Year-End Fundraising Basics: From Donor List Vitality To Finding The Best Angle For Your Creative Content
Across the nation, as summer draws to an end and mother nature prepare for her fall showstopper, so does the nonprofit sector. Listen carefully and you’ll hear the call going up in charity offices everywhere: What’s the plan for our end-of-year fundraising campaign?
There is no one size fits all answer to this question. While one particular organization may get greater traction with their in-person events, another makes better use of their donor relationships.
What can be said, is that the last quarter of the year is critical for a nonprofit’s financial stability. The data shows that a staggering 40% of all charitable revenue touches down between Thanksgiving and New Year.
In this article I hone in on two critical factors for fast tracking end-of-year fundraising strategies.
- How to keep your relationships with your donors healthy and authentic.
- How to create your end-of-year fundraising content to maximize the campaign impact.
The donor list health check
The donor contact list will likely be the backbone of your end-of-year fundraising. It contains all your key supporters, near and far, old and new.
It’s okay to ask donors for support again
Don’t be afraid to ask for support. The holiday season is a time of renewed generosity. It’s a tradition going back centuries.
Invest in your donors
We have to invest in our donors before they invest in our nonprofit. It’s like reaping a harvest in an orchard—the day you pick the produce is only the last one in a long line of regular watering, maintenance, and groundwork.
Authenticate your donor lists
End of summer and early fall is the time to get those all important donor lists polished up or as I call it: Authenticate. An authentic donor list is one which is full of healthy real world supporters.
It’s making sure the lists are up-to-date. Doing rudimentary spell checks and investigating the details of your contacts online. Ensuring you’re aware of their present circumstances, and to help in this effort your donor management software is a key component.
A little homework will help improve your donor list and the quality of your campaign, which will ultimately rely heavily on authentic donor relationships.
Prepare your donors by asking what you can do for them
When donors stop their financial support for a nonprofit they previously helped, one third of feedback reports state that it was due to a lack of good communication, which led them to become detached and look to donate elsewhere.
Think of your donors as friends, and no friendship can survive if you only contact them when you want something.
Give donors a chance to contribute
When building strong foundations with your donors, offer them the chance to be more active in sharing their ideas or to be a part of feedback drives.
Give them the chance to offer their time as well as their money. Some will have family looking to intern or friends looking to give back with time or resources other than financial support.
Your donors are your network. Every time you communicate it shouldn’t be about money but about nurturing that network.
Don’t conceal bad news, use it to build trust with your donors
When it comes to nurturing these relationships, a great point I have learned is to give them the full picture. Let the major donors in on the ups and downs, the successes and failures. They will appreciate the fact that you trust them to make their own judgements.
Always keep details from previous interactions
Make an effort to recall the details from your donors’ previous communications with you. Even the briefest conversation at a fundraising event will have information that it’s your job to recall. Your donor database is a great place to store this information.
Next it’s time to decide on and create the all-important angle
This quote from Oprah Winfrey speaks to the core truth about how to connect through our fundraising communications. It’s turning the individual want to the greater group need. This is where the angle of a fundraising drive is established.
Pinning down your angle could be:
- To expand out a consistent message you’ve relayed through the year.
- Telling a mission success story. This is my preference. Showcasing your mission delivery doesn’t just show you’re succeeding, it shows “we” are successful.
- A new plan to engage more people or the wider community with your nonprofit.
- Create great content and urge supporters to click that share button.
- It could be the mission ahead and some new front in the delivery of that mission your team is opening.
Creating the content
Once you have the right angle it’s time to create the content at the heart of your campaign.
For this, try looking at the best examples within your field. Look at how those you admire have managed to package their stories. Make careful notes about the aesthetic, color, and content.
When will the content roll out?
Giving Tuesday (first Tuesday after Thanksgiving) is normally a cornerstone of this month-long donor drive for support and can act as a place to launch from across the following four weeks.
In conclusion
The underlying sentiment of this article is that the year-end fundraising is driven by two fundamentals:
- Donor list health: Your year-long efforts to make your donors lists authentic. Strengthening those relationships and searching out new leads wherever possible.
- The creativity of your angle: The power to super drive your campaign is right there in the capacity of your team to be imaginative, distinct, and engaging with the content you create.
All of the above is assisted greatly by having the best software to streamline your efforts and that’s where a reliable donor database like Bloomerang comes in. Good luck!
