How to Craft a Winning Year-End Appeal in Challenging Times

This holiday season will cap off a year filled with uncertainty and hardship, but experts remain optimistic about the potential of this year’s giving season.

“It’s really important to be on your game with the annual appeal. I think we’re going to see a very generous year,” says Katherine DeFoyd, founding partner of the consulting firm Growth for Good. “People are in the mood to do something, because we all feel so helpless right now. And writing a check feels good.”

To guide you as you assemble the elements of a compelling year-end campaign, the Chronicle spoke with DeFoyd and three other fundraising experts about how to craft a winning campaign that will drive revenue and sustain your organization throughout the coming year. Here’s their advice.

Decide on your chief objective.

There are a variety of ways to set goals in a year-end campaign, and choosing the right one for your organization will depend on a few factors.

Ask yourself whether you most need to expand the number of new donors to your cause, even if the average gift is small, or whether to ask longtime supporters to increase their giving. “You could decide to grow your donor base and then work with them year-round, or try to make it worthwhile with one very strong appeal and try to raise as much money as you can,” says Diana Martin, chief external relations officer at the U.S. Soccer Foundation.

Just remember, you can’t do it all in the same campaign, so pick one area where you most want to grow right now: “The strategy would be different based on your priorities.”

Martin says the foundation’s objective last year was to get more donors to interact with the campaign’s content, which led to a 64 percent increase in engagement and a 6 percent increase in donations. The organization used it to test what was resonating with supporters so that they could continue connecting with them all year long, she says.

Dig into the past 12 months of data to identify trends.

Mine your data to determine where most of this year’s donations have come from, the response rate on donor emails, and what kinds of messages have worked best. Especially if you’ve unexpectedly faced the loss of federal grants, be realistic when analyzing how your fundraising has trended over the past year and in evaluating the success of previous year-end campaigns — it’s important to set targets you can hit.

If you haven’t already, re-forecast revenue goals now, based on this year’s fundraising results to date, rather than waiting to do it in December, “and risk seeing a major shortfall,” says Seth Rosen, chief development officer at the American LGBTQ+ Museum.

The giving season is not the time to try new things; figure out where you’ve had the most success so far. “Lean into the channels where you are making the most money,” recommends Rosen. “Is it online or through the mail? And make that the centerpiece of your year-end campaign.”

You may have some fresh ideas to test, but save them for another time in the annual fundraising cycle, he says. You want to know you’re going to get over the finish line using the strategies that have historically had the best payoff.

Develop your communications in September.

It’s not too early to finalize your multimedia strategy for November and December.

“Map out the whole communication plan: every single follow-up message, every single image you’re going to use, the letter, segmenting the list,” says DeFoyd. “Get it in the can, ready to push ‘start.’”

Take some time this month to draft this year’s messaging: “You can write all your emails in advance. We know what they’re going to say, right?” she says. If there’s a major news story in your mission space or region, she advises that you can always edit later, but the better prepared you are, the stronger your year-end appeal will turn out.

Next, DeFoyd advises that you tailor each message to different segments of your donor base, such as the “tried and true,” who give every year; repeat givers; lapsed donors; and new supporters.

Then plot out the timeline for your multimedia campaign. Letters sent through the mail need to go out by the third week of November, she recommends. After that, all your energy should go toward the online portion of your campaign. Following Thanksgiving, “you should plan for an email a week, and then in the last week of December, three emails. On the last day of December, three emails.”

Whether on paper or online, all roads should lead to a branded webpage that contains every story, video, and photograph the campaign has used to tell a complete narrative. “It all needs to work hand in glove,” she says.

Use AI to help with brainstorming.

The newest wave of generative AI may seem like magic. Some fundraisers are experimenting with ChatGPT and similar tools to draft appeal letters and social-media content.

Rosen says he’s been playing with AI to learn more about its usefulness. “If you’re using the right prompts with AI, it can help you develop ideas for appeals,” he says.

As an example, Rosen’s organization workshopped ways to brand a new product as part of the museum’s year-end campaign. He used ChatGPT to suggest names using alliteration. While the group didn’t end up using any AI-generated ideas, “it gave us a head start and helped us tremendously,” he says.

Stay upbeat, even if the news is not.

The holidays are an ideal time to highlight the beneficial impact your organization has had all year long, especially at the end of a tumultuous year. Positive messaging will resonate more with donors, experts say. “Do you want to be part of the gloom and doom, or do you want to counter it?” asks Martin. “Help your donors see that they can have a meaningful impact.”

Make it positive, she adds: “It’s the one time where you are going out to your donor base that wraps up your key message with joy, pride, and celebration.”

Rosen says that the best tactic is one that focuses on your organization’s wins, not on the potential impact of not meeting your fundraising goals. “Stay away from the lights-out appeal: ‘If you don’t give, we won’t survive,’” he warns. “People don’t want to give their money to something that could fail. Make people feel good about giving to your organization. … People won’t do that if they are afraid you are closing.”

Share compelling photos and stories to stand out.

You may be tempted to share data as a benchmark of success: the number of people you’ve served, how many children participated in your after-school program, or how many meals were delivered.

However, there are more effective ways to get that message across.

Organizations — especially smaller ones — sometimes don’t know how to broadcast their success most effectively and may overly emphasize statistics, says Deidre Kennelly of Kennelly Consulting, a fundraising firm that focuses on small nonprofits. While these statistics are helpful internally, she says, when speaking to supporters, “it’s much more relatable and memorable for a donor or potential donor to read about someone’s experience with the nonprofit and how they’ve benefited from it.”

Real-life testimony is the gold standard, agrees Martin, who recommends using video and multimedia approaches to get the story across. For example, as part of the U.S. Soccer Foundation’s fundraising campaign to build 1,000 small soccer fields, it publishes an interactive map with photos of every soccer pitch completed, so donors can see where their gifts have had tangible results.

A good visual aid, she says, “brings your dollar very close to your cause.”

Reimagine GivingTuesday.

Despite the popular notion that GivingTuesday should be the Black Friday of fundraising, it can be challenging for nonprofits to break away from the pack. “GivingTuesday is super crowded,” says Rosen. “Everybody makes a pitch, and unless you are a very large organization with big name recognition, it is very hard to get through.”

Instead of asking for money, he recommends using the occasion to express gratitude to your supporters from the past year. “Our staff, our board members, and our volunteers use GivingTuesday just to thank our donors,” he says. It’s less expected and a more relaxed change of pace from the other appeals your donors will likely be receiving that day.

Brush up on your penmanship.

All four experts agree that authenticity is paramount to break through the clutter of holiday fundraising messages. Thousands of charities will be competing to raise money at year’s end, but a personal touch underscores that your organization has prioritized its relationship with its donors.

One of DeFoyd’s clients, Queens Community House, mailed out handwritten thank-you notes from children to respondents to last year’s annual appeal. Its campaign letters recounted heart-warming stories of young people the charity had helped overcome difficult circumstances, and donors later received personalized cards in January written by participants in its youth-development programs. It was a clever and memorable idea, she says.

Kennelly says she likes to ask executive directors to customize appeal letters with a personal note for a small segment of important supporters — such as your organization’s biggest donors or those who have been giving the longest.

Even if it’s just a sentence or two, she says, “small personalizations like this go a long way and make a donor feel special and called out, making it more likely that they’ll give again.”

Enlist your entire staff.

Tap into your organization’s most elite group of informed, committed backers. No, not your board of directors — your colleagues. Martin says the most successful campaigns bring together communications, development, and finance teams, along with any other office staff, to make sure everyone is united in the organization’s messaging. “I love the opportunity to collaborate internally and get everyone excited about the year-end campaign,” she says.

Turning your staff into boosters can also be a great way to help them reach out to their friends and family who may be looking for a trustworthy charity to support but don’t have time to research a meaningful cause. Your employees are well-positioned to use their inside knowledge and passion to vouch for your nonprofit’s worthiness. For example, they can share your social-media posts on their own accounts or bring up the organization’s name when people they know say they are looking to make a difference.

“It’s a very effective strategy when you have your employees go out to their friends and family and say, ‘I support this organization all year long,’” she says.