It’s almost calendar year-end. You and your team are out there engaging with your donors for their year-end gifts. You are implementing your annual campaign plan including year-end strategies. Fingers and toes crossed!* It may be the perfect time to consider how to do it differently next year.

This article is intended to stimulate your thinking about the overall design and implementation of your Annual Giving Campaign for next year.

Let’s step back for a minute and look at the big picture.

How do you want your current donors to help your cause, next year?

You want them to….

continue to care – or care more– about the work you are doing,
feel enthusiastic about the difference your work is making,
feel informed about your work, and
feel needed and appreciated.

(Hmmm, most of the above outcomes are about the donor’s EMOTION – did you notice? We’ll come back to that in a future post.)

You need to do four things, specifically, to reach next year’s dollar goal for annual giving:

1) Keep your current donors giving by communicating thanks and news frequently (monthly is good);

2) Increase the value of this year’s donors’ gifts by X% on average (X is up to you and your management) by making the case that getting good results and MORE results costs more than last year, and making your new ask based on a percentage or round number increase over the gift(s) they made this year;

3) Attract some donors who didn’t give this year, including brand-new donors and lapsed donors from earlier years, by re-engaging lapsed donors and giving special attention to potential new donors.

4) Seek to understand your organization’s case for support – what engages new donors now, and keeps ongoing donors engaged with your work. Consider designing a donor survey – online and in hard copy for donors you can’t reach by email – and make it stand-alone (not part of an ask).

As for you– do your planning now, and then try to get a little time off to relax and rejuvenate, early next year.

You deserve it.