As your year-end donations come in, you may have some new donors. If you get new donors this year, don’t take that for granted.
In this tumultuous year, these donors saw a need and found a connection to your cause. Maybe you’re a food bank that’s seeing a record number of people. Perhaps you’re a beloved performing arts organization that’s temporarily closed.
Unfortunately, the likelihood these donors will stick with you is questionable. Even in the best of times, the retention rate for new donors is a little over 20%.
One of the many lessons from this pandemic is the importance of having long-term donors who will stick with you when you need them most. Therefore, it’s more important than ever to hang on to your new donors.
Start with a special thank you
Go the extra mile when you thank your new donors.
If someone donates online, it’s hard to tailor the thank you email specifically to new donors. But you can do that with a phone call, handwritten note, or thank you letter.
Try to call your new donors or send a handwritten note. This will make a great impression on them. Get together a group of board members, other volunteers, and staff to help you.
*Make sure these are actually new donors. A good database will help you avoid any snafus.*
Create a welcome plan
A week or two after the initial thank you, send a welcome package. You can do this by mail, email, or a combination of both.
Welcome your new donors. Thank them again and show them other ways they can connect with you. Invite them to subscribe to your newsletter, join you on social media, and volunteer (most likely virtually for now).
Your welcome package should include a warm introductory message and a few facts about your organization, but don’t brag too much. Keep it donor-centered. You could also direct people to your website for more information about your organization.
Be careful about how much information you send. Donors want to feel welcome not overwhelmed.
I don’t recommend sending unsolicited swag. You could offer your new donors a gift and they can let you know if they want to receive it, but it’s not necessary. I don’t like it when organizations send me things I don’t need, such as a wall calendar.
What donors really want from you is to know how they’re helping you make a difference.
They could be event attendees, volunteers, or newsletter subscribers. If you know, refer to that in your thank you note, letter, or phone call. If not, send a short survey with your welcome package and ask, “How did you hear about us?” or “What drew you to our organization?”
Another question to ask is whether your donors prefer print or electronic communication. Short surveys are also a good way to connect throughout the year. The more you know about your donors the easier it will be to communicate with them.
Make your current donors feel special, too
While I’ve been focusing on new donors in this post, retention rates for current donors have also been declining. The biggest hurdle is getting from the first to the second gift. That second gift is known as the golden donation. But don’t stop there. You want a third and a fourth, etc. donation.
If you’re not acknowledging a donor’s past support, you’re making a huge mistake. Imagine how you would feel if you gave to an organization for over five years and they never thank you for your long-time support.
These valuable, long-term donors could leave at any time, so ignore them at your own peril. Remember the importance of long-term donors. Make sure they get a special thank you from you.
Keep it up throughout the year
You should know you need to communicate with your donors regularly, especially now. Plan on special mailings or emails specifically targeted to new donors. Try to send something by mail if you can. It’s more personal and your donors are more likely to see it.
Think of other ways to do something special for your new donors too, such as offering virtual tours or an invitation to a Zoom discussion.
Of course, don’t ignore your other donors. Keep reaching out – at least once or twice a month.
Show appreciation and share updates. A huge factor in donor retention is a good donor relations plan that you’ll carry out regularly as long as your donors support you, which hopefully will be for many years.
Fundraising during a pandemic can be a challenge. Check out our top four strategies for maintaining revenue and morale at your nonprofit during COVID-19.
By Leigh Kessler
Nonprofits all across the globe have been met with substantial and unprecedented financial challenges so far this year.
As a result of widespread unemployment and economic hardships, many generous donors have had to press pause on their financial support of charitable causes. Therefore, organizations that depend highly on individual donations have seen significant drops in fundraising revenue.
Additionally, the seamless flow of day-to-day operations has been disrupted as some of the most powerful and profitable fundraising events had to be canceled or postponed.
While you may have some doubts about continuing fundraising practices during the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s crucial that you don’t quit altogether. Instead, here are some best practices to consider as you rework your fundraising strategy to meet the shifting demands you’re encountering.
Use data-driven fundraising strategies.
Implement a multi-channel approach.
Consider a virtual fundraising event.
Make the most of matching gifts.
Even if you chose to scale back your fundraising outreach at the beginning of the pandemic, it’s crucial that you continue to implement strategic donor retention practices. This way, you can engage supporters for the long haul and your post-pandemic fundraising will be off to a great start. Are you ready to learn more about keeping your nonprofit afloat in a season of financial uncertainty? Let’s jump in!
1. Use data-driven fundraising strategies.
Ensuring effective fundraising strategies is one of the most important processes involved in successfully running any organization. That being said, it’s essential that you don’t leave your fundraising plans up to chance. Instead, use previously collected fundraising data to inform your future strategy.
Ask yourself questions such as:
What is your average donation size? Has it increased or decreased recently?
What is your average frequency of donations? Has it changed recently?
How many new donors have you acquired during the pandemic?
Which types of campaigns have brought in the highest revenue in the past?
Thankfully, with the right nonprofit CRM software, this information (and much more) can be waiting right at your fingertips. Now, you can craft your fundraising plan based on this data to better refine your tactics to target your ideal audience.
Once you’ve established your data-driven fundraising goals, it’s time to get the word out about your upcoming campaign.
According to AccuData’s handy guide to effective data marketing, data-driven strategies aren’t limited to just setting goals. It’s also best employed for your outreach plan to ensure you have an informed communication plan as well. For instance, using this data to set up a multi-channel fundraising strategy will result in your messages getting across to more supporters.
In other words, make note of which communication strategies have seen the most success in your previous marketing strategies and go from there.
2. Implement a multi-channel approach.
As you begin supporter outreach to solicit donations, diversify your communication strategy so your reach stretches further across channels, networks, and communities.
Keep in mind that your donors want to hear from you — and the most effective way to do that will often require a combination of tactics. After all, in a world so saturated with marketing materials, a single-channel approach can be too easily drowned out and lead to substantial missed opportunities. That’s where multi-channel fundraising comes in.
Email: Email is a popular method of donor communication and fundraising requests for many reasons. For one thing, your team can quickly and easily send messages to thousands of recipients at once, even while automating content customization for each recipient. After all, personalized emails are known to generate a median ROI of 122% as compared to their generic counterparts. Use marketing software to automatically put the individual’s name in the salutation, personalize ask amounts, and to craft messages specifically for certain donor segments.
Direct mail: While more costly than email, direct mail can be a great way to gain supporter attention and really make your organization (and your fundraising appeals) stand out. That’s because a direct mailing provides a physical reminder of your cause that can keep you at top of mind for longer periods of time. Plus, studies show that the human mind is able to better retain information on paper as compared to on a screen.
Phone: Encompassing both text and voice calls, phone communication is an effective way to grab your desired audience’s attention. Besides face-to-face interactions (which are significantly limited right now), phone and video calls are the most personal fundraising approach possible. That can be extremely worthwhile when targeting your mid-to high-range donors.
Social media: Your social media platforms are a fantastic way to engage with new and potential donors who you may not already have on your email or mailing lists. Plus, you can encourage dedicated supporters to interact with and share your posts with their own networks, effectively expanding your reach in seconds.
One common mistake made by many organizations attempting a multi-channel campaign is using the same fundraising messages and tactics across each channel. However, this does not give your team the room to accommodate for differences in mediums, and therefore risks a repetitive and unintuitive approach. Instead, adjust your strategy for each communication platform, while maintaining the same overarching campaign message.
3. Consider a virtual fundraising event.
Just because in-person events are canceled for the time being doesn’t mean you can’t find new and exciting ways to engage your audience while raising money for your cause. In fact, organizations all over the world are turning to virtual fundraising events as a powerful alternative to traditional face-to-face interactions.
If you’re interested in pivoting an existing event to the virtual space or planning a new one from scratch, these are a few of our favorite suggestions:
Online auctions: Charity auctions are a favorite fundraiser for many, and with the right tools, they can be easily transitioned to a virtual fundraising event. Collect items to auction off, then upload pictures and descriptions to a detailed auction catalog. When the event begins, encourage donors to bid on their favorites from the comfort of their own homes.
Virtual walk-a-thons: Using a smartphone app or another tracking device, encourage supporters to take part in a virtual run or walk-a-thon. Participants can reach out to family and friends asking them to make a pledge, then the supporter completes the physical activity in a local park or another remote location.
Digital classes: With all this time stuck at home, many people are taking up new hobbies. You can leverage that trend with digital classes— some of our favorites include cooking classes and art workshops. Find an experienced individual willing to teach and have them explain their skill step-by-step over a live-streamed platform.
For more ideas and best practices, take a look at CharityEngine’s guide to pulling off virtual fundraising events. More than likely, your donors will jump at the chance to get involved with a fundraiser during a time when most of their favorite events are no longer possible.
4. Make the most of matching gifts.
Matching gift programs are one aspect of corporate philanthropy that can significantly boost any organizations’ fundraising revenue without a ton of extra effort. Although corporate philanthropy is a powerful fundraising tool at any time, its potential in the current economic climate is something that you do not want to miss out on.
Here are a few reasons why a matching gift database with an easy-to-use employer search tool is one of the smartest investments any nonprofit can make, especially during a financial crisis:
Donors are more likely to give. Now more than ever, many of your supporters are likely on the fence about giving. They may be asking themselves things like, “is it a smart financial decision to donate right now?” Luckily, matching gift eligibility might be just the deciding factor. Studies show that more than 84% of donors are more likely to give if they’re aware that a company will match their gift.
Donors tend to make larger donations. In the same way, many donors tend to increase their donation size if they know it’s being matched. When an individual is aware that their gift can make double (or even triple) the impact, they’re more likely to contribute more in the first place.
Donors can request a match from a previous gift. Even for your supporters who are unable to make additional donations at the moment, matching gifts provide a unique opportunity to help out and further your cause. Since most companies allow employees to request donation matches for up to a year after the initial gift, many of your past donors are likely still eligible!
Plus, many employers are even expanding their matching gift programs for the remainder of the year as a result of the pandemic and its health, economic, and social consequences. Companies are offering higher ratios or match limits to encourage their employees to help out in any way they can. Check out this list of top participating employers and their program adjustments for more information.
Regardless of the fundraising strategies you choose, it’s crucial that you don’t neglect the importance of effectively thanking your donors. Especially in a time like now, showing your appreciation is more important than ever to build donor relationships.
With these best practices (and the right tools), you’ll be well-equipped to bring your nonprofit team out to the other side. Plus, tips like these can set you up for future success down the line. Good luck!
Leigh Kessler is VP of Marketing and Communications at donor management software platform CharityEngine and a frequent speaker on branding, fundraising, data and technology. He is a former nationally touring headline comedian and has appeared on numerous TV shows including VH1’s “Best Week Ever”, CNN’s “Showbiz Tonight”, Discovery Channel & Sirius Radio. He has overseen and informed research and branding strategies for some of the most well known brands in America.
I imagine most of you are familiar with #GivingTuesday, the annual giving day that takes place the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. This year it will be on December 1.
I don’t need to remind you the world is in a very different place than it was last year at this time. You can’t run the same type of #GivingTuesday campaign you’ve run in the past. What I mean is just blasting a bunch of generic appeals that resemble Black Friday ads or those relentless requests for political donations.
Perhaps you’re one of the few organizations that sent more personalized appeals. If so, kudos to you because that’s what everyone needs to do this year. I think this can happen because I did see more personalized, nuanced appeals during #GivingTuesdayNow in the spring.
I’m not going to tell you whether or not you should participate in #GivingTuesday. Perhaps you’ve participated in the past and it’s been successful, or maybe it wasn’t. Perhaps you’re planning to participate for the first time. Maybe it’s just too hard to do right now.
Whether you participate or not, #GivingTuesday is now part of the nonprofit landscape and if you’re doing a year-end appeal, you’ll need to factor it into your campaign.
Here a few things to keep in mind for #GivingTuesday 2020.
People want to give if they can
Your donors want to give if they can. That means you should be fundraising. Many people give at year-end so it’s a good idea to run some type of campaign, even if you don’t participate in #GivingTuesday.
As I’ve mentioned many times, you can’t raise money if you don’t ask.
Just because it’s #Giving Tuesday isn’t compelling enough
I’ve seen so many emails that say donate because it’s #GivingTuesday. Many donors don’t care if it’s #GivingTuesday or it’s your “annual appeal.” That’s often not why they donate. They give because they care about your cause and want to help make a difference.
It’s not just about the money either
A successful #GivingTuesday campaign is about more than just raising a lot of money. You also want to build relationships and make your donors feel good about supporting your organization. This is where it often falls short.
I haven’t been a huge fan of #GivingTuesday or any giving days, for that matter, because they focus too much on getting donations. Many of these donors are first-time donors who don’t give again. The end result is you’ve just spent a lot of time and effort on getting one-time gifts. That’s not what you want right now. You need donors who will support you for many years.
You must address the current situations
Your appeals need to address how the pandemic and economic downturn are affecting your clients/community. Don’t send generic appeals that are basically begging for donations.
Segmentation is crucial
Speaking of generic, many organizations send the same appeals to everyone. Don’t do that.
If someone donated last year on #GivingTuesday, this is the perfect opportunity to thank them for that gift and ask them to donate again this year. If they donated two weeks ago, maybe they shouldn’t get an appeal right now.
Also, if you’re sending an appeal to your monthly donors, recognize them as monthly donors. They can either upgrade or give an additional gift. They get their own thank you, too.
Now that you’ve segmented your donors, you can do a better job of building those important relationships. Keep your appeal donor-centered. Thank current donors and find a way to make a connection with potential donors.
Use #GivingTuesday as a way to follow up with your donors
If you don’t want to launch a full #Giving Tuesday campaign (understandable), it can be a great opportunity to follow up with people who haven’t donated to your year-end appeal. You should be sending regular reminders, anyway.
Send email and social media messages before and on #Giving Tuesday encouraging people to donate. You can use the #GivingTuesday logos, etc. if you’d like. Obviously, you’ll want to keep following up with anyone who didn’t donate on #GivingTuesday.
Keep in mind your donors will be barraged with email and social media messages on #GivingTuesday. Make yours stand out and be prepared to keep following up.
Next comes the gratitude
Your donors should be feeling the love right after they make their donation.
Make sure you have an engaging thank you landing page and thank you email for your online donors. You could even create ones especially for #GivingTuesday. Then you need to follow that with a phone call, handwritten note, or thank you letter.
Send welcome packets to new donors or welcome back messages to current donors. That’s also very important now.
#GivingTuesday has had a transactional feel to it, although it doesn’t need to. Go the extra mile and do a good job of thanking these donors – both right after they’ve made their donation and throughout the year.
Maybe you’ll decide to bypass #GivingTuesday all together. Keep in mind other organizations will be participating and your messages will be competing with the onslaught of #GivingTuesday appeals.
You have an opportunity to stand out here by keeping your fundraising campaign focused on gratitude and relationship building. Year-end is a good time to ramp up your donor communication (examples include thank you messages, holiday greetings, and updates) so people don’t think you’re only asking them for money.
I think you’ll find your #GivingTuesday campaign, or any fundraising campaign, will be more successful if you focus on more than just the giving part. And a big part of a successful campaign is getting repeat donations. This means giving back to your donors, as well.
Crowdfunding is a flexible and relatively easy way to tap into supporters’ generosity. Learn the best tactics to see long-term benefits from your campaign.
By Lomesh Shah
As a result of COVID-19, it’s now more important than ever to actively engage your supporters and keep them up to date with your nonprofit’s latest happenings. With year-end fundraisingcampaigns quickly approaching, you want your nonprofit to be at the forefront of your supporters’ minds.
The needs that your constituents and communities face are still as present as ever, so it’s crucial to continue raising support and awareness for your cause.
The technique of crowdfunding helps individuals and nonprofits alike raise needed support quickly and across a large donor base. Not only does crowdfunding raise funds and awareness for your nonprofit, but it can help you recruit donors and strengthen those donor relationships.
Curious about what the crowdfunding process looks like? It’s a fairly straightforward technique whether you’re raising funds as an individual or as a nonprofit. Organizations create campaigns with fixed, often short-term timelines that are designed to raise funds for a specific project.
First, you select your platform and set up your campaign. Next, promote your fundraiser and watch your progress. Finally, thank your generous donors for their support!
Today, we’ll take a look at the best practices for maximizing your crowdfunding efforts and a few other helpful tips to benefit your nonprofit as a whole. Here’s an overview of the tips we’ll suggest:
Embrace the Versatility of Crowdfunding
Keep Your Donors Updated
Promote Matching Gifts to Donors Post-Contribution
Actively Promote Your Campaign Supporters
Utilize Engaging Content
Ready to learn more about the best way to improve your fundraising? Let’s dive in.
Tip #1: Embrace the Versatility of Crowdfunding
One massive benefit of raising money through crowdfunding? Its wide array of options! You can raise funds for pretty much any project you or your organization can think of. Crowdfunding campaigns can be adapted for any type of nonprofit project, occur on shorter time frames, and typically have lower goals than full-scale fundraising campaigns. These give you a lot of flexibility that you wouldn’t necessarily get with a major campaign that requires more investment of your time and resources to plan.
For nonprofits, crowdfunding reduces many restrictions and provides unmatched flexibility for your fundraising needs.
While crowdfunding is extremely versatile, you have to make sure your supporters will be motivated to support your campaign. A specific, timely project related to your nonprofit’s mission or operations will be the most effective choice. This will engage existing donors and attract new donors who will be likely to stick around with your organization after the crowdfunding campaign ends.
Tip #2: Keep Your Donors Updated
As you set up your crowdfunding campaign and invite donors to contribute, it’s vital to keep those generous supporters up to date on your campaign. Set up a system to inform donors on the latest happenings in your organization and your progress towards your crowdfunding goals. Do this weekly, if you can.
Remember, donors want to see and hear about the ways their money is having an impact on your mission, so keeping them informed not only keeps them happy, but encourages them to give, and give again. In order to keep these donor updates professional and consistent, it’s a good idea to invest in a high-quality constituent relationship management system (also known as a CRM).
Consistent updates show your supporters that you’re personally invested in your campaign and encourages them to share it with their own networks. According to Fundly’s statistics, crowdfunding campaigns that updated their supporters at least every 5 days raised 3 times more in donations than less communicative campaigns.
Communicating updates on your campaign’s progress is vital for its success. Having a weekly outlet to do this makes it easier to boost energy if you’re falling behind or to give donors new ways to engage with your nonprofit if your campaign is attracting a lot of support.
Tip #3: Promote Matching Gifts
One commonly forgotten aspect of crowdfunding is additional promotion of donations and engagement after your supporters have contributed.
After receiving a generous contribution, try engaging even further with your supporters by promoting matching gifts. Through these programs, donations might be financially matched by the donor’s employer. Donors love to see their contribution grow, so by reminding them to check on matching donations, you’re giving your supporters the opportunity to see their gift literally double. Ask them to check their eligibility in your follow-up messages after they make a donation.
Contrary to popular belief, many companies are actively growing their matching gift programs amid COVID-19. These gifts are often underused, so take advantage of the opportunities that most people easily miss! While some companies offer matching gifts at a 1:1 ratio, many also offer 2:1 or 3:1 options! Matching gifts are a great way to help your fundraising team succeed, and they also lay the groundwork for long-term engagement and support after your crowdfunding campaign ends.
Tip #4: Actively Promote Your Campaign to Supporters Via Email & Social Media
Crowdfunding doesn’t work unless you spread the word. Without successful promotion, supporters will be less likely to see and engage with your campaign. When you raise awareness, you give your organization the opportunity to speak for itself.
Promoting your campaign on social media is a great way to get it in front of a wide audience and encourage supporters to share it with their own networks. Additionally, email marketing is still one of the most efficient ways to get your message out and see tangible results, so embrace the ability to put a message directly in your supporters’ inboxes and see higher numbers in giving. Check out these email statistics from DNL OmniMedia:
Run, walk, and ride fundraisers that used email marketing raised 76% more than those that didn’t.
Email messages drove 28% of all online fundraising revenue for nonprofits in 2017.
Over 50% of people who receive an email about a crowdfunding campaign donate.
Email marketing is an extremely effective way to share updates with your existing supporters and generate more interest in your crowdfunding campaign. Once you’ve successfully captivated your audience via email, you can encourage them to share your campaign on social media to reach new supporters and begin building more relationships.
Tip #5: Put Your Heart Into Your Content
In a time when maintaining your audience’s interest is everything, prioritize content that will grab their attention and hold it. Whether it’s through offering incentives or using multimedia, your message needs to get across in an engaging way.
Your organization is fighting for a cause that’s near and dear to your heart. It’s crucial that your audience gets a window into that emotional connection that your organization holds. Let your prospective donors see how much your campaign means to your organization by creating unique photo and video content that tells the story of your mission and how your specific project (and their support) will help fund it.
Incentives are another fantastic way to make content worth engaging with. For various giving levels of your crowdfunding campaign, offer gift incentives that will excite your audience. Whether it’s a free t-shirt or tickets to your organization’s next virtual event, offer a gift that will engage your audience and thank them for their contribution. When your donors are excited about what they’re getting, they’re more likely to turn to social media and share their big news, resulting in more shared content for your organization.
At the end of the day, nonprofits are in uncharted territory when it comes to effective fundraising in a pandemic. As your organization heads forward, remember to focus on doing your best and not get too dragged down by new challenges.
Fortunately, people want to help and support those most hurting. It’s important to not get too discouraged and instead focus on all the good your organization can bring to the world with the money you raise.
Crowdfunding is a flexible and relatively easy way to tap into supporters’ generosity and investment in your mission. You’ll just have to back it up with the right communication, engagement, and promotional tactics to see long-term benefits from your campaign.
Lomesh Shah has over 25 years of experience in international corporate leadership with a strong emphasis on marketing technology and data management systems. Lomesh has worked with small to mid-size businesses, privately-held companies and Fortune 500 corporations in various capacities; from sales and marketing to overseeing automation and re-engineering of processes and operations.
As CEO of Fundly, Lomesh spends much of his time immersed in the nonprofit industry both as an industry leader, speaker, and in service to several organizations as a board member and volunteer. Outside of the industry, Lomesh is a technology junkie and will give anyone willing to listen an assessment of the latest trends in anything from espresso makers and mobile gadgets to electric cars and wind power.
A few weeks ago I mentioned one of the themes for your fundraising and communications this year should be this is more important than ever. I don’t need to remind you we’re not living in normal times.
I know you have a lot going on and it may be tempting to send all your donors the same appeal and thank you letter. Don’t do that.
Your donors are not the same. Some donors have given for at least five years (these donors should get a lot of attention). Some are monthly donors. Yet, nonprofit organizations fail to recognize that and send everyone a one-size-fits-all letter.
This is why you need to segment your donors. If you don’t segment your donors and send different letters to different types of donors, you’re telling them you don’t recognize them for who they are.
Don’t worry, you don’t need to create 100 different types of letters. Four or five should be sufficient. Your appeal and thank you letter will stand out if it’s not the same old, same old.
Here are a few different types of donor groups. Feel free to add more if that’s relevant. The more you can segment, the better. Investing in a good database will help you with this.
Current single gift donors
One of the biggest hurdles nonprofits face is ensuring first-time donors give a second time. If they keep giving after that, they’re showing their commitment to your organization. Don’t blow it by ignoring this.
An appeal letter to current single gift donors (Monthly donors get their own appeal. More on that below.) must acknowledge their past support. This is also a good opportunity to ask for an upgrade. Many organizations don’t do this, but it’s a good way to increase your revenue. Even in a pandemic and economic downturn, it’s okay to ask donors to give a little more. They will if they can.
If these donors give again, they should get a handwritten note, phone call, or letter letting them know how much you appreciate their continued support. If they’ve upgraded their gift, acknowledge that, too.
Potential/new single gift donors
If you’re sending an appeal to someone who’s never donated to your nonprofit before, what is your connection to them? Are they volunteers, event attendees, or people on a list you purchased?
The more you can establish a connection, the better chance you have of getting a donation.
The retention rate for first-time donors is terrible. One of the reasons is poor communication. You can help boost your retention rate by making your new donors feel special.
New donors should get a handwritten note, phone call, or letter welcoming them as donors. Invite them to connect with you in other ways such as signing up for your newsletter, following you on social media, or volunteering.
Then a week or so later, send them a welcome packet by mail or email. Personalization is crucial with new donors.
Brand new donors who opt for monthly or other recurring donations get the same special thank you treatment mentioned above. Welcome them to your family of monthly donors.
Current monthly donors
Your current monthly donors must get their own appeal that recognizes them as monthly donors. In this appeal, you can either ask them to upgrade their gift or give an additional year-end gift.
When your donors renew or upgrade their monthly gifts, they, of course, get a super fabulous thank you.
Current donors who become monthly donors
Your current donors who decide to become monthly donors are also showing their commitment to you. They get a handwritten note, phone call, or letter thanking them for their continued support and for joining your family of monthly donors. From now on they should get specialized appeals and other communication targeted to monthly donors.
Segmenting your donors can pay off
In this down economy, some donors may cut back on their giving. Don’t let them choose between organizations that communicate throughout the year with engaging, personalized appeals, thank yous, and updates and organizations who just send generic, one-size-fits-all communications.
You need your donors. Spending extra time segmenting your donors and personalizing your communications will be worth it if you can raise additional revenue and boost your retention rate.
User experience is one of the core components of a long-lasting and valuable nonprofit website. Learn more about its importance to help your organization.
By Anne Stefanyk
Life is naturally full of both good and bad experiences. And, if something was especially bad, people don’t hesitate to hop on Yelp and write a scathing review. That’s why restaurants and other attractions take the time to set up an ambiance and cultivate an engaging experience. Why shouldn’t your nonprofit website take the same approach?
If your website doesn’t take into account its user experience (UX), you’re taking a risk that visitors will never come back again. No matter how deeply they connect to your cause, a website that takes too long to load, is difficult to navigate, or seems unsafe will drive away supporters and give your organization a bad online rep.
Prioritizing website user experience is one of the best ways to set up your site for long-term health and keep it in good shape. Specifically, a dedicated and comprehensive nonprofit website user experience strategy can:
Help increase fundraising for your organization
Expand your nonprofit audience
Improve relationships with donors
This guide will dive deep into the above reasons to help you not only get to know your supporters better, but also provide some key tips to optimize your online presence.
1. Help increase fundraising for your organization
Imagine your website as an extension of your nonprofit’s office — donors should be able to ask questions, find out about current campaigns, and most importantly make a donation. But instead of having to deal with the hassle of driving (no one likes traffic!) and taking a large chunk out of their day, supporters can simply check out your website! And during the pandemic, it may not be easy to visit your nonprofit.
Just like your nonprofit’s office, your website should be inviting and informational. This can be done with the right design elements and user experience strategy.
For instance, consider the natural flow of how a visitor might find your website and make an online gift. This could include checking out your Mission Statement page, reviewing past accomplishments, and exploring current and upcoming events. Who knows, maybe one of these pages will spark inspiration to give! A clear navigation menu pointing to these popular landing pages is a great way to meet your user’s needs in an accessible and convenient way.
To take it a step further, carefully place calls-to-action (CTA) throughout those pages that take users to your donation form. Let’s say a supporter is inspired to give after reading about a successful past campaign. A CTA leverages this moment of inspiration and offers convenient access to making that gift. Eye-catching, bright buttons and high-quality graphics linked to your donation page are great ways to funnel supporters to contributing in an engaging and seamless way!
Your donation page is where your online fundraising happens. There are a couple of on-page site elements that can further streamline user experience and increase fundraising, so let’s review some key donation page best practices:
Customized donation forms. Don’t make the mistake of depending on lengthy donation form templates. Customized forms ensure you only ask the necessary questions and don’t take too much of your donor’s time.
Branded, embedded donation forms. Make sure your form is branded to your organization, embedded within your donation page, and doesn’t send donors to a third-party site. This keeps the user experience streamlined, while also building the relationship between the donor and your brand.
Recurring donation options within the donation form. This enables users to easily turn their gift into a more consistent and long-term form of support.
Suggested giving amounts. This can make it a little easier for the supporters who don’t know exactly how much to give, and can even entice them to give a little more if their original gift is slightly under a suggested amount. Consider also providing the impact along with each suggested amount!
Embed a matching gift database. According to Double the Donation, an estimated $4-$7 billion in matching gift funds goes unclaimed each year. This is largely due to donors simply not knowing they’re eligible! With a searchable matching gift database right within your donation page, donors can easily look up their employer and find out the steps to increase their original gift — all without interrupting the user experience.
Include a social sharing option. After a supporter completes their donation, it’s a great idea to provide a CTA encouraging them to share their recent gift on social media. This is an easy way to also reach new prospective donors and even increase fundraising!
From leading users to your online donation page to optimizing the page itself, your nonprofit website’s user experience is key to planning out design elements that can help you increase your fundraising.
2. Expand your audience
Your website’s user experience can not only help you engage current supporters, but can even expand your organization’s audience. This is because a key component of website user experience involves web accessibility.
According to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), “The Web is fundamentally designed to work for all people, whatever their hardware, software, language, location, or ability. When the Web meets this goal, it is accessible to people with a diverse range of hearing, movement, sight, and cognitive ability.” If you want to prioritize user experience, you have to consider it for all users.
To ensure that you’re meeting accessibility standards and reaching as wide of an audience as possible, it’s important to review the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines WCAG’s core principles of accessible design. This includes:
Perceivable information and intuitive user interface (UI)
Operable UI and navigation
Understandable information and UI
Robust content and reliable interpretation
Using these principles, here are a couple of steps you can take right now to ensure your website is accessible and that you prioritize user experience:
Make sure all non-text content (image, video, audio) also has a text alternative for those with visual impairments.
Stay away from too many sensory characteristics such as sound and appearance to convey important information.
Avoid flashy elements and bright lights to protect those who might experience seizures.
Provide clear page titles and make sure entry fields always include labels or instructions.
Offer translation tools so users from all over the world can visit your website.
Web accessibility is all about making sure your website is usable by all. With a dedicated user experience strategy for your website, you not only improve accessibility standards but also can expand your audience. After all, one of the best parts of the internet is the ability to meet different types of people that you might not meet if you were confined to in-person interactions. For all you know, some of your biggest supporters could be across the globe!
3. Improve relationships with supporters
In the end, your nonprofit website user experience is all about your supporters. The better your website engages supporters and provides them with the resources they seek, the stronger and more reliable your relationship with them will be.
If you want to improve relationships with supporters, you have to dive deeper into the types of visitors who engage with your website. Using the insights from Kanopi’s article, consider how outlining user stories can help you identify your supporters’ goals and align them with your own nonprofit website strategy.
User stories are all about creating clarity and prioritizing user needs. Put simply, it’s a way for your marketing team to improve user experience and ensure your website is meeting your supporters’ demands. Your own user stories should look something like this: “As a [end user], I want [some goal] so that [some reason].”
End user. Who is the person visiting your site? Are they a past donor or a new supporter?
Their goal. What does the user need to be able to do? Are they looking to make a donation? Are they browsing local events to get involved in or seeking purely online ways to support your organization?
The reason. Why does the user need to be able to perform this action? How can marketing leaders use this context to better design their website?
Once you have your user stories, it’s now time for the fun part! How can you brainstorm actionable ways for your website to complete your user stories?
For instance, let’s say one of your user stories states “As a recurring volunteer, I want a simple way to learn about events so I can sign up quickly.” To complete this story, you might incorporate an event calendar right within your homepage. On top of that, embed a form where users can opt-in to event alerts through email or text! This way, your website meets your users’ needs and sets the stage for future engagement.
Long-lasting relationships are the best foundation for growing nonprofit organizations, and your website can be a key instrument in this strategy! Your website’s user experience can either build a positive relationship, encouraging the donor to continue visiting the site, or it can be the very obstacle leading to decreasing donor retention rates. With some thought and effort, you can keep supporters on the right path.
Your nonprofit website’s user experience should take both your supporters’ needs and your organization’s goals into account. Consider how key design elements can lead site visitors to your online donation page as well as increase overall web accessibility.
Hopefully, this guide has given you insight into not only why user experience is important, but how you can improve your own website. By improving user experience, you can increase fundraising, expand your audience, and improve supporter relationships!
As Founder and CEO of Kanopi Studios, Anne Stefanyk helps create clarity around project needs, and turns client conversations into actionable outcomes. She enjoys helping clients identify their problems, and then empowering the Kanopi team to execute great solutions.
Anne is an advocate for open source and co-organizes the Bay Area Drupal Camp. When she’s not contributing to the community or running her thoughtful web agency, she enjoys yoga, meditation, treehouses, dharma, cycling, paddle boarding, kayaking, and hanging with her nephew.
Many people donate online now. There’s a good reason for this. It’s usually fast and easy, or at least it should be. You may be opting for an online only year-end campaign this fall, although I do recommend mailing an appeal letter if you can.
One issue with online donations is the poor thank yous that come after your donor has given you a gift. I like to think of what happens after someone donates online as a thank you experience, which consists of a thank you landing page, thank you email, and a thank you by mail or phone, plus additional bursts of gratitude throughout the year.
Even though your thank you landing page and thank you email are automatically generated, it doesn’t mean they need to sound like they were written by a robot.
There’s a human being on the other end and they just did something great by donating to your organization. Don’t they deserve to be lavished with gratitude? Of course they do. Especially in 2020, possibly one of the worst years ever, when we’re dealing with so much and missing out on personal connections.
It’s not hard to make your online thank yous more personal. Here’s what you need to do.
Use words that convey gratitude
First, make a list of words you associate with gratitude. Did you come up with words such as transaction and processed? I hope not, although those are words I often see after I make an online gift. I cringe every time I see transaction complete or your gift was successfully processed.
Words matter and some words of gratitude include appreciate, grateful, and of course, thank you.
Think of the donations you receive as the start or continuation of a relationship and not a transaction.
Make a good first impression with your thank you landing page
Your landing page is your first chance to say thank you and it’s usually about as engaging as an Amazon receipt. In fact, I’ve seen online shopping receipts that are more personal than some nonprofit “thank you” landing pages.
Remember to use words that convey gratitude. You could open with Thank you, Kara! or You’re amazing! Capture your donor’s attention with an engaging photo or video. You could also create athank you word cloud. Include a short, easy to understand description of how the donation will help your clients/community during these uncertain times.
Invite donors to connect with you in other ways such as signing up to receive your newsletter, following you on social media, and volunteering.
If you use a third-party giving site, you might be able to customize the landing page. If you can’t, follow up with a personal thank you email message within 48 hours.
Don’t let your donors think they only made a transaction.
Write a thank you email that your donors will appreciate
Start off by thinking of a good subject line. At the very least say Thank You! and not Donation Received. Stay away from the dreaded words processed and transaction. You want your thank you email to stand out in your donor’s overflowing inbox.
Open your message with Thank You or You’re incredible, and not the usual On Behalf of X organization. Then let your donors know how they’re helping you make a difference for your clients/community.
You want to follow the rules of writing a good thank you letter. The key word here is good. It amazes me how many thank you letters/emails don’t do a good job of saying thank you.
You won’t be able to segment much, but you should be able to distinguish between single gifts and monthly donations.
Speaking of monthly donations, many organizations send their monthly donors an email acknowledgment each month. There’s nothing wrong with that, but what’s wrong is many of these are just plain boring and usually include the same generic message each month.
Your monthly donors have made a long-term commitment to you. You can show the same commitment to them by writing a better thank you email and mixing up the content by sharing updates. This is even more important now.
You can include a donation summary or receipt with your thank you email, but that should be at the end – AFTER you pour on the gratitude. I prefer the term donation summary because it doesn’t sound as transactional.
Remember, you’re a human writing to another human. Don’t make your message sound like it was written by a robot. Write something warm and personal.
Since your thank you landing page and email are automatically generated, you can’t make them as personal as a handwritten note, phone call, or letter. That’s why you need to do at least one of those for your online donors. An online thank you is not enough. Also, your donors may not see your thank you email, but you want to make sure they feel appreciated.
You also want to keep thanking your donors throughout the year – at least once a month if you can. If it’s too hard to use mail or make phone calls right now, you can keep thanking by email, as well as social media. A personalizedthank you video is another great way to show some gratitude.
You want to give your donors a thank you experience. Your thank you landing page and email acknowledgment are just the beginning. Make them engaging and personal and keep up that theme as you continue to show gratitude to your donors throughout the year.
Personalization in your nonprofit’s marketing strategies is an important way to build relationships with your supporters to support long-term fundraising goals.
By Gerard Tonti
Personalized marketing is key for nonprofit success, especially when it comes to donor communications. Your supporters are much more likely to pay attention and feel appreciated when your nonprofit addresses them and their interests in your marketing initiatives. This helps build stronger relationships with them and maintain their support in the long-term.
Therefore, as you create your marketing plan, make sure your nonprofit effectively uses software to engage your audience and personalize outreach as much as possible.
Here at Salsa, we work with all sorts of nonprofit organizations, helping them manage data that makes personalized marketing possible. We’ve found some of the most successful strategies to connect with supporters through data and effective marketing include:
Address your supporter by name.
Employ preferred marketing channels.
Launch a new donor marketing campaign.
Segment supporters by giving level.
Consider the geographic location of supporters.
Keep an eye on engagement metrics.
The only way to completely personalize your marketing campaigns is to reach out to each supporter individually— every time. This is unrealistic and would use a lot of your organization’s resources and time.
Therefore, nonprofits have devised techniques to personalize their messaging in a timely manner. Each of these strategies requires the use of an effective donor database solution. Keep this in mind as you’re exploring these techniques.
Now, let’s get started!
1. Address your supporter by name.
This first tip might seem like a small detail, but it’s incredibly important to encourage your donors to actually read the messages you send to them. It’s a crucial step to establish a connection with your supporter, making it one of the foundations for effective communication.
Consider your mail and email communications. Are you more likely to read a message with a salutation of “Dear valued donor” or “Dear [your name]”? Probably the latter! As an example, look at the two samples from nonprofit thank-you messages:
Dear valued donor,
Thank you for your generous contribution to the buy-a-backpack campaign. Your gift is supporting the purchase of school supplies for hundreds of kids in the community.
Compare that first message to the following:
Dear Kiesha,
Thank you for your generous contribution to the buy-a-backpack campaign. Your gift of $1,000 allowed us to buy new school supplies for 100 kids in the community.
Using the supporter’s name in the introduction catches their attention and shows that the message is crafted for them rather than a mass audience.
Other details included in the message were also designed to personally address the supporter’s action, including:
Specifying the amount of the gift contributed
Communicating the impact of that specific contribution
Identifying the campaign that the supporter contributed to
By getting specific and using personal details in the messages you send supporters, you’re telling them the communication was crafted specifically for them. This establishes a more personal relationship over time.
2. Use preferred marketing channels.
There are a lot of different ways you can get in touch with your nonprofit’s supporters. However, your supporters probably check some communication channels more frequently than others.
Using the channels your supporters pay the closest attention to is a great way to boost supporter engagement with your organization.
How can you figure out which channels your supporters prefer? There are two primary ways:
Ask them. This is the easiest way to figure out your supporters’ preferences. Send them a survey and ask key questions about what messages they like the most and how they’d prefer to receive those messages.
Analyze marketing results. The other way you can discover your supporters’ preferences is by analyzing their past engagement metrics with various platforms. If you find that a supporter tends to open and click through your emails more often than other platforms, you should continue using email.
Some of the channels you may consider analyzing and asking your supporters about include:
Email
Direct mail
Phone calls
In-person meetings
Social media
After you’ve discovered the most effective and desired channels among your supporters, you can start integrating those channels into your marketing plan.
Keep in mind, however, that the most effective way to communicate with supporters is through a multi-channel marketing approach. This means your organization will use a few separate channels to touch base with each of your supporters. For instance, you may use social media for frequent updates, direct mail to inform supporters about new campaigns, and phone calls to show your appreciation to donors after they contribute.
3. Create a marketing campaign for new donors.
Many nonprofits tend to focus heavily on donor acquisition. In reality, it’s a good strategy to put more emphasis on retaining those supporters you already have. Retaining donors is a more cost-effective strategy with a higher chance of increasing your secured revenue.
Specifically, the best way to increase your donor retention rate is to make sure your new donors feel welcomed and appreciated by your nonprofit.
We suggest creating a new donor marketing campaign to accomplish this goal. An easy way to do this? Develop a drip campaign with information that will intrigue this audience. It looks like this:
Develop templates and email drafts of information that new supporters will appreciate and engage with. Make sure these emails stand out and differ from one another. For example, you might send supporters a one-pager about the need for your mission, a summary of the upcoming events or virtual opportunities offered by your organization, and updates from your most recent program, all in separate emails.
Create a donor segment of new supporters. You can set up automatic emails to send to this group of supporters using effective marketing tools. Be careful not to send the messages too frequently as to not desensitize the supporters to seeing your name in their inbox, but send them frequently enough to keep you in the front of their minds. Once or twice a week should suffice.
Provide the next step to drive engagement further for this group of supporters. For example, you might ask them to sign up for your newsletter, make a second gift, or register for your upcoming (virtual) event. Be sure to include this as an eye-catching call-to-action in your email communications.
To make this possible, your nonprofit needs both fundraising and marketing software that will work well together. Salsa’s fundraising software offers an example of a solution that has features such as rich donor profiles and a seamless integration between fundraising and marketing to help nonprofits create these useful campaigns.
4. Segment supporters by giving level.
While you undoubtedly appreciate all of your supporters, some have a greater capacity to give and the ability to drive your mission further.
That’s why as you personalize your communications, it’s important to recognize the donors with the greatest potential lifetime value so you can focus your efforts on developing a connection and relationship with them.
You can do this by segmenting your supporters by giving level (or prospective giving level if you’re usingprospect research strategies).
Major donors and major prospects should have the most personalized interactions with your organization. You may go above and beyond with these supporters by:
Setting up in-person or video meetings with them
Asking them for their opinions on your latest campaign
Giving advanced notice about major campaigns
Calling them more frequently with updates
Segmenting your donors by giving level gives your organization a better understanding of who your major prospects and donors are so you can specialize your outreach to them and make stronger connections.
5. Consider the geographic location of supporters.
One characteristic that you should consider as you personalize your communications with supporters is where they live. This has been historically important for event planning as nonprofits send specialized invitations to their supporters who live in the area where an event will occur.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and stay-at-home orders, nonprofits have realized that geographic location is a less significant factor when hosting virtual fundraising events. Handbid’s virtual event guide explains how to host these and reiterates how they can unleash greater event potential by removing geographic restrictions to attendance.
However, this doesn’t mean you should stop considering the geographic location of your supporters.
Geographic location is important for communicating impact to your donors. For example, imagine you’re a donor contributing to a nonprofit that helps provide school supplies for kids. You might feel an even greater connection to this cause if you know your contributions are helping kids in your own community.
Drawing on the ties that supporters have to their own communities helps them feel like they’re truly making a difference that they can see in their everyday lives.
6. Keep an eye on engagement metrics.
After you’ve incorporated personalization strategies into your nonprofit’s marketing plan, be sure to keep an eye on the success metrics to see how they’re performing. Consider tracking the difference in the metrics before and after you implemented personalization strategies to ensure your communication is actually improving and you’re further engaging your audience.
Some key performance metrics that you can keep an eye on include:
Email open rates
Email click-through rates
Event attendance metrics
Survey response rates
Donor retention rates
As these metrics increase and improve, your fundraising efforts should also show signs of improvement. Keep an eye on all of your metrics in your nonprofit’s CRM software. If your donor database integrates seamlessly with your marketing and fundraising solutions (like Salsa’s Smart Engagement Technology), you should be able to easily track and measure success metrics. If you want to learn more about choosing and implementing software that makes this possible, check out this handy guide.
Personalized marketing is key for your nonprofit’s increased donor engagement and retention strategies. It’s important to develop relationships and encourage a greater connection between donors and your organization. Use these six helpful strategies to get started with your organization’s personalized marketing. Good luck!
Gerard Tonti is the Senior Creative Developer at Salsa Labs, the premier fundraising software company for growth-focused nonprofits.
Gerard’s marketing focus on content creation, conversion optimization, and modern marketing technology helps him coach nonprofit development teams on digital fundraising best practices.
Matching gifts can have a huge impact on your organization. Learn how to successfully leverage this corporate giving program and boost your nonprofit’s revenue.
ByAdam Weinger
As a nonprofit professional, it can be difficult running a fundraising campaign, especially when there’s competition for funds among many organizations with similar missions. But even in the current climate,it’s important to keep fundraising.
You might have already run into scenarios where you have to get creative with your fundraising appeals in order to be successful. However, there’s an additional avenue you can take to boost your donation revenue: matching gifts.
What are matching gifts?
Matching gifts are a form of corporate philanthropy in which companies match donations their employees make to nonprofits after the employee has submitted the relevant request forms. Many companies match at the typical 1:1 ratio, but some companies will match at an even higher rate, such as 2:1 or 3:1!
Unfortunately, many organizations don’t leverage matching gifts as a primary source of revenue because they don’t have the resources, time, or staff needed to pursue it. This leaves a lot of money on the table that could otherwise go toward serving their mission.
So how can you incorporate matching gifts into your fundraising strategy?
We’ll discuss these top strategies that can help you successfully leverage matching gifts and double donations made to your nonprofit:
Use a Matching Gift Database
Incorporate Matching Gifts into Your Fundraising Events
Promote Matching Gifts Across Multiple Channels
Continue Engaging Your Supporters
Trying out these approaches can help boost your matching gift revenue without too much extra effort from your team! Let’s get started.
1. Use a Matching Gift Database
It can be a challenge to make donors aware of employer matching gift programs, especially since this opportunity doesn’t occur to most individuals! To alleviate this issue, your nonprofit can leverage a matching gift database.
A matching gift database is accessible by implementing a matching gift search tool plugin onto your donation pages, confirmation pages, and other areas of your website. All donors need to do is type in their company name, and the search tool will populate all the information they need about their employer’s matching gift program.
But it’s not just about the ease with which donors can search for their companies. It’s about raising awareness in general. Now, more than ever, it’s important to leverage matching gifts as a source of income for your organization. This is because even during a global pandemic, matching gifts are continuing to make a difference.
Many companies like the ones listed here are expanding their matching gift programs in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This means companies are increasing their match ratios, matching gift limits, and other components of their programs to better assist organizations like yours.
A matching gift database that stays up-to-date with these changes can help your nonprofit keep donors informed. And when your donors know their gift can go twice as far, they’ll be more likely to give in the first place!
We’re already halfway through August. Pandemic or not, we still have seasons and fall is traditionally fundraising season for nonprofit organizations.
If you had a campaign planned for this fall, but are thinking against it, don’t do that. You should still do your campaign. You can’t raise money if you don’t ask.
Yes, it will be harder, which is why you should start planning it now. And summer’s not over yet, so there’s still time to get ice cream and go to the beach (please stay safe and practice social distancing when you do).
Here’s a checklist to help you get started. You can also use this for fundraising campaigns at other times of the year.
How much money do you need to raise?
You may have already set a goal for your year-end campaign in your 2020 fundraising plan and most likely that has changed. Perhaps you were able to raise money earlier in the year with an emergency campaign and/or a virtual event.
There’s a good chance you need to raise more money if you’ve had to shift the way you run your programs and there’s a greater need for your services.
You must determine how much money you need to raise before you start your campaign – raising as much as we can is not a goal.
Do you have a plan?
Put together a plan for your appeal that includes a timeline, task list, and the different channels you’ll use. Make it as detailed as possible.
When do you want to launch your appeal? Plan on everything taking longer, so I think earlier is better. You’ll be competing with other organizations who are doing appeals. It’s also an election year in the United States, but that doesn’t always affect nonprofit fundraising.
Maybe you want to send your appeal letters the first week in November. If so, make your goal to have the letters done at least a week before that. Maybe more if people are working remotely.
Also, how are you mailing your appeal? Do you use a mail house or do you get staff and volunteers together to stuff envelopes? If it’s the latter, it will be harder to get a group together, so you’ll need more time.
This is going to be the year you’ll retire your boring, generic appeal letter (more on that in future posts). Your appeal must address the current situations.
A good way to start is to create an engaging story for your appeal. How are the COVID-19 pandemic, systemic racism, and the economic downturn affecting your clients/community? What challenges are they facing? Focus on them, not your organization.
You’ll want some good photos for your letter and donation page, too. Quotes from clients will also enhance your appeal.
How did/can your donors help you make a difference?
Your appeal letter should highlight some of the accomplishments you’ve made recently and state what you plan to do in the coming months. For example, let’s say you run a tutoring program. You were able to get Chromebooks for half of the students who didn’t have access to a computer so they could do their sessions remotely. You still need to buy more, and with the pandemic looming, remote sessions will be the norm for a while. This is important because thanks to your donors, regular tutoring sessions help students read at or above their grade level and that needs to continue.
Remember to focus on your clients and show how your donors are helping you make a difference or can help you make a difference. Don’t brag about your organization.
Are your mailing lists in good shape?
Make sure your postal and email mailing lists are up-to-date. Check for duplicate addresses and typos. Your donors don’t want to receive three letters at the same time or have their names misspelled.
Also, now is a good time to segment your mailing lists – current donors, monthly donors, lapsed donors, event attendees, etc. This is more important than ever. Your current donors are your best source of donations. You should have more success if you can personalize your appeal letters.
Do you have enough letterhead, envelopes, and stamps?
Don’t wait until October to check your supply of letterhead and envelopes. Make sure you have enough. Perhaps you want to produce a special outer envelope. You may also want to create some thank you cards. It could take longer to get some of these things.
Even though many people donate online, you want to make it easy for donors who prefer to mail a check. Include a pledge envelope or a return envelope and a preprinted form with the donor’s contact information and the amount of their last gift.
Stamps are more personal so you might want to find some nice ones to use.
Is it easy to donate online?
Be sure your donation page is user-friendly and consistent with your other fundraising materials. Highlight your year-end appeal on your homepage and include a prominent Donate Now button.
Do you offer a monthly or recurring giving option?
A monthly giving program is a win-winfor your organization. You can raise more money, boost your retention rate, receive a steady stream of revenue, and allow your donors to spread out their gifts.
If you don’t have a monthly giving program or you have a small one, now is an excellent time to start one or grow the one you have.
How will you thank your donors?
Spend as much time on your thank you letter/note as you do on your appeal letter and write them at the same time. You need to thank your donors, and thank them well, as soon as you receive their gifts so have a thank you letter/note ready to go.
Handwritten notes and phone calls are much better than a preprinted letter. Create or buy some thank you cards (see above) and start recruiting board members and volunteers to make thank you calls or write notes. Put together a thank you planto help you with this.
How will you keep up with your donor communication?
Even though you’ll be busy with your appeal, you want to ramp up your donor communication this fall. Keep engaging your donors and other supporters (who may become donors) by sharing updates and gratitude. Pour on the appreciation!
Send at least one warm-up letter or email. You could create a thank you video or a video that gives a behind the scenes look at your organization right now. Just don’t disappear until appeal time.
I know it will be hard this year, but you still need to run a campaign. Some donors may not give as much or at all, but others will give more. They won’t give anything if you don’t ask.
Ann Green's Nonprofit Blog 
