According to the 2015 Charitable Giving Report, the end of the year, specifically December, is the most giving time of the year, with most nonprofit sectors more than doubling their typical fundraising dollars.
The chart below shows the annual giving trends per nonprofit sector, by month:
This shows you just how important, and effective, a year end fundraising campaign is to your mission. Below we highlight four ways you can boost your end-of-year fundraising efforts.
4 Tips to Boost Your EOY Fundraising
Create a Plan
Before beginning your year end fundraising campaign, you need a plan. Your plan should include:
- Goals – Do you have a donation goal? And how will you be measuring success?
- Story – What message will you be sharing throughout the campaign?
- Promotion channels – How will your audience hear your story? How will you collect donations?
- Timeline – What are the most important dates throughout the campaign? Start date? End date? When will direct mailers be sent, if any?
By planning your campaign, or even just outlining it, you’re setting you and your team up for success early on. Take your plan and work backwards, setting deadlines for items you’ll need to fit your timeline and assigning tasks to those involved.
While you’ll probably make adjustments as you go, you at least have a framework to get your EOY fundraising campaign up and running.
Tell a Story
The best fundraising campaigns tell a story. They appeal to the emotions of prospective and current donors, prompting them to give and feel good doing so.
How do you find the story for your year end fundraising campaign? Think about what your organization has accomplished throughout the year – who have you helped, how much has been donated (percentage increase over last year), how much more have you been able to do because of the increase?
Using the answers to these questions you can begin to create your story – crafting a compelling narrative that will attract and engage your audience into donating.
Take a Multi-Channel Approach
To get your message in front of donors, you’ll need to combine different marketing channels to create the ultimate giving experience.
For example:
- A prospective donor sees, and relates to, your social media post.
- They click through and are taken to a landing page on your website that continues to relay your narrative.
- They complete the donation process, and receive an email thanking them for their support and generosity.
Now that you have their email, you can send them updates on the campaign, the status of your mission, upcoming events, etc. turning this new donor into a lifetime donor.
Use Data to Fine Tune Your Strategy
As your fundraising campaign is running, you should be monitoring the results to improve the overall strategy.
If you notice more donations are coming from social media, you should allocate more budget to boosting or sponsoring posts to reach more people. If you see that higher donations come after someone watches a video, incorporate that video into your other marketing channels.
Want more year end fundraising tips? Check out the Nonprofit Fundraising section of the npENGAGE blog.
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Capital Business Solutions is a financial and fundraising services provider for public-sector organizations. Learn more about fund accounting software and nonprofit accounting software customization by contacting Bob Schilling at bschilling@capitalbusiness.net, (888) 249-6008 ext.110, or contacting us here.