How To Raise Money at Fiscal Year End

Each year about this time I have the same thought: “I can’t believe fundraising around fiscal year end works.” But it does. Every year.

Here’s why I think it works, and how our clients have had the most success at raising money . . .

There’s a clear deadline. Deadlines are magic for raising money. They always increase the urgency, which makes more people take action:
People understand budgets. They know what it’s like to come up short at the end of the month. They know how hard it is to plan when you don’t know how much money is coming in. So your donors get it when you say, “Please help us end the fiscal year strong so that this good work continues . . .”

Send out a Fiscal Year End appeal. Send it out as quickly as you can. It doesn’t really matter what it looks like, just be sure to make the June 30th deadline clear early and often.
The Ask is simple: ask your donor to send in a gift before the end of the fiscal year to help your organization end the year strong. Tell her she will ensure the organization keeps ‘(doing whatever you do) and starts your next year in a position to do a great job.
Send out three emails at the end of the month, on the 27th, 29th and 30th at about 10:00 AM. If you only want to send two emails, send them on the 28th and 30th.
Your emails should say the same thing as the letter.
If you can, have the home page of your website feature a large banner asking for fiscal year end gifts by June 30th. Put the banner up for the last week of the month.
Finally, if you can offer matching funds, do it. We’ve had GREAT success using matches to increase the amount of money raised during fiscal year end campaigns.

That’s it! Send out your letter as quickly as you can, and get ready to raise more money this June than you have in the past!

One comment on “How To Raise Money at Fiscal Year End”

One comment on “How To Raise Money at Fiscal Year End”