The year-end readiness check

Ann Fellman: Here we go — alright, I’ve opened the doors, and wow, the numbers are jumping fast. Welcome, everybody, you’re in the right spot. This is Fundraiser Focus Week, my favorite week of the quarter, and I have Alice Ferris with me today.

This is an amazing community, so as you jump in, hop in the chat and tell us where you’re at — how’s your weather today, what’s your outlook? I’m in Minneapolis, it’s sunny, and — I don’t know, I just switched my phone to Celsius.

Alice Ferris: Practicing math?

Ann Fellman: I am, actually — as a family, we host an international intern who works at my daughter’s French immersion school, so part of giving back is hosting someone. So I’m over here going, “it’s twenty-seven Celsius in Minneapolis,” whatever that means — like eighty-something?

Alice Ferris: Let’s see — twenty-seven is... about eighty-four.

Ann Fellman: Wow, okay — you’re a math whiz too.

Alice Ferris: Not only that — it’s a thing all my Canadian friends know. Basically, you take Celsius, roughly double it, and add thirty, and that’s approximately the Fahrenheit.

Ann Fellman: Well, who knew we’d get a science lesson in Celsius-to-Fahrenheit conversion — but you are all in the right place, this is going to be a fun thirty minutes. Welcome to Fundraiser Focus Week — it’s time to get ready for year-end. I was out shopping and saw the Halloween stuff up, and thought, okay, Halloween’s out, it’s time for year-end fundraising, we’ve got to really start getting ready.

So today we’ve got Alice Ferris with us to help with the year-end readiness check. This whole week is all about year-end, so come back every day, same time and place.

Before we jump in — yes, we’re recording, and yes, you’ll get a copy of the slides, thank you for that, Alice. What we’re going to do is have you log your questions in the Q&A tab of the Zoom console — look at the bottom, put them in Q&A, and I’ll remind you if you forget and pop something in the chat instead. We’re saving those for our session Thursday, with all of our experts, hosted by Rachel Muir — a really fantastic deep dive on year-end fundraising, so make sure you come back Thursday.

Alice Ferris: Thursday!

Ann Fellman: My name is Ann Fellman, I’m the Chief Marketing Officer for Bloomerang, and we build technology to help you raise more — from donor outreach and relationship management to fundraising and volunteer management. We make great tech, but we also provide great resources, and that’s why we do this: to give free resources back to the sector and participate in it.

We also have an amazing conference that keeps growing, all for fundraisers — GiveCon is May 3rd through 6th in Atlanta in 2027; we just wrapped this year’s in St. Louis in May, and it was phenomenal. If you’re a fundraiser looking to connect with your people, it’s a great forum, and there’s CFRE credit too.

So, Alice — welcome, thank you, you’re with GoalBusters Consulting. I’m going to stop sharing, and Alice, the floor is yours.

Alice Ferris: Okey dokey — thank you, Ann, and thanks to everyone popping into the chat to tell us where you are. Shout out to a couple of familiar names — hi, Chris — and hi to Fitchburg, Wisconsin, since I’m originally from Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, where I was born. I grew up in the Madison area, and good to see my friends in Tucson on the call too. Thank you all for being here.

We’re going to move fast: how do we decide if we’re ready for our year-end campaign? I know what you’re thinking — that’s so far away, why think about this now, it’s August, it’s a hundred and ten degrees in Florida. But realistically, if you run the countdown clock — and I do, I’ve got a little desktop countdown for an event I have coming up in eight days, which is making me panic a little — you have ninety days. It’s easy to think “it’s only August,” but your year-end campaign really needs to be launched by Thanksgiving, which is essentially ninety days from now. Once you think of it that way, you start asking how to use those ninety days as well as possible, because otherwise, things get busier and busier, and you keep pushing this off.

So what I want you to start doing right now is checking things off a list, so that by the end of November you’re shifting into stewardship mode instead of panicking. I’m going to talk about three categories across this ninety-day countdown: the first is how you prepare for your campaign, and the second and third are how you execute it. That’s the plan for today — and as Ann mentioned, drop your questions in the Q&A, since the fabulous Rachel Muir is compiling them for Thursday.

So, where to start. The first thing you need to know is where you stand right now. Whenever I do planning — strategic plans for a year, three years, five years (don’t do five-year plans) — the first step is always figuring out where I’m starting from. It’s the same idea as your phone needing to know your current location before it can give you directions — otherwise the map won’t work.

That’s what you should be doing right now, through the end of this month: figuring out where you stand. Start with the overall sector context. I volunteer with the Fundraising Effectiveness Project, and Bloomerang is one of its data providers — and what their quarterly reports have shown over the last several years is that giving is flat or declining. The total dollar amount going to the charitable sector is trending up, but the number of donors is shrinking — meaning we’re becoming more dependent on major and mega gifts to keep things moving. The everyday donor — most of us on this call, giving smaller amounts to a variety of causes — is becoming harder to reach, and isn’t showing up as strongly in the sector’s own data.

So: where does your organization stand compared to last year, and compared to budget? That’s the first metric to look at. Some of you may have just started a new fiscal year, so you might feel like you’re behind on budget just two months in — but looking year-over-year is one of the more useful comparisons: how did your donors show up across all of calendar year 2025 versus how you’re doing this year?

Before we started, Ann and I were talking about some of what I’ve seen in public media specifically — last year we saw a huge spike in donations from July through the end of the year, because Congress defunded the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, driving emergency crisis giving. This year, compared to that, is considerably down — “the sky is falling” down. So we’re having to plan ahead: how do we potentially recapture some of those donors, or get others to increase their giving? If you don’t already know how you’re tracking against last year and against budget, that’s the very first thing on your checklist.

The other thing to think about in August is who you’re asking for your year-end gift — the segments and donor types for your strategy. The honest answer is: everyone who’s given this year, and probably the last couple of years too — we’ll get into additional gifts, renewals, and lapsed-donor recapture. This is also the time to brainstorm your donor-acquisition list, and any outreach you’ve been putting off all year that belongs in year-end.

Do a spot check on your data while you’re at it — is it accurate? This is a slower season for direct mail specifically, so it’s a good window to review data quality. Most databases now, including Bloomerang, do some automatic postal-address checking, but you’ll also want to check email addresses — go back through your last couple of campaigns and see how many are bouncing, which addresses need removing, how many people unsubscribed. Use this time to clean your list, digital and physical, before year-end hits. And go back to lapsed recapture — not necessarily fully lapsed donors, but people coming up for renewal in Q3 and Q4. Are there major donors who haven’t renewed yet that you need to have a conversation with before year’s end? Again, this slower season is the time to check all of these lists.

The other thing to think about is your campaign budget. I can’t count the number of times I’ve walked into a year-end campaign where an organization has planned this enormous direct mail push, and it turns out they have a five-hundred-dollar budget for what’s supposed to be a two-hundred-thousand-piece mailing. Figure that out ahead of time: do you have a budget, how much are you planning to spend, what has it cost previously to reach people this way, and is that budget actually approved?

So, for August, here are some tentative checkpoints — you’ll get a copy of the slides, and I also have a separate downloadable template you can customize with anything additional your organization needs. But roughly: tomorrow, August 18th, pull your metrics — those first two questions, tracking against last year and against budget. The rest of what I’ve covered are items to work through across the month. My suggestion: do something small every single day toward this plan — it might be as simple as spending five minutes writing down the audiences you want to talk to. Just check one thing off each day.

Now let’s move into September. This is where you set the stage for actually executing the plan — there’s more activity starting to happen here.

The first thing to think about in September is noise — you are not the only organization running a year-end campaign, so there’s a lot competing for your donor’s attention. How do you make your message stand out? What often happens is organizations fall back on generic messaging — “it’s year-end giving, that’s why you should give” — but that’s not enough of a differentiator. So spend September doing some strategic reflection by answering three questions: What did your donor make possible this year? What would be lost without their support? And how do you want them to feel, at year’s end, when they think about your organization and cause?

Answering those three questions is a great excuse to talk to your internal constituents to find the story that will inspire giving — spend five minutes touching base with a program staff person, leadership, a board member, a donor (what a novel idea), or a service recipient. A couple of minutes a day, reaching out to someone, looking for the story you haven’t told in a while.

As you find those stories, think about which channels you’ll use to tell them — and not every organization needs every channel. One flawed assumption about year-end campaigns is that you either put all your eggs in one basket or try to do everything; instead, use the channels that are actually strategic for your audience. That’s why we brainstormed audiences in August — now, in September, you figure out where those audiences actually live. Maybe email, since it’s the cheapest option, and that’s fine if it’s all your budget allows. But don’t give up on direct mail — there’s a reason it isn’t dead yet, people still respond to it, so plan your physical mailing in September too. Think about social media, phone calls, personal asks (please say yes to those), and video — a short video for social or email, or something you share directly with a donor.

Overlaying all of this is a decision you should really make back in August: are you doing Giving Tuesday? It’s not mandatory, but if you are, it shapes which channels you need ready. Does your channel mix actually match your list? That’s a September decision that triggers the rest of the plan.

A quick note on video: people freak out at the idea of producing one — “too much time, too much energy, we don’t have the expertise or equipment.” But you have the equipment — everyone does, it’s basically the phone in your pocket. People are used to polished content, but they’re also used to unpolished, authentic content, and often connect more with the latter, especially in a world of AI-generated content. So don’t let a lack of equipment stop you — it just needs to be real.

On personal asks: September is when you refine the list of who needs a one-on-one conversation. It doesn’t have to be you, though you should be making some personal calls before year-end too — it may be other staff, board members, or volunteers. This is the month to assemble your “tiger team” for personal outreach.

Logistically, also decide in September: is your donation page actually ready? Secret-shop yourself. Do your acknowledgment letter templates need refreshing based on this year’s theme, or new stories you’ve collected? And who’s covering customer service — phone, email, website — between Christmas and New Year’s? Decide that now rather than scrambling in December.

Again, you’ll get a full checklist with the slides, but my one daily habit for this month: touch base on one story of impact every day, and write it down. Five minutes connecting with someone about why they support you will surface gems you can use across all your other content.

Now, October — this is where you execute. If August and September were about planning, October and November are about landing the plane.

October is heavy lifting: building your content calendar, finalizing social assets, testing your donation page, confirming your mailing package and lists are ready, getting things to the mail house if you’re doing a physical mailing. These are suggested deadlines because most of your deadlines will actually hit in October. Every day, rather than trying to finish a whole task, time-block the time you need to finish it — if I haven’t finished my letter by October 6th, first thing that morning I block two protected hours on my calendar the next day to get it done. October is about productivity and checking things off, not synthesizing new ideas.

November is more of the same, except this is where you stick the landing — everything should be coming to fruition. For a physical mailing, I typically target a mail drop around November 16th, with the idea that the “kitchen table date” — when it’s actually in the donor’s hands — lands a week later, the Monday before Thanksgiving. By the last full week of November, everything should be scheduled and ready: your first round of personal asks finished, second calls prepped for anyone who hasn’t renewed, content scheduling done, Giving Tuesday assets ready if you’re doing it — so that by December, you’re seriously in stewardship mode.

Because December should be about stewardship and celebration, not scrambling through asks you haven’t planned. There’s still room for some solicitation in December — personal conversations you’ll be having right up through December 31st — but for the most part, getting execution done by the end of November means December is for thanking people and just talking to donors, without the pressure of constantly asking for a gift. There will still be some solicitation in December, but it’s much lighter, because you’ve already executed the heavy lifting in the two months before.

So overall: right now, tomorrow, figure out where you stand. In September, set the stage — mapping, planning, story-finding, aligning audience and strategy. In October, execute. In November, wrap everything up. That leaves December as a time to actually be thankful to your donors.

That’s the ninety-day plan I’m hoping you’ll follow — which is why I’m a little freaked out that it’s already August, even though December 31st feels far away. But the good news: if you start tomorrow, you’ll have plenty of time to work through all of this without the usual December scramble.

Your action item for this week: figure out where you stand. Answer those two questions — where am I compared to last year, and where am I compared to budget. If you know those two answers by the end of the week, you’ll already have a great head start. I promised a link to a template — I’ll share it with Ann for the group — a Google Doc with a checklist template covering everything I’ve mentioned today, plus you’ll have the slides for your own quick-start. There’s contact information for me there too if you need to reach me, or you can reach me through Bloomerang. I’ll see you all Thursday.

Ann Fellman: Awesome! Alice, I have to say — I’m not surprised, given your company’s name is GoalBusters, that you break this down into manageable, bite-sized goals. That was so helpful.

Before you all leave, two quick things: I’m pushing out a poll to see if you want to learn more from Alice, or have other questions — and remember, log those in the Q&A tab, we’re covering them Thursday with the whole panel. Tomorrow, same time and place, thirty minutes on digital engagement — and Alice, one of your tips was to go secret-shop your own online donation form, so give that a try in the meantime. Wednesday, we’ve got year-end fundraising do’s and don’ts, and then Rachel brings everyone together Thursday for a really lively discussion.

One more thing before you go: every day we’re giving away a fifty-dollar Uber Eats gift card, and today and Thursday it jumps to two hundred and fifty dollars — so you’ll definitely want to come back Thursday. Today’s winner is Sally Zalonis — our team will email you the gift card, congrats! Join us back tomorrow, there’s another gift card up for grabs, but more importantly, more great conversation to get you moving on year-end.

Alice, that was awesome, thank you so much.

Alice Ferris: Thank you.

Ann Fellman: Everybody, I’ll leave this open another thirty seconds, but have a fabulous day — go answer those two questions, today’s the perfect day to start, you can do it. Have a wonderful day, thanks for joining us, hope to see you tomorrow. Bye — thank you!