The Math of Showing Up

Our company-wide walking challenge logged 7,496 miles! But in my opinion, that’s not the number that matters most.

Robert Johnson
Senior Creative Director

Every year, we bring back some good old-fashioned competition in the form of an annual walking challenge. It’s simple: the person with the most miles at the end of 8 weeks takes home the prize. Thirty of us logged miles, with Dr. Jim—our staff data scientist—helping us track everything. We grab our Smart Watch, Fitbit, Fitness app, Strava, step counter . . . whatever works . . . and we start pounding the pavement!

When this year’s challenge wrapped, I asked the participants two questions: What surprised you most about your own behavior? And what kept you going? Their answers, threaded throughout this post, uncovered an interesting sentiment that I think applies to a donor file. Stay with me.

The biggest number isn’t the biggest number.
We logged 7,496 cumulative miles this year. That’s 105% more than last year. But the number that actually tells the story is the one that barely changed: 92.2% participation, week after week.

That consistent and steady participation is the engine. The total miles are the receipts.

Renee, web designer, stated it clearly:

This is the part our human nature—and even some donor programs—get wrong. We obsess over the peaks and miss what produces them.

What people said about showing up.
Anthony, staff accountant, noticed that every single week of the challenge, he logged more total miles than the week before. By the final stretch, he’d accumulated enough and placed in the top two for a single week—a recalibrated goal he’d set.

Annie, associate consultant, became a 6 a.m. person. She started walking before work every day and discovered she enjoyed it enough that she’s still doing it now that the challenge is over.

Charlotte, VP of client operations, set up a walking pad in her basement, and instead of melting into the couch in the evenings, she would walk after her toddler went to sleep.

Catalina, manager of digital solutions, said:

Even Dr. Jim, a data scientist who was always fine-tuning his motivation, included “inertia/habit” in the list of things that keep him moving.

None of these people were trying to be heroes. They were just committed to showing up.

What the spreadsheet said about showing up.
Per-person mileage climbed 9% over last year. People walked farther, weaving their miles into days they used to skip.

The weekend mileage ratio dropped this year, from 33.5% last year to 32.1%. People didn’t reserve their efforts for Saturday or Sunday. They were fitting walks into Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday lunch.

This is what consistency looks like. The winner is not crowned with one single big push. Success is determined by a lot of small pushes that don’t get skipped.

A simple pattern.
Reading my colleagues’ responses revealed a pattern: the people who logged the most miles weren’t doing anything heroic. They were doing one small thing repeatedly—in spite of the weather, busy days, or the temptations of not getting up off the couch.

Which made me wonder what the simplicity of showing up looks like elsewhere.

On monthly giving.
A $25-a-month donor who consistently shows up without fanfare or prompting may be the closest thing fundraising has to a person who keeps walking on a Tuesday afternoon, despite the drizzle or rising temperatures.

Overall donor retention across the nonprofit sector sits around 45%. Recurring donors retain at a rate between 79% and 90%—almost double that of non-recurring donors. And the average recurring donor stays engaged for nearly eight years. The average non-recurring donor? Less than two.

The annual donor gives once and disappears until you break through to them again. The monthly donor shows up Tuesday afternoon and Saturday lunch and every day in between, whether you’re paying attention or not.

The walking challenge made the same point the data does: The consistent monthly gifts that keep arriving compound in ways the others don’t.

So it’s worth asking: Are we treating our sustainer programs as the backbone, or as a checkbox?

A note on acknowledgement.
Our walking challenge kept us motivated with encouragement, a leaderboard, even weekly winners and prizes.

Sustainer programs rarely have that level of acknowledgment. Monthly donors are usually thanked, gift by gift, and still never get the kind of structural acknowledgment our walking challenge gave its participants automatically, something that says: we see you faithfully showing up.

In my opinion, this is the risk. Sustainer programs that are working are easy to leave alone. The revenue comes in. The reports look great; the program continues to move forward. But a program that simply rolls is one in which your most loyal donors risk becoming quietly invisible—not because they’ve left, but because their consistency makes them easy to overlook.

92.2%.
The 7,496 miles we logged this year are definitely something to celebrate.

But the real number that kept me thinking was the rate at which people showed up to log something, week after week: 92.2%.

Your sustainer file has its own version of that number. The question isn’t really about whether those sustaining donors are being thanked. But I do wonder if the rhythm and frequency that make them so valuable are also letting them become a forgotten foundation—when they deserve to be treated as a praised partner.

We want to see your sustainer program thrive and keep your recurring donors praised and affirmed as often as possible. The math of showing up really does matter!

Contact Douglas Shaw & Associates to start the conversation about growing your nonprofit’s monthly donor strategy to position it as the backbone—rather than a checkbox—of your mission.