Creating Successful Year-End Fundraising Campaigns

Richard Dietz Nonprofit R+Dwww.nonprofitrd.com@nonprofit_rd

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Agenda• What is a Year-End Campaign?

• Why You Need to Launch a Year-End Campaign Today

• Tools of the Trade

• Best Practices for Year-End Campaigns

• Q&A

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Our Goals Today• Convince you why you need to launch a Year-End

Campaign

• Provide ideas and tips to get you going or improve your current campaign

• Get you to take action and launch the campaign ASAP– No campaign is ever perfect or “ready”

• Start where you are now– Only way to improve is to get something out there and test– Pick one or two ideas and add them to your campaign

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New Information?• “I already know that” / “I’ve heard that before”

• The key is what have you DONE with the information.

• Use the information here today and Take Action

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What is an End of Year Campaign?

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Definition for End of Year Campaign• A coordinated multi-appeal fundraising campaign that

capitalizes on the end of year giving cycles that is a part of a larger donor cultivation system

• Key ideas from the definition– Coordinated– Multi-appeal– Giving cycles– Part of larger system (Donor Engagement)

• Also known as:– EOY Campaign– Year End Campaign– Holiday Campaign

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Why you NEED to launch an End of Year Campaign

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Why an End of Year Campaign?• NPO’s raise from 40% to 70% of their funds at the end

of the year– Up to 22% in the last two days of the year

• People like to give during the holiday season

• People like to get their tax breaks

• Great way to update your supporters about the year’s accomplishments and what you have planned for the new year

• Great opportunity to find new donors

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Tools of the Trade

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Tools of the Trade*

You only need four tools to run a solid Year-End Campaign Online

• Place to make your case – website

• Way to take money – donation form

• Way to connect with potential donors – email marketing

• Way to track results – online analytics

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Best Practices and Tipsfor End of Year Campaigns

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Best Practices - Basics• Prepare and Plan

– But keep it simple for now– Start from where you are and improve every year– Use the Year End Campaign Planning eBook

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Best Practices - Basics

• Multiple Touch Points– Multi-channel if possible

• Easy Donation Process

• Vivid Examples of How Donations Will be Used– Example: 100 will provide 25 new books for the library

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Compelling Campaigns

• Tell a Great Story*– Inspire them with your passion

– Individual stories are best• People give to people• Emotion >> Rationality

– Make it timely

– Online Video

* Templates in the eBook will help you here.

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Compelling Campaigns

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Get Your Message HeardThe end of year can be crowded and noisy….

• Timing– Be compelling, Be First, Be Often

• Event Fundraising – The 890% Difference– Another way to engage and stand out– Tie the events into your end of year fundraising– eBook – Event Fundraising Best Practices

• Create a “Signature” event or campaign

• Peer to Peer Fundraising

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Follow Up / Cultivate Donors• Follow Up

– Easy way to stand out from the crowd– Develop donor engagement (Two Way Communication)– Welcome email or series– Small favors

• Multiple thank you notes throughout the year– Thank You Update– Thank You and Small Favor– Thank You and Success Story– Thank You.. But still work to do

• Measure and test throughout the year

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Resources and Templates for End of Year Campaigns

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Resources• Start Where You Are

• Google is Your Friend– Search for “End of year appeal example,” “thank you card

example,” etc. Gets you off the blank page.

• Sage E-marketing– http://bit.ly/MjnYBC

• Timeline and Templates – Downloadable eBook

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ResourcesSage Fundraising Online

– www.sagefundraisingonline.com

6 Ways Sage Fundraising Online Helps with Year End

1. Easy, simple and clean donation and registration forms2. Create multiple forms and deploy them quickly3. Event Fundraising4. Contextual Giving – Tell a great story5. Keep control and ownership of your data and money6. Peer-to-Peer Fundraising

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Conclusion

• End-of-year campaigns are not as difficult as they seem

• Take action – Pick one or two ideas and implement

• Only YOU can figure out what works for YOUR organization

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Q&A / ResourcesDownload the Year-End Fundraising eBook

http://bit.ly/YearEndFundraisingeBook

Download the Event Fundraising eBookhttp://bit.ly/EventFundraisingeBook

Download the Year-End Fundraising Webcast Slideshttp://bit.ly/yearendwebcast

Learn about Sage Fundraising Onlinewww.sagefundraisingonline.com

Contact Richard Dietz:www.nonprofitrd.com

richard@nonprofitrd.com512-850-6501

Contact Sage:www.sagenonprofit.com

www.twitter.com/sagenonprofit800-811-0961