Q: Do you have any advice for past-due pledges?

Anne in North Carolina

A: The best way to make sure donors pay their pledges is to stay in touch with them personally during the year. Invoicing them once a year is fine, but they will be more likely to pay their pledges if they are talking with you from time to time. When you call them after the Ask Event^™, I recommend that you thank them for their gifts and then ask them, right then, how they would like to make arrangements to pay off their pledges. Be prepared to take their credit card numbers right there over the phone.

You should keep in touch with each of your Multiple-Year Giving Society Donors on a highly personalized basis, so that they never again become strangers. They should become closer friends of the family. For example, you might invite them to one Free Feel-Good Cultivation Event^™ during the year, meet with them once one-on-one, and invite them to attend your Ask Event each year.

Many Multiple-Year Giving Society Donors will choose to become Table Captains. By inviting friends and family to the event, they will deepen their own resolve about the good work of your organization. In this way, your Multiple-Year Giving Society Donors will happily pay off their pledges and—in many cases—increase their giving to your organization.

Terry