Year-end is the most exciting, demanding, and engaging time of the year for fundraisers. Did you know that nearly 1/3 of all charitable giving occurs in December? And 20% of all online donations come in on December 31st!
Your end-of-year campaign, done well, will put you in front of your donors when they are most focused on philanthropic giving. The most successful year-end campaigns are well planned and take advantage of all the communication channels you have available, including direct mail, email, social media, text messages, video, and more.
Think of a year-end campaign as an integrated fundraising campaign that engages all the senses, resulting in both increased giving and organization awareness.
Here’s how to get started!
Create a comprehensive calendar that includes all your outreach activities as well as deadlines for drafts, copy-editing, and printing, if applicable.
Make sure your contact list is updated and robust! Appeals should go to as many people as possible – not just past donors.
Check your online donation process from a donor's perspective – make sure it is easy to use and welcoming to visitors.
Find one (or more!) story of impact to include in your appeal, ideally a recent one that illustrates a current need.
Start writing! Ideally you’ll want a letter and e-appeal as the core of your messaging, as well as text, video, and social media language.
Set a SMART goal. Do you have a monetary goal? Are you looking for a certain number of gifts or new donors? Knowing what you want to accomplish will help you get there.
Inform staff and board about the campaign – they can help write notes on letters, forward e-appeals to their network, and share your message on social media. Make sure they know this is a critical fundraising time, and that they can help!
The components of a successful end-of-year campaign
There is a recipe for success when it comes to creating and end-of-year campaign. It includes reaching your prospective donors from multiple angles with the same, consistent messaging. Don’t be afraid to ask! The main reason people say they didn’t give to an organization? Because they weren’t asked.
Here’s what you’ll need:
A direct mail appeal letter
This is where you define the problem and ask the reader to help solve it. Illustrate the need with a story and state a clear call to action. This is the core of your campaign!
E-appeals
These 5-10 email solicitations compliment your letter and remind readers of the urgency of your cause. Include some videos!
Social media
These brief messages will mirror your other communications and send people to your giving page.
Text
This is the most effective way to reach people – everyone sees their texts!
Phone calls
Are there donors who haven’t given yet this year? Consider calling them and letting them know they are still needed.
Acknowledgement plan
Have a plan for thanking everyone, with a more personal approach for acknowledging your top donors, such as phone calls or hand-written notes. Develop a new donor email series to start in January to engage your new supporters.
Assessment
schedule time in January to assess what worked, and what didn’t, so you are better prepared for the following year.
How to design a donor-centric campaign
Your key to success is understanding that your messaging is not about what your organization is doing. It’s about how a prospective donor can make a difference. Show them that they are a critical component to achieving your mission, one that you both value. This is what donor-centric writing is all about.
As you think about the story you want to include, imagine telling it in a way that allows the reader to step into the story, to truly feel the need of the constituents you are serving, and to see that they can play a role in making circumstances better.
Also important to being donor-centric? Segmentation. By dividing up your contacts and creating messages that are specific for each group, you can speak more authentically to the reader. For example, the letter that goes to past donors will be slightly different than the one going to those who have never made a gift. Also think about your higher end donors – they should get a more personal solicitation. Segmenting can make the donor or prospect feel seen, and consequently more likely to give.
Writing a story-driven appeal
It’s time to write, rewrite, and edit your story-driven year-end appeal!
The best way to illustrate your need, and the solution, is to tell an unfinished story, one that doesn’t yet have its happy ending. This shows the reader that they are needed to help provide the solution to the problem now. A finished story that shows how you solve problems, and that there are more problems to be solved, also works.
How can you find and tell these stories? Ask! Include your frontline staff people in the brainstorming – they see your impact everyday! Ask donors why they give and you might uncover a powerful story there. Remember there are different ways to tell stories – just make them descriptive and authentic.
What else does your appeal need? Make sure you define the societal problem in need of a solution, and why your organization is uniquely prepared to solve it. Most importantly, let the reader know they can be a part of the solution by making a gift!
An effective appeal is equal parts emotion and urgency. People give when they feel something. You want to pull people into your message with a compelling story, and then push them to act with a specific, clear, and urgent call to action.
Here are some writing tips to get you started:
Make it personal
People give more when they hear a story about one person. It is more relatable and tangible than telling the story of thousands of people, or even a community, who need help.
Avoid the “kitchen sink”
Don’t try to relay every single aspect of your organization in your appeal—this creates information overload. Instead, focus mostly on one facet of your work and show how it relates to everything else. It is tempting to want to share everything, but your appeal is not the place for that.
Use imagery
One powerful photo can go a long way in stirring emotion. Pick a clear photo of one person or animal looking straight into the camera. Make sure it mirrors the feeling and tone of your appeal.
Don’t present your message as a wall of text
Readers will rarely read a letter from top to bottom. They need to know where their eyes should land! Bold and underline what you want people to read, and make your paragraphs short. White space is your friend, and longer letters (though not emails) raise more money.
Use “you” more than “we”
Remember, this appeal is about how the reader, not your organization, can make a difference. Tell them how about the opportunity they have by using the word “you” throughout your writing.
Find a match and include it in every correspondence!
Matches work! Consider asking a current donor, or several, if their gift can be used as a matching challenge. This is great donor stewardship and it will raise more money.
Include a monthly giving option on your donation page
Promote sustaining/recurring giving by including monthly/recurring donation language in your solicitations and double check to ensure that it is an option on your Everyday Giving Page. We recommend setting "monthly" as your default frequency.
How do major donors fit into your year-end campaign?
At year-end, you'll want to consider whether to include each of your top donors in your campaign mailing list. Asking your top donors in a more personal way – either by phone, an in-person meeting, or a personalized letter – will make them feel recognized for the important impact they can have, and likely lead to higher giving.
Knowing your major donors' giving habits is helpful when deciding how to approach them. Do they usually give at year-end or another time of year? Do they like to meet in person or prefer a phone call? Is there someone at your organization who they connect with that should be doing this outreach? These are all things to consider as you review your top donor list and consider removing people from the mass mailing and email correspondence list.
Before you ask, make sure you have reported back on how their previous gift was used. Early fall is a great time to send updates on how their support made a difference as well as a time to thank them again for their support. Consider sending a video message if you can’t reach them in person!
How does Giving Tuesday fit into your year-end campaign?
Organizations that launch a Giving Tuesday campaign often see more success at year-end overall: in past years, our nonprofit customers who participated in Giving Tuesday raised an average of 369% more in December than our nonprofit customers that did not participate!
Depending on your capacity and goals, you can have Giving Tuesday be the launch of your end-of-year campaign, another way to get your message out, or it can be a different specific effort on its own (for example, a mini-campaign to raise $3,000 to purchase backpacks for the following school year).
We highly recommend you participate in Giving Tuesday – be a part of the conversation and be present in your potential donor’s inbox on this big giving day. Send a few emails in the weeks leading up to Giving Tuesday letting your mailing list know it’s coming up, and then send multiple emails on Giving Tuesday.
How does it all come together?
Here is a sample timeline you can use to schedule your campaign. All these tasks can be easily performed in your Donor Management System (DMS).
October – early November
Finalize your campaign calendar, including what days you will send letters, emails, texts, and post on social media.
Create a campaign giving page in your DMS.
Send a reporting email to past donors. Share a few of your organization’s major accomplishments from the past year, connecting these successes to donor support. Stories are a great way to show people how they made a difference.
Draft your appeal letter, email, text, and social media messages so they are ready to go!
Begin ramping up your social presence. Post regularly so you are at the top of newsfeeds during the giving season. Spotlight key volunteers and service recipients, share exciting happenings and impact from the year, and begin sharing goals for the coming months and year.
Start scheduling meetings with top donors.
Mid-November
Drop your direct mail appeal to land in mailboxes around mid-November.
Continue to schedule meetings with top donors
Send Giving Tuesday email teasers
Late November
Giving Tuesday – more reminder emails and 3 messages on the actual day! Use email, text, video, socials – all your communication options.
Send a Thanksgiving email of gratitude to all your donors, and post a gratitude message on social media – consider making it a video!
Early December
Send 3-5 email follow-ups to your direct mail letter with the same messaging, suppressing anyone who has given so far. Be direct and ask for support. Tell a story, use a testimonial, record a video. Keep it brief!
Use this same text to post on social media throughout the month.
Call important donors who have yet to give. Thank them for their prior giving and to ask them to give before the end of the year.
Last Week of December
Send brief reminder emails on each of the last days of the year with subjects highlighting that there are only a few days left to give.
Send a text on Dec. 30 with a brief reminder and a link to your donation page.
Call any donors who have not yet made their gift but were expected to contribute.
Send a thank you email to all who contributed.
January
Create an internal campaign report to highlight results and lessons learned.
Identify any first-time donors (they are tagged in your DMS) and put them into your queue to receive a new donor series of emails.
Call as many donors as you can to personally thank them – voice messages are fine. Or consider sending personal video thank yous. Enlist board members and staff for this task.