How to identify donors who may be ready for recurring giving

Nonprofits spend a great deal of time building valuable relationships with donors, learning a lot about them along the way. You know who has given to your nonprofit, how much they’ve contributed, how often they’ve supported your mission, and what causes they care about most. However, knowing where your next recurring giving opportunity lies can be harder to pinpoint.

Which one-time donors might be ready to commit to ongoing support? Which recurring donors could be open to increasing their gifts? And with limited time and resources, where should your team focus its outreach first?

Our targeted donor lists can help answer those questions, turning donor insights into action. Below, we’ll cover what targeted donor lists are and how your nonprofit organization can use them to find more recurring donors while doing less recurring work.

What are targeted donor lists?

Targeted donor lists help nonprofits identify recurring giving opportunities within their existing supporter base.

Powered by GoFundMe Intelligence, targeted donor lists use your nonprofit’s own donor data alongside insights from matched donor activity on the GoFundMe consumer platform. This is particularly impactful, as 2021–2026 GoFundMe data shows that 45% of GoFundMe Pro donors have also given on GoFundMe.

These lists surface two key audiences: donors who may be more likely to start a recurring gift and existing recurring donors who may be ready to increase their support.

Rather than sorting through donor data manually or relying on broad segments, your team gets a more focused place to start. From there, you can determine the right message, channel, and ask for each audience.

3 ways to activate your targeted donor lists

Identifying potential recurring giving opportunities is only the beginning. The next step is getting the right message in front of those donors. Here are three ways to put your targeted donor lists to work.

1. Create a targeted email campaign

Email marketing is an effective way to reach different donor cohorts. With the right segmentations, you can tailor your message and ask to each audience.

For supporters you hope to convert into recurring donors, show what sustained support could make possible. Connect a recurring gift to tangible, ongoing impact toward your mission. For example, a food bank might explain that a $25 monthly gift can help provide reliable access to meals for a family throughout the year. Potential donors can then visualize their support and make it a reality.

However, for existing recurring donors, start with gratitude. Recognize the impact they already make before inviting them to consider increasing their recurring contribution. Giving donors a reason for the upgrade can make the ask more meaningful. Share concrete examples of what an additional $5 or $10 each month could help your nonprofit accomplish.

Whichever audience you intend to reach with your targeted donor list, keep the next step simple. Build your message around one clear call to action (CTA) and direct donors to an optimized giving experience that reflects the ask they just received.

2. Reach donors through paid social

Targeted donor lists can also help bring greater focus to your paid social strategy. Where supported by the advertising platform and consistent with applicable privacy requirements, you can upload donor email addresses to create an audience and run a campaign designed specifically for those supporters.

Just be sure to tailor your ads to each audience: Show potential recurring donors what ongoing support could make possible, and show existing recurring donors what increasing their gift could accomplish. Then, send each audience to a landing page that reinforces the same ask.

You can also use these audiences as a starting point for broader testing. For example, create a look-alike audience based on donors from your targeted list and test different messaging, visuals, or CTAs to learn what resonates with similar prospective supporters.

This approach can serve two purposes: reaching the donors you’ve already identified and gathering insights that can help you expand your recurring giving strategy to a wider group.

3. Prioritize one-to-one outreach

Not every donor relationship is best nurtured through a larger marketing campaign. Your targeted donor lists can also help your team identify a smaller group of supporters who may benefit from more personal outreach.

Select a manageable number of donors and reach out individually. Rather than leading with an ask, use the conversation as an opportunity to thank them for their support and learn more about their connection to your mission. From there, you can explore whether starting a recurring gift or increasing an existing contribution feels like the right next step.

These conversations can also provide value beyond an individual’s gift. Pay attention to the questions donors ask, the impact stories that capture their attention, and the reasons they give for whether or not they choose to start a recurring donation. Those insights can help you refine messaging for future emails, social media, and other fundraising campaigns.

More ways to put your targeted donor lists to work

Emails, paid social, and personal outreach are strong places to start, but there are other ways to activate your targeted donor lists. Consider the donor information your organization already has and the channels that work best for your audience.

Depending on the data you have, you could also use the lists to:

• Send direct mail to donors whose mailing addresses you’ve collected.
• Call donors who’ve provided phone numbers.
• Send personal or handwritten letters to a smaller group of supporters.
• Tailor year-end or other campaign messaging to potential recurring donors and upgrade audiences.
• Inform event strategy, from deciding who to invite to following up with attendees or incorporating a targeted recurring giving ask.

The main goal is to use your lists to focus your efforts and test which combinations of audience, message, and channel generate meaningful responses.

Measure and refine

As you activate your targeted donor lists, track what happens next.

Monitor metrics such as new recurring gifts, recurring gift upgrades, conversion rates, and responses by channel. Look beyond the total number of gifts to understand which messages and tactics drive action among each audience.

Then, put those findings to work. A message that performs well in emails could inform your next paid campaign. Insights from one-to-one donor conversations could inspire new campaign language. And results from one audience can help you develop new tests for the next.

Over time, this test-and-learn approach can help your team build a clearer picture of what motivates donors to deepen their commitment.

Bring targeted donor lists into your recurring giving plans

The opportunity to grow recurring giving already exists within your donor community. However, the challenge is knowing where to look and what to do once you find it.

Targeted donor lists help highlight those opportunities. By activating those insights across multiple channels, your nonprofit can create more relevant donor experiences, strengthen supporter relationships, and build a recurring giving program designed for long-term growth.

Request a demo of GoFundMe Pro today to see the many ways we support 10x donor value through recurring giving.*

*Internal GoFundMe Pro analysis (as of 2025), comparing lifetime value of recurring vs. one-time donors. Results vary.