The giving season is a great opportunity for nonprofits to meet their fundraising goals. Crafting a good end-of-year giving campaign can be complex. Check out these steps to help you make the most of your year-end appeal.
The end-of-year giving season is a great opportunity for your nonprofit to boost its annual fundraising.
Approximately 30% of all annual giving occurs in December and around 10% occurs in the last three days of December. 28% of nonprofits raise between 26 – 50% of their annual funds for their year-end ask!
Crafting and executing a good end-of-year giving campaign can be complex. That’s why we’ve created this step-by-step guide to help you plan and execute your year-end appeal.
Let’s get started!
The increase in end-of-year donations is tied to the holiday season, which inspires more generosity and goodwill. Many nonprofits like yours leverage Giving Tuesday – the Tuesday after Thanksgiving in the U.S. – as the kick-off of their end-of-year giving campaigns.
Also, many donors choose to give their last donations for the tax year before the cut-off to increase their tax deductions. All donations made before midnight on December 31st count!
Approximately 53% of nonprofits start planning their year-end fundraising campaign by October. Planning early is critical to ensure the success of your year-end campaign – especially since so many fundraising appeals go out at the same time (which can overwhelm donors and staff).
Planning ahead gives you time to prepare everything needed to accomplish your objectives. Here are some basic tools you should have in your toolbox for end-of-year giving:
Pro tip: Start planning your year-end giving campaign in September to prepare efficiently and maximize your chances of success.
Before you start working on your 2025 fundraising strategy, review your 2024 efforts. Analyzing previous successes and understanding areas for improvement is one of the most important steps you can take when planning your year-end campaign. Data can be a powerful guide as to which direction you should take and which tools to use.
Take the following questions into account:
If possible, get as many relevant stakeholders as possible on board with this review. Discuss successes and challenges, and brainstorm how to do better this year. How will you surmount the challenges this time around?
Bonus resource: Use our free Rose, Bud, and Thorn worksheet to evaluate your previous end-of-year giving campaigns and see how you can improve this year. This will provide a solid foundation for your 2025 year-end giving.
Once you review your past campaign’s performance, it’s time to take a look at where you’re at in this present moment.
How’s your budget? How has the financial situation changed since last year’s year-end giving? How close are you to meeting your financial goals for this year?
Understanding where you are financially can help your team set realistic but inspiring goals and understand which strategies to employ (for example, how much money is available to invest in your end-of-the-year fundraising).
You can also use this information as you write your fundraising appeals.
In addition to understanding your fiscal situation, take some time to look at the overall state of your nonprofit. How close are you to achieving all of your goals? Which programs are doing really well? In which areas are you lagging?
This provides you with a clearer perspective of your end-of-year fundraising.
Take stock of the opportunities available to you right now. Are you waiting to hear back on any grant proposals? Is there a foundation you haven’t connected with yet or a prospective major donor you’re currently cultivating?
The fewer opportunities identified, the more dedicated you may need to be to your end-of-year giving campaign. While you should be ready to give this campaign your all either way, it’s important to have a clear picture of the possibilities for your contributed income moving forward.
To succeed and progress, your nonprofit must set specific, incremental goals, stay resilient, and remain accountable.
One of the most popular goal-setting methods is the SMART method.
SMART is an acronym for:
Set SMART goals for your end-of-year giving campaign. Setting SMART goals gives you clarity and helps you stay on track and motivated. As you finalize your objectives, highlight the fundraising goal on your online giving page. This lets supporters know how much you need and creates a sense of urgency among them to help you meet the goal.
Look at how Bridge School highlighted their fundraising goal and surpassed it with only 52 donations!
Start Fundraising With Donorbox
Now that you are familiar with last year’s campaign and you have a clearer idea of where you’re at as an organization, you’re ready to start planning your 2025 year-end giving campaign.
Before you start brainstorming ideas for activities and tactics, recap which resources you have access to at the moment:
Once you understand what resources you have at your disposal, it’s easier to create a more informed and realistic plan to get all those end-of-the-year donations flowing in.
Before getting into the nitty-gritty of the activities (e.g., designing your social media posts or creating a promo video), look at the scope of your campaign to figure out the big picture.
Don’t go into too many details just yet (we’re getting to that). This step is only meant to provide an overview of your end-of-year giving campaign.
To execute the most effective and successful end-of-year marketing campaign, think about your audience first. It’s impossible to craft a good message if you don’t know who you’re addressing.
Pro tip: Before the campaign officially launches, craft compelling thank-you letters that are ready to be shared later.
A compelling message is one where your supporters feel like you’re in their shoes – like you’re speaking directly to them and their experience.
However, it’s unrealistic to create individual messages for every single donor and supporter. That’s why segmenting your audience for your end-of-year campaign communications is essential. Audience segmentation basically means that you’re dividing your donors into groups based on their behavior or traits.
How much segmentation you’ll do will depend on the resources you have at your disposal. For example, you can segment your audience into three main groups: current donors, lapsed donors, and prospective donors. You can also segment your donors based on gift sizes.
Use your existing data to make your appeal sound like it was written just for each reader.
For example, you can include constituent data (like names, last gift amounts, or last gift date) to let your donors know that you care about them.
Utilize Donor Management
Having a donor management system for this step is essential. Donorbox Donor Management lets you segment donor records based on a number of filters – such as location, donation amounts, donation frequency, and campaign – and personalize your messages accordingly.
Explore Donorbox Donor Management
During this process, you may identify major donors, but don’t forget to reach out to supporters who usually give in smaller amounts.
Run a crowdfunding campaign for lower-level donors. The whole idea of crowdfunding depends on meeting a fundraising goal based on small donations from many people. If your nonprofit has many donors who show their support with smaller gifts, then this is a great fundraising method for your end-of-year giving.
Create an attractive crowdfunding page with Donorbox Crowdfunding. Include a pop-up donation form and virtual donor wall, and post regular updates to keep supporters informed about your campaign progress. Supporters can subscribe to receive updates and also share your campaign using the social sharing buttons available to keep the momentum going.
Want to take your campaign to the next level? Accelerate donations and outreach with Donorbox Peer-to-Peer. All you have to do is toggle a switch on an existing campaign and invite your biggest supporters to fundraise for you. They’ll then receive email invitations to sign up and be guided by the tool to create their own fundraising pages!
Targeting the right audience has many perks. Some will make donations while also helping you acquire more gifts – and new donors – through their networks.
Who you target will vary based on your current donor base, the local community, and your prospective donor research. The type of end-of-year campaign you should run will also depend on your target audience. Personalize your communications accordingly and reach out to each type of donor with the right suggested donation amount. More on this below!
Once you’ve figured out who you’re messaging, it’s time to create your end-of-year fundraising content. Before you dive into creating these specific messages and targeted appeals, decide on your theme. Your campaign theme shapes the narrative that will be present in all of your fundraising appeals.
Pro tip: Remember to keep your appeals and other messaging short, clear, and interesting.
Your messages should always be about how donors make an impact and help change lives, and why their donations matter.
This is where storytelling will come in handy. Humanizing your content helps keep supporters engaged. Emotions also trigger individuals and inspire giving.
When you share impact stories, focus on a single individual who represents the beneficiaries you’re helping through your mission. It’s much easier for people to connect and empathize with a single individual than it is with a group.
Personalize your messages – letters, emails, thank-yous, surveys – to ensure your appeals are effective in bringing in more donations.
Address your donor by his or her name as you start writing your appeal letter. Include how much they donated in the past and the specific impact their donations helped you make. As you make a donation appeal, mention suggested amounts that match their giving ability to make them feel comfortable.
Pro tip: Remember to also personalize your scripts if you’re going to ask volunteers to make appeal calls or host a phone-a-thon.
Now is the time to start working on that timeline. Your end-of-year giving campaign should last no longer than six weeks. #GivingTuesday extends the year-end giving period by a bit, so use it as a benchmark of when to start with the year-end campaign appeals.
Most giving happens in December (and most of it in the last three days), so have that in mind when creating your timeline.
Start off with Giving Tuesday. If you’re worried that the Giving Tuesday campaign will distract from the year-end push, work through different channels and address different audiences.
For example, you could promote your Giving Tuesday campaign solely through social media and exclusively to recurring donors with small gift sizes. Focusing on unengaged and low-end donors could help make sure that your target audience and your major donors are “saved” for later.
Your entire campaign team or nonprofit team (depending on the size of your nonprofit), should have access to the end-of-year campaign timeline. Responsibilities and deadlines should be clearly indicated. Consider having weekly check-ins – daily towards the final push – to review progress and check in.
Now is the time to select your communication channels. Depending on your target audience (Step 7) and the theme you decided to go for (Step 8), choose appropriate channels for delivering your end-of-year fundraising appeal.
Here are a couple of communication channels you could consider:
Whatever channel or combination of channels you end up choosing, triple-check that they’re appropriate for your audience, and then start crafting the channel-specific asks.
Also, be sure to select KPIs (metrics) to track for each of the communication channels you selected to help you measure success during and at the end of your campaign.
We love how they include descriptions for each donation level that demonstrate the impact of that amount!
Create a Customized Donation Form
Pro tip: Don’t use the exact same content across all channels, as each one has a different target audience and style. This may sound obvious, but it can be forgotten when the team is short on time or in a high-stress environment! Instead, repurpose your content to save time and adjust it for each channel.
With the right fundraising platform, you’ll be able to offer donors multiple payment methods and accelerate year-end donations both online and in person using a variety of intuitive features.
Triple-check that your donation system and donation page are in tip-top shape. With online giving increasing every year, your donation form on your website will be the place many donors seek out to make their gifts. Your website and your donation page must be sleek, fast, responsive, and trustworthy.
Once you’ve selected your communication channels and crafted customized appeals, make the ask!
Part of your end-of-year fundraising strategy should include making the most of any in-person events or activities you have planned. Collecting donations in person is a great way to convert event attendees, volunteers, and others interested in your mission into donors!
To do this, you need the tools required for swift in-person giving. Donorbox has you covered.
The Donorbox Live™ Kiosk app turns a tablet and card reader into an easy-to-use donation kiosk. With this tool, donors can quickly give their end-of-year gifts with their credit cards, debit cards, smartphones, and smartwatches. Or use the Tap-to-Pay feature to turn your Android smartphone into an on-the-go giving kiosk!
Text-to-Give is another great tool for fast, in-person giving in an increasingly cashless world. With Donorbox, all your donors have to do is text your unique campaign ID to Donorbox’s toll-free Text-to-Give phone number. Then they’ll receive a link to your donation form, where they can donate. When they want to repeat their donation, they can do so over text!
Finally, QR codes are a fantastic way to quickly connect your in-person donors with your end-of-year giving campaign online. All they have to do is scan your QR code and make their donation. Every Donorbox campaign receives a free, automatically generated QR code, saving you time during this hectic end-of-the-year season.
The work doesn’t stop when you make the ask. After you send out your initial year-end fundraising appeals, it’s time to start following through.
Donors need to be reminded throughout the campaign to donate. Include a call to action in every message you send out via your selected communication channels. However, pay attention to the number and frequency of your asks. Donors should be reminded, but not spammed. Some suggest a ratio of five to one (five ‘touches’ maximum towards one person) during the year-end campaign.
Focus on those donor segments that are the most likely to give, and constantly measure the return on investment of your efforts. Start your follow-up soon after your audience has received the original appeal, and vary your follow-up appeals across multiple channels.
Continue your follow-up appeals throughout the rest of your end-of-year campaign, even down to the last minute. A lot of donations pour in on the very last day of the year!
Ideally, you should have your thank-you materials created before the start of the campaign. There aren’t enough words to highlight the importance of thanking donors for their contributions. Acknowledging your supporters makes them feel valued and appreciated, and shows them that their actions have a positive impact – which is why many people donate.
Giving out thank yous also increases the chances of your donors coming back and donating again, and creates the foundation for strong and positive relationships with them. Donors who feel valued are also more likely to speak positively about your nonprofit and encourage their family and friends to donate too.
No matter the size of the gift, send a personalized thank you as soon as possible. This thank you should not include an additional ask. Instead, it should reiterate the impact of the donation and express gratitude.
Consider publicly recognizing your donors – either on social media or during various PR opportunities. This can be a tricky one because some donors would appreciate this and feel even more valued, while some would wish to stay more anonymous, so always ask first.
Pro tip: Don’t forget to thank your staff and volunteers too. They helped make everything happen, but can sometimes be left out. End-of-year campaigning can be very labor-intensive and stressful, so you want to make your team feel recognized and appreciated, regardless of the results of your year-end campaign.
You’ve done it! Your year-end fundraising campaign is done. After a lot of hard work, you’re finally at the finish line.
Now that the campaign is over, you’ll want to:
Debrief the results with your team and reflect on the campaign. Think about what you learned and what you can implement in next year’s campaign.
It’s important to have these findings, data, and discussions recorded in one way or another so that they’re accessible for next year’s planning. This is how you’ll learn, improve, and become more successful each year.
The end-of-year giving campaign is one of the most important initiatives your nonprofit will tackle. Don’t wait until the end of the year to try and meet your fundraising goals in one go. Keep your fundraising efforts steady and spread out throughout the year, and use your year-end campaign as the cherry on top.
We hope that this guide will help you outline and develop a year-end fundraising campaign that works for your nonprofit.
Looking for more resources? Check out our Nonprofit Blog and The Nonprofit Podcast for expert fundraising tips and insights to power your fundraising efforts.
Happy fundraising!
Ilma is a content writer with over eight years of experience, specializing in nonprofits and social impact, marketing, language, and psychology. She draws on years of volunteering in the nonprofit sector to craft thoughtful, research-informed pieces. Ilma is also a therapist passionate about mental health and often weaves this perspective into her writing.
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Ilma Ibrisevic