A Dozen Year-End Fundraising Ideas

5. Onboarding series (i.e., the first communications someone receives after joining your list) are great both for engaging new online constituents ahead of year end and for driving immediate donations. The first few e-mails (and potentially telemarketing call, mail piece or other contact points) have a higher open/engagement rate than any others you ever send outside of emergencies. The onboarding series might include an e-mail survey (landing on a donation page), an evergreen action online (also landing on a donation page), an e-newsletter (potentially customized based on a person's geography or preferences), direct e-appeals, direct-mail appeals, telemarketing effort, etc.