‘Tis the season for holiday giving! The holiday season is a major fundraising opportunity for non-profits, accounting for 30-50% of annual revenue for many organizations. Even more importantly, most of that giving happens in the last few days of the year. Here’s how to ensure that your non-profit is primed and prepped for the influx of giving!
Review Last Year’s Statistics
Before you start prepping for this year’s holiday giving season, review your stats and analytics from last year. What kinds of behaviors did you see? Who responded to what type of outreach, and how? Did you reach your goals, or were you left hanging? How did your donors feel about the whole experience? Reviewing last year’s performance is a great way to see what’s worth repeating – or avoiding.
Make a Plan
Now that you have a sense of your goals, start planning for this year’s campaign. Set your objectives, gather your team, segment your donors, plan your marketing collateral and land on a theme. Who are you reaching out to – for example, repeat givers or newly interested people – and in what ways? How will you incentivize giving: for example, will you be using donation matching? It’s also vital to know what kind of collateral you’ll be using, as copy, design and printing all take time, especially if you’re working with an out-of-house team. Additionally, make sure that you have a scalable workforce of agents at hand in case your campaign exceeds expectations!
Begin Pre-launch Activities
Before you push your campaign out to your donors, make sure that you’ve done your groundwork. Update your website and social media with this year’s details and information. Have a branded campaign landing page ready to go. Develop personalized, serialized copy that reflects previous giving behavior and showcases the impact of donations. Audit your SEO, headlines, and CTAs to ensure that your campaign is going to get the eyeballs – and clicks – that you’re after. And be sure to train your team on preferred messaging and ensure they know the answers to common questions.
Take a Multi-Wave Approach
It takes time to build momentum, so send out that first campaign push early. Use mail, email, social media, and text-based channels (such as ACD Text To Donate) to reach as many people as possible. Don’t be afraid to lean on storytelling from one message to the next to foster buy-in and encourage opens. People respond to stories, after all! Don’t just stop at one push to donate: send out multiple waves to capture those who are still on the fence about giving or who might need a reminder. Those additional waves are also great for encouraging repeat giving or monthly giving.
Plan Your Gratitude!
Your final push should be a thank you to everyone who’s contributed to your campaign (and even those who haven’t). Update your lists on your successes, goals met, and the impact that their generous giving will have in the year to come. A little bit of gratitude goes a long way and helps nurture the sustaining donors that keep so many non-profits going!
Prep for the Holiday Season with ACD
If you’ve got big campaign goals this holiday season, talk to ACD! Our tailored, all-in-one donor experience solutions are the ideal support for building a giving campaign that aligns with your goals while making the giving experience extra rewarding for your donors! For more information about how we can help, get in touch!
