Your Checklist for a Fantastic Fundraising December: September Edition

CauseMatch.com

Don’t blink. Your end-of-year fundraising push is just around the corner.

Start planning now to make sure your donors are warm and ready when you launch your year-end fundraising campaign this December. Wait too long and you’re going to stumble across a frigid finish line.

Here are FOUR action items you can do in September to prepare for a financially fantastic end to 2018.

1. Segment you donor list

Remember, not all donors are equal. It’s important to make sure that they are strategically segmented in order optimize each individual’s donation potential. No matter what type of database system you use, you should be able to sort each person into one of these categories:

a. Major donors

b. Smaller-and-mid-tier donors

c. Lapsed donors

d. Prospective donors

That way, you can customize your messaging for each of these segments. This means how you contact them and what you tell them.

For major donors — Make personal phone calls or write personal emails to thank them for their past support. Tell them about the lives that have been changed because of their donations. Make sure they feel appreciated and know that their gifts to your cause had real impact on real people.

Pro tip: follow the Ask, Thank, Report cycle to prime your donors to give over and over and over again!

Considering these are your major donors, all communication should be personalized to them. Don’t group them in mass email or phone bank lists. Make them feel special!!

For smaller-and-mid-tier donors — The messaging you craft for them will inspire them. It will compel them to give. It will fill them with feelings of elation and pride for being a part of your important mission. When December rolls around, you’re going to want to make them feel like absolute heroes when they donate.

For lapsed donors, your end-of-year communications will include messaging about how you miss their support. About how your organization just can’t reach its full potential without them. Let them know that there is a problem in the world, and without their support, you simply don’t have the resources to fix it.

And for prospective donors, you know they expressed SOME interest because they ended up on your mailing list. So now, you can begin searching for hooks that will grab their attention and pull on their heart strings. Which brings us to your next task:

2. Create psychological profiles of your target donors

How old is your target donor? Are they male or female? Where do they live? What do they like? What are they passionate about? What turns them off?

The more you know about your donors, the more you can speak directly to them and their interests. Your ultimate goal is to form deep relationships with your donor base. Creating psychological profiles of your target donors allows for better donor experience, loyalty, and niche marketing.

Take Betsy, for example. Betsy is a totally made-up person. But she is going to represent the 42% of your donor base that is made up of female senior citizens.

Betsy is retired and spends lots of time with her grandchildren. She finishes nearly a book-a-week. She loves Facebook and has never been on Instagram. She rides the bus to volunteer in a library once a week. She doesn’t own a car but she does have an iPhone. She has given your organization $100 every year for the past seven years.

If you can craft two or three psychological profiles of your target donors and write a paragraph to describe them, then your communications strategy is going to be much more effective when it it’s time to implement it.

Where do you get the data to craft these profiles? Much of this information can come from your database itself. Donor prospecting tools can provide valuable background as well. If all else fails, simple Google searches will reveal a scary amount about individuals in your database.

Here are some key ways we like to break down your target donors:

a. Age

b. Biographical: age, gender, marital status, education, employment industry, job title, children, city, state, zip code, nationality, hobbies, interests, and volunteer positions

c. Specific event attendance

d. Financial — Yearly Income

Once you have this information, you can begin to look for patterns. Find common denominators among your constituents. Then, create composite profiles.

The more focused your messaging is for your target donors, the easier it will be for you to cut through the countless organizations vying for your donors’ attention.

3. Identify your organization’s financial need

There are two questions you need to begin answering now.

a. How are you going to use the money donated to your organization?

This is an internal question. For most organizations, the answer is general operating support. If that is the case, try to drill down one level so you can fully articulate your year-end fundraiser’s purpose. Is it to pay staff? To spend on advertising? To organize programming?

For other organizations, the end-of-year campaign may directly contribute to a specific project. Like a new, specialized program. Or building upgrades. Or to begin serving a new demographic.

You should have some clear examples of how this money is going to be used because that will help you answer Question #2.

b. What is the meaningful impact you are asking your donors to give towards?

This is an external question. How are you going to frame your ‘ask’? If you are raising money for your operating budget, you’re going to need concentrate on framing the impact that your organization enables. If you are raising money for a specific program, you are going to need to frame why this new program is important.

You want to find that sweet spot where Organizational Need and Donor Interest overlap.

4. Brainstorm strategies for your year-end fundraising

When it comes to online fundraising, one thing you have is options. And plenty of ‘em.

• You could run a recurring gifts campaign that asks donors to make automatic monthly donations.
• You could run a #GivingTuesday campaign to prime donors for a final end-of-year push.
• You could run a matching campaign where donations are matched (two, three, or even four times over).
• You could spend money advertising on social media or through other channels.
• You could retarget visitors to your website to see ads for your campaign.
• You could create an energizing Launch Day event with volunteer callers reaching out to the community on your organization’s behalf.

Pro tip: Need help understanding the pros/cons of each of these options? The CauseMatch team is here to help! Email us at support@causematch.com to set up a phone call to discuss your end-of-year options!

Find the right combination of ideas and strategies that optimize the strengths of your organization. By knowing your options, you can identify the right tactics that will raise you the most money without you tearing your hair out.

Summary:

It’s September. The sun may still be shining, but it’s not too early to start thinking about winter coats and hot chocolate.

Do yourself a favor and begin planning your end-of-year push by accomplishing these four goals.

1. Segment your lists into major donors, donors, lapsed donors, and prospective donors
2. Create donor personas so you can better market to your target demographic
3. Identify your organization’s financial need
4. Know what fundraising tactics you have at your disposal.

And, above all else, remember that you’re not in this alone! The CauseMatch team is here to help. Visit us at www.causematch.com for more tips on fundraising best practices. Or, drop us a line at support@causematch.com to schedule a 15-minute call with one of the CauseMatch fundraising coaches so they can learn about the opportunities for your organization to reach new heights!