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Crafting a Successful End-of-Year Giving Strategy
To best prepare for end-of-year giving, consider mapping out your entire year during your slower times. This full-picture annual ‘roadmap’ will save you time and reduce stress.
End-of-year giving is only one component of your year-round fundraising efforts. Strategies for a successful end of year in which you meet your goals and donors feel seen and appreciated begin with looking at your entire development calendar – and analyzing what efforts have been effective and what has room for improvement. Give your team a quality, focused half a day for collaboration across your team, looking at the entire calendar. Make a note of national holidays relative to your organization (Grandparents Day if you work with seniors or National Pet Month if your organization serves animals), as this will help in planning special communications and micro-campaigns.
Once you've mastered the plan for the year, I recommend taking steps in August to plan your end-of-year touchpoints for important dates. For example, will your organization participate in one or more giving days in November or December? Consider other events such as holidays, elections (we all know to be aware this year!), and if your organization's end-of-year date hits on a weekend when you are closed. Do you plan to send emails and/or direct mail? What will your segmenting look like? What days of the week do holidays fall, and what are the best days to communicate? Once you make your final decisions, take steps to make your team aware of these dates.
Diving deeper into direct mail and email for end-of-year campaigns, we often get questions about how much is too much when it comes to communicating with donors. If you plan to send a direct mail piece alongside emails, I recommend including donors in both of these outreach lists. Always assume that every person wants to give to your organization until they specifically tell you they're not interested! Especially if your donor pool has a wide variety in age, casting a wider net ensures you make efforts to connect with everyone in the ways they prefer to be contacted. Some donors dislike multiple direct mail pieces, though a series of emails is often needed to reach donors and close end-of-year gifts effectively.
Knowing your donor pool is key in segmentation for an end-of-year campaign, which can be done by age. For example, I recommend connecting with donors approaching or over the age of 72 about required minimum distributions (RMDs). When informing your donors about these opportunities, planned gifts, and other non-cash gifts, consider educational communication pieces in the summer, far before you send any end-of-year messaging. Planting this seed early can get your donors thinking about their giving in advance and before other organizations begin discussing this kind of giving with them.
At almost every organization, some donors give a significant contribution at the eleventh hour of the calendar year to take advantage of tax benefits. Perhaps your organization is closed during this time—even if this is the case, you can let your donors know that your development team is available. Your team should have a plan for when your last-act donors want to hand-deliver their check on the last day of the year.