Many nonprofits rely on year-end campaigns to fund their organization. While some tried and true strategies exist, 2018 will have a twist that nonprofit organizations need to plan for as they establish their end-of-year giving campaigns.
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Setting a Specific Goal
Every fundraising campaign your nonprofit engages in should have a clear, realistic goal attached to it. Is your year-end campaign going to fund something specific in the new year? Do you want to attract a certain number of new donors? Are you trying to get a certain number of donors to sign up for recurring gifts? Are you counting on year-end gifts to reach your annual fundraising goal? Having a specific goal makes it easier to measure and achieve success. It also allows you to sustain momentum as you inform your team and donors about your progress throughout the campaign.
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Determine Your Target Audience
Not everyone needs to know about your campaign. With a clear goal in mind, you will be able to see which donors need to see your messaging. If your goal is to attract new donors then all you’re asking from your existing donors is to “tell a friend,” while the heavy messaging will be focused on prospects outside of your current donor pool. However, if your organization is using the campaign to fund a special project, then you’re likely going to have a pre-selected, targeted group of existing donors who will be receiving messaging around the impact they will have through this specific gift.
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Setting the Clock
Segmenting your target audience will also dictate whether your organization should appeal through mobile, snail mail, email, social media, or phone calls. This, in turn, will determine how early you need to begin your campaign and how often you will need to create touch points between your organization and your target audience. One snail mail letter to a long-time donor for a year-end gift may be enough. Two or three emails over a few weeks may inspire donors to “tell a friend” about your organization and recruit new prospects. Likewise, a steady stream of social media posts (campaign appeals, updates and inspirational stories) over a longer period of time may be what’s needed to motivate your key audience to take a desired action.
No matter when you begin your year-end campaign, you’ll want to include #GivingTuesday in your plan. A recent study shows that nonprofits raise 14 times more in their end-of-year campaigns when they participate in #GivingTuesday. Laying out a campaign calendar to account for special days such as #GivingTuesday will help you map a solid end-of-year campaign timetable.
Get #GivingTuesday tips and resources in Blackbaud’s free toolkit: Download it now!
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Bundling: The X Factor
While giving is an emotional response, not a tax benefit, due to this year’s tax law changes, donors may choose to bundle their giving so that they can itemize their charitable contribution. For example, instead of giving $1,000 every year, donors may plan to give $5,000 this year and give nothing more for four years. With the prospect of donors choosing to bundle their gifts you need to decide, in advance, how you record and handle these gifts? Will you give the donor credit for a $1,000 gift for the next four years so that they get the benefit and recognition as a regular donor? Or will you count that as a $5,000 donor and consider them a nondonor after that? Will you create a special category of “Some Year But Unfortunately Not This Year” (SYBNT) donors so that you know in the future that this is not a lost donor but a “bundler” and you can be sure to go back to them at the right time for their next “bundled” gift? Will a donor who give you $5,000 and asks you to treat it a $1,000 a year for the next five years get credit for that if you have consecutive year giving clubs? You need to set your “rules” for these gifts now so that you are not making arbitrary, donor by donor decisions that might be inconsistent.
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Planning for 2019
I realize you may not have begun your 2018 year-end fundraising campaign, but you already need to be thinking about January of 2019. How will you follow up with existing donors who gave to your organization? How are you collecting information about new donors so that you can properly thank and segment them in your database? Donor cultivation is key to long-term success. Planning ahead for “what’s next” is just as important as sending that first appeal.
As nonprofits ramp up for their year-end campaigns, it’s important to remember that being clear and specific with their goals from the outset will naturally add a lot of value and contribute to success. Development officers also need to be savvy and creative to leverage the evolving economic landscape with their current and future donors – one of the best leading indicators of giving is the performance of the S&P 500, which recently reached an all-time high. Finally, be sure to think ahead to what’s next in 2019 and have a solid follow-up plan already in place.
Working in education, the academic calendar doesn’t always align, so this is a nice reminder of things we may not be thinking about, as well as some new things, like bundling and the changes in the tax code, to consider. Thank you so much!
Some important considerations. Good article!
Great information. I had not thought about 4 and 5.
Good information and a good reminder to be following up in January. The tax implications may be different in Canada, but people do look at what their giving was for the year and make that annual gift to get that ‘break’
Food for thought!
Something to think about. Thanks.
Great idea on the SYBNT report and tracking “bundled” donations. We’re already running into this a little, but hadn’t really put a plan in place. We’ll get on it now!
Good idea on the SYBNT segment.
Really good advice. Some things that I hadn’t thought of.
Point four was thought provoking and what we are working through in our organization now. I also like the point made that you need to know your target audience, it makes a difference in how you approach them and how effective you are.
Good reminder on the bundling of donations over several years.
2019–onward and upward!
Good point about bundled donations, remember to align your tracking strategy with your finance department!
I had no clue about #4 – time to read up on the new tax laws! Thank you!
I had not even thought about #4. Something we will definitely need to discuss as a development department.
Bundling of donations, may impact our budget for several years. The SYBNT range will need to be expanded.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Great X Factor discussion!
#4 is a great thought. We already had some of these donors end of year 2017 and we need a better way to manage the information rather than head knowledge and “one-offs.”
Great article – thank you!
Great things to think about!
Good article. Thanks for addressing the “bundling” aspect of giving. That’s something I don’t see talked about in a lot of end of year fundraising articles.
Excellent reminders!
Thanks for challenging us to think about the bundling factor. I certainly think this will become more common.
The bundling factor is interesting & we’ll need to consider that.
Great tips!
Our fiscal year ends in June, so these are good points for us to consider and keep in mind. Determining who is bundling is a good idea for solicitations after year-end.
Great article with good information.
#4 was not on my radar at all. I’ve passed this article along to my supervisor to be sure she is aware and we are prepared!
We are ramping up for Giving Tuesday. As so many have said, the bundling idea is worth passing along to the Advancement Team! Thank you David
Great article that I will definitely pass on to our Annual Giving Coordinator!
Great reminders!
I recently discovered that my organization hasn’t been doing anything with Giving Tuesday, so I hope that they will start doing that moving forward. As I’m in a different department though, I have no say!
Love this, thanks for the tips!
I agree that segmentation is very important!
Great article with good information.
I like the idea of a “bundled” donation to take advantage of the tax law.
Good points!
Thank you for the suggestions!
Good Information – We definitely do the emotional appeal.
Love the bundled donor thoughts. This sparked an idea: we should actually start marketing ‘bundles’ to our mid-level donors so that they still feel they can give with meaning as well as tax advantages.
Thanks!