We’re right in the thick of year-end fundraising season. If you have a campaign underway, I hope it’s going well for you, although it may be too early to tell.

A good fundraising campaign is more than just sending out a bunch of appeals and hoping the donations come in.

I get a lot of appeals, some from organizations I support and some from ones I don’t. I’d like to share a few observations from the year-end fundraising season.

Most of what I’m going to cover focuses on organizations I already support. For those I don’t, I’ll just say your generic Dear Friend letters aren’t giving me a compelling reason to give. And that includes your triple match offer. That said, organizations I already support aren’t pouring on the inspiration either.

Fundraising is not a transaction

Don’t get me started on the transactional aspect of #Giving Tuesday. I was barraged with email appeals, many of which were not that different from the ones I received the day before on Cyber Monday.

Most of my gifts are monthly donations which automatically renew, so I didn’t make that many gifts on #GivingTuesday. I thought I was making donations, but some organizations viewed it as a transaction.

One organization’s landing page looked like this.

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THANK YOU!

You may print this page for your records. A receipt has also been emailed to you.

ORDER INFORMATION

Your Transaction has been Approved!

Merchant: xxx

Description: Donation for Specific fund

Email: agreen…

Name: Ann Green

Company:

Phone: xxx

Street Address: xxx

City: xxx

State: xxx

ZIP Code: xxx

PAYMENT INFORMATION

Amount:

Transaction ID: 61419346676

Payment Method: Visa  xxx

Date/Time

QUESTIONS?

If you have questions or need assistance with your donation, call  xxx or email us at xxx

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The thank you email they sent included the subject line – Transaction Receipt from xxx

Ugh! I made a donation not a transaction. Whatever software they’re using seems to be geared towards purchases, not donations, and that’s a problem unless they include a warm, heartfelt message with their “auto-receipt.” That didn’t happen. All I got besides Thank you for your support, was a generic description of what the organization does.

Another organization sent a transaction receipt and let me know  – This order is now complete. Transaction approved! I also received a couple of “donation receipts.”

Can we please stop using the word transaction? There’s nothing wrong with including a receipt, but that’s not the only thing you should send.

Create an amazing thank you landing page and an equally amazing thank you email and put the receipt at the end.

Four Ways to Improve Your Thank You Redirect Page to Retain More Online Donors

A little less generic communication, a little more segmentation

Actually, a lot more segmentation. Only a handful of the appeal letters I received thanked me for my past support. One letter opened with Words cannot express how grateful I am to have you as part of our team.

Most of the email appeals were just generic requests. The ones I received on #GivingTuesday made a big deal about it being #GivingTuesday. I wish they would have made a bigger deal about recognizing me personally.

One organization did acknowledge the gift I gave a year ago on #GivingTuesday, even though it was a monthly gift that automatically renews.

What I would like to see first is organizations saying thank you for being a donor, and don’t bury that at the end of the letter. Make it prominent.

Next, as someone who makes mostly monthly gifts, I want to be acknowledged as a monthly donor. These donations automatically renew, but it’s fine to ask for an additional donation or an upgrade.

After thanking me for my generous support as a monthly donor, one organization asked if I would like to make a special gift this month or increase my regular pledge. Another organization sent a request to increase my gift by $1.00 a month. Unfortunately, those are the exceptions not the rule.

It will take a little more work, but send different appeals to potential donors, current donors, and monthly donors.

Keep telling your stories

I’ll end on a more positive note. The appeals that stood out included stories, as well as photos.  One that caught my eye was a first-person story from a boy named Jacob. In his handwriting (most likely), Jacob recounts his battle with leukemia – When I was 4½, I was told that I had leukemia. For 2½ years, I went through a lot of bad stuff…… Another story came from an animal therapy dog named Tova who made a request to Help Me Help More Humans.

Taking a creative approach is much better than bragging about your organization or opening your letter by saying you have a challenge match, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but opening with a story would have been better.

If you’re not raising enough money or keeping your donors this year, you may need to look at fundraising as more than a transaction, segment your donors, and share some good stories.