Sustainers: efficiency, stability,
shorter on-air fund drives

These tables accompany Valerie Arganbright's July 2010 article about the advantages of a sustaining member program for public broadcasting stations. Both cases assume the donors aren't upgraded in amount.

If 500 givers become sustainers this year at $14 a month — the average monthly gift of an MPR sustaining member — 315 will remain as sustainers 10 years from now, compared to 56 nonsustaining monthly givers. (The average gift of nonsustaining members is about $10 a month.)
The sustainers will continue as givers year-to-year at the rate of 95 percent instead of 85 percent or even less at many stations.
At MPR, because they don’t have as many lapses, their average giving in a year is $167 instead of $124.
Their gross total giving in 10 years comes to $607,109 instead of $160,604.
Fundraising costs per person average about the same for sustainers and non-sustainers. (Total costs for the cohort will be higher, but that’s because more givers remain!)
Even though total fundraising costs are higher, the net total giving from that original sustaining group of 500 comes to $652,244, compared to $151,012.

If you start the decade with 500 sustaining members
giving about $14 a month (the average monthly gift of an MPR sustaining member)

	# of Sustainers	% Fulfillment	Average Gift	Cumulative Revenue	Cumulative Cost	Net gain
Year 1	500	95%	167	83,500	3,000	$ 80,500
Year 2	475	95%	167	79,325	1,900	$ 77,425
Year 3	451	95%	167	75,359	1,805	$ 73,554
Year 4	429	95%	167	71,591	1,715	$ 69,876
Year 5	407	95%	167	68,011	2,444	$ 65,568
Year 6	387	95%	167	64,611	1,548	$ 63,063
Year 7	368	95%	167	61,380	1,470	$ 59,910
Year 8	349	95%	167	58,311	1,397	$ 56,914
Year 9	332	95%	167	55,396	1,327	$ 54,069
Year 10	315	95%	167	52,626	1,260	$ 51,365
Total				$ 670,109	$ 17,865	$ 652,244

If you start the decade with 500 nonsustaining donors
giving about $10 a month (the average monthly gift of a non-sustaining MPR member)

	# of Members	% Fulfillment	Average Gift	Cumulative Revenue	Cumulative Cost	Net Gain
Year 1	500	95%	124	58,900	3,000	$ 55,900
Year 2	250	50%	124	15,500	1,500	$ 14,000
Year 3	175	70%	124	15,190	1,050	$ 14,140
Year 4	149	85%	124	15,678	893	$ 14,786
Year 5	126	85%	124	13,327	759	$ 12,568
Year 6	107	85%	124	11,328	645	$ 10,683
Year 7	91	85%	124	9,628	548	$ 9,080
Year 8	78	85%	124	8,184	466	$ 7,718
Year 9	66	85%	124	6,957	396	$ 6,561
Year 10	56	85%	124	5,913	337	$ 5,576
Total				$ 160,604	$ 9,593	$ 151,012

Sustainers: efficiency, stability, shorter on-air fund drives

If you start the decade with 500 sustaining members giving about $14 a month (the average monthly gift of an MPR sustaining member)

If you start the decade with 500 nonsustaining donors giving about $10 a month (the average monthly gift of a non-sustaining MPR member)

Sustainers: efficiency, stability,
shorter on-air fund drives

If you start the decade with 500 sustaining members
giving about $14 a month (the average monthly gift of an MPR sustaining member)

If you start the decade with 500 nonsustaining donors
giving about $10 a month (the average monthly gift of a non-sustaining MPR member)