Half of all nonprofits in the USA receive the majority of their annual donations during the last three months of the year. 31% of revenue comes in during December. And 12% of all giving happens in the last three days of the year. It’s also a key time of giving in many other countries.
This is the season where it happens. Or doesn’t.
Here are ten tips for a successful end of year:
1. Look at last year’s activities and results
Whatever you did last year should be your starting point for this year. First, list everything you did last year (and previous years). Then determine how you did. This can be a challenge, because conditions change year to year, and the last few years have been volatile! Here are things to consider:
- Look at each campaign activity separately, even though they are connected. Big picture, you’ll want to look at the entire campaign, but for planning purposes, you want to see if you had stand-out successes or failures.
- Like nearly everyone, you probably had abnormal results during the pandemic. This might make last year look bad by comparison. So look back to 2019 and even before. If last year was worse than those years, you likely need to change things. But if results are returning to pre-pandemic levels, you may not need to re-think things as much.
- If things went well last year, consider adding elements to your campaign. More touches almost always mean more revenue.
2. Don’t reinvent the wheel — unless you have to
You may have the sense that you need to make each year meaningfully different. This is true of children’s birthday parties, but not of fundraising. If it worked last year, it will most likely work again this year. Change for the sake of variety is risky and unnecessary. There is no downside to repeating old messaging.
You might have to adjust messaging to make it relevant to the current year. Keep those changes to a minimum.
But don’t make big changes to your year-end, unless what you did last year did poorly. Or you’ve seen a downturn trend over the last few years. That’s when you should re-think things.
3. Start year-end activities earlier
It’s probably a little late to start early this year, so this advice is for future end-of-years: You may be able to successfully start your year-end messaging in September or even earlier. I used to work with an organization that starts its Christmas/Holiday messages in August. And it really worked.
If you have a holiday gift catalog, it’s likely that it will do better in September or October than later in the year.
4. Add a match to your year-end fundraising
Matching Fund offers really activate donors! Showing donors a way they can boost the impact of their giving will improve response to your campaign!
Want to learn more about making strong matching gift offers? Members of The Fundraisingology Lab have access to my online workshop, “Matched Giving Magic” to show you the proven techniques for maximizing this powerful fundraising tool.
5. Include stewardship in your year-end campaigns
You’re busy, but make sure you remind donors that their giving makes a difference, and that it’s appreciated. Include a donor newsletter or donor care letter in the last three months of the year. You may also want to send a Holiday card or a special thank-you letter.
Another valuable stewardship opportunity is in January – after a large percentage of donors have given. It’s a great way to make good use of what for many is a low-giving month!
6. Have a final week push online
Online giving is especially concentrated on December 31. Starting on December 26, start sending emails to your donors – daily, or nearly daily, until the 31st. These messages can be fairly simple and focus largely on the “deadline” of December 31. Only around 10% of US donors itemize deductions on their taxes, so it’s not a “real” deadline. But remains a strong giving habit.
7. Optimize your website for giving
Because of the concentration of giving online at the end of the year, make sure your giving pages work well and are easy. Far too many nonprofit giving pages are difficult to use and result in a high rate of “abandons.” That’s a lot of lost revenue that you won’t be able to make up later!
Consider making your year-end giving page the homepage of your website during the last week of the year.
8. Add fundraising channels to your line-up
All fundraising channels work better at the end of the year. Channels that don’t work at all the rest of the year might be profitable late in the year. Consider these channels:
- Social media
- Paid online ads
- Print ads in local publications
- Radio and/or TV
- Face-to-face (street fundraising)
- Direct mail to selected postal codes
If you’ve done these outside of year end and found them ineffective, it’s possible they’ll work in the year-end season!
9. Target your top 20% donors
Don’t leave your top donors out of the year-end party. Higher-end donors have an even stronger habit of giving at the end of the year – as they are the ones most likely to have tax advantages for their giving.
Create “heightened” versions of your fundraising pieces for this group – this is how (and when) to “spend more to get more.” Eye-catching and more complex direct mail that costs too much to work for most donors can work very well with your top donors.
Members of The Fundraisingology Lab have access to a wealth of material for these donors at our Mid-Value and Major Donor Resource Hub.
10. Don’t go auto-pilot the last week of the year
I know you need a break, and that the final week of the year is a great time to take off – but it could be the worst possible time – if your website goes down or has other problems then. I’ve seen it happen more than once: Everyone came back to work after New Year’s and they discovered something wasn’t working right on their website – and substantial revenue never came in. OUCH!
Make sure someone is paying attention at the end of December and available to trouble-shoot if there’s any trouble!
It’s not too late to have a powerful end-of-year fundraising season. Download our popular super-concise e-book, Your Calendar for Successful Year-End Fundraising – for FREE. It’s a step-by-step guide for the critical last quarter, starting from October and going through to the biggest fundraising day of the year, December 31. Proven steps for maximizing the most generous time of year.
Related Blog Posts:
- 4 “Secret” Fundraising Strategies You’ll Wish You Learned Years Ago
- 3 Last-Minute Tweaks for Your End-of-Year Campaign
- Year-End Self Care to Help You Stay at Your Best
