Wow! We’re glad to see all of our clients and friends analyzing, brainstorming, and planning for the upcoming fundraising season. It makes us very happy!
It also makes us super busy. So we are recycling this oldie-but-goodie on getting ready for your year-end appeal. (You can also join us for our year-end appeal workshop next week and actually start writing - see the link below).
Keep up the good work!
A year-end appeal is not just a letter.
It’s just one piece of what should be a full calendar of activity from September through the first of January that uses every available channel to get your organization’s share of the season’s giving.
So, before you sit down at the computer to take that first draft, here are four things you can do that will help to make that letter more successful before it even gets written:
Create a Campaign: A year-end appeal has a timeline that starts now and basically expires in the new year. It’s a campaign that has an overarching theme that can be integrated into the rest of your fundraising. Whether the theme is a particular program, an emerging new need, or a review of the past year, you need to craft a clear, big message that will you can repeat throughout these next four months and tell it in many different forms (from very detailed to very simplified) to a variety of different audiences (from major donors to social media donors).
Create a sense of urgency! Tell people how much you are trying to raise by December 31st. Use a matching gift that expires on New Year’s Eve. Create a thermometer-type image to track progress. Your organization has stiff competition from other nonprofits - make it a race to the finish!
Segment as Much as Possible: The more you can segment or divide your donors into smaller groups and target your appeal ask to their particular interests, needs, or communication style, the higher your overall response rate will be. If you can only separate out one group, create a special segment of your organization’s major donors and provide them with a more personalized approach. Maybe it’s a letter more tailored to their interests, maybe it’s more personalized follow-up, or maybe it’s meeting with them in person. But these donors should be treated with special care for sure.
Other segments to consider include lapsed donors, middle donors, e-mail donors, monthly donors, and volunteers. All of these groups really should receive a message that is tailored specifically for them. For lapsed donors, it’s more of a “We’ve missed you” message. For volunteers, it’s to recognize their gifts of labor and to ask them to also give monetarily. Whatever your segments, attempt to talk to as many donors as possible in as personal way as you can!
Sow the Seeds through Your Other Channels: Use every other channel of communication you have to prepare the ground for your year-end letter and the follow-up asks that come after it. Once you’ve chosen your theme, start talking about it now in your e-mails, on your website, in your newsletter and on your Facebook page. If it’s a new program, you don’t want the donor to hear about it the first time in a letter. If your theme is the accomplishments of 2012, create a short “best of” video, post pictures, and drop quotes and statistics in your newsletter that support the theme.
Also consider using the phone to let donors know that a mail piece is on the way. Some groups have found this technique can substantially increase response to the letter. This is a great call for board members to make. It’s not an ask; just a heads-up!
Plan NOW: Not very sexy, but necessary to improve your results. As any fundraiser knows, this time of year seems to go faster than the speed of light, so sit down now and plan out your year end appeal activities before time passes you by. Create a calendar with dates for e-mail blasts, mail pieces, phone calls and any other communication pieces. And don’t forget to create objectives around response rate, average gift, and gross and net revenue. Find out what you did last year and try to improve upon those results. Be sure to set systems in place so that you can track response and see if you succeeded.
And - you can always improve that year-end appeal letter.
Come to our workshop next week, “Writing Your Year-End Approve: Tricks of the Trade for a Better Response” and actually start writing your appeal on the spot. Click here to sign up or get more information.
