Grants vs Recurring Donations: What Nonprofit Websites Should Support First
- Jacobs Branding Graphics & Website Designs
- Jun 15
- 9 min read
Key Takeaways
Grants and recurring donations both matter, but they do different jobs. Grants can fund large initiatives or programs, while recurring donations can help create steadier, more predictable support.
Total giving may be up, but that does not automatically mean every nonprofit feels stable. Giving USA reported $592.5 billion in charitable giving in 2024, yet donor behavior continues to shift in ways that create pressure for smaller organizations and for nonprofits that depend too heavily on a narrow funding mix.
Recurring giving is no longer a side option. M+R found monthly giving revenue rose 5% year over year and made up 31% of all online revenue in 2024.
Many nonprofits say they want recurring donors, but their websites still behave like one-time or grant-first websites. M+R also found 90% of nonprofits included monthly giving as an option, but most still pre-selected one-time giving on the main donation form.
If funding diversification is the goal, most small nonprofits should usually make recurring giving more visible and easier to act on, while still keeping trust-building pages that support grant credibility.
Table of Contents
The Question Is Not Whether Grants Matter
Why This Conversation Matters Right Now
What Grants And Recurring Donations Each Do Well
The Real Issue: What Is Your Website Built To Support?
Signs Your Website Is Too Grant-Focused
Why Recurring Donations Deserve More Website Support
What Your Website Should Support First
Website Elements That Help Grow Recurring Donations
How To Balance Recurring Donor Strategy With Grant Credibility
Common Mistakes Nonprofits Make
👉The Question Is Not Whether Grants Matter
Let’s get one thing out of the way first: this is not a “grants are bad” post.
A lot of nonprofits need grants. Some organizations have been built on them for years. Grants can fund staffing, programs, expansion, equipment, and things individual donors may never fully cover on their own.
But here is the more honest question: if your nonprofit says it wants more stable, diversified funding, does your website actually support that goal?
Because that is where I see the disconnect all the time.
As someone who designs websites and marketing graphics for nonprofits and small businesses, I see a lot of nonprofit sites that are built to look credible, respectable, and report-ready, but not necessarily built to grow recurring donor support. They may look polished, but they are not always set up to help a visitor become a monthly donor, understand the value of sustained giving, or feel invited into a longer-term relationship.
Funding diversification is not just a fundraising conversation. It is also a website structure and messaging conversation.
💡Why This Conversations Matters Right Now
This conversation matters because the giving landscape is sending mixed signals.
Giving USA reported that U.S. charitable giving reached $592.5 billion in 2024, which sounds encouraging on the surface. But broader donor behavior is shifting. A Giving USA analysis of the 2025 Bank of America Study of Philanthropy noted that affluent household giving participation fell from 90% to 81% since 2017, even while affluent households remained highly generous overall. In other words, generosity is still there, but participation patterns are changing.
That matters for smaller nonprofits because fewer participating donors, greater concentration of giving, and more sophisticated donor expectations can all create instability. The same Giving USA analysis found 93% of affluent households say they are more likely to give when they believe their contribution will make a difference, and 62% report monitoring and evaluating impact before their next gift. That means trust, clarity, and donor communication are not optional side pieces anymore. They are part of the giving decision.
At the same time, donor retention is still a challenge. The Fundraising Effectiveness Project reported that new donor retention declined 5.9% year over year, and only about one in five donors who were new in 2023 gave again in 2024. Repeat donor retention performed much better at 69.2%, but even that declined relative to the previous year. That gap matters because it reinforces something a lot of nonprofits already feel: keeping support is often harder than getting the first gift.
So yes, funding diversification is a real issue. And if recurring support is part of the answer, your website should reflect that.
🔑What Grants and Recurring Donations Each Do Well
This topic gets a lot easier to talk about when we stop treating it like a winner-take-all comparison.
What Grants Do Well
Grants are often good for:
large program funding
time-bound initiatives
expansion or capacity building
credibility with institutions and partners
concentrated revenue opportunities
A good grant can do a lot of heavy lifting. It can fund a major need faster than dozens or hundreds of small gifts.
What Recurring Donations Do Well
Recurring donations are often better for:
steady cash flow
donor retention
predictable monthly support
building a broader base of supporters
reducing pressure to constantly start from zero
That difference matters. One is often episodic and application-driven. The other is relationship-driven and ongoing.
Here is the simplest way I would frame it:
Funding Source | Strength | Weak Spot |
Grants | Bigger amounts, program support, institutional credibility | Competitive, cyclical, less predictable |
Recurring donations | Consistency, donor loyalty, ongoing support | Takes website clarity and donor cultivation to grow |
So the question is not “Which one is better?”
It is:
What does your nonprofit need your website to make easier right now?
💻The Real Issue: What Is Your Website Built To Support?
A website usually tells the truth about what an organization is prioritizing.
If the site is built mostly around credibility markers for institutions, it often looks like this:
lots of formal language
a strong emphasis on mission statements and reports
leadership or board information easy to find
impact language written more like a proposal than a donor invitation
donation links that exist, but do not really lead the experience
That kind of site is not wrong. But it may be unintentionally grant-focused.
A donor-supportive website feels different. It still has trust. It still has credibility. But it also makes it easy for someone to understand:
why the work matters
how their support fits in
why monthly giving matters
what action to take next
📗Signs Your Website Is Too Grant-Focused
A lot of nonprofits did not set out to build a grant-first website. It just happened over time.
Here are some common signs:
A More Grant-Focused Website | A More Donor-Supportive Website |
Talks about the organization formally | Talks to supporters like real people |
Highlights credibility but not participation | Connects credibility to donor action |
Donation page feels secondary | Donation path is visible across the site |
One-time giving is the obvious default | Monthly giving is clearly encouraged |
Impact language feels institutional | Impact language feels human and specific |
M+R’s 2025 data makes this especially interesting. It found that 90% of nonprofits offered a monthly giving option on their main donation page, yet 64% pre-selected one-time giving, while only 35% pre-selected monthly giving. So even when recurring giving exists, the website may still be nudging people toward one-time behavior.
M+R also found that 78% of nonprofits used language or a feature on the main donation form to encourage recurring gifts, and 41% used a recurring “upsell lightbox” after a one-time gift. That tells me two things: first, nonprofits know recurring giving matters; second, many still treat it like an add-on instead of a central website priority.
🤝Why Recurring Donations Deserve More Website Support
If a nonprofit is trying to reduce reliance on grant funding, recurring giving deserves more intentional space on the website than it usually gets.
The numbers back that up. M+R reported that monthly giving revenue rose 5% year over year, while one-time online revenue was flat, and monthly giving made up 31% of all online revenue in 2024. That is not a small side channel anymore. That is a meaningful part of digital fundraising strategy.
Recurring support also fits the retention challenge better than many nonprofits realize. If new donor retention remains weak, it makes even more sense to design a website that helps the right people step into an ongoing giving relationship sooner, instead of treating every donation like an isolated transaction. FEP’s data on low new donor retention reinforces why longer-term donor relationships matter so much.
And the donor experience matters. According to the Bank of America philanthropy analysis, donors increasingly expect measurable impact, giving options that fit how they want to give, and a sense that their support actually matters. A website that treats monthly giving like a buried checkbox does not really meet that expectation.
🧭What Your Website Should Support First
If funding diversification is the goal, then for most small nonprofits, the website should usually support recurring donor growth first, while still keeping trust-building content that helps with grants.
That does not mean removing grant-friendly content. It means changing what the website makes most visible and easiest to act on.
Support Recurring Giving First When:
grant dependence feels risky
unrestricted revenue is inconsistent
the site currently does very little to encourage monthly giving
the organization wants more predictable support
Keep Grant Credibility Visible When:
grants still fund a meaningful part of operations
your organization needs strong impact and transparency pages
larger funders or institutional partners still matter
outcomes, governance, and trust markers support both grants and donors
A healthy website can do both. But if your public-facing site feels built mainly for grant reviewers and not for everyday supporters, that is probably the thing to fix first.
I would put it this way:
If your nonprofit is trying to build a more stable donor-supported future, your website should make recurring giving easier to understand, easier to trust, and easier to choose.
✅Website Elements That Help Grow Recurring Donations
This is where the strategy becomes practical.
A recurring-donation-friendly website usually includes:
a main donation page where monthly giving is clearly visible
donor-centered copy that explains why ongoing support matters
examples tied to monthly amounts
recurring giving mentions beyond just the donation page
a thank-you flow that continues the relationship
mobile-friendly donation forms
clear proof of impact
M+R’s website performance data adds another helpful layer: while mobile users represented 53% of visits, desktop users drove 70% of donation revenue, and the average desktop gift was $145 versus $76 on mobile. That does not mean mobile does not matter. It means donation pages need to work well everywhere, especially if you are asking for ongoing giving.
Here is the kind of website copy that often supports recurring donations better:
Instead of:
“Donate Today”
Try:
“Become a Monthly Donor”
“Support This Work Every Month”
“Join Our Community Of Monthly Supporters”
“Give Monthly To Provide Steady Support”
That kind of wording helps people understand the role, not just the transaction. I can help you design or redesign your nonprofit website to make sure that recurring donations stay an important part of the website.
⚖How To Balance Recurring Donor Strategy With Grant Credibility
The good news is that this is not an either/or situation.
Your nonprofit can still have:
annual reports
leadership pages
outcomes data
financial transparency
partnership credibility
program depth
Those things help with both grant credibility and donor trust.
In fact, the same Bank of America philanthropy analysis that showed donors want clear impact also found that nearly one in four affluent donors use a giving vehicle, and more sophisticated donors are more likely to use structured giving tools and evaluate organizations carefully. That means clarity and credibility still matter a lot. They just should not crowd out donor action paths.
So the balance looks more like this:
trust pages support both funders and donors
public-facing calls to action support donor growth
donation pages reflect the funding future you want to build
❌Common Mistakes Nonprofits Make
Here are the mistakes I see most often when nonprofits try to shift away from overreliance on grants:
They say recurring giving matters, but bury it on the site.
They add a monthly option, but do not explain why it matters.
They leave one-time giving as the obvious default without rethinking the donor journey.
They use formal, institutional language everywhere.
They assume donors will figure out the next step on their own.
They treat the website like a brochure instead of a fundraising tool.
None of these mistakes mean a nonprofit is doing badly. Most of the time, they just mean the website was built for a different season of the organization.
🌟Conclusion About Grants & Recurring Donations
Grants can be important. Sometimes they are essential.
But if your nonprofit wants a more stable, diversified funding future, your website should not act like grants are the only serious path to sustainability.
Recurring donations deserve more than a checkbox. They deserve real visibility, clearer messaging, stronger design support, and a more intentional donor journey.
Because in the end, a website does not just communicate what your organization does.
It also communicates what kind of funding future you are prepared to build.
✨FAQS About Grants & Recurring Donations
Should nonprofits focus on grants or recurring donations first?
Usually, nonprofits that feel too dependent on grants should make recurring giving more visible and easier to act on first, while still keeping credibility pages that support grant applications and donor trust.
Are recurring donations more reliable than grants?
They are usually more predictable month to month because they are relationship-based and ongoing. Grants can be powerful, but they are often time-bound, competitive, and less controllable.
What should a nonprofit website include to grow monthly donors?
A visible monthly giving option, simple donor-centered copy, mobile-friendly donation pages, clear impact language, and recurring donor invitations across the site.
Can a nonprofit website support both grants and recurring donations?
Yes. Trust-building pages like impact reports, financial information, and outcomes can support grant credibility, while donation pages, homepage copy, and calls to action can support recurring donor growth.
Why do many nonprofits still rely so heavily on grants?
Because grants can fund major needs quickly, but many organizations have not yet built the website structure, messaging, and fundraising assets needed to grow recurring support consistently.
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