Donation frequencies

Donation frequencies control how donors can give: one-time, monthly, or yearly. The mix of frequencies you enable, plus how you nudge donors between them, has a real effect on what kind of donor base you build.

Open the Donation Settings panel

In the donation page editor, click directly on the donation amounts section in the form preview (the area showing the frequency toggle and preset amount buttons). The Donation Settings panel opens on the right.

The three frequencies

Three toggles at the top of the panel control which giving cadences appear on the form:

• One Time Donations — a single gift, processed once.
• Monthly Donations — a recurring monthly subscription. Monthly donors are the highest-value donors most nonprofits have. Recurring revenue is more predictable, lifetime value is significantly higher, and churn is lower than one-time donors who happen to give again.
• Yearly Donations — a recurring annual subscription. Off by default, and we recommend leaving it off. The 12-month gap between gifts gives a lot of room for life changes, card expirations, and unsubscribes; in practice, yearly recurring churns at a much higher rate than monthly. If a donor genuinely wants to give the same amount once a year, a one-time gift renewed annually performs better than a yearly subscription.

If only one frequency is enabled, the frequency toggle on the form is hidden. If two or more are enabled, donors see a button group at the top of the form to choose between them.

Monthly Suggestion Text

When Monthly is enabled, the Monthly tab includes a rich text editor for Monthly Suggestion Text — the handwritten-style copy that appears next to the Monthly frequency button on the form ("A monthly gift does EVEN MORE to help end world hunger," for example). Bold, italic, strikethrough, and color formatting are available.

This text is the single biggest lever for converting one-time donors to monthly. It's worth iterating on: specific causes outperform generic appeals, and language that emphasizes ongoing impact ("sustains," "continues," "keeps going") outperforms language that emphasizes the gift itself.

Encouraging monthly giving

If you do nothing else with frequencies, default to Monthly enabled with strong suggestion text. A few patterns that work:

• Lead with the impact, not the convenience. "A monthly gift sustains our work year-round" converts better than "a monthly gift is easy." Donors give for the cause, not for the autopay.
• Be specific about the cause. Generic appeals ("join our monthly community") underperform cause-specific ones ("a monthly gift feeds three more families every month").
• Match suggestion text to the campaign. A year-end appeal benefits from urgency. An anniversary campaign benefits from continuity. Update suggestion text per campaign rather than leaving the default in place.

The amounts you set for each frequency — and which amount is the default for each — also have a real impact on conversion. See Donation amounts.