How to Invite Major Donors Into Recurring and Multi-Year Commitments
Scaling Major Gifts. Strategies, action steps, and ideas for scaling major gifts by Tammy Zonker, Major Gift Expert & Keynote Speaker.
Major donors already live in a subscription world, and their giving expectations are shifting to match. If you want to stabilize your revenue and deepen donor loyalty, recurring and multi-year commitments are one of the most underused tools available to you. This newsletter is for major gift officers and development directors who want practical ways to invite donors into predictable giving, steward those relationships over time, and use automation to make sure no milestone gets missed.
This is for fundraisers who want to move beyond the single-gift cycle. After reading, you'll be able to: identify donors ready for a multi-year conversation, use the right language to extend an invitation naturally, and set up a simple stewardship rhythm that keeps recurring donors engaged and renewed.
Think about how your own life works in 2026.
Your music, your TV, your software, your gym membership, your favorite newsletter. Almost everything you value most, you pay for on a recurring basis. You don't make a fresh decision every month. You said yes once, and it kept going.
Your major donors live in that same world.
They're accustomed to relationships that renew automatically. They're used to receiving value over time in exchange for a consistent commitment. And more and more of them are starting to wonder why their most meaningful financial relationship, their philanthropy, still works on a one-and-done model.
That's the opening I want you to walk through.
What to focus on next week
Connect the dots between giving and commitment.
Before you make any asks, spend a few minutes thinking about which of your current major donors already give every year like clockwork. Those are your best candidates for a multi-year conversation. They've already told you with their behavior that they're committed. You're just making it official.
Know why this matters for your organization.
Multi-year pledges and recurring major gifts do something that annual campaigns never can: they let you plan. When you know a donor is committed for three years, you can hire staff, launch programs, and make capital decisions with real confidence. That's not a donor perk. That's organizational sustainability.
Think in terms of invitation, not pressure.
The language you use matters enormously. A multi-year gift isn't a big scary ask. It's a convenience. It's an impact amplifier. When you frame it that way, you'll find that many donors are genuinely relieved someone finally offered it. They wanted to give this way all along.
Build stewardship into the commitment from day one.
Recurring donors need to feel the relationship is alive all year, not just at renewal time. Think about what milestone moments you could acknowledge: six months in, one year in, the first time their cumulative giving crosses a meaningful threshold. Surprise-and-delight moments, like a handwritten note or a personal call on the anniversary of their first gift, go a long way.
Let technology handle the reminders.
You cannot hold every renewal date in your head. Use your CRM or a simple automation tool to flag upcoming anniversaries, trigger stewardship prompts, and surface the right donors at the right time. AI tools can help you draft those touchpoint messages quickly, so you spend your time on the relationship rather than the logistics.
A Quick Story
A development director I worked with had a portfolio of about 40 major donors. She was great at relationship building, but every year felt like starting over. Most donors gave once and she'd spend the next twelve months working to get them back.
We sat down together and looked at her portfolio differently. Instead of asking who gave last year, we asked who had given three or more consecutive years. Fourteen names. Those were her recurring donors in everything but name.
She reached out to each of them with a simple message: "I'd love to talk about a way to make your giving a little easier and your impact a lot more lasting." Eleven of the fourteen said yes to a conversation. Eight ended up committing to a three-year pledge, two set up automatic annual recurring gifts, and one declined but made a larger single gift instead.
Her revenue didn't just stabilize. It became predictable. And that changed how her organization planned.
Try this next week
Make your list of five.
Open your CRM and pull up donors who have given for two or more consecutive years. From that list, identify five people to approach about converting to a multi-year or recurring commitment. You're not asking everyone. You're starting with the most likely yes.
Draft your invitation language.
Write two or three versions of how you'd open that conversation. Try something like: "One thing I've been thinking about is how we might make your giving a little more automatic and a lot more impactful. Would you be open to talking about a multi-year commitment?" Practice it until it feels natural coming out of your mouth.
Set up one automation prompt.
Pick one recurring touchpoint you'd like to automate, whether that's a six-month impact check-in or a renewal reminder 60 days out, and set it up in your CRM this week. AI assistants can help you draft the message template in a few minutes. You'll thank yourself later when it fires on its own.
Want to take a deeper dive?
I go further on all of this in this week's episode, “Building Predictable Major Gifts Revenue” of The Intentional Fundraiser podcast, including the exact invitation language I've seen work best and how to steward multi-year donors so they actually renew.
Listen to the full episode below.
I’d love to hear from you
Do you currently invite major donors into multi-year or recurring commitments? Connect with me on LinkedIn and tell me where you are in this process. I read every response, and your real-world experience shapes what I write about next.
Recurring giving isn't just a fundraising strategy. It's a way of telling your donors that you see them as long-term partners, not one-time transactions. That framing changes everything.
Keep scaling,
Tammy Zonker
Author of Calling All Heroes
Founder + President of Fundraising Transformed
President of Modern Institute for Charitable Giving
Subscribe to The Intentional Fundraiser Podcast
Reserve your spot at our upcoming Excellence in Major Gift Fundraising Seminar
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. Who is this approach best suited for?
This approach is designed for major gift officers, development directors, and executive directors at small to mid-sized nonprofits who want to build more predictable revenue and deepen donor loyalty. It works especially well if you already have an existing base of annual major donors who give consistently, even if they've never been offered a formal multi-year option.
Q2. How much time should I expect this to take each week?
Most fundraisers can get started with about two to three hours per week focused on identifying candidates, having conversations, and setting up simple stewardship automations. The more important piece is consistency. Protecting time to do this work regularly is what makes the difference between a one-time experiment and a lasting shift in your program.
Q3. What if my organization is small and I wear multiple hats?
The principles still apply, but you may need to scale the tactics. Start with a lighter version of this process that you can realistically sustain. Perhaps five donors instead of fifteen, or one automated stewardship touchpoint instead of a full calendar. Even one multi-year commitment from a loyal donor can meaningfully stabilize a small organization's revenue.
Q4. How do I know if it's working?
Look for early signals like more multi-year conversations on the calendar, donors responding positively to the invitation framing, and a clearer picture of next year's revenue by mid-year. Over time, you should see this reflected in higher retention rates, larger cumulative gift totals per donor, and reduced time spent on annual re-acquisition.
Q5. Where does AI fit into this, if at all?
AI is there to reduce friction, not replace your relationships. Use it for drafting stewardship message templates, generating renewal reminder language, or summarizing notes from donor conversations into clean CRM records. The human work of listening, reading the room, and making the ask with genuine warmth stays firmly in your hands.