1. Creating Successful Year-
End Fundraising Campaigns
Richard Dietz
Nonprofit R+D
www.nonprofitrd.com
@nonprofit_rd
#YEFR

2. Agenda
• What is a Year-End Campaign?
• Why You Need to Launch a Year-End Campaign Today
• Tools of the Trade
• Best Practices for Year-End Campaigns
• Q&A

3. Our Goals Today
• Convince you why you need to launch a Year-End
Campaign
• Provide ideas and tips to get you going or improve your
current campaign
• Get you to take action and launch the campaign ASAP
– No campaign is ever perfect or “ready”
• Start where you are now
– Only way to improve is to get something out there and test
– Pick one or two ideas and add them to your campaign
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4. New Information?
• “I already know that” / “I’ve heard that before”
• The key is what have you DONE with the information.
• Use the information here today and Take Action
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5. What is an End of Year
Campaign?
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6. Definition for End of Year Campaign
• A coordinated multi-appeal fundraising campaign that
capitalizes on the end of year giving cycles that is a part
of a larger donor cultivation system
• Key ideas from the definition
– Coordinated
– Multi-appeal
– Giving cycles
– Part of larger system (Donor Engagement)
• Also known as:
– EOY Campaign
– Year End Campaign
– Holiday Campaign
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7. Why you NEED to launch
an End of Year Campaign
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8. Why an End of Year Campaign?
• NPO’s raise from 40% to 70% of their funds at the end
of the year
– Up to 22% in the last two days of the year
• People like to give during the holiday season
• People like to get their tax breaks
• Great way to update your supporters about the year’s
accomplishments and what you have planned for the
new year
• Great opportunity to find new donors
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9. Tools of the Trade
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10. Tools of the Trade*
You only need four tools to run a solid Year-End Campaign
Online
• Place to make your case – website
• Way to take money – donation form
• Way to connect with potential donors – email marketing
• Way to track results – online analytics
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11. Best Practices and Tips
for End of Year Campaigns
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12. Best Practices - Basics
• Prepare and Plan
– But keep it simple for now
– Start from where you are and improve every year
– Use the Year End Campaign Planning eBook
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13. Best Practices - Basics
• Multiple Touch Points
– Multi-channel if possible
• Easy Donation Process
• Vivid Examples of How Donations Will be Used
– Example: 100 will provide 25 new books for the library
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14. Compelling Campaigns
• Tell a Great Story*
– Inspire them with your passion
– Individual stories are best
• People give to people
• Emotion >> Rationality
– Make it timely
– Online Video
* Templates in the eBook will help you here.
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15. Compelling Campaigns
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16. Get Your Message Heard
The end of year can be crowded and noisy….
• Timing
– Be compelling, Be First, Be Often
• Event Fundraising – The 890% Difference
– Another way to engage and stand out
– Tie the events into your end of year fundraising
– eBook – Event Fundraising Best Practices
• Create a “Signature” event or campaign
• Peer to Peer Fundraising
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17. Follow Up / Cultivate Donors
• Follow Up
– Easy way to stand out from the crowd
– Develop donor engagement (Two Way Communication)
– Welcome email or series
– Small favors
• Multiple thank you notes throughout the year
– Thank You Update
– Thank You and Small Favor
– Thank You and Success Story
– Thank You.. But still work to do
• Measure and test throughout the year
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18. Resources and Templates
for End of Year Campaigns
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19. Resources
• Start Where You Are
• Google is Your Friend
– Search for “End of year appeal example,” “thank you card
example,” etc. Gets you off the blank page.
• Sage E-marketing
– http://bit.ly/MjnYBC
• Timeline and Templates
– Downloadable eBook
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20. Resources
Sage Fundraising Online
– www.sagefundraisingonline.com
6 Ways Sage Fundraising Online Helps with Year End
1. Easy, simple and clean donation and registration forms
2. Create multiple forms and deploy them quickly
3. Event Fundraising
4. Contextual Giving – Tell a great story
5. Keep control and ownership of your data and money
6. Peer-to-Peer Fundraising
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21. Conclusion
• End-of-year campaigns are not as difficult as they seem
• Take action – Pick one or two ideas and implement
• Only YOU can figure out what works for YOUR
organization
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22. Q&A / Resources
Download the Year-End Fundraising eBook
http://bit.ly/YearEndFundraisingeBook
Download the Event Fundraising eBook
http://bit.ly/EventFundraisingeBook
Download the Year-End Fundraising Webcast Slides
http://bit.ly/yearendwebcast
Learn about Sage Fundraising Online
www.sagefundraisingonline.com
Contact Richard Dietz: Contact Sage:
www.nonprofitrd.com www.sagenonprofit.com
richard@nonprofitrd.com www.twitter.com/sagenonprofit
#YEFR 512-850-6501 22 800-811-0961