Tag: appeals

A Procrastinator’s Guide to Year-End Fundraising

Steven  |  Year-End

Just getting started with your year-end fundraising?

Here’s a quick list – my best tips – for what to do with your remaining weeks before the end of the year.

Make a Plan to Start Earlier Next year

First, the hard news: if you’re just starting now, you’ve left money on the table.  You could have raised more.

That is a harsh truth.  Many people won’t like to hear it.  But it’s true.  And for the moment, don’t worry about it.  But right now, go set a calendar reminder to start earlier next year.

Seriously, set a reminder.

I’ll wait.

It’s that important.

The organizations that start their year-end fundraising earlier tend to raise more money.

What to Do Now

Do as many of the following things if you can.  And here’s the order I’d prioritize them in:

Identify and contact your major donors who have not yet given a gift this year.

Don’t do what most nonprofits do, which is hope that their majors give a gift before the end of the year.

If you haven’t already, identify exactly which of your major donors have not given gifts.  Then reach out to each of them to ask for a special year-end gift to help your beneficiaries (not to help your organization).  Do it in person if you can; phone is the next best way.  Tell them their gift is needed now, and tell them their gift will make a difference!

Write and send your year-end letter.

Send out a direct letter that powerfully asks donors to give a special gift before the end of the year.  Tell them their gift is needed now, and tell them their gift will make a difference!

If you use a mail house and it’s going to take too long to get a letter produced, here’s what to do:

Write and prep your year-end emails.

Be sure to have at least three emails prepped for the last three days of the year.  Remember that you do not have to reinvent the wheel: the emails should be VERY similar to your letter, and the emails should be very similar to each other.  Repetition is the most effective tool you didn’t know you have!

Tell them their gift is needed now, and tell them their gift will make a difference!

Update your website to ask for a year-end gift.

Make an update so that the first thing users see on your home page is a clear call-to-action and a large “donate” button.

And…  wait for it…  tell them their gift is needed now, and tell them their gift will make a difference.  You will raise more money than you expect.

That’s it! Do as many of those as you can, starting from the top of the list.

Do a great job on each one before doing anything else.

And if you can only do three things, do the top three.  If you can only do two, do the top two.  You get it.

Remember: year-end is the easiest time of the year to raise more money than you expect!

This post was originally published on December 4, 2018.

Who Are You Writing To?

Steven  |  Ask
Who writing to

Quick post today.

When you write, if you don’t have a picture in mind of what the person reading your writing is like, you tend to write for yourself.

I can speak from experience on this – the first posts from this blog are… not interesting.  I was writing to myself.  It took me months to develop a good picture of who I was writing to and for.  And that’s when this blog started to be helpful to people and our number of subscribers started to grow.

“Writing for yourself” happens all the time in nonprofit fundraising.  And it results in fundraising that’s not interesting or effective.

Contrast that to a nonprofit that has a good picture of what their donors know, care about, and the language their donors use.  When the nonprofit writes to and for those donors (instead of themselves) they create fundraising that connects more and raises more money. 

***

If you’re like me, you want to know why “writing to and for your donors” works so much better.  So even though I said this would be a short post, here’s a longer explanation if you’re interested.  🙂

When a nonprofit writes to itself: they base their fundraising on what the organization knows, what the organization cares about, and uses the words the organization uses.

This results in fundraising that:

  • Tries to teach the recipient things, instead of tapping into what the recipient already knows.  This is “13% of people in our county have experienced homelessness” compared to “You know that no one should have to be homeless.”
  • Tries to make the recipient care about new things, instead of tapping into what the recipient already cares about.  This is “Our program is one of the most effective literacy programs” compared to “You know the immediate difference knowing how to read makes on a person’s life.”
  • Tries to teach the recipient new words and phrases, instead of using words and phrases the recipient already knows.  This is “They are what we call a UETA – Under Exposed to The Arts” compared to “They haven’t been exposed to the Arts enough, and you can change that.”

Think about that for a second; look at all the extra work a donor has to do before they can give!  The reader of the email or letter:

  • Has to learn new things
  • Has to care about things they didn’t care about before
  • Has to learn new vocabulary (and sometimes whole new concepts)

This puts what we call an “education barrier” between the organization and its donors. 

Organizations using this approach tend to stay small because their fundraising materials ensure that only the “true believers” will give; because only the “true believers” will spend the time and effort to be educated.

The more effective approach is to build a picture of what individual donors who care about your beneficiaries or cause tend to know, care about, and read. 

Then write your fundraising to and for the people who fit that picture.

You’ll make your organization more accessible to more people, raise more money, and achieve more of your mission.

Shortfall Story

Steven  |  Ask
Shortall story.

My last post was about why sharing a shortfall with your donors is good for revenue and your relationships with donors.

That’s a challenging, counter-intuitive idea.  So because we humans learn through stories, let me share the story of how one nonprofit navigated their shortfall situation.

Here’s how it went…

Opening Up to a New Idea

Years ago, a nonprofit we were serving let us know that they had a $500,000 shortfall as they approached the end of their fiscal year. 

We recommended that they share the shortfall with their donors by running a shortfall campaign. 

The conversation that followed went through the standard steps that most of these conversations go through…

First, they told us that sharing their shortfall was a ridiculous idea.  They shared that their organization is a pillar in their community.  They were worried that making the shortfall public would negatively affect their brand.  They were worried that donors would think the organization was a bad steward of their gifts.  They were worried that – even if some donors gave a gift to help – that overall it would cause more donors to stop giving to the organization.

We listened.  And then we shared that we knew from experience, having run 60 to 70 successful shortfall campaigns, that their donors would give generously if the organization included the shortfall in their messaging.  And we shared that, in our experience, the organization would not suffer any of the negative consequences that they feared. 

Feeling slightly warmer to the idea but still unconvinced, they said what most organizations say at this point, which is, “Well, there’s no way that will work with our donors because [REASONS].”  The reasons tend to be things like, “Our donors are different than other donors” or “this won’t work because all our donors know our founder” or “our donors are professionals and won’t fall for this” (as if there’s something to fall for?!?) and, my personal favorite, “all our donors are from [location] and people from [location] don’t like things like this.”

So we said, “We hear you and acknowledge that these are real concerns.  Could we share an example of a shortfall campaign from an organization similar to yours?  It worked well for them and we think it would work well for you.” 

They replied, “Yes we’d love to see the example… but we have to tell you that our boss isn’t going to like it.” 

So, I had a warm conversation with the Director of Donor Development.  She was open to the idea, found our experience persuading, and decided it was worth talking about. 

This leads to the final step, which is moving up the chain of command to have a conversation with the VP or ED/CEO who can make the final decision.  In this case, I spent an hour on the phone with the VP of Philanthropy.  She’s a brilliant woman and had all the concerns mentioned earlier – in part because she was very good at fundraising and had never experienced a shortfall before.

I talked her through several shortfall campaigns I’d been through.  I shared all the positive reasons that donors respond to shortfalls.  I shared results of previous shortfall campaigns compared to standard results. 

It was basically an hour-long counselling session.  People in Fundraising tend to have deeply held beliefs about what their donors will and will not respond to.  And I was warmly sharing some data that challenged this person’s beliefs.  There were hundreds of thousands of dollars on the line, and relationships with very large donors, so we talked it all the way through. 

The VP of Philanthropy bought in, and then met with the Board to get approval.  After much discussion, the Board nervously decided to try it. 

The Campaign

It was time to get to work.  Here’s what we did:

  • We planned out a 6-week campaign that ended when their fiscal year ended.
  • The campaign had two direct mail letters, 8 emails, and phone calls to major donors.
  • I wrote up talking points about the shortfall.  These included how the shortfall happened, what the consequences would be if it wasn’t erased, and what the organization was doing about it.
  • The talking points were distributed to the Board, to Major Gifts Officers who were calling major donors, and to the people answering the phones. 
  • I wrote the direct mail appeal letter that kicked off the campaign.  We used the thinking and messaging in the letter to craft the follow-up letter, the emails, website copy, and giving page copy.
  • The messaging was clear and to the point: through no fault of their own, the organization was facing a $500,000 shortfall.  We shared what would happen if they couldn’t erase the shortfall.  We shared the good work the donor’s gift would help make possible.  Then we asked the donor to send in a special gift to help erase the shortfall.

The people were prepped.  The letters were mailed.  The emails were sent.  It was time to see what happened…

The Results

Their fiscal year-end campaign normally raised about $150,000, and our campaign raised about $650,000.  That’s an “extra” $500,000 that effectively erased the shortfall.

It doesn’t always work out that perfectly, but it does more often than you’d expect.  The major donors who get involved often want to know how much is needed to reach the goal.  They will often stretch their giving to help you reach the target number.

In addition to the overall success, there are few numbers I’d like to highlight:

  • The response rates to the direct mail and emails were notably higher than average.
  • Their average gift sizes were higher than normal.
  • The organization had about 100,000 donors at the time, and they had a total of five donors reach out to them to ask about the shortfall.  Five!
    • Two of the five people who reached out were Board members who had already been briefed on the shortfall.  (Yes, that is as ridiculous as it sounds.)
    • In the five conversations, after hearing more details about what was going on, two of the five people gave a gift on the spot.

In addition, none of the feared negative consequences came to pass.  This shortfall was a few years ago, and the organization now has about 25% more donors than they used to.  Their major gifts program is going great.  They’ve also successfully funded a significant capital campaign.

Their brand was not tarnished.  Their standing the community remains strong.  Their donors did not leave in a thundering herd.

The Lesson

This whole thing is a lesson in the power of vulnerability.

The organization was vulnerable and courageous enough to share the shortfall with their donors.  Their donors responded generously, and were pleased to help the organization in their time of need.  There were no negative consequences to speak of. 

The organization has a deeper appreciation of their donors than ever before; the organization needed help, and their donors answered the call.

All of this is to say, if you have a shortfall don’t be afraid to share it with your donors.

Share Your Shortfall

Steven  |  Ask
Share shortfall.

Here’s a “hot take” for you:

If your organization has a shortfall, I encourage you to share it with your donors.  Sharing it will be good for your fundraising and donor relationships, both in the short term and the long term.

I know that sounds absurd to many people.  But this is a data-driven position.

Sharing a shortfall with your donors is a scary idea for many nonprofits.  Doing it usually requires a big shift in thinking.  So this is a longer post than normal.  I’m going to explain what we’ve noticed about three things:

  1. Why sharing a shortfall seems like an obvious bad idea
  2. The results when nonprofits run shortfall campaigns
  3. Why we think shortfall campaigns work so well

We want you to get past the fear because of what’s on the other side…

“There’s no way this is a good idea”

Let’s start by talking for a moment about why sharing a shortfall feels somewhere between dangerous and dumb.  Here’s what “common sense” tells you about sharing a shortfall with your donors:

  • It would reflect poorly on your organization and your brand.
  • It will look like you’re bad at managing money.
  • People won’t give.  (After all, if they think you are bad at managing money, why would they give you another gift?!?)
  • Even if sharing a shortfall somehow brought in a bunch of money, there will be negative consequences in the future that will far overshadow any revenue that comes in now.

Furthermore, no one likes how it feels to send out a shortfall message.  Everyone working at the nonprofit, or leading the nonprofit, or on the Board will feel like the shortfall reflects poorly on them.

All of this makes sense.

And let’s add one more layer: no one ever talks about the results of their shortfall campaign.  Have you ever been to a conference where a fundraising professional was up on stage talking about how well their shortfall campaign went?  Nope.

There’s so much shame around this that no one talks about it.

Then we add the branding and marketing folks who don’t really understand how vulnerability is such a big part of fundraising success, and they actively push back on mentioning that the organization has a shortfall.

So we’re in a situation where people think shortfall campaigns are a bad idea, no one likes them, and no one talks about the results.

But in my experience, the vast majority of people have never seen the results of a shortfall campaign.  They just aren’t aware that…

Shortfall Campaigns Work Great & Don’t Have Negative Consequences 

This idea is so counter-intuitive that, until you have experience with multiple shortfall campaigns, there’s almost no way you’ll believe it.

But it’s true; fundraising campaigns that focus on helping an organization overcome a shortfall work great.  And they do not cause the negative consequences that people fear.

I estimate that I’ve helped on between 60 to 70 shortfall campaigns.  They’ve been for organizations of all different sizes and in all different sectors.  Here’s what happens:

  • Donors respond in droves.  The letter / email / campaign is usually the second-highest fundraising campaign of the year, behind only the year-end campaign.  Often it’s the best campaign of the year, or the best campaign the organization has ever run.
    • The response rates are higher than average, the size of gifts are higher than average.
  • The feared negative consequences do not happen, either in the short term or long term.  I’ve measured; they don’t happen.
    • I can’t emphasize this enough: in 30+ years of fundraising and measuring results, I have never seen a reduction in long-term giving or retention rates as a result of letting donors know you have a shortfall.  All of the things we fear – donors leaving in a thundering herd, donors complaining to the Chamber of Commerce, donors telling all their friends not to give – just don’t happen.
  • There will be five or fewer conversations with concerned donors or Board members.  And when the situation is explained to them, about half of them will give you a gift on the spot and be happy they did.

Notice I’m not saying, “shortfall campaigns always raise enough to erase the shortfall.”  I’m saying that they always raise quite a bit more than an organization’s “standard” fundraising, and don’t have the negative consequences that people fear.  And the campaign will erase the entire shortfall more often than you think.

Those are the numbers.  Water is wet, the world is round, shortfall campaigns work great.

“I still don’t believe you… but if I did, how is this possible?”

I’ve thought about this a lot.  Here’s my take on the powerful mix of reasons shortfall campaigns raise so much more money than an organization’s “regular” fundraising.  And I suspect that, even though you might not totally believe my main thesis yet, you’ll look at this list and see how it makes sense:

  • Your donors care about your organization, and about your beneficiaries or cause. 
  • Donors do not want your organization to be forced to reduce services.  And they know that’s what can happen when there’s a shortfall – you’ll have to cut programs or staff.
  • Donors quickly understand the problem you’re having – all of us have had a “shortfall” of our own at some point in our lives.
  • Humans respond to clear needs.  Witness the recent giving to help the victims of Helene and Milton.  And a shortfall is a clear need.
  • Your donors know you’re a nonprofit.  They know you don’t have all the money, and they know that funding can be hard to come by sometimes.
  • Oftentimes, when an organization shares a shortfall, it’s the first time they’ve Asked their donors in a way that makes it very clear that help is needed now.  The contrast between the urgent ask and the regular fundraising (“Things are going great, we’ve helped so many people, it would be lovely if you considered partnering with us”) makes donors see and feel that their help is needed now.
  • Humans love to help, and helping feels good.

All of those ring true, right?

Put all of them together and you can begin to see why donors respond so generously when an organization shares that they have a shortfall. 

Should you go looking for a shortfall?  No.  Should you share a shortfall four times a year?  No again.

But when you have a shortfall, trust that your donors care, and share it with them.  You’ll be so glad you did.  Your donors will be glad you did, too, because they love helping you.

In my next post, I’ll share a story of an organization that had a shortfall, had all of the perfectly normal concerns about sharing that shortfall with their donors, and decided to run a shortfall campaign.

It’s The Ones Who Keep Going

Steven  |  Repeat
Keep pushing forward.

You know all those big charities you know by name?  The ones raising tens and hundreds of millions of dollars?

At one point they were all raising exactly as much as you are now.

They had the same struggles you have, the same doubts, the same looming fears about year-end.

And they kept going.

Sometimes it was all they could do just to make it through the end of the year.  Sometimes they added one more small thing.  Or tried a new offer.  Or focused on a core strategy.

Your beneficiaries and your donors need what you’re doing.

Keep going.

Twelve Percent

Steven  |  Ask
Twelve.

At a conference this summer, I was asked to speak about “why and how to use direct mail.”

I began with the following statistic (from Blackbaud):

Last year the percentage of charitable giving donated through online sources was 12%.

The 12% figure was a total surprise to a significant portion of the audience.  I heard one person say, “Wait, WHAT?”

It’s easy to understand why so many people were surprised; the fundraising world is mainly populated with people under 40, and people under 40 do almost everything online.  Plus, most of the people were from smaller nonprofits so they didn’t have the context that comes from working in larger, mature fundraising programs.

If you, too, are incredulous that just 12% of funds are coming in online for most organizations, let me share some helpful thoughts for you and your organization.

  • If your organization is raising more than 12% of your revenues online, that’s fantastic, you’re ahead of the curve.  Online fundraising is growing (though not as quickly as everyone assumed it would), so it’s a strength to be getting good at raising money online.
  • If you’re doing well raising money online, it almost certainly means you could successfully raise money offline.  This will give your organization another regular, dependable stream of income.
    • Note: if you’ve tried raising money offline and failed, it most likely means the campaign wasn’t executed well, as opposed to meaning that “offline donors don’t like us.”
  • You actively want to have an online fundraising program and an offline fundraising program because they reinforce each other.  It’s a “1 + 1 = 3” situation.  An offline program reaches people who aren’t reached by email.  An online program reminds people that they forgot to give to the piece of direct mail they set down when the phone rang.    

So, what percentage of your organization’s revenues come in online?

And regardless of your percentage, we recommend developing both strong online and offline fundraising programs.  The average age of a donor in the U.S. is around 68, so you need both programs if you want to reach both today’s donors and tomorrow’s.

Your Envelope’s Job

Steven  |  Repeat
Envelope.

Say I send out 1,000 pieces of mail and you get 38 gifts back.

That gives you a 3.8% response.  Not too bad.

But I want to point out something helpful…

It’s true that 38 out of 1,000 people sent in a gift.  But it’s also true that 38 of the people who noticed the envelope and opened it responded with a gift.

It’s helpful to notice that, because you can increase the number of people who notice and then open your envelopes.  (And it’s not that hard to do.)

After all, you can’t control who is on vacation and won’t get your letter.  But you can control using a large, colorful envelope that stands out in a crowded mailbox and gets noticed.

You can’t control the post office “batch-delivering” all the nonprofit mail on one day so that your donor gets 7 appeals all at once.  But you can control writing a killer teaser that makes your donor want to open your envelope.

Your donor must notice and then open your envelope before you even have a chance of getting a gift.  And if you increase the number of recipients who notice and open your envelope, you’ll get more donations.

The ROI on the time and money you spend on your envelopes is fantastic.

This fall, with the election and the batch-delivering we’re hearing about, it’s more important than ever that your envelope get noticed and opened.  Read this post for help with your teasers, and the last half of this post for help with your envelopes. The first job of your envelope is to carry your letter. 

Then the job of your envelope is to get noticed.  Then the job of your envelope is to get opened.

Spidery Handwriting and Responsibility

Steven  |  Ask
Responsibility.

The note from the donor was scrawled in spidery handwriting at the bottom of the appeal:

In case that’s hard to read, here’s what it says:

“I strongly suggest you remove this statement.  Never imply obligations to donors, or make us feel responsible for what might happen if we don’t give.”

Though I’m sorry that the letter caused the donor to feel distress, she perfectly expressed one of the reasons that fundraising is so powerful for our society:

Fundraising reminds us that we are responsible.

Each of us bears some responsibility for what happens when we give.  And each of us bears some responsibility for what happens when we don’t give.

At Better Fundraising, we believe one of the functions of fundraising is to “remind people who care that there is work that needs to be done.”

That’s not the only function of fundraising, of course.  Fundraising should show the power of beneficiaries to triumph, show how the world can be made better, and show all of us what’s possible.

So in addition to reminding people that they have responsibility, fundraising also reminds people that they are good and they have power.

But the fact remains: if what your organization is working on is important, make it visible.  Remind your donors what’s needed and what’s at stake.  (Our world isn’t very good at solving problems that it can’t see and doesn’t know about.)

You’ll get the occasional comment like the one on the letter above – because humans don’t always like being reminded that they carry responsibility.  But at the same time you’ll build an army of devoted donors who love “doing work that needs to be done” with you.

Assume Speed

Steven  |  Ask
High speed.

When sending mail and email to your donors, assume that each person reading your material is moving fast.

We might hope that donors pore over our emails, looking to deeply understand what our organization does and how we do it.  We can wish that they’ll read every word, get every nuance, and then thoughtfully decide to give a gift.

But it’s more useful to believe that each donor is moving fast, sorting the mail, already thinking about dinner, or processing email on their phone in between pickleball games.

When you assume donors are moving fast, you end up creating letters and emails that are more accessible.  You create fundraising that works for people who are moving fast and for your “true fans” who want to know more.  (Here’s a post where I explain how to do it.)

You’ll raise more from the donors you currently have, because you’ll have made it easier for them to know what’s going on and what their gift will do.

And more people will become donors because you’ve made it easier for them to know what’s going on and what their gift will do!   

I’d wager that you know from your own life how quickly you process email and the mail.  Assume your donors are the same way.  It’s a gift to them when you create fundraising that’s easy for them to understand quickly.

And it’s a gift that results in you raising more money.