Secrets To Year-End Fundraising

DC is one of the most competitive fundraising markets for nonprofits, with the donor base coming and going with jobs and life changes. So every holiday season, nonprofits become fundraising machines, with some raising as much as half of their annual budget. Here are some strategies:

Be Everywhere and Don’t Stop Talking

As soon as Thanksgiving hits, Mary’s Center, a nonprofit focused on health services for low-income families in DC, starts telling anyone and everyone about what it’s doing, says chief development officer Ellen Root. It spreads word about how it’s providing food to 350 families over the holidays and toys to over 1,000 children at its upcoming holiday party through social media. Mary’s Center executive director Maria Gomez and the team attend lots of community events and Maria gets press through interviews on national programs like NPR’s Kojo Nnamdi Show. 

The organization, which raises about 25% of its annual budget during November and December, is also telling stories about its work in its weekly email campaign. Instead of leading off with asking for money, the donor reads about the people Mary’s Center has served this year. Those stories are also integrated into social media posts and other messages. Ellen says it’s a fairly new and more sophisticated end-of-year strategy for the organization.

DC Central Kitchen chief development officer Alex Moore says his nonprofit is widely known for providing food to the hungry, which is an important story during the holidays. So the organization uses the rest of the year to spread word of its job programs and other initiatives. 

“We aren’t projecting a significant increase in fundraising over last year, but we’re more confident that the way we’re positioning ourselves will pay longer-term dividends versus just transactional year-end fundraising,” says Alex. 

Don't Always Do The Obvious

Giving Tuesday, a few days after Thanksgiving, is a big year-end event for many nonprofits, but DC Central Kitchen decided to sit it out this year. It was the organization’s first time not participating. Alex says the event creates an artificial spike in fundraising. So this year DC Central Kitchen focused on talking about issues rather than sending out one more email. Alex says the organization did just as well. “We didn’t burn up our donors and exhaust them along with every other nonprofit,” he adds. 

Get Better At Asking

Mary’s Center also put in place a new online marketing platform that helps the nonprofit be more targeted in how it asks donors for end-of-year contributions. The organization recently sent letters to 3,000 donors, asking for specific amounts of money based on what they had given in the past. “We’re consciously and deliberating putting our best message forward so we can have appeal and have that resonate,” says Ellen.

Get Really Creative At The Last Minute

Mary’s Center has a matching grant challenge the last two weeks of December, where a certain funder will put up a specific amount and the organization will challenge its donor base to match it. “It has double the impact and encourages people to give, maybe at a higher level,” says Ellen. 

Ask Donors For Year-Round Giving

Giving earlier in the year or even giving on a monthly or quarterly basis is now a thing, Alex says. In fact, a bigger piece of the nonprofit’s budget is coming from monthly or quarterly giving. Foundations are even starting to be more proactive about writing checks earlier in the year.

Dispel The Inaccurate Rhetoric

It happens all the time to charities—a person of influence like a presidential candidate shares wrong information. Mary’s Center has had to do a lot of correcting when it comes to immigrants, the main population the organization helps. It’s not reflecting in its fundraising, but the organization is getting a lot of questions, says Ellen. “No matter the rhetoric, we know there’s a huge need, and we’re here to help the community be well and stay well.”