Annual Campaigns

Ted Hart speaks with CFRE and fundraising author Kay Sprinkel Grace about fundraising success plans for the new year on his Nonprofit Coach radio show.

Attention fundraisers: You have four weeks to reach your fundraising goals, meet those membership objectives and secure financial commitments for next year. Now, before you shut off your computer to go running through the office screaming the sky is falling, let me share with you some good news.

You have enough time for fundraising. You can do this. As long as you get out of your own way.

Here are some tips for staying focused and avoiding the year-end fundraising overwhelm.

In working with dozens of nonprofit organizations on year-end giving programs, I have found that there are five basic rules that must guide your strategy if you want to steadily increase year-end fundraising each and every year at your charity: 1. Make sure your message is consistent. 2. Be mission-focused, not gimmicky. 3. Make multichannel asks. 4. Cultivate year-round in each of those channels. 5. Run year-end giving like a campaign.

I’m thinking a lot about annual reports right now. Are you? All nonprofit annual reports, regardless of size, length or format, should include these five essential elements: 1. accomplishments, not activities; 2. real people telling the story; 3. the financials; 4. ample thanks; 5. a call to action.

As your nonprofit prepares for a holiday fundraising campaign, hundreds of other charities are doing the same.

Here are six fundamentals of a smashing fundraising campaign: 1. Figure out your target audience. 2. One size does not fit all. 3. Craft your messages and tailor them keeping your audience in mind. 4. Determine who is making your case — not whom the actual ask is coming from (though that matters a lot too), but whose story are you telling? 5. Create an overarching "identity" for your campaign. 6. Map out your campaign on a timeline.

Are you disappointed with your fundraising results? If you answered yes, I'm pretty sure I know the cause — you didn't ask as often as you should have. Over the last few years, I've developed a simple, easy-to-follow method that will get you on track to raise much more money. The best part of this system is that anyone, even someone with your crazy-busy schedule, can use it!

The plan is called "50 Asks in 50 Weeks." That's it — an ask almost every week.

Whether there is a specific focus around the holidays or not, many nonprofits choose this time of year to kick off their annual fundraising appeals. For some, it can yield a good percentage of their overall annual fundraising, but for others, their campaigns can fall flat. The following are some simple steps any organization can take to revive its annual appeal, better engage its donors and make one last final fundraising push.

The Valencia College Foundation took its six-week fundraising campaign, First One, online using peer-to-peer fundraising to supplement its offline campaign activities. At the end of the day the foundation raised $203,817, which included a matching grant, recruited 152 fundraisers on 36 teams, and attracted 170 first-time donors.

Donna Marino, Valencia College Foundation’s donor stewardship manager, shared some points of the foundation's success as well as some important lessons to take into planning for the next campaign.

If you’re planning to wait until December to reach out to your donors, you may be too late. Setting the stage for your year-end fundraising push is as important as the ask itself. This is true for a few reasons. First, no one wants to be ignored all year, only to be asked for money when they finally do hear from you. That’s not much of a relationship. Second, it often takes more than one message to get donors to act.