What if the donors who could sustain your mission year-round have been waiting, and you just haven't asked them the right way?

This week on Sustainable Giving, host Dave Raley sits down with Kathy Coady, Chief Development Officer, and Melissa Tagg, Marketing & Communications Manager (and USA Today bestselling author!) from Hope Ministries Iowa. Together, they share the story of how a rescue mission that had quietly left monthly giving on the table completely transformed its approach and saw double-digit growth in sustainers within just eight months.

Hope Ministries has served the homeless, hungry, abused, and addicted in central Iowa for over 110 years. Their need is 24/7, 365, but their recurring donor support had been flat for years. It was a checkbox, not a strategy. That changed when Kathy and Melissa decided they were done starting every fiscal year at the bottom of the mountain. This episode is full of practical wisdom and honest reflection for any leader wondering whether recurring giving could really work for their organization. Spoiler: it can.

Key Topics They Talk About:

1. The Recurring Giving Wake-Up Call: For years, Hope Ministries treated monthly giving as a passive option rather than a priority. The turning point? A benchmark report showing they were hitting every metric except sustainer revenue. Kathy and Melissa, both self-described competitive spirits, decided then and there: ”We're going to fix this.”

2. The Accelerator Campaign That Changed Everything: The first move Hope Ministries made was an accelerator email campaign: eight to nine emails in three weeks. Melissa admits it scared her. She remembers when sending one email a month felt risky. But the results were stunning. New monthly donors came in fast, and people who hadn't given in over a decade showed up and said yes. They've now run three of these campaigns and are planning a fourth.

3. Messaging That Clicked: The New Women & Children's Center: The key to their campaign's success was specificity. Hope Ministries had just opened a new center for women and children, tripling capacity from 30-35 to 100 people at one time. That milestone became the campaign message: a clear, timely, and compelling reason to give monthly right now, rather than a generic ask.

4. Making Monthly Giving a Whole-Organization Priority: Before this work, monthly giving was one item on a long menu. Now it's woven into everything — the website relaunch, event planning, donation platform decisions, and everyday team conversations. As Kathy puts it: ”It's part of our conversation now.” That shift from ”one option among many” to ”strategic priority” is what separates organizations that grow sustainers from those that stay flat.

5. Results That Speak for Themselves: Over eight months, Hope Ministries gained approximately 90 new monthly donors, well into double-digit percentage growth. The average monthly gift also increased as they added donors — something Kathy did not expect. They recovered their investment within the first few emails of the first campaign, and they're now aiming for 25% of total revenue from monthly donors long-term.

Also in this episode, they talk about:

• The ”Base of the Mountain” Problem

• Stewardship as Partnership

• Data Cleanup and Hidden Gems

• Advice for Hesitant Leaders

• What Gives Them Hope

If your most loyal donors could give every month, automatically and joyfully, for years, what is standing between them and that commitment?

Key Resources:

• Learn more about Hope Ministries Iowa (Consider joining Team Hope!)

• Connect with Kathy on LinkedIn

• Learn more about Melissa Tagg

• Connect with Melissa on LinkedIn

• Learn more about Dave’s work

  Connect with Dave on LinkedIn

Special thanks to our team at Sustainable Giving: Tom, Victoria, Kirsten and Abigail.