Author: Jim Shapiro

Do you want to learn how to raise more money in 2016? The answer is pretty simple; Ask your donors to help your beneficiaries more often, and ask them for higher amounts than they gave last time.

I know you see every appeal letter, newsletter, receipt letter. So it FEELS like you are communicating a lot. But it’s not a lot to most donors who receive maybe 1 out of every 2 messages you send.

Consider this; not every email you send is opened, not every appeal letter you mail gets read. Even if you, your staff and your Board feel like you’re communicating too often, that doesn’t mean you are.

Many of your donors gave a gift in December, so they are primed and ready to help again right now! Give them a chance to help by either Reporting back to them what happened in the life of a beneficiary because of their gift, or Ask them to help again!

The more you communicate the more money you will raise.

If you want to be successful in 2016 you need to look in the rearview mirror.

After all, if you don’t know what worked for your organization in 2015 how will you know what to do this year?

One thing all nonprofits that grow year-over-year tend to have in common is that the track results. For every mailing they know how many were sent, what the cost was, how many gifts came back, what the net revenue was.

For every event they know the cost of the event, then number of people who attended, the amount raised, the average gift size, the number of new donors acquired.

Then they review the results, figure out where they could do better, and spend their fundraising budget accordingly. Fundraising data is the lifeblood of your future fundraising success.

If you didn’t track data in 2015, then now is the time to create systems for tracking your fundraising data in 2016. To see an example of a pro forma for tracking direct mail or email data, click here. Feel free to use this document or create something similar to meet all of your data tracking needs.

But the most important thing; track your results. Start as soon as you can.

As the year starts, we talked around the office about what our most successful clients had in common.

Of course, they took care of the basics by Asking, Thanking, and Reporting well. This helped them keep their donors and increased the amount of money they raised.

But the best-performing organizations also did something else; they focused on improving one or two big things throughout the year. This is a proven practice for any organization looking to raise more money year after year.

So here’s our question for you: what will you and your organization focus on improving? Here are a list of things we’ve seen really move the fundraising needle for organizations.

• Major donor retention and revenue
• Track fundraising results so you know what worked and what didn’t
• Increasing donor communications so that your organization is in front of your donors often enough
• Focusing on making your communications more donor-centric
• Reporting; really showing your donors what their gift accomplished
• Asking their donors more often; giving your donors more chances to help in specific ways.

We suggest you pick one or two of the above and develop a plan to be measurably better at them by the end of 2016.

If you really want to move your fundraising needle in 2016, we can help. Just email me at jim@betterfundraising.com.

Thank you. Thank you for your work this year to raise more money and to make the world a better place. You’ve helped your organization, and you’ve helped your donors live out their values and beliefs through their donations.

As the year ends, Ask with boldness and clarity. Then take a breather. Then get ready to Thank and Report your way to satisfied donors in 2016. They’re going to LOVE hearing what their gifts did!

It’s a gift to be a fundraiser. Good luck these next few days, and we’ll see you in 2016!

Jim & Steven

Here’s a short video to help you raise more money between now and December 31st. We’ve simplified this list to include the things that will raise the most money with the smallest effort for your organization.

Plus, watch for how you can have Better Fundraising review your Thanking and Receipting materials and give you tips on how to improve them. Have a great December, and good luck!

Suggestion for you; save all of the fundraising letters and emails you receive between now and Christmas.

The best, free way to get great at fundraising is to watch what the professionals are doing and to apply the same principles to your organization’s fundraising.

Three tips to help you get the most out of this exercise:

1. When you review the materials, look at them as a donor, not as a Fundraiser. Don’t analyze every word, just look at them for a few seconds – like most donor’s do.
2. Make sure you’re saving the fundraising materials from at least one large organization where the fundraising is done by professionals. You may not personally like this fundraising as much, but it’s proven to work and you can learn from it.
3. Count the total number of times each organization contacts you between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Chances are it will be more than you think — and that your organization can be communicating to your donors more often.

You’ll be surprised at how much you’ll learn. And you’ll be able to apply it to raise more money next year!

Want to raise more money? Want to avoid the storytelling mistakes that drive donors away from your organization?

Here’s a helpful video where Steven Screen walks you through some easy fixes you can make to your storytelling. The tips will help you raise more money immediately, and are especially important during the last few weeks of the year.

Steven co-hosts a podcast called Fundraising Is Beautiful with author and Creative Director Jeff Brooks. You should subscribe to the podcast if you haven’t already – it’s chock-full of fundraising advice for fundraisers who want to get better at the noble work of raising money.

Watch the video — you’ll absolutely learn something that will help you raise more money before the end of the year!

Do you want a simple plan that will maximize the amount of money you raise at the end of this year? If so, then there are three main things you need to do.  I’ve listed them in the order of importance. If you can only do one, do one. If you can do all three, great. The important thing is to be asking your donors to help your cause / your beneficiaries this time of year – your donors want to help!

Here’s the list:

1. Send a year-end appeal letter
2. Send a year-end email on December 31st.
3. Modify your website so your visitors can easily gift a gift.

Do you want more information about this year-end fundraising plan.  Click here to watch this short video.

Happy Holidays and Happy Fundraising!

If you’re a small- to medium-sized nonprofit, chances are you need to Report back to your donors what their gifts have accomplished. Especially to your major donors.

We suggest this because, on average, 71% of donors to nonprofits do not know what their gift accomplished.* Do your Major Donors know what happened because of their last gift? If not, you need to Report. Immediately.

Here’s what to do this November:

• Identify your Top 12 major donors who have given a gift in the last 12 months.
• For each donor, ask yourself “Do they really feel like their last gift made a difference?” If your answer is “no,” you need to Report to them.
• Find a beneficiary story that has a powerful “before” and “after”. Get a photo of that person (quality doesn’t matter).
• Set up a 15-minute phone call with each Major. Clearly tell them, “I am not going to ask you for a gift, I want to share a story of what your gift accomplished.” Email them the photo.
• On your call, share the “before” and then share the “after.” Don’t talk for more than 30 seconds about what your organization did for the beneficiary, just stay focused on the beneficiary.
• End by saying something like, “I just wanted to share this story with you because it wouldn’t have happened without your help. This is the kind of thing that happens each time you make a gift.”
• Don’t talk about any other topics unless the donor asks questions. The whole goal of this meeting is to Report the story in a powerful way. That’s it.

When you’ve finished what we’ve recommended above, you will have accomplished two incredibly powerful things:

1. You’ve thrilled each donor by proving that his or her gift made a real difference in the life of one person.
2. You’ve radically increased the chance that each donor will give you a gift the next time you ask. You know, in December. Next month.

You’ll also have raised some money, because some donors will be so thrilled to hear what they’ve done that they’ll want to do more of it right away.

And you’ve taken the all-important first step towards implementing Ask, Thank, Report, Repeat – a simple fundraising system that will make your life easier and will help you raise more money.

* This figure was derived from research done by Dr. Adrian Sargent, 2000.  Click here to see the research document.