Helping nonprofits gear up for 2027

Jess Cronk: Good afternoon, everyone. Apologies for the delay. We’re having a little bit of technical difficulties. Give me just a few more moments. I’m going to get Pamela in and we will get started. Thanks so much for your patience. Pamela, can you hear me okay?

Pamela Grow: I can. Can you hear me?

Jess Cronk: Yes, I can. We just can’t see you, but we can hear you.

Pamela Grow: Oh. How’s that?

Jess Cronk: There we go. We can see you now. Thanks, everyone, for coming on that journey with us. I appreciate your patience. I’d like to welcome you to the webinar today.

My name is Jess, VP of Customer Marketing, Events and Partnerships here at Bloomerang. I am joining from sunny Tampa, Florida. Please drop in the chat where you’re joining us from. I’d love to see it.

Today, we’ll jump right into it because we’re running a few minutes behind. But I’m so delighted to welcome Pamela Grow to go through how we can get set up for 2027. I can’t believe it’s already here.

Quick housekeeping notes before we get started. Yes, we are recording, and yes, you will receive the slides after we wrap up today. As Pamela is presenting, please drop your questions in the Q&A box and we would be delighted to get to them towards the end of the presentation.

If you are not familiar with Bloomerang, welcome. I am so happy to introduce you. We are a giving platform built for purpose, created to help nonprofits build stronger relationships and grow their impact. We offer tools like donor and volunteer engagement, online fundraising, peer-to-peer campaigns, you name it, we would love to help you with it.

Our mission is to support organizations of all sizes to thrive, and we believe that when fundraisers have the time and insights that they need, you can focus on what matters most: making a difference in your communities. So if this resonates with you, let’s connect. I would love to help you out.

I’d also like to invite you to our annual conference, GiveCon. This is the nonprofit conference that is moving fundraising and missions forward. We offer over 100 CFRE-certified sessions, an engaged community, and immersive experiences. This conference is a place where you will learn, connect, and recharge with your fellow fundraisers. If you are interested, use the QR code and check it out today. We’d love to see you there.

Which brings me to our lovely guest, Pamela Grow. Pamela, welcome. Such a delight to have you. Please go ahead, tell the audience a little bit about yourself and what they can do to gear up for 2027.

Pamela Grow: Thank you. Well, actually, is it time for me to share my slides?

Jess Cronk: It is. I will stop sharing.

Pamela Grow: Okey doke. Let me go ahead and... Oh, I think you have to pass it over to me. I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened. I was on about ten minutes too, and I just got the spinning ball. Let’s see. Share. There we go. Can you all see my screen?

Jess Cronk: We can see it in the presentation framework. If you go into full screen, we should be good to go.

Pamela Grow: Awesome. One second. There we go. How’s that?

Jess Cronk: I think you’re good.

Pamela Grow: Excellent. Thank you so much, Jess. Thank you for your patience, and it’s awesome to meet you.

Well, hey, everybody. Welcome. I cannot believe the full house we’ve got today, and I really appreciate everybody coming out. I know you guys are swamped right now, because I also handle a lot of client work and I am absolutely swamped.

So I think you already typed in your name and where you’re joining from. Today, we’re going to be talking about new numbers that just came out about a week ago: some good news, some wake-up calls, and one new thing you can do tomorrow, along with a 2027 plan that feels doable. And if you stay to the end, I sent over some goodies to Jess earlier today. You’ll receive your 2027 planner and your year-end kit.

I always like to ask this because I know how I am sometimes when I’m attending a webinar or watching a podcast, that I’m doing a gazillion things at once. So turn off any distractions. My daughter just popped in earlier and told me she had dinner with her sister last night, and she forced her sister to leave her phone in the car while they went in and had dinner. She said it was the nicest dinner she’s had in ages. So grab a pen and some paper. You’re going to want to write some things down.

Today we’re talking about how you’re living in two fundraising years at once. By that, I mean end of year is absolutely insane, is it not? I know that some organizations I’m working with are just now getting started. You’re putting the final touches on your year end fundraising appeal, and hopefully not passing it by too many people for their edits. And your boss is coming to you, or maybe the board president, wondering what the plan is for 2027. That’s what I mean by straddling two years at once.

Here’s the thing: most trainings only help you with one of them. They’ll give you year-end tips, or they’ll give you a big planning workshop. But together, we’re going to finish your 2026 out strong, and we’re going to make sure that the donors who give to you this December are still with you next December. 2027 is all about keeping donors. Hold onto that idea, because we’re coming back to it again and again.

To help us do that, I want you to meet someone. This is the story of one donor. Meet Aimee.

Aimee’s a professor at a small liberal arts college in Pennsylvania. She has a really rich, full life. She believes strongly in giving back. She’s a single woman, roughly in her early to mid fifties. She’s close with her sister’s daughter, her niece, and she spends a lot of time with her. She travels a lot. She enjoys cooking. She enjoys the theater. And like I said, she really loves to give back. She was raised with it.

She is a regular donor to probably about a dozen nonprofits in her community and nationally. She is a monthly donor to six nonprofits, and she’s a major donor as well. She recently made a $10,000 gift to a local nonprofit, and they don’t know it yet. But the animal shelter where Aimee adopted her cat, Jax, will be the recipient of a bequest when Aimee passes away.

For the sake of today’s presentation, we’re going to say that Aimee’s girlfriend dragged her to your event, to your gala last week, and she liked what she saw. So the next morning when she was having her coffee, she made a donation. And she did get an immediate receipt. But after that was complete silence.

Months passed, almost thirteen months, to be honest with you. During that time, Aimee went to Peru. She helped plan her niece’s wedding. She made another $10,000 gift. Her life was full. And then one snowy, blustery day in mid-December, your fundraising appeal letter landed in her mailbox. The truth is Aimee completely forgot about that gift she made you.

I have to tell you, when I originally came up with this story, I thought, “Is this a little too far-fetched?” And then this exact same thing happened to me very recently. I got a letter in the mail from an organization, totally out of the blue. I had no idea who they were or why I should care. After a couple of weeks, I realized I had made a gift to them about thirteen months ago.

So Aimee doesn’t mean anything by it, but she tossed her letter in the trash. And Aimee is just one of hundreds, if not thousands, of really wonderful, caring people who love to give back, who love to feel like they’re making a difference.

Just like Reggie. Reggie got to know your organization when he participated in your 5K, and now he’s a monthly donor. Marion volunteered in the past, and she’s also responded every year for seven years to your end-of-year appeal with a $35 gift. Alan is a former board member who still makes a thousand-dollar gift every year. And Keisha’s mom was a donor to your organization. Since her mom passed away, she’s made a gift every year in her memory.

All you really need to do is make it ridiculously easy to give to your organization, nurture that relationship, and treat your donors like the wonderful individuals that they are. The best way to do that is with the Simple Development Systems ask, thank, report, repeat model all year long. Today we’re going to be focusing hard on the thank you, which is where Aimee really heard silence, and also on showing impact, the report piece.

So where do you think you are with your own Aimees this year? Right now, I’d like to ask you, where is your year-end appeal? Is it in the mail? Are you still drafting it? Have you started it? I’m going to ask you to just type in the chat box. Where is your end-of-year appeal right now? Let me see. How can I see the chat box? Oh, there we go.

Yay: in the mail, drafted, at the printer. Everybody’s doing great. No appeal this year, only email communication. Sending out tomorrow. Haven’t started. One being mailed, one being drafted, in progress, still drafting, at the printer. Just finished up our big event, so I’m drafting the appeal today. Great, Julie. Major donor appeal went out late October, everyone else is drafting, mass mailer at the printer. Excellent, excellent, excellent. Still drafting, unfortunately, too. Looks like you’re all kind of on top of things.

Let me go back to the presentation. Can you still see my screen? Go ahead and type in yes or no. Good, good.

Well, let’s get started here today. I sort of took a long and rambling way to get started. Jess kindly introduced me. My name is Pamela Grow. I started online helping fundraisers in 2010, I believe it was, and I’ve worked with thousands of nonprofits all over the world. I’m also the author of Simple Development Systems and the founder of Basics and More Fundraising. Most importantly, for today, I really know the power of fundraising systems and individual giving to totally transform your nonprofit. And I just believe strongly in you and your good work.

I always like to give a little personal touch to my trainings. I’m the mom to two daughters. One, Abigail, is a lawyer in Philadelphia. My other daughter runs the best Mexican food truck in Philadelphia, so if you’re ever in Philly, you’ve got to check it out: Burrito Feliz. I live in beautiful downtown Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, which is the mushroom capital of the world. It’s a tiny little town, about one mile, about an hour outside of Philly. I am a super, super introvert. I love to bake, I love to read, and I love my little Maltipoo, Wally. And thanks to Abigail, I now have two brand-new grandkids, including Jack, who is about 17 months right now, and baby Lily Rose.

The last two days have been a tech nightmare. What you’re going to walk away with in the next forty-five minutes is our roadmap: what has changed in the last thirty days, and we’ll close out the year with confidence, your second ask, the last week of December, and a new way to use Giving Tuesday. Then we’ll talk retention and how to stop the leak before it starts.

So what changed about a week ago? The Fundraising Effectiveness Project put out its latest report. The Fundraising Effectiveness Project tracks giving across thousands and thousands of nonprofits, and Bloomerang is one of the groups that shares data with it. So thank you again to Bloomerang. There’s the link if you want to check it out, and I will be sending over the slides.

What we learned: overall dollars are actually up about 6.6%, which is a very good thing. But the number of donors is down 1.6%, which might not seem like a lot, but it seems to be a trend because it’s been happening for a while now. Major and supersized donors, giving $5,000 or more annually, contribute 76.4% of all charitable dollars while representing just 2.9% of the total donor base. So we’ve got more money and fewer donors. That means if you lose one big donor, you’re really in trouble. What we want to talk about today is how to hold on tight to every single donor.

The report also revealed that one in nine of last year’s new donors has given again. Only one in nine. Picture last year’s new donors: one in nine. New donors who stay with your organization is actually down 9.5%. Think about Aimee’s experience and think about that leak. You don’t need a bigger budget. You really need a plan for those next ninety days.

And look at this: donors who gave seven or more times last year, 90% of them came back. 90% of them. They gave seven or more times last year, which means they were either a monthly supporter or they were receiving more asks than the typical nonprofit sends out. 90% versus 14%. That is the difference between a donor who feels like part of the family and a donor who feels like a transaction.

So your 2027 goal should really be all about that second gift and growing your monthly giving program. Your goal for 2027 isn’t just to get more donors. It’s to get that second gift, then the third. That’s why monthly giving is so very powerful. A monthly donor gives twelve times a year without even thinking about it. We’re going to come back to that thought.

For years, most donors didn’t get any kind of tax break for their gift, because most people don’t itemize on their taxes. But that did change this year. Starting in 2026, people who take the standard deduction can deduct up to $1,000 in cash gifts. For married couples filing together, it’s up to $2,000. It has to go to a charity like yours. Individuals still give, and this has not changed much in all the time that I have been working in this field. Individuals still give 74% of all gifts, and that’s where you really want to focus your energy.

So let’s talk about closing out 2026 with confidence. You’ve got fifty-seven days left. Here’s what matters the most. Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26, and Giving Tuesday is December 1. From today to December 31, you have fifty-seven days. Let’s put three dates on your calendar right now. Thanksgiving: you’re going to want to try to have your year-end letter in the mail before then. Then Giving Tuesday, Tuesday, December 1. And keep in mind that December 31 is a Thursday, the last day of the year, so you want to have two emails scheduled for December 31. It’s all in the checklist that you’ll get. I’m not sure if it’s out there right now or if you’re going to be sent it after this presentation is over.

December 31 is a Thursday this year, and that’s a workday for a lot of your donors. They’re going to be at their desks. They’re going to be checking email. They’re going to be thinking, “Oh, I meant to give.” So plan two emails that day, one in the morning, one in the late afternoon. It’s all in the sixty-days checklist.

And on Giving Tuesday, be the one who says thank you. This is a screenshot of my inbox. I’m not sure exactly what year it was. Giving Tuesday, Giving Tuesday, Giving Tuesday. How can you possibly stand out from the crowd? How can you possibly reach those Aimees?

So I’ve got a question. Do you participate in Giving Tuesday? Yes, every year, sometimes, or no? Can you type in the chat box and let me know if you participate in Giving Tuesday, and how you feel about it? I can’t see the chat now. Sorry, I’m having some tech issues today.

“Yes, but not much response.” “Sometimes. I have a love-hate relationship with Giving Tuesday.” I have a total hate relationship with it, but I find it a great time to say thank you. Agnes says, “It’s too much competition for my annual appeal. It’s overplayed.” “This will be our first year. We are throwing a community thank-you event for our fifty-year anniversary.” I love it. “Sometimes, yes, for the last six years.” Can I ask if anybody here has had great success with Giving Tuesday?

A good question from Michelle. Michelle says, “How do you make Giving Tuesday and end-of-year giving flow together?” I think what I’m going to be talking about coming up, which is turning Giving Tuesday into a vehicle for thanking your donors, is probably the best way to do it. “We kick off our annual giving campaign on Giving Tuesday. We’ve never gotten much of a response. We no longer see the...” Okay, let me go ahead.

This is the advice I give just about everybody: unless you’ve had a history of getting a really great response from Giving Tuesday, I suggest that you be the one who says thank you. This is a Giving Tuesday email that I got last year that I really loved from Bagly. I’ve known the people over at Bagly for about fifteen, twenty years now.

“You may have noticed that yesterday was Giving Tuesday. You may have also noticed that you didn’t receive an email from Bagly. That was intentional. With so many organizations asking for donations yesterday, we didn’t want to clutter your inbox. Giving Tuesday has never been a major focus of ours, but that didn’t stop our community from stepping up anyway. Despite not emailing our community, you all came through regardless. Together, we raised $70,000 yesterday in support of Bagly’s lifesaving programs. We’re truly humbled. Thank you.”

This is what makes a donor’s heart, what makes someone like Aimee kind of sing.

This is an example from Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation from several years ago that was really well done. They did an extraordinary Giving Tuesday thank-you campaign, and they had a couple of celebrities who have supported them over the years, including Kristin Chenoweth, and it was just delightful. So think about turning December 1 into your thank-you day. I thought I had some other examples, but I don’t. I’m having some tech issues here.

Now we’re going to talk about your year-end appeal and the step that almost everyone skips. Your second ask catches the gifts the first one missed. I wonder what would have happened with Aimee if she had gotten any kind of follow-up to her letter. I see this all the time, and I think I even did it a little bit when I was still a development director: you mail out your year-end letter and then you just wait for the results. But think about Aimee. Maybe your letter arrived the same week as a lot of other things going on in her life. She meant to give, she put your letter on the counter, and then it got buried, and then it got tossed. That’s why you send a second ask, and I approach it from a multichannel perspective.

About three weeks after the first one, send a shorter version. Same story, fewer words, something like, “I wanted to make sure you saw this.” What that might look like, I really love this example from a friend of mine, a colleague. This was a reminder postcard that went out a few weeks after the year-end appeal for this organization. You can see it if you go to that link on my site. And of course, you always have a strong email campaign that goes along with your year-end letter. Your second ask is really about catching the gifts that the first one missed. It goes only to the people who haven’t given yet.

While we’re talking about making it easy, one of the best things you can do tomorrow is make a gift to your own organization, and do it on your phone. Pull out your phone and give to your own organization. Maybe it’s just $5, maybe it’s $20, and do it the way Aimee would. Maybe she’s standing in line at a coffee shop. Maybe she’s on the couch. Count the taps. Does the page load really quickly? Can you read it without pinching the screen? Do you have to make an account? That’s one of my pet peeves as a donor. Does it ask for your address three times? Do it tonight, and if it took more than a minute, fix it. And if you can’t see the monthly giving option right away, or if it’s not clear, if donors have to hunt for it, they won’t choose it. Write it down and test that mobile giving tonight.

We’re going to jump now to the very end of the year, which is your biggest week. I want you to think about those three or four emails that you’re going to send at the very end of the year, because for a lot of you, the last week of December is the biggest giving season of the whole year, and most small shops are on vacation. Actually, it seems like almost every organization is on vacation, judging from the away messages in my inbox. So I want you to write your emails now, in November, while you can still think straight, and then go and enjoy your holidays.

The simple plan that I usually go by is to send three or four short emails between December 26 and 31. That depends, too, on when your letter goes out. If your letter is hitting mailboxes around Thanksgiving, what I like to do is send, about one week after it hits the mailbox, a little “Did you receive our letter in the mail?” email. And definitely on December 31, you’re going to want to send two, one in the morning and one in the late afternoon. Super short: one story, one button.

And your board can help this week without ever asking for money. There are so many things your board members can do. They can write handwritten PSs on letters going to people they know. Just one line. Go over your donor list with your board members and find out who knows who. Second, they can make three thank-you calls to donors that they know, and I’ve actually got a script included in your kit. Third, you can hand them the board fundraising menu from your year-end kit. This is one of my favorite tools. I’ve been using it for, gosh, probably about twenty years and have always had great success. It can go not only to your board, it can also go to volunteers. It can go to staffers. Get as much help as you can with your year-end appeal.

All we’re going to do is ask everybody to commit to one per category. You can pick as many as you’d like, but pick one per category. An appetizer might be writing those personal notes, maybe giving some donor names for your year-end appeal, maybe attending a house party. A main course might be something like a personal visit with a major donor, hand-addressing envelopes to your major donors (that’s a biggie right there, if you’ve got somebody with great handwriting), or making donor thank-you calls. Buying stamps for the year-end appeal is a good one, because you always want to suppress the letters going to your major donors and send them personally, not from the mailing house. Right? Something else might be creating and sharing social media posts, writing thank-you notes to donors, or donating food for a mailing party. I’ve had board members do this as well.

So are you going to add a second ask? Which one will you add before December 31: a second ask, last-week emails, or thank-you calls? Which one are you going to add? I’m having issues navigating Zoom today. There we go.

Kevin says, “None this year. No support for doing any of this from the board of directors.” I’m sorry to hear that. We’ve got somebody doing a reminder postcard. Excellent, excellent, excellent. Rick asks, “Do you send first class?” Always to major donors, Rick. Always. Kate asks, “Are those three to four emails between December 26 and December 31 to the donors who still haven’t given to your appeal?” Yes. Excellent. Thank you.

“We send a thank-you Christmas card with no ask.” I love that. I love that. One of my clients actually sends out two cards a year. They are a faith-based organization. They send out an Easter card, and then they send out a Christmas or a Thanksgiving card. “Prior to our end-of-year mailing, we have board members making thank-you calls.” Yay. Catherine says, “Our board members write notes. That is our secret sauce.” Yes. Excellent. You guys are all really good.

Okay, well, I’m going to suggest trying this fundraising menu, to the person who said the board of directors doesn’t help at all. Try it. My experience with board members has been that there are always going to be some board members who don’t participate, who don’t really help much, who sometimes don’t even attend the meetings. But you’ve always got at least one or two real champions who are willing to do a lot for you, and this is a great way to get started. It’s just super simple. I got it from an old book from Andy Robinson, one of the best things I ever read, and I definitely, definitely highly recommend it. This stuff really works. My end-of-year letter has raised double last year’s appeal, and this is just with a few really simple tactics.

And this is a great tip to remember about your major donors. The Humane Society of Northeast Georgia was in a program of mine a few years ago, and they used this. They had a good mail program. They had donor newsletters. They had two or three appeals a year, and they worked with an agency. That year in the program, they suppressed their major donors from their year-end mailing and sent them little handmade ornaments with pictures of their animals. Their year-end fundraising increased by nearly 84% over the previous year. The more you can segment, the better result you’re going to have.

I want to talk a little bit about a thank-you habit that really sticks. This was from an interesting study that was conducted several years ago, I will confess, but it always made a huge impact on me. They were studying whether a thank-you really does make a difference, and they looked at whether getting a thank-you letter a few weeks before renewal made a difference. Donors who got the thank-you gave $45 more on average than those who didn’t. If you multiply that by every donor in your database, it’s a pretty big deal. Another finding from the same report: Dr. Jen Shang found that the good feeling from a thank-you lasts about two and a half months. So a thank-you really isn’t just good manners. It warms people up for the next gift.

And speaking of warm-ups, I think one of the most underutilized tactics in your year-end campaign is to prep your donors for what’s coming. What does that look like? Really, all you’re saying is, “We could not do this work without you.” We could not do this work without you. Oddly enough, this one just came in from Plainsong Farms. It just arrived in my inbox today. It’s a really wonderful little piece about how grateful they are for my support. This one is from Intervale Center in Vermont. It very specifically says, “We could not do this without you.” So your warm-up could be an email or two or three before the letter drops in the mail. I say two or three because open rates are declining at a really rapid pace, and it’s getting harder and harder to cut through the noise, especially when it comes to digital. It could also be your print donor newsletter.

Speaking of your print donor newsletter, how are you reminding your major donors of different ways they can give? Do you have that DAF information on every single donor page? Is it in your reply form? And how fast do your thank-yous go out? Within forty-eight hours, within a week, within a month, or it depends? Where are you at? Why am I not getting this? There we go.

Catherine asks, “What are your thoughts about making calls to donors before year end?” I think that’s a great, great idea. I think it could actually be part of your warm-up.

Robert asks, “Are the emails plain emails, or can they be on Constant Contact with pictures?” I’ve been doing email marketing myself for probably two decades now. Plain text always outperforms those heavily designed emails. Always.

Sarah asked, “Where can I get the board menu?” That will be in the handouts. I don’t know if they’ve been uploaded today or if they’re going out after the presentation.

“We aim for a twenty-four-hour turnaround and usually hit it. Sometimes forty-eight hours or longer over the weekend.” That’s excellent. That’s good to hear.

I put this in because I think it is important that you aim for forty-eight hours. Every gift, no exceptions. Every gift gets thanked within forty-eight hours, no exceptions, $5 or $5,000. I have to tell you, every organization is different. I have clients who are still getting the majority of their individual gifts, probably a good 80 to 90%, via check. And then I’ve got other organizations that I work with where most of their donations are coming in online. When most of your donations are coming in online, of course, they’re going to get that immediate thank-you when they make an online gift, and that counts for something. But I still recommend, and I’ve been saying this for several years now, that paper, whether it is a thank-you letter or a thank-you card, is very, very, very important. It’s tangible. It is sticky.

So write your thank-you letter this week. In fact, sometimes I’ll even write the thank-you letter before I write the appeal letter. Make it warm, tell a little story, say “you” a lot more than “we,” and sign it in ink. A letter is great, but there’s something even better, and it’s your brand-new tactic for today: the one-question thank-you call. You call a donor, you thank them, and then you ask one question: “What made you decide to give?” That’s it. Then you listen and you write down what they say.

I have to say, Jess, I am so sorry that we got such a late start. I know that the time...we’re almost ready to go here.

Jess Cronk: Pamela, it’s okay. We can go over about five to ten minutes since we got started late.

Pamela Grow: Oh okay, I just don’t know. I’ve got quite a bit more. Did we get the handouts uploaded, Jess?

Jess Cronk: Everyone who registered for the webinar will receive them later today with the recording.

Pamela Grow: Oh, later today. Okay, thanks. Well, I’ll do what I can here. Sorry about that.

But that one question, I think, is just so, so important. You really want to know why your donors care. That’s the most important thing you can know about a donor. When you know why Aimee gives, you know what story to tell her next, and you know what to put in her next letter. I can’t tell you how many times I have been able to incorporate donor testimonials right into the next letter, and whether she might become a monthly donor.

Just last week, the chair of the Fundraising Effectiveness Project said something that really stuck with me. He said, “The data can’t tell you why a donor stopped giving, but your nonprofit might be only one phone call away from finding out.” This is some of the best advice I ever got, and it originally came from a book by Tom Ahern and his wife.

So now we’re going to talk a little bit about your 2027 fundraising plan. I think the most important thing about your plan is that you have one. A written plan is really the difference between hoping and knowing. Barbara Riley and Dr. Adrian Sargeant looked at fundraising plans in a study done a couple of years ago. The groups with a written plan far outperformed those without one. When I first saw that, I was kind of like, “Well, duh.” But think about it. When I’m having a call with a prospective client or a student and I ask what their plan is for this or that, I’ll often hear, “We want to raise a lot of money.”

So go ahead and type in the chat, and I’ll continue while you’re typing. Do you have a fundraising plan for 2027? And did you have one in 2026?

The absolute most important thing about your plan is that you have SMART goals: very specific, very measurable, very achievable, very relevant, and very, very time-bound. So if you’ve got something in your plan like “double our monthly donors in 2027,” that’s definitely a wish. But something like “add 50 new monthly donors by December 31, doing it with one mailing and three email campaigns,” that’s a plan. You’ve got the date that you’re doing the mailing. You’ve got the dates when you’re doing the email campaigns. And you know exactly when.

This is kind of what that looks like. This is from one of my clients, and this is their communication plan for the year. They’ve got three direct mail campaigns, and those are actually multichannel campaigns as well. This is the client I told you about earlier that still receives about 90% of their gifts through the mail, through checks. They have a print donor newsletter that goes out three times a year. They have a monthly giving ask by direct mail, and they have two monthly giving email asks, and then a regular monthly email newsletter. That little graphic to the right shows you how everything is segmented.

This year, the simple way to create your plan is with the 2027 Fundraising Planner. You can download that. My favorite way to do it is with both a written plan and one mapped out in Excel or Google Sheets, whatever you want to use. Pick your retention goal for 2027. Would that be growing second gifts, growing monthly giving, winning back lapsed donors, or thanking faster? Whatever your goal is.

So where are we now? We’re getting close. Finish 2026 strong. You still have time to send your appeal, to call your top donors, to make some special packages for them, and to make sure giving is easy on your mobile device. Thank every gift within forty-eight hours and protect your donors before you lose them. Ask new donors for a second gift soon, and send lapsed donors a simple “we miss you” note.

Oh gee, I could talk about this all day. We didn’t even talk about lapsed donors. And make 2027 your monthly giving year. Monthly donors stay with you, and they keep you steady when times get hard.

I am really struggling with Zoom today. Shoot. Let me see. Questions. What was the book recommendation about why donors stop giving? That was a book by Tom Ahern and Simone Joyaux, and I cannot remember the name of it. But another good book is Retention Fundraising by Roger Craver.

If you reach a donor’s voicemail on a thank-you call, do you suggest leaving a message? Always. I think it was a study that Bloomerang did just a few years ago that found it was just as effective as actually speaking to the donor. I’d say just say thank you and leave it at that.

Jess Cronk: Well, thank you, Pamela. I’m going to go ahead, for the audience, since we’re wrapping up, and launch a quick poll. Give me just a second. Okay, there we go. If you’d like to hear more from Pamela, please respond to the poll. We’ll get that information over to her so she can reach out. If you’d like to hear more about Bloomerang, let us know. We are regularly updating our platform. We just recently launched DAFPay across our online fundraising forms. So even if you’re a customer, don’t hesitate to reach out. We’d love to show you what’s new.

Thank you again, Pamela, for joining us today, and thank you to our audience for your patience. I know we had a couple of technical difficulties.

Pamela Grow: It’s been crazy lately, tech. I mean, I love tech, but this last week, it’s all been kind of squirrelly.

Jess Cronk: We’ll just blame it on Mercury in retrograde. If you’d like to stick around, we’ll go ahead and wrap up here shortly. Thank you again, everyone, for joining us today.

Pamela Grow: Thank you. Bye-bye.