Dominican Sisters Home Health Agency of Denver is going the distance for their clients, and they have the sore feet to show for it. Beginning last year, Dominican Sisters embarked on a new way to raise funds for their agency, which provides free in-home nursing care for low-income sick and elderly people of Denver.

Dominican Sisters started a racing event called Blisters for Sisters where runners re-ceive pledges to race half or full marathons. Online dona-tions are processed through GivingFirst.org, making it easy to manage contribu-tions. “Participation in the event has really grown this year,” said Donna Heath, executive

director of the agency. “We’ve tripled the number of run-ners participating to 17, and raised more than $21,000 to help the agency provide services.” Runners included Heath and her two children plus a range of people who care about the work Dominican Sis-ters does for the elderly and poor. The race helped Dominican Sisters garner support for their organization and promote online giving. One hundred percent of donations processed through GivingFirst.org goes to the charities, unlike other sites that deduct credit card and bank processing fees. “I can honestly say I doubt we would have online giving if it weren’t for Community First Foundation’s support by processing donations without credit card fees,” said Heath.

Online Giving Streamlines Fund-Raising for Blisters for Sisters

Dan Hanley, director of development and communications at Boulder County Aids Project (BCAP), is happy to receive any size or type of donation—especially in this economy. But recently he’s singing the praises of a particular type of support—called recurring donations—and has developed a plan to round up even more. Recurring donations are contributions from donors that are deducted automatically over regular intervals. Hanley explained that processing these donations was once time-consuming when handled in-house. “Now that we use GivingFirst.org,” he said, “it’s so much easier.” That’s because GivingFirst has automated processing and acknowledgement services. This frees up Hanley’s time to focus on fund-raising and meeting his goal of setting up 100 recurring donations this year. “Recurring donations are appealing because it is more affordable for people to give small donations over time rather than in one big chunk,” said Hanley. “And nonprofits benefit from the reliable, regular income.” Hanley believes that donors tend to give more overall when they break up their donation into increments. “As the relationship with us grows, it is quite possible the contribu-tion amount will, too.” Hanley also added that ongoing donations help nonprof-its bond with donors. “Recurring donations are ten times more likely to build commitment than one-time contributions,” he said. “That’s because we have so many more opportuni-ties to touch the donor.”

Recurring Donations Bring Commitment and Reliable Income to BCAP

How to Promote Recurring Donations

Dan Hanley of BCAP shares these tips:

Develop goals in your development plan

Explain the benefits in conversations with donors

Promote through e-mail signature lines

Sign up people at events and offer an incentive

Encourage your board and volunteers to use it: they are your biggest supporters!

To learn more about the many ways GivingFirst.org can support fund-raising, contact Dana Rinderknecht, GivingFirst manager, at 720.898.5911 or drinderknecht@CommunityFirstFoundation.org.