15 essential steps to plan for successful year-end giving

Year-end giving FAQs

What is year-end giving?

Year-end giving typically refers to fundraising campaigns held in the last three months of the calendar year, with a particular focus on December. Nonprofits typically see a giving spike throughout December, with a surge of those final tax-deductible gifts coming in on December 31st.

Year-end giving also includes GivingTuesday, a global fundraising event that takes place every Tuesday after Thanksgiving in the U.S. It’s typically one of the most successful fundraising days for nonprofits each year. For example, nonprofits using Bloomerang collectively raised over $56 million in donations last year.

Why do people give at the end of the year?

• Feeling gratitude and a desire to give back after a fulfilling year
• Eligibility for tax benefits
• Desire to participate in a corporate matching gift program with a year-end deadline
• Feeling influenced by family members and friends who are also giving

Why is year-end giving so important?

Understanding just how important year-end fundraising is for your organization allows you to prioritize it appropriately when planning your fundraising calendar. These statistics illustrate why you should prioritize year-end giving within your overall fundraising strategy:

Alt: Year-end giving statistics (all are listed below)

• December giving made up 26% of all online revenue and 34% of one-time online revenue for nonprofits in 2023. Donations made on December 31, 2023, accounted for 5% of revenue.
• Most nonprofits begin their year-end fundraising planning in November, but 7.7% start as early as September.
• Most nonprofits use various marketing platforms to generate at least two “touches” with supporters during the year-end fundraising season.
• Direct mail is the most popular year-end giving marketing method.

These statistics illuminate the importance of starting your year-end fundraising planning early and creating impactful written appeals to resonate with your supporters.

15 steps to plan a successful year-end giving campaign

You might not have experience creating a formal year-end giving strategy, or you may be looking to update your current strategy. Wherever you’re coming from, here are the key steps to help you make the most of the year-end giving season and reach your goals.

1. Start planning early

Planning early allows you to minimize the negative effects of unexpected circumstances and gives your team members enough time to understand their roles and responsibilities.

As a rule of thumb, nonprofits should start preparing and building their year-end giving teams when students return to school for the fall semester, usually three to four months ahead of the campaign period. This ensures that your team doesn’t feel rushed and gives you enough time to prepare a well-rounded, engaging campaign.

2. Assess past year-end giving results

To move your plan forward successfully, review your past year-end fundraising performance and determine your strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement. This will help you strategize for your upcoming campaign and improve year-over-year results.

Assess your previous year-end campaign and ask yourself the following questions:

• Did we reach our campaign goal?
• Was the fundraising total more or less than what we expected?
• Who were our biggest contributors?
• Which marketing platforms received the most engagement?
• What was our average donation size?
• What were the demographics of our year-end donors?
• What aspects of the campaign can we improve this year?

Develop a plan to tackle other aspects of your year-end fundraising campaign that didn’t reach their full potential. For example, if your marketing efforts were misaligned with your audience, conduct more audience research to help understand your supporters better. Or, if you fell short of your fundraising goal last year, brainstorm strategies to improve your marketing and stewardship efforts to connect with current and new donors.

3. Set clear fundraising goals

Determine this year’s goals based on past efforts. Set a fundraising goal that’s slightly higher than in previous years to inspire growth. For example, if last year’s campaign raised $50,000, you may set a $60,000 goal. This number is still within your grasp, but it’s just high enough to inspire your fundraising team to widen and deepen their fundraising efforts.

Specifically, you can connect with a wider group of donors through far-reaching crowdfunding campaigns, and deepen your approach by stewarding long-time and major donors through personalized letters.

4. Craft a compelling case for support

A case for support tells donors why you need their help and what their donations will achieve. It forms the basis of your year-end giving letter.

Build your case for support around individual stories and compelling examples of how your nonprofit is making an impact. Specificity helps put a face to your appeal and generate empathy for your cause.

Follow these steps to tell a complete story:

• Select a protagonist. Think about long-time volunteers or someone impacted by your mission. Give your audience information that will help them identify with the individual featured in your story.
• Define the problem. Define the main issue you’re trying to solve with your year-end giving campaign. This could be related to your nonprofit’s overall mission or a specific issue you’re tackling with this year’s fundraising campaign. For example, an animal rescue might target its year-end giving campaign at renovating its kennel to add more outdoor space for dogs to play in.
• Wrap it up with a call to action. Describe how donors’ gifts will enable your nonprofit to help solve the proposed issue. Make the problem as tangible as possible. Show donors how their gift will impact your cause (i.e., meals served, houses built, or animals vaccinated) and how much is needed to reach your goal so they understand the value of supporting your mission.

Your case for support should be accompanied by strong branding (more on this in the next section) and effective design. Also, follow writing best practices by keeping your paragraphs short and using bolded text strategically to draw attention.

A strong story, partnered with uniform, professional design, leaves a positive impression on recipients. As a result, they will see your organization as more credible and trustworthy.

5. Increase urgency around year-end giving deadlines

Throughout the year, your nonprofit likely sends urgent appeals sparingly, and for good reason. Too many urgent requests can tire supporters out and cause them to take each one less seriously than the last.

However, the year-end giving season is a great time to roll out urgent appeals sparingly, specifically around giving deadlines. For example, you might plan a giving day for your nonprofit with a 24-hour campaign timeline and send several appeals throughout the day to update supporters on your progress and remind them to give.

Also, remind your supporters that donations contributed after December 31st will not be tax-deductible for the year. If donors want to adhere to this deadline, it’s in their best interest to give sooner rather than later, so it doesn’t slip their minds.

6. Brand your year-end appeal

A unified brand should connect your year-end giving campaign and marketing efforts. Incorporate your logo, fonts, colors, and tone of voice into all marketing materials to ensure they reflect your organization’s brand.

You might even create a unique brand for your year-end fundraising campaign, with a memorable theme and slogan. For instance, a winter or holiday-themed campaign can build on excitement about upcoming seasonal celebrations.

In your brand messaging, emphasize these key points:

• The campaign is a team effort.
• The donor and your nonprofit are in unison.
• Your nonprofit relies on the generosity of its supporters to make a real difference in your cause area.

Creating a memorable brand ensures that your year-end fundraising efforts are memorable as a whole and stand out in supporters’ social media feeds, email inboxes, and mailboxes.

7. Segment your donors and personalize messages

You can certainly send a year-end email appeal to your entire supporter base. This helps you save time and focus your efforts on other areas of your marketing campaign.

However, many organizations find greater success when they segment their donors. Segmentation involves grouping supporters based on shared characteristics. For instance, you might group supporters based on their:

• Engagement level
• Recency and frequency of giving
• Preferred communication channel

Segmenting your appeals and emails allows you to send the right message to the right audience. Instead of sending one mass message to everyone, you can create tailored year-end giving appeals for each of your major segments. This allows you to send donors more personalized messages while still saving time and energy.

For example, you could send emails focused on your nonprofit’s history and recent successes to new donors and year-in-review emails to your long-term supporters.

Ensure each message is also personalized to the recipient by including their names in your email subject lines, addressing messages with donors’ names and titles, and referencing their past donations or other involvement with your organization.

8. Conduct A/B testing

A/B testing is the process of creating two different versions of your year-end appeal and assessing which version receives the most engagement or inspires the most action from recipients.

You can use A/B testing to assess any element of your year-end appeal, from your email subject lines to your body text, images, and calls to action.

As you conduct these tests, make sure to change one element of your appeal at a time to understand which changes had the biggest impact. For example, divide a specific donor segment, such as mid-level donors, into two groups. Send each group year-end appeal emails with different subject lines but otherwise identical content. Your options might be:

• [Donor’s First Name], submit your tax-deductible year-end gift today!
• [Donor’s First Name], support our year-end push to get winter coats to community members in need!

Review engagement metrics such as open rates to determine which subject line was most compelling. By the end of the process, you should have a strong fundraising appeal to send to supporters in the crucial final weeks or days of the year-end giving process.

9. Create an outreach cadence

People tend to get busy at the end of the year. They might notice your outreach messages, but forget to give or put off giving until later. Also, your supporters, especially those who support multiple causes, will likely receive many year-end appeals from a variety of organizations.

An effective communication cadence will help you stand out and maintain their attention. Plus, you’ll be able to ensure your nonprofit’s team members, including your staff members, board members, and other volunteers, understand their roles and when they need to complete certain outreach responsibilities.

Develop a communications calendar for October, November, and December for each segment of your donors with key dates for each touchpoint. Use these steps as a rough guide:

• Stagger your communication at least every two weeks until mid-December. Maintain a balance between your most effective communication mediums and don’t put too much emphasis on the platforms that don’t receive a lot of interaction. For instance, you might send most of your communications using email and Facebook, while posting only occasionally on your less-popular Instagram account.
• Send more messages during the last two weeks of the year. Most donors know they will make a year-end gift, but some may still be undecided about how much to contribute. Continue to share your case for support and make it easy for them to give at the last moment.
• Send daily digital communications during the last four days of the year. Most of the communication at this point will happen online via e-mails, social media, and your website. Consider sending the first of your final emails to everyone in your donor file who hasn’t yet given. For the next round, suppress the names of those who opened the previous last-chance email and resend the email.

The key to an effective communication cadence is balance. You don’t want to send so many messages that supporters become overwhelmed, but you want to ensure you’re engaging with them to guarantee that everyone who wants to give has a chance to do so.

Supplement your email and direct mail appeals with social media posts and website updates. Share campaign updates, shorter versions of your case for support, and thank-you messages to those who have already donated.

10. Optimize your website for year-end giving

Make it as easy as possible for donors to find your donation page by incorporating a large donate button on your homepage and a variety of call-to-action buttons and links throughout your website, pointing visitors to your giving opportunities.

Your online donation form itself should be easy to fill out to facilitate ongoing donations through your website. Design your form with the following strategies to make it user-friendly and convenient:

• Only ask for necessary information, such as donors’ names and payment information.
• Ensure the form is mobile-friendly by reviewing and editing it in the mobile view.
• Embed a matching gift tool so donors can research their matching gift eligibility right from your form, potentially doubling their donation.
• Offer suggested giving amounts to give donors an idea of what types of donations you’re looking for and help them decide on their donation amount.
• Offer donors the option to turn their one-time gift into a recurring monthly donation. Highlight any benefits of your monthly donation program, such as merchandise discounts or VIP access to events.

When your website and online donation form are optimized to support your year-end giving campaign, you can incorporate links into your other outreach channels, such as social media posts and emails.

Also, you can offer a valuable resource for both existing and new supporters to get to know your organization on a deeper level and understand the full impact of their donations. They can view your online donation page to get all the information they need to decide whether and how much to give.

11. Make the most of GivingTuesday

GivingTuesday 2024 broke records, with over $3.6 billion raised and 36.1 million participants. This momentous giving day represents a critical giving opportunity for your nonprofit within the year-end giving season.

Ensure your organization is ready to make the most of this day by planning a GivingTuesday campaign. Your campaign could be:

• A 24-hour social media campaign that inspires urgency by having a hard deadline
• A special giving event, such as a 5K or fundraising gala, where supporters can gather and have fun while raising money
• An in-kind donation drive for supporters to contribute valuable items to your nonprofit, such as art supplies, gardening tools, or clothing

Whatever campaign or event type you choose, increase excitement leading up to it by posting event previews on social media and personally inviting your most dedicated supporters to get involved.

12. Start a peer-to-peer fundraiser

Peer-to-peer fundraising is a highly effective form of year-end fundraising because it can expand your nonprofit’s reach to new audiences, driving more revenue for your organization. Using a peer-to-peer fundraising platform (like Bloomerang), you can empower your supporters to create personalized campaign pages that express the campaign’s purpose and their personal connection to your mission.

Then, supporters will share their fundraising pages on social media and email, gathering donations from their family members and friends.

13. Show gratitude

Expressing appreciation for year-end giving donors helps you turn these supporters into ongoing proponents of your organization. A strong appreciation strategy lays the groundwork for building stronger relationships with these individuals, giving your nonprofit access to year-round support.

Follow these steps to build an effective appreciation strategy:

• Ensure your online donation thank-you page or automated donation confirmation includes a thank-you message and allows donors to share their donations on social media.
• Send a longer follow-up thank-you message within 48 hours of each donor’s gift. Reiterate how their contributions will help you achieve the goals you highlighted in your initial appeal, whether that’s collecting funds to support your ongoing programs or supporting a specific project.
• Personalize your thank-you messages by addressing them with donors’ names and referencing their specific donation amount.

Consider hosting an event to wrap up the year-end giving season and thank supporters in person. Events are a great way to reinforce a sense of community within your organization. Year-end giving events can be anything from a gala, grand raffle, auction, seasonal concert, or play. You can also livestream your event to create a hybrid experience, connecting with both in-person and virtual attendees.

14. Analyze your success

After the year-end giving season ends, assess relevant metrics to determine how well your strategy played out. This analysis lets you know what you should improve or maintain for next year.

Round up metrics such as your:

• Fundraising total. Did you reach your goal? Assess whether you exceeded or fell short of your expectations and the possible reasons why.
• Average and median donation sizes. What types of donations were most popular during your giving campaign? These metrics can help you determine which level of donors (smaller, mid-sized, or larger) were most engaged and your suggested giving amounts for next year’s campaign.
• Direct mail response rate. How many donations came through the mail? Your direct mail response rate will help you determine whether you need to adjust your mailing strategy for next year and conduct more A/B testing.
• Online donation total. How many donors used your online donation form, and what was the total donation amount from this platform?
• The number of new donors. How many new donors did you connect with during your campaign? This lets you know the effectiveness of your new donor outreach and marketing strategies.
• The number of repeat donors. How many donors who gave to your most recent year-end fundraising campaign also gave the previous year? This metric will illustrate how effective your donor stewardship strategies are.

Compare these numbers to metrics from previous years to identify trends. This information will let you know the areas you should focus on improving for next year’s campaign.

15. Steward donors after your campaign

Follow up with donors again when your campaign concludes to share your year-end giving results and invite donors to engage with your organization in other ways.

For example, you might invite them to:

• Attend an educational event
• Participate in a volunteer opportunity
• Sign up for your email newsletter
• Host a fundraising event

To avoid overwhelming donors, don’t ask for another gift too soon after your year-end campaign. Instead, focus on building genuine, well-rounded relationships where donors feel truly welcomed into your organization’s mission.

How Bloomerang can help you host the best year-end giving campaign yet

Bloomerang is the ultimate hub for year-end giving success. Our unified giving platform empowers nonprofits to raise more, retain donors, and grow year after year.

Exceed your year-end giving goals with purpose-built fundraising features like:

• Unified CRM, fundraising, and volunteer management. Leverage the best of donor, fundraising, and volunteer management in one system. Get a holistic view of your supporters to understand the best ways to reach out to them with targeted year-end appeals.
• Built-in donor segmentation. Group donors based on different criteria, such as gift size or frequency, to contact donors with tailored outreach.
• Targeted appeals with an AI Content Assistant. Send more compelling email messages with our AI writing assistant, which you can use to optimize headers, subject lines, content, and calls to action.
• Robust reporting and data analysis. Evaluate your year-end giving performance with comprehensive, customized, user-friendly reporting tools. Drill down into your data with filter-based reporting, scheduled reports, and data segmentation.

Learn about the spectacular results nonprofits using Bloomerang were able to achieve for GivingTuesday 2024: