Tag: year-end

Break Through the Noise at Year-End

Steven Screen  |  Ask

The new Executive Director of one of our clients, when looking over the fundraising results from the previous year, said:

“There was an astronomical spike in giving last November and December – what did we do?” 

“Last year was the first time we convinced you guys to run our full recommended year-end plan,” we replied.  “We helped you send out two appeal letters, both with chaser emails.  We did 4 or 5 emails for Giving Tuesday.  Then 4 emails on the last three days of the year.  We also helped you make phone calls to major donors who hadn’t given yet that year.  Oh, and we changed the hero banner on the website for the month of December to promote year-end giving.” 

“That’s a lot,” he said.  “But it obviously worked.  Will it work again?”

“Based on what happens for our other clients,” we replied, “it will absolutely work again.”

We know this because the following has always been true: year-end is the busiest time of year for your donors, but if you can manage to break through all the noise and get your message in front of them a couple of times, they’ll give generously!

Take a look at your plan for year-end.  Will it break through all the noise and get your message in front of donors a couple of times?

‘By November, your year-end cake is already baked’

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
Bake a cake.

At last year’s Storytelling Conference, Chris Davenport shared storytelling advice from successful movie directors.  Here’s one of my favorite things he highlighted:

“What an audience feels at the end of the movie is entirely dependent on what they felt earlier in the movie.”

Here’s the parallel to that in fundraising:

How much you raise at the end of the year is dependent on the fundraising you sent your donors earlier in the year.

Here are some examples:

  • If a nonprofit has shown up often in donors’ lives throughout the year, with relevant content, its year-end campaign will raise more.  The organization has earned its place to be one of the organizations a donor thinks of at year-end.
  • If a nonprofit has not done any fundraising for several months, its year-end campaign will raise less.  Because it disappeared for months, the organization is less top-of-mind for donors and won’t receive as many gifts.
  • If a nonprofit has made it clear through the year that its work is needed, its year-end campaign will raise more.  The organization has made it clear that it’s working on something important, and donors tend to support causes and organizations that they feel are important.
  • If a nonprofit has spent the year only talking about how well things are going, it will raise less at year-end.  The organization has shared only success stories, so it sounds like things are going great and help isn’t really needed, thank you very much.

A friend of mine put this memorably.  He used to run the annual fund for a national nonprofit you’ve heard of.  Over beers one night he said,

“Look, by November, your year-end cake is already baked.  All that’s left to do is see how it turns out.”

What he meant was the fundraising you do throughout the year has a large effect on how well your year-end campaign performs.  (You can, of course, have a strong year-end campaign without communicating much during the year.  But a strong year-end campaign after a strong annual campaign will raise even more.)

I share this here in January so that, as you’re creating your fundraising this year, you set yourself up during the year for the best year-end campaign you’ve ever had.

Pie and Sisyphus

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
Downhill walk.

To repeat one of the best lines I’ve ever heard about fundraising:

Fundraising is like a pie-eating contest where the prize for eating the most pie is that you’re asked to eat more pie.

“You raised 4% above projections this year,” the Board says, “let’s aim for 6% over projections in 2026!”

It’s kind of like Sisyphus, doomed to push a boulder up to the top of a hill but always having it slip from his grasp before reaching the top.

But there’s an unsaid part of the Sisyphus myth that was pointed out to me a few years ago: each time the rock rolls back to the bottom of the hill, Sisyphus has a restful, unencumbered downhill walk before he starts again.

So today – when the appeals have been sent, the calls have been made, the emails for today and tomorrow already programmed and ready to go – I hope you are enjoying your “restful, unencumbered downhill walk” as all the money comes in.

Enjoy your walk, and happy new year!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
Happy Holidays

This Christmas, we’re thankful for three things about you:

  • Thanks for the work you do as a Fundraiser.  You’re part of the solution, and you’re “bending the arc” towards justice.
  • Thanks for being vulnerable and courageous enough to ask for help.
  • Thanks for giving donors the gift of your fundraising – without you, they can’t do the good they want to do.

Thanks also for your time and attention this year.  We love being a part of your fundraising journey.

Tonight, we’ll raise a glass to you.  And to generosity.  (And, if you had matching funds as part of your year-end campaign, to the Angel’s Share!)

With gratitude for you and what you do,

Jim, Steven and all of the Better Fundraising team

Every Gift is a Sign of Connection

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
Gift connection.

It’s a week until the end of the year.

Let’s take just a moment to breathe in the generosity of the season.

Gifts are happening online.  Checks are arriving in the mail.  Gift notices keep coming in.  Excited texts are being sent.

And at the moment each of those gifts was made, there was joy, or inspiration, or relationship, or belief.  Maybe even some sacrifice, and some duty, too.

Every single gift is a sign of a connection to your work and your mission.

Each donor now feels little bit better about themselves and the world, and they helped advance your mission.

I hope you love what you get to be a part of as a Fundraiser.  Here at Better Fundraising, we sure do.

Four Quick Learnings from Giving Tuesday

Steven Screen  |  Report
Four learnings.

I just read M+R’s report on Giving Tueday and there are a couple things that I think are helpful for all of us Fundraisers to know.

According to their data…

Giving Tuesday Continues to Grow

15% more was donated this year compared to last year. 

Giving Tuesday continues to grow.  For organizations that are still holdouts, or still holding their nose at Giving Tuesday, I suggest allocating more resources to it next year.

More Donors This Year

6% more people gave gifts this year compared to last year.

I think this is a reflection of demographics; as more people who are comfortable giving online age into their prime giving years, more people are going to participate in Giving Tuesday.  I expect this trend to continue.  

Matches & Celebrities 

I’ll quote directly from M+R here:

“It’s increasingly hard to stand out in email inboxes with the influx of Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Travel Tuesday (?) promotions, but tried-and-true tactics like matches and celebrity signers who can really speak to your mission are still helping organizations speak to donors.”

While small nonprofits have a hard time affording celebrity signers, but most of us can get a match.  If you didn’t utilize matching or challenge funds this year, make it a priority to find a match for next year.

Giving Driven by a Fundraising Text is Increasing

M+R says,

“Nonprofits that have invested in growing their mobile lists over the last few years are starting to see major returns.”

If you’ve built your mobile list at all this year, there’s still time to set up text messaging to your donors for this year-end.  The company we recommend to nonprofits is Tatango – they’ve been great for our clients.

I hope this is helpful, and good luck with your year-end fundraising!

Three Tips for the Final Three Weeks

Steven Screen  |  Year-End
Three snowmen.

It’s December 11th.  By now you should already be seeing increased traffic to your website and increased gifts.    

Here are three quick tips to help you make the most of the final three weeks of fundraising this year.

Tip #1

Make sure the description of what the donor’s gift will make possible is the same on your giving/landing page as it is in your year-end appeal letter and your year-end emails.

If our experience is any indication, making sure donors see the same language in your fundraising and on your giving page will increase the amount of money you raise.    

Tip #2

Make sure the hero image / first slider on your website is a call to action to give a year-end gift.  The link should take a user directly to your giving page.

Most nonprofits see a surge in web traffic during the final weeks of the year, and most of that traffic is arriving with an interest or intent to give you a gift.  By making your call to action super obvious, you increase the number of people who make it to your giving page, and you’ll get more gifts.

Tip #3

If your web provider/platform allows it, set up a pop-up (also called a “popover” or a “light box”) with a call to action to give a year-end gift. 

Again, a lot of people coming to your site this month are coming with the intent to give a gift.  Pop-ups are proven to increase the number of visitors who actually give those gifts.

Good luck!

What Small-Shop Fundraisers Should Do at Year-End

Steven Screen  |  Year-End
What Small-Shop Fundraisers Should Do at Year-End

You Don’t Have Time to Do Everything

Those silly consultants. They give you a list of fifty-four things to do, but you only have time to do four of them.

I get it. (And I am guilty of it at times.)

But if you only have time to do four things … do you know which four are the most important?

My List for Small-Shop Fundraisers

If I were doing the fundraising for a small organization with limited resources (and time!) here’s what I’d do, and the order I’d do them in:

  1. Manage your major donors. Don’t just hope that they give a gift before the end of the year, manage them toward doing it! Know who your top donors are. Be in touch with them. Know exactly who hasn’t given a gift yet this year. Ask them to give a gift to help your beneficiaries or your cause (not to give a gift to your organization). Tell them their gift is needed now, and tell them their gift will make a difference.
  2. Write and send your year-end letter. Make sure you send out a great year-end letter that powerfully asks donors to give a special gift before the end of the year.
  3. 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 they can be very similar; you don’t have to reinvent the wheel each time.
  4. Update your website to ask for a year-end gift. It’s been true of every organization I’ve ever worked with: a LOT of people will go to your website in December with the express purpose of making a gift. If the first thing they see on your home page is a clear call-to-action and a large button, you will raise more money than you expect.

That’s it! If you can only do four things, do those four.

Make sure you do a great job on each of those before doing anything else.

If you can only do three things, do the top three.

And so on.

Just remember that year-end is the easiest time of the year to raise more money than you expect. And your donors are wonderful but busy people! So communicate to them as much as you can. You’ll love how much money you raise!

This post was originally published on November 1, 2018.

Fundraising in the 2024 Election Year – The Year-End Rally

Jim Shapiro  |  Ask
Year-end 2024.

We’ve talked about what to do The Noisy Spring, The Summer Slump, and The Election Storm.

Today we’ll show you how to have a strong year-end AFTER the election dust settles (mid-November – December).

The Year-End Rally

A few days after the election, donors will be ready to refocus their attention and their philanthropic priorities.

There will be a rally.

But you need to be ready to hit the ground running.  The election will have taken almost the entire fall.  And Thanksgiving is late this year, which means there’s a week less of the prime giving season between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. So the Saturday or Sunday after Election Day is GO TIME.

Here’s your “after election” game plan to have a successful year-end campaign:

  1. Launch targeted year-end campaigns that tap into your donors’ desire to make the world a better place with their year-end giving.
  2. Your campaign will work best if you use themes and emotions that are likely to resonate with donors post-election (unity, hope, the importance of your mission) AND make it clear that there’s work to be done and the donor’s help is needed.
  3. For major donors, talk about the transformational impact of their gift. They’ve spent the last few months hearing a lot of negative political discourse – counter that by asking them to make big, positive change in the lives of your beneficiaries or in the communities you work with.
  4. Consider adding a gift catalog to your year-end fundraising campaign. Donors love gift catalogs because they don’t feel like fundraising. If you do international or mission work, a gift catalog is as close to a slam dunk as there is in fundraising. Because they’re somewhat time-intensive to create, use the quieter summer months to create one.

The 2024 election year poses real challenges for nonprofit fundraising.

But with every challenge comes an opportunity. And the nonprofits that have a strong fundraising year will be the ones that are nimble, who adapt their plans to the four phases of the election cycle.

Resist the urge to communicate less with your donors this year. In a year of increased competition for your donors’ attention, you need to keep communicating, keep telling great stories, and keep focusing on the change your donor’s generosity will make.

The fundraisers and organizations that get creative, adapt, and stay committed to their donors (and the cause) during the election year will be in a great spot. Be one of those fundraisers — and you’ll be able to reach your fundraising goals and keep making a real difference in your community.

Click here to download the FREE whitepaper, Fundraising in the 2024 Election Year. You can also watch a video of Jim Shapiro presenting – and answering questions about – this helpful information.

Read this series of blog posts: