According to Philanthropy.com, charities got good news about the year-end giving season in a poll released on October 26th of this year. Three out of four Americans say they plan to give at least the same amount as they did last year if not more. That’s better than last year, when only 63 percent of Americans said they would give at least as much to charity as they did in the previous year. Follow these three simple guidelines to ensure that your year-end donations maintain or even exceed levels from last year.
- Send More Appeals: Many successful nonprofits are reaching out to their potential donors with shorter but more frequent appeals and garnering tremendous results. A camp and retreat organization for children with special needs increased their email appeals from 1 per month to 3 per month and doubled the total donations in 2010. A cancer research center also saw a big difference when they increased the frequency of their donor appeals. An email was sent a week before the mailing to let them know to be on the look-out for the donation packet. Calls and follow-up emails were placed on the last Monday, Wednesday and Friday of the year by internal staff. This small change increased revenue by 35%. The lesson? Keep it short and consistent for better results.
- Show them the Results: It’s easy to talk about all the fantastic things their donations will buy but donors often respond to a more emotional appeal. Show them how your charity has specifically helped an individual that has been affected by your cause. This will have a much greater impact. A charity that provides a backpack with school supplies to under-privileged children learned this in 2010. They originally appealed to donors by impressing the need for the children to have school supplies and talked about how far their money would go. They shifted their marketing to showcase pictures and video of the children as they received the backpacks and donations increased significantly. People want to see the people they are helping.
- Go Online: While traditional email, mail and telemarketing are effective tools for fundraising, social media can greatly expand your reach. Find blogs or Facebook pages that have a similar audience and talk them about doing a guest posting. You can offer the same thing to them and both organizations will gain exposure to an entirely new audience. Don’t forget to stay active on your Facebook and Twitter pages as well. Post pictures of people that you have helped and invite them to share their stories. If they are tagged in the post, all of their “friends” will learn about your services as well.
Your financial story can also help raise donations. Read our blog article, The Value of Effective Financial Reporting for Nonprofit Organizations to learn more.