How Karam Foundation Uses Community-Building to Acquire and Retain Recurring Donors
Mission
Offer community, mentorship, and innovative education to Syrian youth and families, helping them harness their power and shape their own future
Challenge
Meet donors in their preferred communication channels and deepen connections to the mission to create lifelong supporters
Solution
Partner with Classy to create a community for recurring donors built on storytelling, connection, and experience
“Our recurring giving program was made possible by Classy, and it has revolutionized our fundraising. Classy’s platform makes it simple and straightforward. Donors can choose the frequency of their gifts, creating more points of entry for donors new to the concept of recurring giving.”
– Annie Lazarski, Annual Fund Lead
Recurring Donor Results:
164
supporters in The Journey recurring giving community
140%
higher average recurring gift compared to industry standard
44
months average duration of a monthly donor
Karam Foundation plans to set 10,000 Syrian refugee youth and adults on the pathway to leadership by 2028 through its interconnected programs: Karam Families, Innovative Education, and Karam Scholars.
A Multi-Channel Approach to Connect With Donors
When a first-time supporter makes a donation, Karam activates a multi-pronged, personalized outreach strategy that spans email newsletters, social media, one-on-one emails, phone calls, and direct mail. Through a segmented approach, Karam’s goal is to meet supporters through their preferred communication channels.
An Emphasis on Monthly Giving
Karam was looking for a way to create a sustainable and reliable source of revenue and to give donors a way to feel like a more integral part of the nonprofit’s work. So, Karam built a recurring giving community called The Journey.
Leveraging Classy’s recurring giving program, Karam is able to provide a seamless and optimized experience for monthly donors. By automating donors’ monthly acts of generosity with their preferred payment method, donors no longer have to remember to make a gift each month.
As a small nonprofit, we focus on developing sustainable income streams. Each month, we receive a significant portion of reliable funds through recurring donors. We want to normalize recurring giving because it’s the way true change happens.
Simplified Giving With Embedded Donation Forms
In an effort to remove barriers to donating, Karam layered an embedded donation form over a powerful video on its website homepage, demonstrating the organization’s work with young Syrian refugees and offering one-time and monthly gift options. Visitors are immediately greeted with the simplest way to contribute a donation while simultaneously inviting them into Karam’s story.
So many potential donors are lost when directed to a new webpage, and we wanted to remove as many barriers as possible. We now have an embedded donation form on our homepage and plan to add them on more web pages in the future since we’ve seen such positive results so far with first-time donors.
Recurring giving
Make it easier to capture and grow your recurring donor base and predict future revenue.
Donation forms
Remove unnecessary friction from donors’ checkout experience with embedded and modal forms.
