Year-End Giving is a Sham: A Better Way to Raise Money

Okay, maybe calling year-end giving a sham is a bit extreme. But there *IS* a better way…

Most nonprofit leaders rely heavily on year-end fundraising because the holiday appeal letter and/or email brings in 30%, 40%, or 50% or more of the annual fundraising revenue. That’s a whole lot of eggs in one basket, metaphorically speaking. It also leaves you biting your nails until December 31st waiting to see what comes in at the last moment.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could glide into December knowing you’re already met (or surpassed) your fundraising goals for the year? And anything that comes in during the holiday season is gravy?

A Better Way: How 22 Gifts Can Rival Your Entire Year-End Giving Effort

Here’s a better way to fundraise so you feel happy and confident heading into year-end fundraising.

Step 1: Start with your year-end fundraising goal.

That is, how much you realistically expect to raise with your year-end efforts. Use the average of the last 3 years to get a realistic estimate. If you’re not sure what to include, start with everything you raise through the mail and online during the last 6 weeks of the year.

Step 2: Create a corresponding Gift Range Chart.

Develop a campaign-style gift range chart for the dollar amount you determined in step 1. For example, let’s say your number is $100K — a gift range chart might look something like this:

1 gift @ $15K (aim for roughly 15% of overall goal)
4 gifts @ $10K (aim for roughly 40% of overall goal)
7 gifts @ $5K (aim for roughly 35% of overall goal)
10 gifts @1K (aim for roughly 10% of overall goal)

That’s a total of 22 gifts. Your values will be different based on your own goal and the gifts you can raise, but aim for approximately 20 gifts total.

Step 3: Identify ten people who are ABC-qualified

The next step is to identify ten prospective donors who are ABC-qualified to give gifts of $10K or more.

To ABC-qualify potential donors, ask yourself:

A. Do they have the financial ABILITY to make the type of gift you’re asking for?
B. Do they BELIEVE in the mission or cause?
C. Do you have CONTACT with them (will they respond to your emails or phone calls)?

To begin, print out a list of your largest and most loyal donors from the last few years. If they are already large and loyal donors, then you can assume they BELIEVE in your mission, and you have CONTACT with them.

The most challenging piece to determine is whether they have the ABILITY to make a gift of that size. While there are tools and resources to help you assess their assets, you may take an educated guess based on what you already know about them in terms of their lifestyle, generosity, profession, etc.

Once you’ve solicited the first ten, identify the next ten. (And so on.)

Step 4: Draft a two-paragraph case for support

We’re not talking about a larger campaign-style case for support — this is something much shorter and simpler. But even though it’s less complex, it could still be challenging.

Determining what to ask for and why they should give might be harder than you think. Try identifying a few things from your operating budget that you can build your case around. For example, maybe you’re planning on buying a new van or computers. Think in those terms.

You may also be able to solicit program support, such as teacher salaries. Teacher salaries are not overhead — they are program costs. Likewise for the costs of supporting your programs.

Step 5: Schedule at least 3 meetings per month to ask for a gift

Take a look at these three posts to learn how to set up and prepare for your donor meetings:

If you start today, you will have solicited the gifts you need to equal or even surpass your annual fund goal by the end of this year. If that seems too ambitious for you, instead aim to raise 25% or even 50% of your goal in major gifts before heading into year-end fundraising. That will at least take some pressure off.

Raising Major Gifts All Year Long

Raising major gifts consistently not only requires knowledge of the process, but it often also requires support, structure and accountability. It never hurts to have some support, and it can be tough to find it at your own organization. But help *IS* available…

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