With Giving Tuesday upon us, there is no doubt that we are
in the throes of the holiday giving season. Traditionally, this is the time
when many Americans make their charitable gifts (end of tax year + holiday
season = donation season). It is also the time when many, if not most, nonprofit
organizations are in a frenzy of year-end fundraising.
Nonprofits will move mountains to get their December
“appeal” in the mail (and email) on time. They will lose sleep. They will lose
focus. They will sometimes even lose sight of what’s best for the organization,
or their key messages, or their organizational priorities, just so they can get
that appeal out the door.
I recently posed a question about the December appeal to
some fundraising groups on LinkedIn, and boy, did the fundraisers come out of
the woodwork to share their two cents! In service to the larger
nonprofit/fundraising community, I’m sharing my discussion topic, and a
sampling of the responses, with you:
“Avoiding the December Mailing: Not Getting Lost in the
Shuffle”
I recently counseled a client, who is in the midst of
developing a new case statement, NOT to stress out about doing their biggest
mailing of the year in December. Their organization has another major milestone
in the spring, and they can craft their biggest mailing around that. Not only
will this give them time to thoughtfully complete their case statement and
accompanying materials, but it also will avoid the problem of their mailing
getting lost in the shuffle of the overwhelming amount of appeals that get sent
out in December.
What are your thoughts? Is December truly the end-all, be-all of the annual campaign mass appeal? Have you had success with doing your biggest mailing at another time of year?
What are your thoughts? Is December truly the end-all, be-all of the annual campaign mass appeal? Have you had success with doing your biggest mailing at another time of year?
[Let me start by saying that there was a bit of a
misunderstanding about my question – my fault, no doubt. This client is not
completely forgoing a December mail and email appeal. They are still sending
something in December. But they are waiting until spring, around a milestone in
their organizational calendar, to do a larger mailing that will serve as a
rollout and announcement of a new fundraising campaign.]
A sampling of responses:
I've wondered this myself as it a) seems risky but b) makes
sense. Everyone is zigging so you zag. I'd say you should do something, simple
case and reminders but you don't have to do your big thing. I think that time
and quality piece is in play here too. Crap in December can't be better than quality
in the Spring.
I've never been a big fan of end-of-year solicitations or
appeals that rely heavily on deductibility in their argumentation. As a result,
I've encouraged clients (and students) to time appeals for occasions or events
(ideally annual ones) that make sense in terms of their organizations' work.
That being said, even if their "big" appeal is at another time of the
year, organizations with older constituencies should generally still to do a
major appeal by US Mail & Email during 4th quarter. There are still just
enough habitual 4th quarter givers out there to make this worthwhile.
There are so many reasons the year-end appeal works, and I
would suggest cautioning them away from giving up on this tried and true
approach. If they feel the direct-mail approach is too cumbersome, they might
consider tasteful email solicitations with direct links to an online giving
page.
Year-end giving is actually less effort because donors are,
to put it simply, in the mood! The media - and now social media - around the
holidays provide plenty of encouragement to give. Further, savvy
philanthropists put aside money to make charitable gifts at this time of year.
I would also caution not to forego year-end giving, as
statistically, donors give at year-end, and it's that psychological momentum
and habit (along with the tax deduction) that gets donors to give. Perhaps the
organization can do a controlled experiment, and at minimum, mail the donors
who have historically given in fourth quarter. If the organization buys mailing
lists, they can split the mailing, doing half in December as usual and the
other half with their event.
Has the organization looked at their own data for the last
three years and seen which of their appeals are the most successful? Our Thanksgiving
and year-end appeal is substantially more successful than our February and
April appeals.
Your client should send both mailings. Save the big case
statement for the spring, sure, but allude to it in the winter mailing. You
can't miss the opportunity to be a part of a family's year-end giving
decisions. Those same people may well give again in the spring.
I wouldn't be comfortable giving up the December mailing
altogether. As [name] mentioned above, hesitant to give up on something so
tried and true.
One of my
smaller organizations that is ten years old started with a general appeal at
year end. We know that many if not most people make their charitable
contributions at year end so we are going to continue to do it. But we have a
lot of events in the summer and last year we added a mailing targeted at that
time to larger donors only. Using highly personalized letters, we asked for
specific, larger amounts to start a major donor society... So I agree that a
year-end mailing is not necessarily the end all and be all. There may be other
great opportunities during the year for special appeals, even major appeals and
you can target them to specific parts of your donor/prospect base.
I think those who say it's the only time that most people
give might be assuming peoples' habits without really checking with them to see
if that's truly the case. I would suggest that all nonprofits do a survey of
their donors to see when THEY would like to give.
It depends on the cause of the NPO, but generally speaking
most of the Social Service NPO's I've known generally receive roughly 40% of
their annual donations during the November-December time period. NOT doing an
appeal in December, could have serious impacts to annual revenue. But, if your
client is let's say, Easter Seals, well then obviously a differently timed
campaign could be more effective. So, again, depends on the NPO, but from what
I've seen, tapping that good ol' Holiday Spirit typically proves effective.
What conclusions can I draw from these responses?
- We fundraisers are, for the most part, reluctant to give up our sacred cows. Especially when those cows have a tried-and-true track record of being lucrative. Conventional wisdom is conventional wisdom for a reason.
- If you're going to follow conventional wisdom, do it strategically. We have the technology to easily track when people give, how much they give, if they are repeat donors, etc. Use that information to send a December mailing that is targeted, tactical, and creates an imperative to give.
- We also have the capacity to be more donor-centric when designing our mass appeals. If our donors don't really care about giving in December versus giving during an organizational milestone/touchstone in the spring... then ask them in the spring. If they really want to give in December, follow their lead. To that point:
