The big successful year end giving campaign push

FREE BONUS: Download this year end giving guide as a PDF. Easily save it on your computer for quick reference or print it for your end of the year planning period!

The end of the year is around the corner—the single biggest fundraising opportunity of the year! This guide will show you how to create a year end fundraising campaign that will effectively reach the hearts and wallets of donors during this spike in end of year donations.

From Thanksgiving to New Year’s Eve American generosity skyrockets, causing people to be more generous with their time and money and to make donations, volunteer, and help raise support for causes they care most about.

Donors get involved with nonprofits over the holidays for four primary reasons:

1. To be happier by helping others
2. To feel good about themselves by making a difference
3. To be connected to something positive
4. To take advantage of tax deductions

There are three steps to a year end giving campaign: plan your strategy, implement best practices, and promote and coordinate your year end appeal across all channels.

During the planning phase, nonprofits should segment their donors based on their communication preferences and how they prefer to give. Once the end of the year giving campaign goes public, the remaining fundraising goal will be met by following the next steps of following best practices and promoting across all channels.

Year-End Fundraising Campaign Goal Planning

Set specific goals for year-end fundraising and donor engagement.

Fundraising and donor engagement campaigns with specific goals consistently outperform those that have open-ended objectives. Think about what your mission is and what you are trying to accomplish at the end of the year within your organization.

A clear-cut focus will make it that much easier for you to succeed.

Primary goals:

• Existing donors: Increase year-over-year donation amount by 1%
• New donors: Inspire new supporters to receive your newsletter, subscribe to your social
  media channels and sign up for your next event

Supplemental goals:

• Recurring gifts: Encourage donors to give year round instead of one-time
• Ambassadors (those who help raise donations and for your cause): Inspire ambassadors to contact everyone in their social circle
• Volunteers: Increase engagement among volunteers
• Social media followers: Mobilize social media followers to increase event participation

Storytelling to Inspire Year End Charitable Giving

Share and promote videos, photos and testimonials without asking for money.

Showcase the impact of of your mission to prime donors for future calls-to-action. Always follow the 3-to-1 rule which is to share 3 pieces of compelling content before asking for a donation.

Also note, 57% of online donors (source: MobileCause Fundraising Video 6) make a gift after watching a video, making it the most effective form of media.

Smartphones make it easy to create compelling videos and photos that:

• Showcase the good you are doing
• Share stories of individuals that have been touched by your mission
• Highlight the transformative impact of giving
• Compel audiences to take action

Remember: In terms of views, likes and shares, raw footage—like that which has been captured on a smartphone—consistently outperforms professionally produced videos and photos.

End of Year Thank You to Donors

Thanking donors is perhaps the most important part of your campaign.

Spread the spirit of gratitude across your network of supporters by intentionally thanking donors of all ages. There is a direct correlation between thanking donors and receiving future donations.

6 ways to share your gratitude for support:

1. Embed a video on your donation page confirmation screen
2. Send an automatic email with a photo and tax receipt
3. Personally post a thank you and tag donors on your social media wall
4. Send a personal text message
5. Call them over the phone or leave a voice mail
6. Send a handwritten note by mail

Showcase Year-End Fundraising Totals

Send live campaign updates until you reach your goal.

Encourage your followers, donors and ambassadors as you make progress towards your goal. Remember that many of the donors are more than willing to make an additional contribution in the last three days of the year to ensure you are able to succeed in your mission.

5 ways to showcase fundraising results:

1. Display a live fundraising thermometer on your website and in your office
2. Link to your thermometer in campaign communications
3. Use your social feed and Facebook Live to update supporters in real-time
4. Pre-plan communications with 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% of goal updates
5. Post videos with mid-campaign updates challenging supporters to do more

Remember: The most important people you need to update and encourage throughout your campaign are your fundraising ambassadors. Be sure to also plan to promote a matching fund towards the end of your giving campaign to ensure your reach your goal.

Donor Data Analysis Is Key

Make real-time campaign decisions to maximize giving and participation.

It is vital to the success of your campaign that you understand who is making donations, when they are made, and where they are coming from.

Use analytics to gain insight into campaign effectiveness and make real-time adjustments to your website, donation page, and messaging.

It is of paramount importance that you make it possible for donors of all ages to give online with just a few taps or clicks from any device.

Tip: Only require fields on your donation page that help you get to know your donors without making it hard to give—the fewer the better. Donating should be quick and easy!

Year End Giving Campaign Tips and Ideas

The more resources, training and accountability you provide to your team of ambassadors, the more money you will collect.

Here’s the deal:

If you follow these end of the year giving best practices, your campaign will be a success. This is a huge opportunity for your organization so you want to make sure you do not turn away any would-be donors.

One of the most important things you have to remember is making it as easy to give to your cause, volunteer or fundraise on your behalf.

Raise more donations than ever before with these year end giving ideas:

• Make it easy to give form any device at any time.
• Make it easy to volunteer for your organization
• Empower your supporters to collect donations
• Leverage corporate partnerships
• Kick off your year end giving on #GivingTuesday
• Boost end of the year giving with a live event
• Implement a multi-channel New Year’s Eve solicitation

Volunteer Empowerment

Make it easy as possible for people to get involved in your mission.

Volunteers are nearly twice as likely to donate than those that do
not volunteer……make it easy to get involved. You can:

Volunteering is the best way to gain contributions for your cause that don’t involve money. In fact, volunteers are more likely to become lifelong donors for your cause even if their first interaction with your organization wasn’t a donation. Sign up volunteers from wherever they are with mobile and online solutions that make it easy to get involved

• Embed a video on your sign-up form
• Gain more volunteers with text message registrations
• Keep volunteers connected with text reminders

Corporate Partnerships

Empower your corporate partners with crowdfunding

91% of consumers switch to brands that support good causes (Source: MobileCause Corporate Social Responsibility Fundraising)

Corporate partnerships are a great way for nonprofits to raise more donations while allowing a business to do good by fundraising for your cause. Often times companies will advertise your campaign to their customers as well as their employees, resulting in you reaping the rewards of both increased donations and heightened exposure for your organization.

• Showcase your partnership with the community
• Corporate employees can create their own fundraising pages
• Sign-up forms can be embedded on corporate websites

Boost Year-End Giving with a Live Event

Create excitement by showcasing donations and ticket sales in real time

Donations displayed live on-screen makes giving at events fun

Inspire dinner, luncheon, or virtual event attendees to donate with a unique giving experience they’ll never forget. The fundraising thermometer provides a visual cue to show attendees not only how to give, but how close you are to your goal! Watch as the donations roll in and the thermometer rises while your emcee recognizes donors as their names are displayed on-screen in real-time. Make to capture all donation types including:

• Mobile pledges appear live on screen
• Include ticket sale totals
• Include out-of-towner gifts
• Include on and offline donations (cash and checks)
• Include donations collected with a swiper

Donations On Your Website

Online giving should be fast, simple, and secure from any device

Remove all obstacles to completing a donation on your website:

Your GIVE button should be prominently located on your website and Facebook page, and when clicked, should open your secure (https) and mobile-friendly donation page.

The design of your donation page should reinforce the impact of year-end giving with:

• Online form optimization (desktop, mobile and tablet devices)
• Campaign branding
• Videos and photos
• Suggested donation amounts
• Recurring gift options
• In memory/honor of option
• Custom data collection fields

Donations from Email

Make it easy to give in response to emails read on any device.

One-Click donations from emails

Make it easy for supporters to click your DONATE button in emails and give in seconds from a computer, tablet or smartphone.

Best practices for email fundraising:

• Embed a video on your sign-up form
• Track every donation from email
• Strengthen email campaigns with text reminders
• Link a screenshot of your year-end donation page

Donations from Social Media

Conveniently collect donations from all types of social media posts and pages.

Promote your donation page shortlink in posts and text-to-donate keyword in images and videos

Make it easy and obvious for your social followers to make donations.

Practices for social media fundraising:

• Encourage followers to click shortlinks in Facebook and Twitter posts
• Encourage followers to text-to-donate in photos on Instagram
• Embed your donation page inside your Facebook page
• Encourage followers to text-to-donate on Facebook Live and shout out donors as they appear on your fundraising thermometer
• Empower social followers to make micro donations of $1 or more

Donations from Text Messaging

Send text reminders to strengthen every channel and expand your reach.

Connect with donors using text messages that have a 98% open rate

When it comes to getting in touch, there’s no better way to talk to your supporters than directly on their mobile device. Even better, the TCPA allows special permissions for nonprofits, meaning you can upload any phone numbers you have on record and start contacting your donors in a matter of minutes.

Best practices for sending texts to donors:

• Send at least 3 texts with compelling content before asking for a donation
• Send links to videos, web pages, social campaigns, and sign-up forms
• Integrate text reminders to increase conversions for every channel

Best practices for sending text messages:

• Build list of mobile subscribers with keywords
• Build list of mobile subscribers by collecting mobile number on forms
• Upload and validate the mobile phone numbers you already have in your database

Donations from Radio

Make it easy to ask for donations on radio and see real-time results

Give listeners the power to give from anywhere in seconds

Instruct listeners to text-to-donate or go to your website to make a donation of any amount.

Best practices for radio fundraising appeals:

• Track every donation made in response to appeal letter
• Make your call-to-action as simple and easy as possible
• Shout out donor names throughout broadcasts to inspire more giving
• Promote your campaign until the fundraising goal is reached