It might be the second week of December, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t have time to improve our year-end fundraising asks. In this post I want to share with you 3 last minute tips to improve your year-end fundraising asks.
Whether you’re a large or small organization, one of the benefits of online fundraising is how agile it can be. By that I mean, we can make changes, run tests, and update appeals in a day. With direct mail, it can often take weeks to get these results back. But email and other online fundraising tools are more responsive.
3 Tips to Improve Your Online Fundraising Asks
Tip #1 – Start Your Email Strong. Don’t hide the lead.
Emails are often short and sweet, which means that you need to get to the point fast. Not only do you need to get to the point, it needs to be a strong point. Here’s an example of a before and after so you can see what I’m talking about.
Before:
Today is Giving Tuesday, a global day of giving. Help us maximize donations on Giving Tuesday! Interac will match your online donation made through the GivingTuesday website.
After:
As a XYZ supporter, you know there’s always more we wish we could do to support the women who need our services. And today, there’s an opportunity for you to make a bigger impact when you make a gift to support survivors of sexual assault.
Right from the first sentence, we need to give supporters a reason to be invested and care enough to keep reading. As you can see in the “before,” the main reason that they gave to get people to care is GivingTuesday. Sure, there might be a sense of urgency since it’s only one day, but we know that donors care about the organization for much better reasons. So in the “after” we tapped into that reason and desire. It’s a small change that made a big difference.
Tip #2 – Make Your Messaging Relevant Beyond the Holiday Season.
Yes, we know that people like to give during the holiday season because it’s what people do – they give back. Plus it’s their last chance to get a tax receipt for the year. In my experience, the fundraising emails that are the most compelling are the ones that have a stronger message than “it’s the end of the year, give now.” You want to tell a story about your organization and its work that inspires donors in a bigger way.
One way you can do this is by tying your work into relevant news events. If you’re interested in learning more about how that works and how to do it, I get an in-depth interview on it here.
Tip 3 – Have a Strong Call to Action
This is the place where more year-end fundraising asks could easily be improved. The call to action is your offer to the donor about how they can make a difference. It is not enough to just say, “Please donate now.” You have to tell donors what they are giving to. The best calls to action are concrete.
Here are a few examples:
Miracles begin with a meal. Your $3.29 can save a life. Donate today.
Your gift of $50 will provide 1 hour of counselling support to a survivor of sexual assault. Make your gift today to make a difference in the life of a woman.
Be as specific as you can with your call to action – a dollar amount, what that amount can do, and a sense of urgency. That’s a formula for a strong call to action.
Those are my 3 tips for improving your year-end fundraising asks.
Which one will you try out this month? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts.
