5 year-end fundraising mistakes—and how to avoid them
It’s that time of year. Pumpkins, scarves, and waking one day in a panic: Year-end fundraising is upon us.
This year, gearing up for year-end fundraising feels daunting. We’ve been running on all cylinders, stepping more and more out of our comfort zone every day. Many teams are fundraising with fewer staff—under even more pressure to grow revenue.
The good news is, Americans are with us. According to Fidelity, most donors plan to maintain—or even increase—the amount they donate to charity this year.
Even better news: They’re doing so because they care about your mission. This year—more than any other year—donors don’t need events or fancy campaigns. They need to hear from you: How are you making a difference in your community? How can they help?
As you prepare to tell that story and invite donors to join you, have confidence. Be bold in your approach, your conversations, and your asks…
…and avoid these common mistakes that will hold you back.
Mistake no. 1: Panicking
Let’s start by assuaging a common worry: No, you’re not too late! You still have time to make a plan and conduct successful year-end fundraising.
True, realizing the full potential of the season takes thoughtful planning. Many organizations begin planning over the summer or earlier. Early planning allows you to develop and test the most compelling messaging and then develop targeted solicitation plans for all your fundraising channels, such as direct response, social media, and face-to-face asks. You have the opportunity to engage your corporate partners in consumer fundraising and marketing promotions, which typically are planned far in advance, as much as 12-18 months for larger companies. For major donors, you enjoy the lead time of interacting with the donor between asks, showing them the impact of their most recent gifts, before making a year-end ask.
That said, like most of fundraising, the key to successful year-end fundraising is: Don’t let perfection become the enemy of progress.
Wherever you are, start.
You have time to make a plan, work that plan, and generate meaningful support for your mission.
Mistake no. 2: Hoping instead of planning
Donors will give to your organization over year-end even without you asking. It’s the season of generosity—and of making tax-deductible donations before December 31.
Whatever you receive without asking represents a fraction of what you could receive if you also asked.
To start your planning, decide:
Which top donors will we ask in person, via a meeting or phone call?
Which donors will we attempt to reach by meeting or phone call, but also ask by mail and email?
Which donors will we ask by email?
Which donors will we also ask by mail?
Then, get organized:
Run a list of donors who gave in October-December 2019 and your 2020 LYBUNTs. Make a list of donors that you will contact personally to thank for their ongoing support. Within that list, who will you ask personally and what is your plan for that donor?
Develop your theme and story. What is the one, simple takeaway you want donors to have about your mission?
What will be your call to action throughout this season?
Do you have a matching donor available? (Or, is there a recent donor you can ask to become the challenge grantor?)
What support do you need in terms of calling donors, meeting with donors, crafting content, teeing up emails, organizing social media, mailing letters, etc.? What can be outsourced so that you can focus on relationships, not logistics?
Mistake no. 3: Asking before thanking
No matter your campaign plan, it should start with a thank you. Your donors are the reason your nonprofit still has its doors open through this tough year—and the reason why you’ve been able to move your mission forward.
Show them the fruits of their investment with direct thank yous and stories of impact and hope.
Don’t be stingy in your thank yous by limiting them to only people who have given. Thank everyone that you will be asking at year-end. Our supporters, no matter when they last gave, are part of how we got to where we are.
Your thank you can be as simple as a thank you email and social media post. Other ideas:
‘Thanks for giving’ postcard sent in mid-November
‘Thank-a-thon’ with board members and other volunteers to make thank you calls
Hand-written thank you notes or pre-printed thank you notes with a volunteer’s signature
Impact report sent by email to all donors and by mail to top donors
Personalized impact reports for larger donors
Mistake no. 4: Falling down the #givingtuesday rabbit hole
Your organization should participate in Giving Tuesday. You should tell your story across all your channels and invite your community to join you.
At the same time, don’t:
Focus on social media only
Focus on a single Tuesday only
Disconnect Giving Tuesday from a broader year-end fundraising campaign
Giving Tuesday is a piece of a successful year-end fundraising effort. It will give you a little bump in revenue, but that bump will represent a fraction of your full November-December revenue potential. If you are in a new or small organization with a comparatively small number of donors, the bump will be even smaller.
The risk is that:
In a small shop, by the time you spend more than about 5 hours of staff time on the campaign, you’re no longer making a profit off of the day.
In a larger shop, excessive focus on Giving Tuesday pulls resources toward the smallest and least loyal donors, detracting from the more valuable efforts of meaningfully engaging and asking your larger and more loyal donors.
So, keep it simple:
Use the same story, content, and call to action that you will use throughout November and December across all your channels.
From there, focus in on how you can use Giving Tuesday to amplify that message. Go beyond social media. Use email, phone calls, etc.
Create a simple toolkit—images, template social media language, etc.—that you can share with your volunteers and supporters a week in advance to equip them to join you.
Then, move on.
Mistake no. 5: Perfecting copy instead of talking to donors
By far the biggest—and most common—year-end fundraising mistake is getting so lost in the perfect emails, the perfect mail pieces, and the perfect social media campaigns…that you have no time left over to actually talk to your donors.
To be direct: To realize your full year-end fundraising opportunity, you should be spending at least 4 days a week personally interacting with donors, planning your next touchpoints with those donors, and making meaningful, inspiring asks of the people you meet.
If you are facing the choice between creating another mail piece or calling a list of donors, call the donors. If you are stressing about layout or syntax or appeal length, stop. Bless and release the piece and free yourself to do the most productive—and most inspiring—piece of your work: Connecting with the people who make your mission possible.