Christmas in July: The Best Time to Prepare for Year-End Fundraising

If your fiscal year ended on June 30th, as is the case with many nonprofits, you may be taking a well-deserved week off after closing out your “year-end” last week.

And after some much-needed rest and relaxation, it’s time to start planning for the calendar year-end (regardless of when your fiscal year-end is).

3 Steps to Prepare for “Year-End” Major Gift Fundraising

If you want to have a happy holiday season, I encourage you to start thinking about the major gifts you hope to raise by year-end. Now is a wonderful time to get a jump on things… before the fall frenzy. These three steps will make it simple.

1. Identify your best potential donors for major gifts this year

Select a manageable number of donors to focus on for the remaining summer months. If you are new to raising major gifts, start with approximately twenty individuals who already make meaningful gifts to your organization.

They could be board members or long-time loyal donors or your current largest donors. If you haven’t asked them for a specific amount this year in a personal way, they are good candidates for your list. Don’t worry if they already gave through the mail or email (as long as you didn’t ask them individually in a personal way.

Keep your list short!

Start with about 20 individuals you hope to work with and solicit this fall. If you get through that list, you can always add more, but a longer list often leads to analysis-paralysis. Once you have your list of individuals you’d like to ask for larger gifts this year, you’re ready for step two.

2. Reach out and set up a time to connect with them

Determine a strategy for each person on your list. Make a plan to meet with them (along with the ED/CEO or a board member, if possible) to get to know them better before asking for a larger gift. For example, if you don’t know why they love your organization, or why they gave in the first place, and why they continue to give, then you’re not ready to ask them for a gift.

How to conduct your first meeting

At this meeting, you’ll want to find out if they would like to be more involved, what they hope to accomplish with their philanthropy, and why. Do they need a tour of your organization before considering a larger gift or are they already very active and involved?

Generally, an intimate meeting over coffee is the best way to have this conversation (this is not a group conversation with multiple donors in the room). This meeting could take place at their home or office, or via Zoom. Include their spouse or significant other in this important meeting too, whenever possible.

3. Make a plan to ask for a gift

At the end of your cultivation meeting, let them know you would like a little time to digest your conversation and get them some additional information, and that you’d like to schedule another visit to discuss how they might help the organization in a more substantial way.

However, you should be prepared to answer the questions “How can I help? or “What do you need?” You may be surprised to find they are ready to launch into a gift conversation before you are. Don’t be caught unprepared. Never say, “Can I get back to you?”

How to handle the Ask

Be prepared to ask for a gift on the spot. Something like, “I wasn’t going to ask you for a gift at this meeting, but since you asked, there are several ways we were hoping you might help.”

For example:

We’re in need of a few generous supporters to commit leadership gifts at the $25,000 level and above to support our after-school program. Is that something you’d be willing to consider?

Assuming you didn’t ask during your cultivation meeting, schedule time to ask for a gift.

Raise More Money by Year-End

The only way you will raise more money this year is to ask for it. Don’t rely on direct mail appeals, online efforts, and virtual and in-person events.

Be sure to plan for and strategize about asking individuals for larger gifts than they gave last year. That’s a sure-fire way to increase your year-end giving.

Time to Plan a Campaign?

If you’d like to go even bigger than annual major gifts, it’s the perfect time to begin planning a capacity campaign. This is a specific effort to grow your organization’s capacity. A capacity campaign might be smaller than a traditional capital campaign (with or without a building) and is wrapped up in 6 to 12 months, rather than a longer capital campaign.

A capacity campaign is an extra special campaign effort to raise money for specific initiatives like technology, infrastructure, staffing, new programs or services, and more. The sky’s the limit.

What will you do to prepare for year-end fundraising? Share your thoughts in the comments.