Year-End Appeals That Have Appeal
What’s the point of crafting an annual appeal that has no appeal to the donors who receive it? Make sure you are on the right track, not skipping important steps that will ensure the success that your organization is depending on for year-end fundraising success!
Craft Your Best Annual Appeal Letter Ever With these Proven Techniques!
More tips from Blockbuster to craft the best of the best annual fundraising appeal! All kinds of hacks, tweeks and proven techniques that will work for you and your mission.
Use this excellent checklist when crafting your OnLine annual appeals for the best fundraising results you’ve ever produced.
You’ll definitely want to review this Online Checklist for ultimate year-end fundraising success!
Are you aware of the exceptional fundraising bonus you have in 2017? It’s an entire extra fundraising week between Thanksgiving and Christmas! How ill you use this extra 7 days?
You have an extra week this year of 2017 between Thanksgiving and Year-End to fundraise. Learn how can you best make good use of those 7 days to achieve greater success for your fundraising goals!
#GivingTuesday gives you the gift of a fabulous opportunity to kick-off your year-end fundraising!
Did You Miss This #GivingTuesday Live from Blockbuster? Lots of good tips! www.givingtuesday.org is a super resource right now with toolkits to make it all so doable no matter your staff or time. Ck Out the free ‘text to give’ resource in this Live and more!
#GivingTuesday Tips
What is #GivingTuesday? #GivingTuesday is a counterpoint to the consumerism of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It started with just a few hundred nonprofits in 2012 and it has since blossomed into an international day of giving around the globe. In 2015, the total donations for the day were up to $116.4 million from $45.6 million a year before!
#GivingTuesday is the launch of your year-end giving season. It starts the energy and excitement to carry you through December 31st. Think of #GivingTuesday as an online kick off.
#GivingTuesday Goals
Your giving Tuesday goals can be about more than just dollars raised. Here are some different goals to set:
• Number of donors
• Number of new donors
• Number of volunteers/hours (if you are including an activity)
• Number of recurring donors
• Percentage participation among key groups like staff, board, alumni, or clients
This is a chance to tell fresh stories, attract new younger supporters, accelerate your social media presence or diversify your fundraising channels.
Essential DIY Tools
Network for Good provides an ultimate #GivingTuesday checklist
Make a plan
You need a concrete plan with goals and a calendar timeline. You won’t know if you’re on track without a detailed plan!
Inspire your donors to give
Use wonderful stories and an easy to use donation page with a prominent donate now button.
Show your gratitude
Have an instant thank you letter to send to your donors. Have a system in place to welcome new donors so they feel valued and appreciated right from the start.
Set goals
It is imperative to have a clear goal that you, your team, and your supporters can rally around. If you had a #GivingTuesday campaign last year, you can use those results as a benchmark. Another great goal setting tool is to use a giving pyramid. Map out what you will need to get to your goal. One or two donors at the top level with more donors at the lowest level.
Try a new idea
This is the perfect chance to try something new. Your #GivingTuesday goal will probably be a smaller one and you’ll be attracting lots of new donors, so this is your best opportunity of the year to try new ideas.
Your non-profit story is your most valuable asset. Your heartfelt story will inspire action and create change. If you can tell your story like a feature movie, your donors will never forget it. And, even better, they’ll share it with others and you’ll be a rockstar.
Rock your storytelling! Your non-profit story is your most valuable asset. Your story can inspire action and create change. If you can tell your story like a feature movie, your donors will never forget it. And, even better, they’ll share it with others.
Important Story Components
A Character
Stories that draw people in are stories in which people care about, identify with or are fascinated by a character. You’ve got to put your characters front and center. Who is the person who needs your donor’s help?
A Hero
You need a hero. Ideally, this would be your donor!
A Threat
What is your donor saving your character from? What will happen without your donor’s help?
The Head and The Heart
You need to balance this combination. Don’t just give the facts and figures. To really tell a story well you have to be able to hold someone’s pain.
Top 10 Insights from the 2012 Nonprofit Technology Conference
#1 – The best stories are the ones that you remember. That move you to share and take action.
#2 – People will forget what you told them, they’ll forget what you did, but they’ll never forget how you made them feel through stories. Make your story about your case and the character who will be helped.
#3 – Your storytelling doesn’t have to live within your marketing team. Your donors can contribute by sharing.
#4 – Keep recording stories! Talk to your donors and other staff and figure out some great stories to tell.
#5 – Consider your medium. Tell stories in direct mail, email, and also in video form.
#6 – In your video stories, make sure to not just have talking heads and keep your video to 1-2 minutes.
#7 – Don’t forget, a story has a beginning, middle, and end.
#8 – Use an image to touch heartstrings.
#9 – Simple stories are the best.
#10 – Don’t be afraid to fail!
The Power of Segmentation for Year-End Success is Amazing!
Donor Segmentation for maximum fundraising results
First things first: What is segmentation?
Segmentation is the act of dividing your donors into groups based on specific criteria. It is critical that you are able to segment your donors. A donor database with CRM (customer relationship management) technology will help you do this.
So how should you segment your donors?
There are hundreds of ways you can segment your donors: by zip code, gift size, age, and even (if you’ve kept very careful data) what day of the week they have made a donation. Here are some of the most useful methods of donor segmentation.
AFFILIATION AND INTEREST
Segment on how your donors are affiliated based on your mission, organizational structure and community involvement. Which programs and causes is this donor interested in? This will tell you what to focus on in your appeal letter to get the best results.
ENTITY TYPE
What type of entity is this donor? This type of segmentation is critical in creating a strategic plan and forecasting so you can plan for gifts coming from individuals, corporations, government and foundations.
GIVING CHANNEL
How is your donor making their gift? You want to make sure you are offering your donors the opportunity to make a gift in the manner that is most convenient for them. Know when to use mail and when to use email or social media
GIVING LEVEL
Segmenting by the annual giving level will help you know what gift amount you should be suggesting to your donor. Make sure you are ethical and courteous but you must also be careful not to insult or disrespect the donor’s ability or capacity. Remember it is imperative not to ask for too much or too little
GIVING STATUS
Another important segment to look for is giving status. An appeal to a new donor should have a different focus and message than one to a lapsed donors. Retained donors can be segmented too – ones who have increased gifts, decreased gifts, or stayed the same.
12 fundraising checklists that will take your year-end fundraising to huge heights so you’ll definitely want to review and check off each detail!
Blockbuster is all about bringing all the very best fundraising tips to one place where you can spend minutes a day, reviewing, refreshing and learning from the most excellent fundraising leaders globally available. Today’s Facebook LIVE presents 12 fundraising checklists that to be best you want to review and check off each detail! Save and watch in October so your plans are complete and completely super ready for fab 2017 success!
October is the perfect time to review or begin or improve your 2017 #GivingTuesday campaign. Here are 6 #GivingTuesday Hacks just in time to jump-start great results.
#GivingTuesday Tips
What is #GivingTuesday? #GivingTuesday is a counterpoint to the consumerism of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It started with just a few hundred nonprofits in 2012 and it has since blossomed into an international day of giving around the globe. In 2015, the total donations for the day were up to $116.4 million from $45.6 million a year before!
#GivingTuesday is the launch of your year-end giving season. It starts the energy and excitement to carry you through December 31st. Think of #GivingTuesday as an online kickoff.
1. #GivingTuesday Goals
Your giving Tuesday goals can be about more than just dollars raised. Here are some different goals to set:
• Number of donors
• Number of new donors
• Number of volunteers/hours (if you are including an activity)
• Number of recurring donors
• Percentage participation among key groups like staff, board, alumni, or clients
Set goals
It is imperative to have a clear goal that you, your team, and your supporters can rally around. If you had a #GivingTuesday campaign last year, you can use those results as a benchmark. Another great goal-setting tool is to use a giving pyramid. Map out what you will need to get to your goal. One or two donors at the top level with more donors at the lowest level.
2. This is a chance to tell fresh stories, attract new younger supporters, accelerate your social media presence or diversify your fundraising channels.
3. Make a plan
You need a concrete plan with goals and a calendar timeline. You won’t know if you’re on track without a detailed plan!
Inspire your donors to give
4. Use wonderful stories and an easy to use donation page with a prominent donate now button.
5. Show your gratitude
Have an instant thank you letter to send to your donors. Have a system in place to welcome new donors so they feel valued and appreciated right from the start.
6. Try a new idea
This is the perfect chance to try something new. Your #GivingTuesday goal will probably be a smaller one and you’ll be attracting lots of new donors, so this is your best opportunity of the year to try new ideas.
NonProfit Website Checkup For Year-End Success
Website Check Up
October is the perfect time to get your website ready for year-end success! 270 million Americans use the internet daily on any number of devices. For great advice on how to improve your website, watch now.
Be Mobile Friendly
Did you know that more than half of your internet traffic is coming from mobile devices but that only a third of websites are mobile responsive? Make sure your website looks good on your mobile. It must be neat, simple, organized, and have great content. And it must have a prominent donate now button. Do a mobile friendly test like the one available from Google, to make sure it works perfectly.
Keep Them On Your Site!
Don’t surprise your visitor with cumbersome external sites. You want to keep potential donors on your website while they are entering their donation information.
Get First Time Visitors Involved
Create a way first-time visitors can communicate with you. Have a newsletter sign up or an opt-in page for first time visitors so they stay connected. This will make them more likely to come back and make a donation.
Are They Ready?
Visitors who click the “donate now” button on nonprofit sites are usually ready to make a donation. First time donation page visitors are 44% more likely to give than previous visitors. So keep them there the first time they visit with an easy to use, easy to find Donate Button.
Create a Landing/Campaign Page
To retain and grow your supporters, engage and inform your website visitors about the progress of your campaigns and projects. Your supporters want real time updates to feel connected and to entice them to continue supporting our project. A great way to do this is by creating a campaign page that your donors can visit to keep up with your goals, progress, and successes.
Don’t disregard BabyBoomers
Many of us think of baby boomers as non-internet users. But the fact is, our baby boomers are spending an average of 38 hours a month online. In fact, 70% of baby boomers have a Facebook account.
Donate Now Button!!!
This is the most important action item! Make sure you have a prominent donate now button. It should be way up on top, and easy to use. If potential donors have to search for your donation page, they’ll move on and make their donation elsewhere.
Steps a nonprofit must take now for year-end fundraising success.
Originally a Facebook Live Presentation, setting up a plan for year-end giving for your nonprofit with less than 100 days left for 2017 fundraising.
Here are steps you can take now for year-end blockbuster fundraising success.
Make Monthly Giving work for in time for year-end success!
It’s never been more important to put Monthly Giving ‘front and center’ in all your donor communications! Learn how to make it work for you and your year-end success!
