Ten ways to get your year-end campaign back on track to reach your goal
At the time of writing this it is December 7 and I am in the thick of two fundraising campaigns. Around this time, you get a feel for how your strategies are playing out and what direction your campaign is headed in. But don’t worry! The sooner you check in and evaluate, the more time you have to pivot your campaign if you’re not reaching your benchmarks. If you’ve compared your trends to previous years, and decide you need to get creative to increase revenue, here are 10 creative fundraising strategies that have worked for me:
#1 Don’t be afraid to phone bank
I know this seems like an obvious one to start out with, but phone banking can be a challenge and it can be easy to try to avoid. Engaging enthusiastic volunteers for fundraising is a good way to make sure you have folks on the phones who want to be there. Most volunteers know that this is a fundraising need and if they have the skill for it.
One way to make phone banking easier is to secure an incentive you can offer to everyone who gives. Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon has an effective Giving Tuesday campaign where they offer gift cards to pizza restaurants with whom they have a relationship. Having an offer for everyone provides a good reason to call people, especially if you’re concerned about “bothering” your donors.
The easiest way I’ve found to do this is to secure a % off or $ off purchase incentive from a local business. When you offer a percent or dollar amount off of a purchase total, this incentivizes donors to patronize the business so they are guaranteed to bring in revenue for each discount offered.
#2 Have a beneficiary event
A beneficiary event is an event supported by business partners where a portion of proceeds go to a nonprofit. You might see these in the form of “every Tuesday this month 10% of sales go to [insert nonprofit]”.
Beneficiary events have different levels of time investment and responsibility. Some are as simple as collecting a percentage of sales during a particular time period, which usually only requires some marketing. Some events can be more involved but have a big payoff.
One of my favorite beneficiary event models is holding a party or donor event at a bar or restaurant where your organization receives the revenue generated from in-kind food or drink products secured from other partners. Here’s how it works:
You reach out to a beer or liquor sales rep to secure in-kind product (go through the sales rep rather than the donation form, they have larger budgets for “samples” and they’ll usually offer their marketing services)
You make an agreement with a venue to supply the in-kind product for them to sell
The venue can make a signature drink with the in-kind product
You promote the event to get people into the bar (again, you can usually utilize the sales rep for marketing and promotion)
The venue gives your nonprofit the revenue from the sales of that drink (sometimes they charge a corking fee)
I once worked with New Belgium to promote their “Voodoo Ranger IPA” and we threw a Halloween party. They let us use their in-house design and printing for promo materials, they brought prizes for a raffle, AND they hired a DJ. The party was a hit and all of the Voodoo Ranger sales went to my nonprofit.
#3 Ask your donors for a favor
Sometimes even the best development professionals can get nervous asking for money. It’s important to remember that our donors WANT to help us succeed, and many are looking for a way to be more deeply involved than just writing their annual check. Asking someone to help you with something deepens your connection and results in them liking you more and wanting to offer more help. This is colloquially called the Ben Franklin Effect. In his autobiography, Franklin said of likeability, “He that has once done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another than he whom you yourself have obliged.”
Ask for a match
Reach out to a few donors individually and ask them to make a pledge toward a match. The opportunity to provide incentive for further giving is an incentive to the donor contributing to the match. Ask your donor to make a pledge toward a matching gift that will be leveraged later in the campaign. The total of the pledges you secure make up the matching gift goal, which you can announce at some point in the campaign, Giving Tuesday or the last couple days on the year are a great time for a spontaneous match like this. Even if you don’t make your goal, most donors will fulfill their pledge anyway.
Run a committee-style mini campaign
Offer core donors the opportunity to fundraise on behalf of your organization. You can give each of them a portfolio of 3-4 donors and give them the tools to make direct asks. You can ask them to make a pledge of their own so they can tell your donors “I gave because [insert your incredible mission] and you should too”. You can even challenge them to bring in a certain number of new donors into the campaign.
#4 Use YAMM to send multiple emails with a personal touch
Yet Another Mail Merge is a Google extension that has literally changed my life! YAMM allows you to create an email draft in your personal gmail with merge fields and send them via a Google Sheet. The emails will arrive in your recipient’s inbox just as if you were sending a personal email to them from scratch. It is really useful for sending outreach and thank you emails, plus you can track opens and clicks from the Google Sheet.
#5 Partner with another organization
Coming from an abundance mindset and using your own resources to lift up other organizations is a core community-centric fundraising value. Apparently, author Flora Edward said “in helping others, we shall help ourselves”. This phrase is quoted so heavily online that I couldn’t find the original source, but nevertheless, the statement stays true.
One way to build a mutually supportive partnership is to offer an incentive to donors who give both to your organization and your partner organization. This could be a coupon, or they could be entered in a raffle. This strategy introduces your donors to the partner organization, and theirs to you.
#6 Don’t forget to post on LinkedIn
There are two good reasons to include LinkedIn in your year-end communications:
LinkedIn is a great way to be visible to your corporate partners
Other nonprofit folks like to give too! So often an organization will exclude me from their appeal list or fundraising emails assuming that since I’m a development professional, I wouldn’t be interested in giving. For me, it’s the total opposite. As a development professional, I have a clear understanding of the importance of year-end giving and am more likely to give. Plus, other development pros understand that year-end emails are just the nature of the season and are unlikely to unsubscribe
#7 Ask a corporate/business partner to encourage employee giving
Your sponsors and community partners might be willing to send out an internal email or put up posters at their locations and break rooms, especially if they have a workplace matching program. You can provide them with assets that they can just copy/paste and send out to their employees to inform them about the workplace giving program.
#8 Be honest and authentic online
Imperfect, unscripted, and heartfelt videos and messages make a huge impact. There’s the old adage “people don’t give to nonprofits, they give to people”. We spend a lot of time talking about the impact and work of our organizations and not about the people making the work happen. Don’t be afraid to talk about yourself and your team. Your donors need to know, like, and trust you and it’s hard to do that without some vulnerability. Here’s an example of a video I posted on a client's Instagram.
#9 Ask your community for testimonials
And the theme of today is, drumroll please…people WANT to help you! You are not a burden! Don’t wait for people to come to you and offer a testimonial, you can just ask them for one. And I don’t mean going to your most vulnerable clients and community members asking for an inspirational story. I’m talking about asking your donors and partners why they give, and sharing out those messages. If you’re not comfortable asking a person directly, put out an open call. Street Roots just asked me for one and I’m thrilled to be able to provide them with this kind of support, especially when my network is already tapped out on donations.
#10 Be honest with your donors about the progress of your campaign and the state of your budget
I know it can be hard to be open about things not going well, but our donors need to know when we are in crisis. I can think of a handful of examples I’ve personally witnessed of organizations not being open about their financial state, fundraising the best they can, and ultimately ending their programs or dissolving entirely, leaving donors wishing they could have helped.
If you are not reaching your goal, or are looking at ending the year in a deficit, it is safe to tell your donors. It is safe to activate your community. I look back on some of my favorite restaurants that had to shut down and if I knew they had been struggling I would have patronized more, told my friends, hell it could have even gone viral! Please don’t put yourself in a position where your organization’s future is at risk and your donors wind up being blindsided. If you are honest with them about where you’re at, they are likely to prioritize you in their charitable budget to help you get back on your feet. You owe them that opportunity. It’s never wrong to ask for help.
Whether you’re just starting your campaign, or using these strategies to get your campaign back on track midway through, I have so much faith in you! If you’d like more support, I’m offering coaching to work with folks through the rest of their campaign. You can sign up for a single session to brainstorm strategies or 4 sessions for execution support and accountability. If you’re interested in learning more about liberative fundraising and DEI strategies, join my newsletter!