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Fundraising Tuesday: Will Your Nonprofit be Golden in December?

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December is a crucial month for your nonprofit. As Double the Donation points out, “30% of annual giving happens in December, with about 10% of all annual donations coming in the last three days of the year.”

What happens in December could make or break your nonprofit's budget. But what you do right now, starting today, can make your December golden. Click To Tweet

Here are the ten steps you need to take SOON to ensure a successful end-of-year fundraising campaign this December.

  1. Thank your loyal donors. Ideally, you would have been doing this all year long! But if the last time your donors heard you express your gratitude was a week after they gave, last December, the single most important thing you can do is to send a letter or email thanking them again, and showing the impact they made by giving.
  2. Go over your donor data. Remove any duplicates from your list. Check for any addresses that have changed, or anyone on your list who has died. Make sure that you are calling them by the name they prefer.
  3. Get to know your donors better. Spend a little time doing online research about a sample of your list. Call some of them. Do a survey. Find out what they care about at your organization and outside of your organization. That way, you’ll know what moves them!
  4. Segment your list. You’ll want to talk with renewal donors differently from prospects, and to people who care about (for example) your youth theater program because they care about theater differently from the one who primarily car about youth. Make sure you can find those different segments in your database or CRM.
  5. Collect stories. Once you know what your donors care about, find one person or family who faces great challenges in exactly that part of life. Tell their story, vividly, leaving off at the point where the donor can make the difference. (And give the donor the chance to be a hero of the story!)
  6. Collect photos. They’re one of the first things that donors look at when they get your letter in the mail. A photo on the envelope may tip the donor into actually opening it, and a photo inside may decide them to read it instead of throwing it into the recycling bin.
  7. Use your newsletters and social media to put donors in a giving mood. love lettersYour social media posts in October and November should should sound like to the donor. Success stories belong here. When you send the appeal letter, it should call the donor to immediate action.
  8. Write the ideal appeal letter. Direct mail still works the best at stimulating donations. If you have email addresses and no postal addresses for some of your donors, then send the ideal email appeal–but work on getting their U.S. mailing addresses for next year!
  9. Follow up your appeal. A letter in the mail will have even more impact if you use phone calls or email (or text messages, if you have permission) to remind donors how much they matter.
  10. Get ready to send the ideal thank-you letter within 48 hours of receiving the donation. That’s how you start this December to make next December golden!

TY Thursday: How to Thank Recurring Donors

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Recurring donors are the ones who’ve agreed to donate every quarter, or every month. They know, like, and trust your nonprofit organization enough to let you charge their credit card or deduct from their bank account without getting their authorization every time.

That’s a huge gift–on top of the actual gift amount.

When you have monthly donors, 90% of the time they keep on giving, even when their initial pledge runs out. They are your most loyal supporters. Compare that to the less than 30% of first-time donors who typically renew, and you’ll see just how valuable they are!

Recurring donors give automatically. When you thank them, though, it should be anything but automatic. Click To Tweet You need a deliberate and thoughtful approach to showing donor love to this special group.

A Thank-You Email to a Recurring Donor (Me)

For years, my wife and I have given to Boston Area Gleaners, which collects food that would otherwise go to waste and gets it to food pantries and other places for people in need. Last year, we decided to give $5 a month.

That’s not a huge amount, but it got a huge response. Take a look at the following email from the Gleaners.

Subject: Thank you for your monthly gifts

Thank recurring donorsDear Rona,

I hope that you and your loved ones are safe and well.

As a monthly donor for Boston Area Gleaners, we try not to bombard you with emails, but every few months we want to make sure that you hear from us to know how grateful we are for your ongoing donations and to hear a little about what your support allows us to do. While a lot of our focus over the past few months has been on raising the funds to secure a new home for the Gleaners, our daily operations also continue, and because of your support we are able to keep providing nutritious food to families in need.

As we just wrapped up our fiscal year, we have been reflecting on these past twelve months. The past year has been challenging for everyone, but particularly so for those who have been struggling to feed their families. With your help, we have been able to distribute over 8 million pounds of food to hunger relief agencies and other organizations on the front lines who are working in some of the hardest hit communities in the region. A significant amount of that distribution has happened in the last several months—our typical ‘offseason’—during which your support enabled us to set up new equipment, maintain operations, and continue packing food. According to recent data, food insecurity rates in Massachusetts are at an all time high. As the state starts to reopen, It is going to be critical that those who are experiencing food insecurity are not forgotten.

As the weather warms, we are looking forward to a busy gleaning season and to welcoming more volunteers into the fields again. The next few months are going to be busy for the Boston Area Gleaners team, but we hope to invite everyone to visit our new home soon.

Our monthly donors hold a special place in the heart of the organization, and we thank you for your unwavering faith in us. 

As always, please be well.

Usha Thakrar

Executive Director

What does this TY to recurring donors do right?

It says “Thank you” in the subject line.

It calls the donor by name.

It says because of you, and therefore, it makes the donor the hero of the story.

It sets expectations. As a monthly donor, I don’t need to get a TY just for the sake of the TY every month. But I do want to know that the organization is keeping me in mind, and that I will hear what my gift is accomplishing.

It uses photos effectively. Photos of people grab the eye and show the process of getting the food where it needs to go, at every step of the way. Photos of yummy-looking plants make the donors feel good about what they are giving: not just a check, a meal!

It reports back and looks forward.

What this TY to recurring donors could do better

The subject line needs to be more exciting if I’m going to open the email. (And all the good content in the email will be wasted if I don’t!)

The paragraphs need to be shorter if I’m going to read them. (Bold type helps break up the wall of text, but more paragraph breaks are needed!)

“We” needs to mean the organization and me–not just the organization. That’s putting me off, just when you mean to draw me in.

Ideally, the TY should include a call to action. NOT another request for money (the dreaded “thask”), but a chance to volunteer, or to pass word about the Gleaners to a friend…or just to like them on Facebook.

All in all, though, the Gleaners are doing a pretty good job of making sure that Rona and I will keep on giving monthly and stay in the magic circle of recurring donors.

How is your organization thanking the people who support you the most?

 

TY Thursday: Thank Donors by Giving Them Something to Do Next

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first time donors

You have a new donor. Congratulations! But if you do nothing, chances are more than two out of three that they will never give to you again.

Renewal donations are even less likely if they didn’t give to you in the first place: they gave to their friend’s fundraising campaign. That donor has not gotten to know, like, and trust your organization.

Leave them alone, and they never will.

So, what can you do to win over that kind of donor? One thing that works, sometimes, is giving them the chance to get more involved right away–in the thank-you.

How the Innocence Project Thanked Me

The Innocence Project is an outstanding organization, but it hadn’t been on the list of groups that receive donations from my wife and me. Until this year. Then, a friend asked us to support the group to celebrate her birthday, and we did.

Here’s the thank-you email we received:

Dennis and Rona —

Thank you again for donating to the Innocence Project. Your contribution will go directly towards fighting to free innocent people, advocating for reforms that can identify, rectify and prevent wrongful convictions, and supporting exonerees as they rebuild their lives.

Last year, the Innocence Project’s policy team — in collaboration with the Innocence Network and other key partners — successfully won 21 major policy reforms in 17 states.

But there is so much more to do, and many more wrongfully convicted innocent people counting on us to do this work. Stay in touch and join our social community on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram too.

And if you want to read more, check out our special feature on our Netflix series “The Innocence Files.”

We’re so lucky to have you on this team. Stay in touch!

—The Innocence Project Team

P.S. One more way to say thank you: Take advantage of the “new donors” discount at our official online shop. Use code WELCOME at checkout for 15% off any order today.

What They Gave Me, What You Can Give Donors

First, the Innocence Project gave me something valuable without any further ado: they gave me reasons to believe I’d done the right thing.

But then, they invited me to “join our social community.” Note that wording! I’m not following them. I’m becoming part of a larger group. Now, of course that means I will hear more messages from the nonprofit, but it also means I will add like-minded people to my social media feed–new friends I probably could not have found by myself.

If I’m not the joining type, they’ve given me a series to watch, so I will feel more informed…and closer to the organization and its work. And if I’m a shopaholic, I can go check out their store!

Whether they gave for the first time on an impulse or simply to support their friend, first-time donors are more likely to become second-, third-, and multiple-time donors if they take an action that makes them feel closer to your organization. Which of these things could you give your new donors?

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