Last-Minute Checklist to Boost Your Year-End Fundraising

Welcome to your last-minute checklist for year-end fundraising success! Year-end fundraising might just be the most important time of the year for many nonprofits. Funds raised during this season allow organizations to secure the necessary support to drive impactful programs and initiatives. In the hectic rush toward the year’s close, even the most seasoned fundraisers can find themselves in need of a helping hand. Whether you’ve been meticulously planning for months or have just realized the need to give your year-end campaign that final push, this checklist is your go-to guide. With the Giveffect team as your trusted source of insights, we’ll walk you through the essential steps to maximize your year-end fundraising efforts and ensure a strong finish. So, let’s roll up our sleeves, make the most of the remaining weeks ahead, and propel your organization toward those year-end goals with confidence!

1. Finalize Your Data

Before diving into the specifics of your year-end campaign, it’s crucial to ensure your data is in top shape. Double-check donor lists, email lists, and campaign tracking tools for accuracy. Have you recently checked your contact list with the National Change of Address (NCOA) to ensure your appeals reach the correct addresses and are not sent to deceased or divorced individuals?

Finalizing data before year-end fundraising is vital for nonprofits. It forms the bedrock of your campaign’s accuracy and effectiveness, allowing for personalized, targeted appeals that resonate with donors. Beyond this, accurate data empowers financial planning, enhances donor stewardship, and ensures compliance with reporting obligations. It instills trust in your donors, streamlines operational efficiency, and supports data-informed decision-making.

Helpful Tips:

• Your tech stack matters when it comes to data quality and data trust. 
• Instead of stringing together reports from multiple platforms or multiple spreadsheets, consider using an all-in-one nonprofit platform such as Giveffect.
• Giveffect, for example, has NCOA built right in for data validation.
• There are many other reports that are helpful at year-end. Download our FREE Year-End Fundraising Reporting Guide.

2. Finalize Your Year-End Appeal

With your data in order, it’s time to craft a compelling year-end appeal. Ensure that your year-end fundraising appeal is a masterpiece by crafting a compelling narrative that appeals to your audiences. Provide a crystal-clear call to action and straightforward donation instructions.

Year-end appeals are a cornerstone of nonprofit fundraising. These appeals not only help nonprofits meet crucial annual fundraising goals but also foster donor engagement, trust, and retention. They offer a platform to share impactful stories, leverage matching gifts, and solidify an organization’s financial sustainability.

Helpful Tips:

• A dense block of text is unlikely to capture your audience’s attention and inspire them to take action. Instead, elevate your appeal’s impact by incorporating visuals like images or short videos to not only tell but also vividly show your story.
• Within your story, share the progress your organization has made throughout the year, articulating how new contributions will drive meaningful impact. The more you share in terms of details, the stronger the connection your potential donors will feel towards your organization.
• Consider also infusing holiday-themed messaging or festive visuals to capture the holiday spirit.

3. Personalize Your Outreach

Now that your appeal is in a great spot, take a moment to review your donor segmentation strategy and personalize year-end appeals for different donor groups. Tailor your year-end appeal to your recipients and their specific interests, preferences, and engagement history. This targeted approach enables you to deliver messages that resonate with each group’s unique motivations, increasing the likelihood of giving. Personalizing your emails creates a sense of connection, relevance, and trust with your supporters, which ultimately leads to a more successful campaign.

Helpful Tips:

• Personalize email subject lines and greetings.
• Manual personalization can be a time-consuming endeavor, and let’s face it, time is of the essence during the year-end giving season. Instead, harness the power of automation to streamline and automate personalized.
• Utilize dynamic variable fields for custom messaging, a feature included in Giveffect. With such a tool, you can automatically input values right within your appeal based on the information gathered in each donor’s constituent profile. For instance, instead of merely suggesting a generic donation amount, you can effortlessly insert a specific and personalized suggested donation amount, directly derived from their giving history, right into your appeal. This automation not only saves you time but also ensures that your appeals are finely tuned to resonate with each donor, reinforcing their commitment to your cause.

4. Social Media and Email Scheduling

Develop a content calendar for social media and email marketing for the final weeks of the year. Social media and email are important in year-end fundraising. It enables nonprofits to maintain a consistent and engaging presence during the busy holiday season, where the competition for donors’ attention is high. Plan regular posts and emails to engage donors to share impactful stories and updates. 

By planning and scheduling content in advance, organizations can strategically deliver impactful messages, share success stories, and remind supporters of year-end goals. Find the delicate balance between staying top of mind and bombarding your audience and followers. Keep in mind that each social media platform has its own best practices, from image and video specs to how many hashtags it is recommended to include.

Helpful Tips:

• Keep content fresh by providing updates or information of value.
• Use a variety of interesting visuals such as images, short videos, or infographics.
• Consider tagging people, organizations, and companies in your social posts to increase impressions as is appropriate.
• Remind your donors and followers of important deadlines approaching to help create a sense of urgency.
• If you’re struggling with content creation, harness the power of generative AI, such as Giveffect’s AI Writer or ChatGPT, to help you craft messaging that resonates with your audience.

5. Optimize Your Online Fundraising Pages

For an effective year-end campaign, don’t rely solely on your website’s primary “Donate Now” button. Instead, review or create online campaign pages specific to year-end fundraising. Enhance your website’s donation pages to make it user-friendly, mobile-responsive, and visually appealing. These pages should do more than just facilitate donations; they should eloquently convey your organization’s story and mission while simplifying the donation process and supporting seamless tracking and follow-up.

Helpful Tips:

• Incorporate engaging videos and captivating images to visually narrate your organization’s journey and build trust.
• Display clear and compelling call-to-action buttons.
• Offer suggested donation amounts, which can be customized in platforms such as Giveffect.
• Streamline the donation process with minimal clicks.
• Capture crucial donor interactions and embrace the convenience of an integrated online donation tracking system to monitor real-time progress effectively. Consider the efficiency of automating the tracking and updating of donor profiles with contributions, a feature included in Giveffect. 
• With this comprehensive approach, your year-end campaign not only attracts generous contributions but also seamlessly manages crucial processes related to donor engagement and stewardship.

6. Giving Tuesday Campaign

Put the finishing touches on your Giving Tuesday campaign plans, including special events or challenges. Your plans should include your promotion plans across various channels, including social media, email, and your website.

Giving Tuesday can be a catalyst for year-end fundraising efforts. Giving Tuesday falls at the start of the holiday season, capturing the spirit of generosity and inspiring people to make charitable contributions. This day is a kickstart to year-end campaigns, leveraging the heightened awareness and goodwill generated.

Helpful Tips:

• Keep in mind that your campaign should stand out amidst the Giving Tuesday noise, and allocate your resources thoughtfully.
• Balance the time you spend on your Giving Tuesday campaign with your other year-end fundraising efforts. Remember, Giving Tuesday is just one day, but the end of year-giving is a season.

7. Last-Minute Donor Engagement

Throughout the year, you’ve diligently cultivated relationships with your major donors, nurturing their connection to your organization’s mission. As the year draws to a close and your year-end fundraising goals come into focus, take an extra step to connect with your key supporters. Reach out to high-valued individuals personally to remind them of the significance of your year-end objectives and express your gratitude for their ongoing support and dedication to your cause.

Helpful Tips:

• Consider using both personalized email and phone calls to make a heartfelt connection.
• Paint a vivid picture of the transformative changes their generosity has enabled and the lives that have been touched.
• Share with them how future contributions will make a tangible and positive impact on your mission.
• If you’ve been tracking all interactions in their donor profile within your nonprofit CRM, it should be easy to pull detailed information to prepare for your call as well as track your call for future stewardship.

8. Follow-Up and Acknowledgment Plan

Craft a plan to acknowledge and thank donors promptly after receiving their year-end gifts in addition to sending tax receipts. While this step in the year-end fundraising process might seem like it can wait until after you receive the donations, it can be too easy to get too busy, or acknowledging donors might fall through the cracks. Instead, you’ll want to follow up promptly, acknowledging their support, and emphasizing the vital role they play in advancing your organization’s mission. By personalizing the notes, you not only maintain the passion of your donors but also deepen their commitment to your cause, ensuring a stronger and more enduring partnership.

Helpful Tips:

• Prepare thank-you emails or letters in advance.
• Automate the process to ensure no donor goes unappreciated.
• Use this opportunity to engage donors further by sharing success stories and updates.
• For your major donors, consider also setting up a workflow to ensure that your major donors also receive a heartfelt thank-you phone call.

9. Confirm Staff and Volunteer Support

End-of-the-year fundraising doesn’t only concern the development team. Coordinate with your entire team, especially Volunteer or Community Engagement Managers and Coordinators who manage volunteers to ensure that enough volunteers are staffed and that everyone is aware of their roles and responsibilities during the year-end fundraising push.

Helpful Tips:

• Make volunteer opportunities easily accessible through your calendar.
• Use a volunteer management platform that allows volunteers to sign up independently and receive reminders. Using a platform like Giveffect, allows volunteers to sign up, receive reminders, and check in conveniently.
• Provide necessary training or resources to ensure volunteers are well-prepared.
• Make sure that everyone knows what they are supposed to do and when they are supposed to do it. Clear communication is key.
• Your volunteers may be donors as well. Be sure to acknowledge both monetary and time or skill contributions to your organization.

In these last-minute preparations, you can optimize your year-end fundraising efforts and make a lasting impact on your mission. Remember, even in the midst of the holiday hustle and bustle, the spirit of giving remains strong, and with a well-executed plan, you can harness that spirit to meet and exceed your year-end fundraising goals.

We hope this checklist helps guide you toward a successful year-end fundraising season. If you have any questions or are interested in how nonprofits across the country use Giveffect to prepare and execute successful end-of-year fundraising, it’s time to schedule your demo with the Giveffect team!

Best of luck with your year-end fundraising endeavors!