5 Tips to End Your 4th Quarter Strong with Effective Donor Outreach in Year-End Campaigns

November and December are two of the most significant months of the year for nonprofit organizations. As your finance team prepares for year-end, with prepping reports and ensuring your budget is on track, your donor development and fundraising teams are also hard at work. With significant amounts of giving as well as a high volume of donors, it is a busy time for many nonprofits.  

The end-of-year fundraising drive is a crucial chance to connect with supporters and secure vital fundraising dollars. Don’t miss these tips for ending the year strong.   

1. Segment Your Donors

Organizations are only retaining about four out of 10 donors annually. Creating or improving your donor segmentation plan can help improve your donor stewardship. This leads to higher retention rates and creates more sustainable revenue streams.  

Donor segmentation involves placing each donor into a predetermined group. These groups are categorized with future targeted marketing and stewardship in mind. It is an exercise that takes planning, strategizing, and time. A well-planned segmentation strategy results in your donors feeling like they, as individuals, are vital to your organization.  

Some sample segments your organization should consider:  

• Donation frequency   
• Donation amount   
• Event or campaign involvement   
• Recurring donor status   
• Generation   
• ZIP code   
• Demographics  

Segmentation allows you to target donors better and tailor messages based on their preferences, previous actions, and more. This all leads to a stronger giving and engagement pattern.   

2. Offer Multiple Engagement Opportunities

People have different motivations for giving. You will find revenue sustainability if you provide multiple avenues for supporters to donate. Having a fully featured fundraising management software provides your team with a low-risk way to try new things, alongside your traditional fundraisers to provide more opportunities to give.   

Engagement is not limited to online giving or your team’s support, either! Do you have volunteer opportunities to offer your supporters? Is there an opportunity for your board to host a voting competition or your associate board to host a corporate giving breakfast?   

Working with your volunteers and expanding your giving and volunteer opportunities will best sustain your mission, especially during this high-volume time of giving.   

3. Assess Your Books

Whether or not your fiscal year-end aligns with the calendar year-end, December is a good time to Whether or not your fiscal year-end aligns with the calendar year-end, December is an excellent time to assess your organization’s financial situation and progress. While your finance team is buttoning up the reporting and chart of accounts, the rest of your revenue team can take part in a financial check, too.  

Some questions every member of your team can ask themselves include:   

• How are you progressing to budget?  
• How has the financial situation changed since last year’s year-end giving?   
• How close are you to meeting your financial goals for this year?  
• How are expenses tracking?  
• What donors are at risk of lapsing?  

Being in sync with financials is every team member’s responsibility, and having the right, connected fundraising and accounting systems in place makes this an efficient task for everyone. 

4. Create a Better Thank You Strategy

It costs far more to get a new donor than it does to retain an existing one. To improve your bottom line, take the time to nurture your donor relationships during the critical 4th quarter of the year.   

A strategic thank-you plan is one of the more cost-effective ways to sustain your incoming revenue. Some things to consider as you evaluate and improve your thank you strategy:  

1. You’ll want to thank your donors immediately and often. In her book Donor Centered Fundraising, Penelope Burk explains that “Your thank you should get out the door within 48 hours. Period. No arguments… If you don’t thank donors promptly, you’re destroying all the rest of your hard work… Timely follow-up matters. A lot.” 

2. Multi-channel communication is crucial when asking for funds, and every channel should be used to communicate your results. Did you send emails, make social posts, and send texts for your donation asks? Then your thank yous should follow the same strategy.  

3. Lack of communication about the results of a fundraising campaign is one of the main reasons donors do not give again. While running the campaign, your organization likely went deep into storytelling. You presented the problem and your proposed solutions. But was there a resolution? Your donors need (and want) to hear the end of your story!  

4. When making your thank yous, the best way to build that personal connection with your donor is to be creative! Use different types of media, such as handwritten notes, videos, and phone calls from volunteers to share your message. 

5. Source Partners, Matches, and Influencers

As you take stock of your existing relationships toward the end of the calendar year, ask yourself some questions to evaluate if your top supporters might open up relationships that can have a greater impact on your organization.  

• Does a top donor work at a large employer in your community?   
• Have you done corporate team recruitment within your donor pool?   
• Do some of your supporters have a lot of community connections and active social media?   
• Do any of your donors work in an industry—event setup, AV, public relations, marketing, food and beverage—who can possibly provide impactful in-kind donations?  
• When did you last do a matching gift solicitation with your donors?  

Mapping out solutions to get these answers takes time and established donor relationships (or some googling), but doing the work opens up new ways to engage supporters. It can have a major impact on your organization.   

As you plan how to best steward your donors and have significant revenue gains in the 4th quarter, don’t forget to take these crucial steps to ensure success. Looking for help with your end-of-year-giving strategy? Don’t miss our webinar, Year-End Practices Every Nonprofit Should Know.