Atlas Free Lifts Recurring Donor Retention by 151% With Classy and Virtuous

Work

To accelerate and resource the fight against sex trafficking and exploitation

Challenge

Create an inviting recurring donor experience that encourages more signups

Solution

Better data management from the Classy and Virtuous integration helps Atlas Free nurture recurring donors and increase retention

“We want to continue scaling our recurring giving program, and Classy allows us to do that. We can maintain the perfect combination of automation and personal touch for donor connection. By automating standard communication with our donors about failing cards, donation confirmations, and suspensions, we can save our time for the more personal touches.”

– Jake Fankhauser, CRM and Experience Manager

Results with Classy and Virtuous:

151%

in recurring plan retention

A quarter

of online donations came from a recurring gift in the last year

Hours saved

per day on data import

Scaling a recurring giving program with Classy

Atlas Free’s recurring giving community, Team Freedom, allows supporters to commit to the fight against sex trafficking and exploitation monthly without having to manually contribute every month. With Classy’s inline donation form, Atlas Free can offer a giving experience that is seamless with its brand and website and has full control over copy and imagery.

Recurring giving is an important piece of our fundraising strategy, so having a tool like Classy that makes it easy is essential.
Jake Fankhauser
CRM and Experience Manager

With Classy, donors have full control of their recurring giving plans—all without having to create or remember a tedious password. With a one-click magic link that is sent to their email inbox, they can create, modify, and manage their recurring plans on their own. The freedom to change recurring donation frequency and pause plans has helped increase the lifetime value of a recurring donor. In fact, a quarter of Atlas Free’s online donations on Classy came from a recurring gift in the last year, and its recurring plan retention rate increased by 151% year over year.

‘Team Freedom,’ Atlas Free’s recurring giving program

Connecting systems for more personalized experiences

Spreadsheets can be helpful, but they are crippling to an organization’s data because of the constant manual upkeep. Thanks to the seamless integration between Classy and Virtuous, a responsive nonprofit CRM, Atlas Free has a 360-degree view of its fundraising across every touchpoint.

The daily import process used to take hours of work and now with Classy and Virtuous, it is condensed down to ten minutes a day. Data entry is easy, and we are able to keep very detailed records of every fundraiser, donor, and interaction in our community.
Jake Fankhauser
CRM and Experience Manager

Recurring plan information surfaced in Virtuous CRM can provide more information about where a donor is on their supporter journey so the Atlas Free team can better steward them and make more informed asks. For example, if they see that a donor who was giving on a monthly basis canceled their recurring plan, this might inform how the team frames the next message to them.

With a holistic view of donor data, the Atlas Free team can more finely segment communications and explain the benefits of becoming a recurring donor.

Emails to current recurring donors include a thank-you message for their support and an update on the impact of their gift.
Emails to non-recurring donors include a message about the impact of a recurring donation.

We use Classy to reach the furthest out donors and Virtuous to automate and create personalized experiences that pull these new donors into the fold as well as point them to our larger mission and how they can have an even bigger impact.
Jake Fankhauser
CRM and Experience Manager

Bringing Intelligence into the Fundraising Strategy

Soon, the Atlas Free team will implement Classy’s Intelligent Ask Amounts to display personalized giving levels that match what the donor is most likely to give. This is made possible through Classy’s machine learning, where the platform analyzes past donor behavior to identify tailored giving amounts unique to every donor. Atlas Free is thrilled about this option, as Classy testing shows an average donation revenue increase of 11% with Intelligent Ask Amounts.