From Membership to Momentum: How the San Diego Zoo Scaled Recurring Giving

<p>What if the smallest gift on your file—that $10-a-month donor—turns out to be one of the most valuable relationships your organization will ever build?</p><p>In this episode, Dave Raley sits down with Jeff Spitko, Senior Director of Integrated Fundraising at the San Diego Foundation, for a genuine masterclass in building fundraising that lasts. Before joining the Foundation, Jeff spent 11 years at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, where he helped grow annual and mid-level giving from $26 million to more than $57 million and grew monthly donors from just 175 to nearly 12,000. Yes, you read that right.</p><p>Whether you steward 400,000 members or 400, this conversation is packed with practical, hard-earned lessons on scale, segmentation, storytelling, and why the sustainers you might overlook often carry the most long-term weight.</p><p>Top 5 topics we dig into:</p><ul><li><p>Scaling the Zoo from $26M to $57M: Jeff inherited three jobs rolled into one—a decades-old membership program, mass-market annual/mid/major giving for global conservation, and philanthropy communications—and turned it into a growth engine over 11 years.</p></li><li><p>The recurring giving growth story (175 to ~12,000 monthly donors): The game-changer wasn&#39;t the brand. It was weaving monthly giving in as an option inside every appeal and email, instead of selling it as a separate program.</p></li><li><p>Question your assumptions. Go to the data: The &quot;typical&quot; donor myths were wrong. Their base skewed toward single donors and grandparents, ran nearly 50/50 on gender, and spanned every age. Test everything; don&#39;t fundraise from your gut.</p></li><li><p>Meet donors where they are (and don&#39;t sleep on legacy): Not everyone wants to be &quot;moved up,&quot; and that&#39;s okay. About 65% of planned gifts came from members who never gave above $5,000, and recurring donors are far more likely to leave a legacy gift.</p></li><li><p>Donor acquisition is an investment: Jeff&#39;s on-site canvassing program was a game-changer: talking panda conservation 15 feet from a panda, with same-day handwritten thank-you notes matched to the animal each visitor loved. But it took 14–18 months to turn a profit, which means real conversations with your CFO about patience.</p></li></ul><p>A few more gems tucked inside:</p><ul><li><p>Storytelling and equivalencies that stick (&quot;your $10 a month could provide antibiotics for a baby elephant&quot;), and why you shouldn&#39;t water dow