The Power of Recurring Donations

Through extensive research, experience and experimentation over seventeen years, it has become apparent that the most sustainable and cost efficient fundraising strategy for the CatComm model of organization is recurring donations.

Only recurring donations allow:

• The core team and broader network to dedicate our work time almost exclusively to meeting our mission, freeing us up from the 4-6 weeks annually that we spend soliciting donations.
• Flexible, ongoing and comprehensive strategic visioning, planning and program implementation in real-time response to Rio’s favelas’ needs, given we know how much we can depend on from month to month and into the coming year(s) well in advance.
• Closer relationships with donors, since we are free to communicate individually with each of you during the course of the year, focusing on those that would like to be more closely engaged or receive information or specific responses from the core team.
• Real-time response to donors that desist their support, to discover what we might do better, or to engage new donors in their place to ensure our work can continue.
• Reduced anxiety, stress and health threats that come with the uncertainty and precariousness associated with annual fundraising campaigns or grant dependence.

The beauty of this approach for you, as the donor, is that our sustainability can be guaranteed with your help without requiring you to donate anything more than you would already.

In fact, a formal evaluation has just proven that the flexibility built into CatComm’s Approach is what allowed us to help stop forced evictions, or improve outcomes for residents, in recent years in Rio.

Here are the simple steps we’d like to ask you to follow to guarantee our work continues to prosper:

1. Determine how much you are comfortable donating to Catalytic Communities each year.
2. Divide that amount by 12 (or whatever frequency you plan to set up).
3. Set up a “monthly pledge” in that amount here (or through an automatic bank payment to Catalytic Communities, PO Box 42010, Washington, DC 20015).
4. That’s it!

That’s right, even if your donation is just $2 a month, for a total of $24 a year, the monthly donation is preferable to the annual donation of $24 because of all the benefits to our efficiency listed above.

We are working hard to reach $7500 in monthly pledges initially, and ultimately $10,000 if we can swing it.

Along with public speaking, content sponsorships and grants, these resources will allow us to provide the full programming we plan from year-to-year. Not only that, but a donor has agreed to provide a $10,000 lump sum donation once we reach the initial goal of $5000 in monthly pledges, and again at $10,000! Plus, for every $10 you donate until we reach $5000 (then again at $7500 and $10,000!) your name will be entered into our Rio Raffle—which will be held three times, once when we hit each of these goals—for a trip for two to Rio.

That said, if you are still not interested in giving monthly, that is obviously perfectly OK and we would love to see your contribution come in as a one-off or annual donation, which you can also make here. And if you have other ideas of how we can raise these necessary funds, please share them with us.

Thank you for being a part of CatComm’s work supporting Rio’s favelas. Your support has been and continues to be critical and we hope to count on you going forward in the months and years to come.