It’s year-end fundraising time. But you’ll be OK!

My friends, it’s crunch time. Year-end fundraising is here.

Somehow, without asking permission, the calendar has flipped to October. And if you’re a fundraiser, you know what that means, right? Year-end fundraising.

Time to take a deep breath, center yourself, and get ready for year-end fundraising!

Why is year-end so important? Here are some stats from my friends at NEON ONE:

• Nearly one-third (31%) of annual giving occurs in December
• 12% of all giving happens in the last three days of the year
• 53.8% of nonprofits start planning their year-end appeal in October
• November and December are the most popular months for making a year-end ask, but some organizations start in September!
• 28% of nonprofits raise between 36-50% of their annual funds from their year-end ask
• Two-thirds of people who give do no research first
• 79% of volunteers also donate to their organization
• 60% of nonprofits make between 1-3 donor “touches” for their year-end campaign
• Direct mail is the most popular medium for year-end asks, followed by email, website and in-person asks

Thanks, Mary. Now I’m more nervous!

You don’t need to be… yet. Of course, good fundraising year-round sets the stage for year-end success. And one ask a year is definitely sub-optimal. But that’s not a reason to give up now.

Begin with your data

I know you might think of your data as dull. It’s anything but. That information, kept well and used well, is the key to your donors. To their behavior and even – maybe – their preferences. It’s an incredibly valuable asset – IF you take care of it.

My friend Clay Buck says it best:

“If you’re not proactively managing your data, you are literally losing donors and letting real money walk out the door.”

T. Clay Buck

(Read the whole piece – he makes the case and shows his math!)

Here are his suggestions to keep your data clean:

• Make it somebody’s responsibility.  Data is an asset, it is worth money, make SURE somebody is responsible and accountable for its quality.  And make sure they have backup.
• Set policies and procedures around data management that are as important as your employee manual. Bloomerang recently published a phenomenal template.  Download it.  Use it.
• Perform regular NCOA (National Change of Address) updates and any other overlays/upgrades that will enhance data quality.
• Update as you go – whoever is doing gift entry should also be looking for and updating demographic information as well.
• STAY IN TOUCH WITH YOUR DONORS

Communicate with care

Invest in good communications. I’m not talking only about money, but time as well. Having your executive director toss something off on the random Tuesday probably isn’t your best bet.

Talk to beneficiaries. Or volunteers. Get the story from the source and use the story.

Remember that your organization should not be the star of your fundraising communications. There are people out there, waiting to be helpful. They want to feel needed. They want to feel good about themselves.

But they don’t much care about an organization. They care about the work you do. The people you help, the art you make, the way you make something better and kinder.

That’s the way to their hearts. So tell good stories. Show them how they can solve a problem. (Don’t solve it for them to make your organization look good!)

And don’t shy away from emotion. I just interviewed about 5-6 people last week. Some of the stories they shared with me had both the storyteller and me in tears. It was wrenching, to feel their hurt or fear.

But then my job is to honor that sharing with a story that moves people to act. And I take that job very seriously. When someone opens their heart to you, you’d better!

Don’t hesitate to repeat yourself

If you have a great story, use it. Then re-use it in another form.

Direct mail still rules. So I would start with that appeal. But then take the story and break it up for social media posts. Write it, but shorter, for an email or 2 or 3.

Try mailing again with a reminder of what you mailed the first time. (Different outer envelope, a note attached saying, “I hope you saw this”.)

Be creative. Repetition might bore you, but you should be so lucky that your donors are paying close attention to every word you write. (Sorry, but they’re not!)

Follow up with care, too

As gifts come in, celebrate. But don’t forget that this is only the first step.

When you write that appeal, write a thank you letter to match. This will help you overcome the temptation to put thanking donors aside until you can get to it. Be every bit as emotional as you are in the appeal. And be prompt. Donors do notice.

Then plan to report back to them. If you’ve told them about a need, and they’ve responded with gifts, they deserve to know what happened. How did their generosity solve the problem?

You know the story’s end. They don’t… until you tell them how they helped.

There’s no secret sauce here

Nothing I’ve suggested is new. These are tried and true practices for successful fundraising.

But the key isn’t knowing that, it’s acting on it.

Go get ‘em!

Photo by Lukas Blazek on Unsplash