What’s New in Year-End Giving?
Engaging new realities can significantly increase your year-end giving drive. While the fundamentals of year-end giving still apply, 2021 also brings us three unique approaches on which you can capitalize, literally.
Add a Donate Button to Your Zoom Events
The new Zoom donate button is similar to Facebook’s donate button, but with a key difference. If donors give their permission, you can receive their names and email addresses.
Zoom users can activate the donate button by going to their Zoom account settings, switching on Zoom Apps, and installing the free app. The app was designed by Pledge Inc. You can start a campaign by selecting at least one charitable beneficiary from the more than 2 million nonprofits in the app’s global charity database. Nonprofits that aren’t in the database can work with the Pledge support team to get approved and added to their list.
Pledge says that nonprofits that add the button to their Zoom fundraising events can expect to see 50% more donors make contributions during their events.
Engage Donors With Donor-Advised Funds
The second unique aspect of 2021 year-end giving concerns the gargantuan growth of donor-advised funds (DAFs), which are now valued at $142 billion and growing.
Yet, 35% of DAFs distribute nothing at all. That is unacceptable. Obviously, it’s up to the donors to initiate a gift to your crucial work, but it’s up to us to ask. And we can’t cultivate and solicit DAF holders if we don’t know who they are! Many nonprofits do not know how to identify if their donors have a donor-advised fund. That’s an issue because DAFs are not public entities.
Include Giving Circles as Part of Your Strategy
Giving circles enable regular folks to pool their contributions, thus amplifying the power of individual dollars. According to Philanthropy Together, there are 2,000-plus giving circles in the United States, involving approximately 150,000 donors who have contributed $1.29 billion. They’ve proven to be one of the most effective ways to turn smaller gift dollars into a powerful force for community change — and while they have grown impressively, not enough of us fundraisers know about them, nor are we engaged with them.
Please research what the closest giving circle is in your area, and reach out to connect with them. To find a giving circle near you, enter your zip code here, and be prepared to be amazed.
No matter the approach you take to your year-end drive. I suggest sending one message a week starting Oct. 1. Your six must-share messages concern financial securities, retirement plans, age 70.5 distributions, life insurance, charitable gift annuities and the last will and testament. The details contained in these six messages are critical to communicate with your donors.
What’s new in your year-end giving drive?
Laurence is author of "The Nonprofit Fundraising Solution," the first book on fundraising ever published by the American Management Association. He is chairman of LAPA Fundraising serving nonprofits throughout the U.S. and Europe.
