Recurring Donations as Ubuntu: Partnership That Returns Every Season

A single gift is a moment. A recurring gift is a relationship.

Ubuntu teaches that a person becomes a person through others — umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu. Giving, in this light, was never meant to be a one-time transaction between a donor and a cause. It is a way of staying in relationship with a community over time. This is what recurring donations can be: not rescue from a distance, but partnership that returns every season. (Moyo, University of Jyväskylä)

Giving as Relationship, Not Rescue

Ubuntu Village does not believe communities are waiting to be saved. The people of Kenya, Uganda, and Nigeria whom we partner with are already doing the work — organizing, teaching, healing, growing. What they ask of partners is steadiness: to be there next month and the month after, not only in the weeks a story moves us.

That is why we speak of donors as partners. A partner shows up on a rhythm the community can count on. A partner asks before assuming. A partner understands that the decisions about what a community needs belong to the community. A recurring donation is one of the simplest ways to practice that kind of partnership.

Ubuntu names this directly: I am because we are. Your giving is part of how we become, together. (See also: Spirituality Was Never a Personal Journey.)

What the Data Says About Steady Giving

Recent sector data points the same direction. An analysis of recurring-giving data from 2,149 nonprofits using Neon One’s software between 2018 and 2022, reported by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, found that in 2022 the average recurring donor gave monthly for about 7.7 years, while the average one-time donor gave for about 1.7 years.

The same analysis found that one-time donors gave more per year on average ($2,155 versus $941 for monthly donors in 2022). The difference is in time: smaller gifts that keep arriving can add up to more over a relationship than larger gifts that arrive once. We share both numbers because the honest picture includes both — and because this is one software platform’s customer base, not every nonprofit.

A community plans in seasons. Steady giving makes that planning possible across Kenya, Uganda, and Nigeria.

Why Communities Need Predictability, Not Just Generosity

Funders themselves are beginning to name this. In a 2022 report from the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project on how nonprofits are experiencing the shift toward trust-based giving, leaders of community-based organizations described partnerships built on trust as “liberating” — while also reporting that flexible, multiyear funding still makes up a small share of what nonprofits receive. (Trust-Based Philanthropy Project, 2022)

Individual recurring gifts will never replace large multiyear grants. But for a small, community-led organization, they offer something rare: money that arrives on a rhythm, and relationships that deepen instead of restarting each time a new appeal goes out.

Steady gifts make planning possible — and that lets communities keep leading work in the way they define it, on timelines that fit their seasons. (Related: Who Speaks Shapes What Gets Believed.)

How to Give Monthly — and Stay in Relationship

Give what you can sustain. A recurring gift is a promise to yourself as well as to a community. Choose an amount that will still feel good in the hard months. A smaller gift that stays is worth more to a partner than a larger one that ends in strain.

Set it up once, then stay curious. You can choose a monthly gift on our donation page. After that, stay in conversation: read the updates, ask questions, and tell us what you would like to understand better. Partnership runs in both directions.

Review it once a year. Life changes. You are welcome to adjust or pause your gift, and no explanation is owed. What matters is that your giving continues to feel like partnership and not obligation.

A Note on How We Hold This

Ubuntu Village Inc. is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit (EIN 81-4465505). The information in this article is general and is not tax or financial advice; please consult a qualified advisor about how a charitable gift applies to your situation. Data cited here comes from a single software provider’s customer base and a small set of focus groups, and should be read as one view of the sector, not the whole of it.

Give in a Way That Lasts.

Ubuntu Village supports community-led healing across Kenya, Uganda, and Nigeria — because what a community builds, it builds in seasons. When you give monthly, you partner with people already shaping their own future.

Sources & Research

• “As the Number of Donors Continues to Drop, Monthly Giving Could Be a Solution”. Emily Haynes, Chronicle of Philanthropy, April 8, 2024 (analysis of Neon One recurring-giving data, 2,149 nonprofits, 2018–2022).
• “How Are Nonprofits Experiencing the Funder-Reported Shift Toward Trust-Based Philanthropy?” Trust-Based Philanthropy Project, September 2022 (three focus groups with nonprofit executive directors).
• “I Am Because We Are… Understanding the Concept of ‘Ubuntu’” Fulata Lusungu Moyo, University of Jyväskylä, August 25, 2025.

Related Reading

• Spirituality Was Never a Personal Journey
• Spirit and Science: How Ubuntu Village Honors Both Ways of Knowing
• Who Speaks Shapes What Gets Believed
• Where Your Support Goes: How Ubuntu Village Puts Partnership into Practice

Michele Mitchell is the Founder, President & CEO of Ubuntu Village Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with programs in Kenya, Uganda, and Nigeria. A writer, advocate, and community strategist working at the intersection of ancestral wisdom, public health, and community power, Michele leads Ubuntu Village’s work to center communities as the protagonists of their own healing. She writes from the conviction that science and spirit are complementary, that healing is relational, and that community is the medicine. Read more about Michele, or connect with her on LinkedIn.