’s Next

Monthly giving is exploding, but a lot of nonprofits are still treating recurring donors like a one time gift that repeats. We sit down with Dave Raley, founder of Imago Consulting and author of The Rise Of Sustainable Giving, to talk about what changes after the “big idea” phase and what it takes to build a mature sustainable giving program that donors actually trust.

If you want stronger donor retention, more predictable recurring revenue, and a healthier culture of generosity, you’ll get a clear next step from this conversation. Subscribe, share this with a fundraiser friend, and leave a review with your biggest question about monthly giving.

Transcript

Sponsor Message From Firespring

SPEAKER_02 0:00

This episode is sponsored by Firespring. Firespring is a brand experience company that specializes in nonprofits, delivering integrated marketing and websites that do more than look good. From appeals and annual reports to seamless giving experiences, Firespring helps nonprofits turn clicks into real impact. Learn more today at firespring.com/slash nonprofit hub. Welcome back to the Nonprofit Hub Radio Podcast. I'm your host, Megan Speer, joined today by my dear friend Dave Rayleigh, who is the founder of Imago Consulting, also a fantastic selling author. We'll get into all of that. Excited to have Dave on the show. You may remall, he was on with me about a year ago when his book first came out. And so today we're going to dig into a now what? As we've had a year of these theories and these ideas. Now what? Where do we head from here? So Dave, welcome in.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

It's so good to be here. And I am so glad that we personally get to talk more than once a year. Um I don't mind getting on a mic with you once a year. This is fun.

The Subscription Economy Meets Philanthropy

SPEAKER_02 1:02

I know, so fun. Glad to have you here. So the book's been out for a year. And here we are. For those who may have missed that episode, I I would say pause and go back and listen to it because it is actually really great. And you can just scroll back a little bit to last year. But give us a brief summary of your book, the kind of the theory behind it, and then we can dive into the now what. Give us a little summary.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

Oh man, it has been quite the ride this year. Um so the book is The Rise of Sustainable Giving, and it's how the subscription economy has transformed first the way we purchase and engage with brands and with products, um, but has also begun to really transform the way donors think about charity. And that's like an ominous statement, by the way, Megan. You and I were offlining about some of the some of the negatives of the subscription economy that we're all, I think, too familiar with. And but the reality is that today, especially if you're in a North American context, but really this is a global phenomenon, you're seeing that individuals are more used to ongoing recurring value and engagement than at any other time in history. And I've been monitoring this. I mean, this is my 22nd year of fundraising. And um, so I've been watching these trends for a number of years, and it honestly reminds me of the early days of digital fundraising. Circa maybe 2006, 2007, like the iPhone had just come out. People were like nonprofits by then had websites, but really digital fundraising wasn't a thing. Social media was like, what's this Facebook? And why do I have to have a college email address to log in? Right. And um, and I just remember being in digital fundraising in those days and realizing we were at the front end of what now we can look back literally 20 years ago and see, has become a huge part of philanthropy, a huge part of the way donors think about and give to charity online. And so probably eight or nine years ago, I started to wonder like, these subscriptions are starting to show up everywhere. Like, I wonder if this is gonna actually have an impact impact on philanthropy and on generosity. And so started speaking about it then, um, really monitored that, worked with that uh with a lot of charities on that very topic. And fundamentally it was like, okay, this is a real trend. Like, people are choosing to give on a recurring basis to more charities than at any other time in history, and more of the types of charities that have historically been left behind. And so I said, you know what? Somebody needs to wave this flag in the sector. It's something that I've been passionate about. And so I spent a couple of years researching, really uh going deep down the rabbit hole of what does sustainable giving look like for charities and why are donors giving on a recurring basis, but then what can nonprofits do to benefit? And so book came out in February of 2025, has been a just a thrilling journey, by the way. I'm under no illusions that it was because I wrote the book because nobody knows who Dave Rayleigh is. But I think it was the right time. And I think the wave that we've seen with philanthropy, particularly with recurring giving. I mean, if you look at every major benchmark over the last five years, some pretty discouraging benchmarks, by the way. Some flats, some downs, some ups. But the consistent bright spot in pretty much every study has been the number of donors who are giving on a recurring basis is increasing. And so I'm really glad to have shin a light on that. But and I've heard this from another author, Megan. Uh, he said, my favorite thing about writing a book, and this is a guy who's written like 10 books, by the way. I'm like book number one. I've written a lot of words in my life, but a book is a whole nother thing. He said, My favorite thing about writing a book is all the things I learn once I publish it. And I was like, Oh, is that supposed to be freeing? Because it makes me panic that I it makes me really I thought I was supposed to know everything, you know. So it's been such a fun year of of growth and learning and hit number one on the Amazon bestseller list, which was super fun. And we estimate between the book and the podcast that we've launched and the speaking and all that stuff, we've been in front of about 25,000 nonprofit leaders. So it's um it's been fun.

SPEAKER_02 5:20

Amazing. I love that. Okay, so obviously the book is out there. The movement was there before the book, right? The the trend towards this. As we sit here early in 2026, I'm curious where you see us headed from here, right? As it continues to grow and gain momentum. Where are we headed? And are there maybe some I don't want to call them red flags. I don't I don't want to say that, but are there some I think anytime a movement starts to gain momentum, it's easy to take it too fast. It it's easy to not see some things coming, right? I would use the example of there was a nonprofit that I was working with who did not anticipate what would happen when they put a contact us form on their website, right? Again, going back to the beginning days of digital days, yeah. And all of a sudden they they thought they were doing really well, and then all of a sudden they were inundated with all sorts of complaints that they didn't know were out there about their organization, right? So there's always maybe the chance for a pitfall. Is there one that you see coming up in this? Is it moving too fast? Are we on track? Are there things that could go awry that we should be watching out for at this point?

SPEAKER_00 6:39

You know, I don't I don't think so. I do think in any time there's something new, well, there's two two principles. Number one, there are always bad actors, and that so subscriptions, you know, how many subscriptions have we fallen into, fallen prey to, essentially? I would call, I would use the word prey in a P-R-E-Y. I would say you're like, wait a second, I didn't know that was a subscription.

SPEAKER_02 7:02

Like I just two weeks ago had to actually cancel a credit card because it was so I could not get out of a subscription subscription that I didn't even realize I had signed up for it.

SPEAKER_00 7:12

It apparently gotten into. So it apparently got into there are bad actors. There's also some conventions that just don't are not like people are not used to. Like we just recorded an episode of the Sustainable Giving Podcast on donor advice fund giving. I don't know if you know, but somewhere the estimates vary, but somewhere between 30 and 60 percent. So it's a pretty big range, but 30 to somewhere between 30 and 60 percent of donor advice fund gifts are actually recurring. Um, so they've set to go monthly or quarterly or annual. Well, that's recurring giving. Well, the language around that, the tech behind that, Mitch Stein from Chariot was on on the show, and I'm so grateful for the work they've been doing to help make um donor advice fund giving through DAFPAY as their tool. But suffice it to say, that's a perfect example of a both a technology and like a uh it's not normalized yet. Like donors are starting to get it more, nonprofits are starting to get it more, but it's a little clunky, it doesn't make as much sense. I think the biggest risk right now is candidly that kind of lack of comprehension leading to either bad behavior, you know, a nonprofit, for example. One of the things we'll talk about with charities is is testing defaulting your donation form, your main donation form to monthly. Like for some people, that's like a very controversial recommendation. And to me, by the way, two years ago, I would have been like, ooh, you're making me nervous. Today, approximately 30% of groups are actually defaulting their form to monthly. Now, the question is, how are you doing that? Like, is it clear in the headline? Is it clear on the form? Is it clear on the submission? Is it clear on the thank you page? Is it clear? Do you call new recurring donors to actually thank them for the recurring gift? Because some percentage of them will have not paid attention and actually just filled out the form and give a gave a recurring gift they didn't intend to. So I think the biggest risk, and it risk is even a I would almost call it more of a PR risk than anything, is just bad bad actors that then people are like, wow, you shouldn't do that because such and such a charity, you know, put a bad record on recurring giving.

Recurring Giving As A Real Program

SPEAKER_02 9:14

So good. Okay, so let's level set this idea of recurring giving just in case somebody missed the previous episode. Is it different than you know, uh to use your example, right? I have a monthly option on my website on my online giving form. If I just give people the option, is that enough to say that I have a strategy around sustainable giving? It's a fairly or is there more to it than that that we should be thinking about?

SPEAKER_00 9:46

No, it's it's a it's a great question. And and I think I've never met a charity that didn't have recurring donors, right? Um that are just choosing out of their own convenience. I thankfully have not run into any charities recently that you know don't even offer that as an option, right? Sometimes it's weird. It's like please mail in a check, right? I've seen that, you know, in the last six months, which is crazy. But um, but really so recurring giving is not new. It's been around for thousands of years, actually. The you know, I did a pretty big study of kind of human history just around recurring generosity and what that looks like. And the earliest recorded form of uh recurring generosity that I could find was the ancient Jewish people, actually, thousands of years ago in the practice that they would refer to as first fruits, and this idea that you know every season, right, you might have crops or you might have livestock or whatever, you would actually bring uh that your first fruits to the temple. That would of course be used for religious purposes, but it would then fund the temple and uh be distributed to the poor widows and orphans. And so recurring giving is not new, like in the in the US alone, it dates back to almost the very foundations of our country. 1812 uh was the very first recurring giving program that was created. However, and this is the thing that that the book accentuates is it's changing. And recurring giving has been around, but it is far more than a checkbox on your website or a checkbox on your you know response device. Recurring giving is a holistic program. And honestly, you ask about the future, Megan. This is the thing I'm so excited about. One of the things I'm so excited about, and that is the future of sustainable giving will be so much more mature because the reality is right now, even today, for most charities and most even partners that work with charities, recurring giving is just sort of like a a variation on single gift fundraising. So it's like, well, we could ask for one gift or you could ask for 12, you know, and it's like and so oftentimes there's not really a full kind of respect to the discipline of recurring giving and how it's actually different than the discipline of single gift fundraising. Now, there are principles we can use that cross both, just like by the way, in major gifts fundraising, there are principles for major gifts that work really well in direct response, you know. But those that know anything about those types of fundraising realize there's some pretty big differences in how you cultivate a major donor versus a general donor, so to speak. And so I think the the thing I'm most excited about is the level of maturity I see this sector having. And that's part of what I feel like my kind of flag, you know, to wave in the sector is that, hey guys, this is a deep rabbit hole. This is a discipline worth learning. Um, it's why we're doing workshops and content and stuff, not just for content sake, but to actually help people see this as a mature, deeper practice that we can take advantage of.

Does Automation Reduce Joyful Giving

SPEAKER_02 12:49

This episode is sponsored by Firespring, a brand experience company trusted by thousands of nonprofits to amplify their message, strengthen supporter connections, and grow their mission. Firespring delivers nonprofit websites and marketing that do more than look good. From appeals and direct mail to annual reports and seamless online giving, everything is built to tell your story, engage supporters, and make giving easy. The result? Real, measurable impact for your organization. Learn more today at firespring.com slash nonprofit hub. Okay, I'm gonna play devil's advocate for a moment.

SPEAKER_00 13:37

Please do.

SPEAKER_02 13:38

Let's get into it. There are those in the sector right now who've been very vocal, have a lot of, I see a lot of LinkedIn posts, I see some blog posts about it, who are skeptical at best around the idea of some of the automation around sustainable giving or monthly giving, right? And it's it's rooted in the fact that they think that is having the impact on generosity. Right. If I give you$20 a month to your nonprofit and it just automatically comes off of my debit card and I don't have to think about it, it takes away like the joy of giving, right? And I think as humans, we're wired for some of those dopamine hits of thinking, look, I know I did a good thing. And it gives us a little spark of joy. And I don't know that receiving my monthly receipt necessarily sparks that same dopamine hit for us. So I'm curious your thoughts on that in general. Where's that balance between this is what's good for the organization to know that that recurring revenue is coming in versus how we continue to build connection around it and maintain the joy of generosity as a culture and grow generosity as a culture. How do we I feel a tension between those two things and I love your thoughts about it.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

I love this because I do think it's a fair criticism and it's actually a potential downside if we don't handle things right, because I believe the generosity crisis is real, and I'm not just using the name of Nathan Chappelle's book, but I highly recommend it. But it's for real, yes. A generosity crisis. There's an actual book called that that um highly recommend. But the the fact that as a culture, we are at risk of reductions in people participating in generosity, right? Yeah. So I think that's a very real concern. I think about that as a not uh just as a fundraiser, but as a dad and as somebody who cares deeply about inspiring generosity in this world. Like that's that's a huge thing that's important to me. So I think a couple things. Number one, and by the way, I remember, you know, my dad writing a check in this checkbook, you know. Like every Sunday, right, you know, kind of a deal. And I got to see that. And so when I think about uh like with my kids, like how do I model that when it's automated, right?

SPEAKER_01 15:56

Sure.

Building Peak Moments And Milestones

SPEAKER_00 15:57

So um by the way, as an aside, uh you'll love this. So my 12-year-old um last year, I think this was after we we recorded, she um came to me and they had just done a a thing, uh little fundraiser for around human trafficking, um, called Freedom February, which is the thing that our local church does. And it was very much focused on do what they called it, doing what you love to fight what you hate. And so, how do we, you know, raise money to help fund the fight against human trafficking? Well, she came to me, fired up about that, and we had talked, you know, about just giving is something that we do, it like, and it makes us feel good, but it's the giving is also a discipline, like it's something that we do as a as a habit, you know. And so we had talked about that, and she came to me and she said, Dad, I want to give to the humane society as like one of my kind of and it wasn't monthly, by the way, because she was like, I want to give to three different charities, and so can I do it quarterly? So get this with the 12-year-old, you know, whatever gen she is. Jen Z Alpha. I was like, which alpha? I think it's alpha. So she wants to give quarterly and she wants to give the humane society. She loves animals, she you know, cares deeply about animals, and so that's great. So she she gave a quarterly gift, and you should have seen her when she got her thank you letter, Megan. She was so thrilled. And it was signed by the executive director. Thank you so much for the difference you're making in the lives. Well, just as we record this this weekend, this last weekend, we got the annual receipt letter. And thankfully, it wasn't just the receipt letter, it was an actual cover letter with some of the work that they had done and a special thank you note written on the cover letter. So good job, Kidsap Humane Society. And I made we made sure to like talk about that and like celebrate that. So I do think there's some there's some new norms. I will say I think the idea that sustainable giving is going to contribute to the generosity crisis is the exact inverse of what is happening in reality. Because think about it this way in traditional single gift fundraising, the primary engagement you have with your donor is asking. Like the primary thing you have to do to get 2.3 gifts a year, or whatever your number is, is to ask. And we have to ask a lot. But what can we do if somebody commits to a relationship and even forms part of their identity around recurring giving? We might actually be able to do more than just ask. And so when I teach this in a workshop, I talk about the power of moments and how do we create peak moments for our donors, those moments of elevation. How do we mark milestones and celebrate transitions? And so I think it's an invitation and an opportunity to say how do we take engagement to another level? So I think those that that power, the power of the moment I think is critical. And I'll I'll say one other thing. Um, and I because I share the story in the book, I remember a moment, gosh, at this point it was about a man, it was I want to say eight or ten years ago. And uh my wife was at a conference and she heard a woman who had come out of uh this is another trafficking-related situation share. And my wife was so moved in that moment. Um, this organization called International Justice Mission had partnered with this conference and done this uh and kind of shed a light on what was happening with trafficking, invited people to become freedom partners. And it was that incredibly powerful, dopamine-inducing, amazing community moment in which we signed up to become freedom partners. And today, I mean, I lost track, you know, six months ago, we gave our and we're small donors, monthly donors,$3,000 to International Justice Mission. And so, yes, when we get the monthly receipt, that's not exactly the same dopamine, but it goes back to that powerful experience that led to that. So I think it's a fair criticism, but I think the bigger opportunity is to yet leverage sustainable giving to actually create more generosity and more participation. And I and I I think that's possible.

SPEAKER_02 20:08

That's so good. Uh, this is also an aside, but when you talk about sitting and watching your dad write out the check to the church, right, every month or every week or whatever it was, I have a very sharp image in my brain as of being like a very young Megan. I mean, we're talking like four or five sitting in church and hearing the pastor say that it was time for ties and offerings. And I remember getting so upset with my dad because he only put a piece of paper in there and not his tie. And I was so mad. Like you are withholding from the Lord.

SPEAKER_00 20:43

But the ties. Yeah. Where's your tie?

unknown 20:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:47

Oh my gosh, that's hilarious. It was like an old school congregation. He wore a suit every Sunday with the tie, and he never put his tie in there. And I remember getting so upset about it. And now I know better.

SPEAKER_00 20:56

So now you know better.

Making Giving Visible And Frictionless

SPEAKER_02 20:58

Two different things.

SPEAKER_00 20:59

Yeah, but we do we do need to think as as both fundraisers, as you know, members of society, how do we make generosity visible? Because one of the things in online giving started it 20 years ago, right? Like it can become invisible. And so I do think that's one of the things we have to think intentionally about.

SPEAKER_02 21:15

Yeah. And everything in the research, right, says Gen Z, Gen Alpha, they are extremely compassionate. They want to give, they want to support the causes that they care about, but that does have to be modeled for them.

SPEAKER_00 21:29

They also want to use Apple Pay.

SPEAKER_02 21:30

Yes, in a way that's a good thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:34

That's uh, and I don't want to diminish subscription giving or sustainable giving to be just a transaction type, because it's actually far more than that, as we've talked about. But it's also a transaction type. Like it's something that like people want to give out of their donor advice fund uh super easily on a monthly basis. Let's get out of their way. Yes. Uh so they can do that.

SustainableGiving.org Tools And Self Assessment

SPEAKER_02 21:52

Yes. Also, just make it so that your website can take Apple Pay and Google Pay. That's my personal aside. Yes. The stats on mobile giving are astronomical. Everybody's doing it on their phone. Please make it easier for them to do that. Um okay. So tell us a little bit about uh we have an exciting announcement around the book.

SPEAKER_00 22:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:19

Right? So if somebody's like super curious, wants to find it, tell us how we find you, how we find the book, and then tell us the newest update on how we can take in that content.

SPEAKER_00 22:33

Yeah, so part of what I you can tell, my mission really is to help inspire sustainable generosity in the world. Like I want to see more sustainability, not just for charities, although obviously working with charities that's really powerful, but also for donors and for you know the causes they wrote they are deeply passionate about. So we've we've basically really been over the last year building out sustainable giving.org. So that's where all the things are. So that's where you can find the sustainable giving podcast, you can find the book, you can find the workshops that we're doing now twice a year here in lovely Pacific Northwest, by the way. You and I were just talking about that. And uh, so sustainable giving.org, and we're also building resources, research, content. I write regularly on the topic. And the thing that we've developed coming out of the book is a simple sustainable giving self-assessment. And so it's, you know, 30 questions take seven minutes. I timed it, and uh, and gives you a good read on kind of the four kind of fundamental quadrants of your program strategy, communications, team, and so on. And uh, and you can get a quick report back. Even the questions themselves, I find, are just helpful. They're some of the same questions we'll ask clients when we get brought in to help grow their recurring giving program. So if that's something that our listeners, you know, are interested in, um, you can just go to sustainable giving.org and you'll see the link to the assessment, or you can just go to sustainable giving.org slash assessment. Pretty easy.

SPEAKER_02 24:05

This is I by no means was I put up to this, but I will do it because I like to recommend things that I find to be valuable. So while you're there, you should definitely also sign up to get the Wave Report, which is Dave's email newsletter. Would you call it is it newsletter? Is that what you'd call it?

SPEAKER_00 24:21

It's it's like a weekly column. You know, it makes me sound like a Wall Street Journal writer, but I I do. I write about a thousand words a week and just topics of sustainability and innovation, AI. But really, if you're if you want to grow yourself professionally and your organization, like that's who I'm ready for.

SPEAKER_02 24:41

I wholeheartedly recommend signing up. It it is a joy to get in my inbox every week. I always find what Dave has to say to be extremely insightful and well articulated. Um I receive, as one might imagine, I receive a lot of columns and newsletters and all of the things. But Dave's is always really packed full of valuable insight. So while you are there checking out the assessment, highly recommend that you sign up for his email list as well.

SPEAKER_01 25:10

Thank you.

Two Book Picks For 2026

SPEAKER_02 25:11

Absolutely. Okay, as we move to close, the question I have been asking everyone to end this season. So we've dubbed 2026 as the year of learning. So I would love to know from you as I'm looking, there's all sorts of books behind you on the bookshelf. I know you to be an avid reader, but what's one book that you would say, hands down, this needs to get on everyone's reading list because it really impacted me.

SPEAKER_00 25:37

Uh, okay. Can I give you one book for the left brain and one book for the right brain?

SPEAKER_02 25:44

Absolutely. Yes. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 25:46

So the I'll start with the left brain, the serious book that I do think could be transformational. And I'm curious actually if you've heard of it, because it's not, it's pretty well known uh in increasing quantities these days. Uh it's a newer book. It's called The Science of Scaling.

SPEAKER_02 26:01

Have you heard this one? I've not heard of this book.

SPEAKER_00 26:03

Dr. Ben uh Hardy. Same, he's written a bunch of books. Uh, another book that people are uh increasingly familiar with is called 10X is easier than 2X. This is almost like the spiritual successor to that book. And he basically, it's very sort of entrepreneurial oriented, but I think it's bang on for uh what we can learn in the charitable sector, in the nonprofit sector. So it's called The Science of Scaling, and uh so highly, highly recommend it. Really breaks down some very core tenets for organizations that have been really successful at accomplishing pretty major things. And I think I think it's the kind of book that should be the sort of I don't know if he's done a TEDx talk or a TED talk or whatever, but it should be the TED talk specifically for the nonprofit sector because I think we can absolutely leverage the lessons in that. So that's your your kind of left brain logical strategic book. And then a book that just made me happy this year. It's called Fans First.

SPEAKER_01 27:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 27:07

Jesse Cole most specifically is known as the owner and creator of the Savannah Bananas.

SPEAKER_02 27:14

Ah, I just listened to a podcast with him that was Oh, do I ever? Yes. I just listened to a podcast with him that was fascinating.

SPEAKER_00 27:21

He is a great, he's like an amalgamation of like Walt Disney and Steve Jobs and Elon Musk, and like he's just a really interesting guy who's very passionate about making baseball fun again, for lack of a better term, and has created just a pretty incredible brand. Uh just evidence. I have two daughters, so two daughters. We went to one baseball game in our life, and so I can't exactly say my girls are growing up with a love of baseball. Last summer, Megan, our school, the local school, got tickets to the Savannah Bananas game. And the moment the girls heard, they were thrilled to go to a baseball game. And I'm like, wow, like uh that's pretty impressive. Yeah. So we we went, we had a the time of our life. I wrote about it in the wave report because it was just so powerful on leading with imagination. So many of our your listeners will be familiar with the Savannah Bananas. But so Jesse Cole, founder, he's written a couple books. One of his sort of not the latest book, the one before that was called Fans First. And I just thought it was such a good inspirational read on like how it what does it look like to have a vision um, you know, that you can live out and in a way that creates that kind of feel-good, life-changing kind of generosity. I would love to to geek out with Jesse Cole on how you know the philanthropic sector can benefit from this. Maybe you and I should get him at uh at the conference.

SPEAKER_02 28:51

That'd be so fun.

SPEAKER_00 28:52

Okay, let's do it.

SPEAKER_02 28:53

So good. Okay, I'm putting both of those on my reading list. Thank you.

Final Thanks And Sign Off

SPEAKER_00 28:57

You're welcome.

SPEAKER_02 28:58

Okay, Dave, thank you so much. As always, a joy to talk to you, and I really appreciate your insights, not only on sustainable giving, but on the the sector as a whole and where we're headed and how we can help nonprofits do it better. So always appreciate your heart for that. So thanks for being here.

SPEAKER_00 29:15

Glad to be here. This is fun. Let's do it again.

SPEAKER_02 29:18

Absolutely. This has been another episode of the Nonprofit Hub Radio Podcast. I'm your host, Megan Speer, and we'll see you next time.