Cutting through the noise with your year-end appeal can feel like a herculean task. Competition is steep when every nonprofit is hoping to motivate their donor base to give before the calendar year ends (and knowing that that donor likely won’t give to everyone 😬). So how can you make a donor feel valued and ready to give to your organization, especially at the end of the year?
Taproot asked nonprofit development professionals from a variety of organizations (including our own Development team!) to share some of their favorite tips and tricks for year-end asks. From a world-renowned orchestra to a low-cost veterinary center, our cross-section of organizations speak to different constituencies, but their suggestions are applicable across the field.
This is the first of a two-part series on improving your year-end asks. If you’d rather not wait for part 2, download an expanded version of the entire resource now.
Getting the Word Out
How you communicate with donors can be nearly as important as the message itself. Mail, email, social media, phone, and in-person meetings can all be appropriate to different situations, but vary tremendously in the amount of staff resources they require. To have as broad a reach as possible, think about how you can combine different communication methods in a way that’s tailored to your donors, capacity, and budget.
- Mail: The old reliable for year-end campaigns, most Development pros still report that physically mailing an appeal results in a bigger return than digital campaigns. “A letter in the mail will make the most impact with storytelling that highlights the potential impact your donor can make through their support—and takes several pages to do so,” shared Cate Mascari, Director of Donor Relations at Harris Theater for Music and Dance. Some organizations swear by a letter with pull quotes and big images, while others prefer a more straightforward text-only appeal. Evaluate what has worked well for your donor base in the past, but don’t be afraid to experiment!
- Email: People spend an average of 9 seconds reading an email, so short and sweet is the rule for digital appeals. Even still, digital campaigns have plenty of positives. Email gives you the opportunity to send a greater volume of communications, as well as engaging donors with photos, graphics, and even video. Consider branding your emails so there’s a visual common thread throughout the giving season (see more on branding in Part 2). When combined with other communication touchpoints, email can also serve as a great reminder for topics you may have explored in more depth in a letter, phone call, or in person.
- Social Media: Like email, social media relies on concise, punchy content to grab attention. Visuals are essential to make your donors pause while scrolling through their feed. Social media is also an opportunity to share extensively throughout the final months of the year, so think about content you may already have on hand—testimonials from staff, donors, or clients, photo highlights from the past year, etc. To help get more views on your posts, consider adding money to your budget to promote them. “Boosted ads on Meta (Facebook) that are branded to your end of year appeal can be useful during November and December,” according to Alyssa Starr Newerth, Director of Community Impact at FACE Low-Cost Animal Clinic.
- One-on-One: Perhaps the most reliable way to move someone from prospect to donor is a one-on-one conversation. Taking the time to speak with a donor on the phone or in person shows them you’re interested in building an actual relationship, not just a transactional one. That said, don’t make December the first (or only) time you reach out. “Fundraising is about more than just what you do at the end-of-year,” shared Debra Michaels, Director, Effective Philanthropy here at Taproot. “How you communicate with donors at year-end should be a culmination of the relationships you have been building over time. Your end of year ask should feel naturally aligned with donor interests and if done well, can build advocates who can not only support but also help amplify your mission.”
- Enlist Help: Development teams know that there is rarely time to conduct as much one-on-one communication with donors as you’d like. Fundraisers can’t be the only ones driving your year-end campaign, so utilize board, current donors, and partners as an amplifier to your team’s efforts. Board members can schedule check-ins with major donors or prospects, and you can train staff, board, volunteers, or even long-time clients to make calls for a phone campaign. All hands on deck to make that end of year goal!
Aligning Audience and Message
When resources and time are tight, it’s tempting to rely on a single message to speak to your entire donor base. Depending on your capacity, this might have to do, but the most successful strategies usually involve segmenting your list to tailor your messages to what different donors care most about.
Segmenting your donor list “allows your communications to be more relevant and meaningful to the recipient. Sending to segmented lists and increasing personalization helps foster authentic connection and build trusted, lasting relationships,” according to Cate Mascari. The type of segmentation you do will depend on your organization and how it functions.
- Segment by Relationship: The old standby for donor segmentation, this method relies on the funder’s relationship to your organization. A former board member may want to hear about fiscal responsibility, while a graduate of your program might be moved by a message about continuing the work for the next generation. Dividing your list by relationship prioritizes donors’ connection to your work.
- Segment by Interest: If your organization has multiple types of programs or focus areas, it’s inevitable that donors will be engaged by some subjects more than others. Segmenting by interest allows you to tailor communications to what moves that particular group. Someone who has previously supported your advocacy work may respond to communications about legislative wins over the past year, while a donor who has expressed interest in direct service will be more motivated to give by a client story.
- Segment by Staff Contact: Consider who your donors will feel most connected to—your executive director, the board chair, a staff member? Hearing from someone the recipient recognizes will make your email or letter more likely to be opened. It may feel daunting to write completely different versions of a communication for each sender. Instead, write a basic letter, then change the language slightly or swap out details to alter the tone enough that it feels like it’s coming from a different author.
It takes more time to segment, but it’s worth it to create more meaningful connections with your donors. As Debra Michaels shared, “One of my favorite pieces of advice that resonates for me around the end of the year is also a marketing framework: ‘If you try to speak to everyone, you also will speak to no one.’”
Timing Your Outreach
How to best time your year-end communications can feel daunting. How many touchpoints is too many? Where is the magic line between a welcome reminder and an annoyance? Check out these tips:
- A Fine Balance: Your audience wants to hear from you and likely expects a bit more communication toward the end of the year. That said, keep in mind how often you regularly reach out and don’t go overboard. If you email once a week throughout the year, two emails a week at the end of the year isn’t a big change. But if your organization is normally less frequent with communications, sending too many in December may lead to higher unsubscribe rates. Others on our panel noted that Thanksgiving is a week later than usual this year, so plan accordingly, especially if you’re hoping to include Giving Tuesday as part of your campaign. (More about the pros and cons of Giving Tuesday in Part 2.) “I’ve gotten in the habit of doing the ask in the beginning of December and then two to three [email] reminders during the month, with the final one being sent out the last day of the December,” said Carlos García León, Assistant Director of Development at Lookingglass Theatre Company.
- At the Finish Line: Don’t neglect those final days in December! While a year-end appeal letter may go out much earlier, email and social media reminders in the final week of the year are critical to moving distracted potential donors to give. There’s nothing more motivating than urgency, so use that to your advantage during the final days of the year.
Thank you to the Development professionals who shared their insights for this article: Kevin Gupana of Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Carlos García León of Lookingglass Theatre Company, Cate Mascari of Harris Theater for Music and Dance, Debra Michaels of Taproot, and Alyssa Starr Newerth of FACE Low-Cost Animal Clinic.
