10 Steps to a Perfect Year-End Giving Campaign

Year-end is my favorite time of the year, and not just because I love #GivingTuesday. Year-end giving is a perfect time to share your nonprofits message with an audience that is in a mood to give. Therefore, I am excited to share ten steps to make your year-end giving campaign perfect for your small shop nonprofit.

1. First, start by reviewing the previous years’ totals and goals. What was your goal last year? How much was raised? Who contributed? What strategies did you use?

2. Take some time with your board and/or your finance committee and review your current financial position. How are you doing on your budget? How close are you to your fundraising goal for the year?

3. Use this information to set some serious goals.

4. Identify your resources. Do you have a board that is active in fundraising? Are you able to rally the support of volunteers? How much time do you have? What materials do you have at your disposal?

5. Set your scope. Start by segmenting your audience. Audience segmentation means to divide your donors into groups based on their interests, behaviors, and communication preferences. This will allow you to then identify donors that can be instrumental in hitting your year-end giving goals.

6. Find your anecdote, decide on a theme, and figure out your messaging.

7. Identify your timeline. In most cases, I suggest starting on #GivingTuesday, if you can. Your social media push on #GivingTuesday can be used as a soft launch for your year-end giving campaign. Make sure your timeline works for your organization.

8. Make the ask(s). Use every appropriate communication channel to make your year-end giving requests. That means you should be using social media, direct mail, e-mail, one-on-one meetings, newsletters, website, and/or phone.

9. Develop a follow-up plan. Remind each of the segmented donors that have not yet given about your year-end campaign, and vary your follow-up appeals across multiple channels. Many donations come in on the last day of the year!

10. Always remember to thank your donors, and if you can, thank them at least twice. Regardless of gift size, try to send each donor a personalized thank you. Whether that means, a personalized thank you by phone, email, or note – always make sure to tell that donor about the impact of their donation and express your sincere gratitude.

I want to hear about your year-end giving successes and challenges! Drop a comment below and let other small shops know what has or has not worked for your year-end fundraising.

I am also very excited to announce that I have launched the ‘Work With Me’ portion of this website to help mentor 2 – 3 small shop nonprofits with topics such as this one. It is my privilege to share my knowledge with small development shops, so if you want to discuss your own unique situation, free of charge, just fill out the ‘Contact’ portion of this website!

Shelby Moore - MPA, CFRE

Building a Robust Annual Giving Program

It has been a while since I have last worked on this blog, so I thought I would come back and write about something that every small shop fundraiser should care about – annual giving! An annual giving program establishes and nurtures donor support to ensure the fulfillment of your organization’s mission. It is the backbone of small shop fundraising.

For this blog post, I wanted to share with you a real-life example. This is about the organization I work for, and how we have grown our annual giving program from 320 gifts totaling $42,041 in 2015 to 302 gifts totaling $84,587 in 2019. Yes, you read that right. A well-functioning annual giving program does not happen overnight. So, I want to share with you what we did to make this happen…

1. I came to my organization in October of 2016. At the time, there were over 750 names in our donor database, with no gift history attached to them. So, I decided that I was going to start with direct mail. I wrote a letter explaining who I was, a brief overview of my work history, and why I cared enough about my cause to write them. And, I sent it to every name in that database, with a donation response envelope attached. Over 250 envelopes came back, and I was disheartened by the amount of postage that I had just wasted, but on the bright side, 29 people had sent back donations of all shapes and sizes totaling $7,500. That meant that 29 people cared enough about our cause enough to respond, and I made sure to mark each one of these people in my database. With these 29 people, I decided that I was going to write each one of them a personalized “thank you” note and I told them that I would call them the next week – and so I did.

2. Next, I turned my attention to #GivingTuesday, a global day of giving, driven primarily through digital media. That first year, I did not spend a lot of time crafting strong messaging or branding, instead, I focused on educating our Facebook audience and e-mail audience on what #GivingTuesday is, and how the modest goal of $1,500 would help our patients and their families. 11 donors made this goal a reality, and helped set the stage for the next years to come.

3. As the year came to a close, I looked at how much we have raised and it totaled $9,000. I had not set any specific goals for that first year, so I thought to myself, you know what, I think we can raise $1,000 more and finish our year strong. Although it is important to segment your donors (I will discuss this in a later blog post), it is even more important to pay attention to the donors that come through when you need them most. This is definitely one of those times. So, I decided that, again, I was going to call and send a “thank you” note to each donor.

4. The last thing I looked at for the end of that first year, was our monthly giving program. At the time, it was nonexistent. I was determined to get to that $10,000 mark, so I set my sights smaller. I felt that I may have already exhausted our small base of support with the direct mail campaign and #GivingTuesday campaign. So, I thought, I needed 10 people to pledge $25 a quarter for the next year. I happened to have small coffee cups leftover from an event, so I offered this small little trinket as an incentive. For the monthly giving program, I looked specifically at the special events that we have had in the past. I segmented out the donors who have been to any of our events more than two years in a row, and I mailed them a special letter and stated that I would call them to follow-up in two weeks. This method helped bring on two monthly donors, and as I promised, I followed up with a call asking for a monthly pledge, and we were able to bring on three more monthly donors. These total pledges surpassed our original goal of $1,000.

This is just one story, and only one year of work. I said it before, and I will say it again: your annual giving program will be the backbone of your small shop nonprofit. If you would like to discuss your annual giving program further, I would be more than happy to discuss any ideas you may have. Leave me a comment!

Shelby Moore - MPA, CFRE

Major Gift Overview for a Small Shop

No matter what the size of your organization, every nonprofit should have a Major Gifts Program. Working with individual donors on a one-on-one basis can be the most rewarding part of working in any small shop. The first step in developing a Major Gifts Program, is to define a major gift. A major gift does not have to be six-figures to be considered major.

To develop your minimum major gift level:

1. Start by identifying your top 5 to 10 individual donors, and examine the range in gift sizes.

2. Eliminate the outliers.

3. Based on the gift sizes left, estimate a major gift minimum.

4. Test that number in your database and look for how many gifts match or beat that amount.

5. Change and move around your number, as needed.

Major gifts should be scarce, but not nonexistent.

On the road to an effective major gift strategy, there are 10 critical steps:

1. Identify: Determine your prospects by looking at your current database. Then, identify who knows your potential prospect, work to understand the prospect’s love for your organization, and evaluate the donor’s perceived capacity.

2. Research: Look into the donor’s files, conduct general background research, and talk to your board of directors to gather additional information.

3. Set timeline: Give yourself a time period for each request. Some major gifts can take 6 – 8 months for an individual, whereas a business might be less than 3 months.

4. Cultivate: Start to strengthen the natural ties and increase the donor’s involvement with your organization. This may come in the form of inviting the donor to tour, to have a coffee sit-down with you, or even inviting them to see your program in action.

5. Match interests: Try to figure out what interests the donor. Identify whether they are passionate about a particular aspect of your mission.

6. Determine the ask: Your ask must be tied to the need. Utilize wealth indicators to determine your ask amount. Utilizing a gift table for capital and annual needs can improve your ask.

7. Recognition: Recognition should be equal to the level of gift ask. Try to think about the donor’s personal style and work to determine how the donor has been recognized in the past or with other organizations.

8. Determine solicitation team: Think about who has the best relationship with the donor. This might not be you… It could be the Executive Director, board member, etc.

9. Gather Materials: Provide the donor with a request letter, tailored proposal, and a description of specific recognition opportunities.

10. Prepare solicitors: Brief the solicitation team, practice, role-play, and create a follow-up plan.

It is imperative to have a Major Gift Strategy in order to help focus your major gift efforts and demonstrate that your organization understands its donors. A strategic approach like this will help increase your organization’s chance of success. This is simply an overview of Major Gifts. Want more information? Feel free to contact me!

Shelby Moore - MPA, CFRE