The Dominican Sisters Home Health Agency of Denver has started an annual running event called "Blisters for Sisters" to raise funds for their in-home nursing care services for low-income elderly. They have raised over $21,000 this year by processing donations online through GivingFirst.org, which allows for easy donation management without credit card fees. Dan Hanley of the Boulder County Aids Project promotes recurring donations, which are automatically deducted contributions that provide reliable income. Using GivingFirst.org to process recurring donations frees up his time from manual processing. Recurring donations also appeal to donors who can give smaller amounts over time rather than one large donation. They help nonprof

1. Online Giving Streamlines Recurring Donations Bring Commitment
Fund-Raising for Blisters for Sisters and Reliable Income to BCAP
Dominican Sisters Home Health Agency of Denver is going Dan Hanley, director of development and communications
the distance for their clients, and they have the sore feet to at Boulder County Aids Project (BCAP), is happy to receive
show for it. any size or type
Beginning last year, Dominican Sisters embarked on a of donation—
How to Promote
Recurring Donations
new way to raise funds for their agency, which provides especially in
Dan Hanley of BCAP shares these tips:
free in-home nursing care for low-income sick and elderly this economy.
Develop goals in your development plan
people of Denver. But recently
Explain the benefits in conversations with
Dominican Sisters started he’s singing the donors
a racing event called Blisters praises of a Promote through e-mail signature lines
for Sisters where runners re- particular type Sign up people at events and offer an
incentive
ceive pledges to race half or of support—
Encourage your board and volunteers to
full marathons. Online dona- called recurring use it: they are your biggest supporters!
tions are processed through donations—and
GivingFirst.org, making it has developed a plan to round up even more.
easy to manage contribu- Recurring donations are contributions from donors that
tions. are deducted automatically over regular intervals. Hanley
“Participation in the event explained that processing these donations was once time-
has really grown this year,” consuming when handled in-house. “Now that we use
said Donna Heath, executive GivingFirst.org,” he said, “it’s so much easier.”
director of the agency. “We’ve tripled the number of run- That’s because GivingFirst has automated processing and
ners participating to 17, and raised more than $21,000 acknowledgement services. This frees up Hanley’s time to
to help the agency provide services.” focus on fund-raising and meeting his goal of setting up 100
Runners included Heath and her two children plus a recurring donations this year.
range of people who care about the work Dominican Sis- “Recurring donations are appealing because it is more
ters does for the elderly and poor. affordable for people to give small donations over time
The race helped Dominican Sisters garner support for rather than in one big chunk,” said Hanley. “And nonprofits
their organization and promote online giving. One hundred benefit from the reliable, regular income.”
percent of donations processed through GivingFirst.org Hanley believes that donors tend to give more overall
goes to the charities, unlike other sites that deduct credit when they break up their donation into increments. “As the
card and bank processing fees. relationship with us grows, it is quite possible the contribu-
“I can honestly say I doubt we would have online giving tion amount will, too.”
if it weren’t for Community First Foundation’s support by Hanley also added that ongoing donations help nonprof-
processing donations without credit card fees,” said Heath. its bond with donors. “Recurring donations are ten times
more likely to build commitment than one-time contributions,”
To learn more about the many ways GivingFirst.org can support he said. “That’s because we have so many more opportuni-
fund-raising, contact Dana Rinderknecht, GivingFirst manager, at
ties to touch the donor.”
720.898.5911 or drinderknecht@CommunityFirstFoundation.org.