Say “Thank You” before “Please” (and Other Tips for Giving Tuesday)
End of year appeal season is fast approaching, and Giving Tuesday will launch that for many of us in just a few weeks. As you prepare, here are our top five tips for making the ask.
1. Say thank you first!
Thanksgiving comes first for a reason. Okay, that reason is actually because Giving Tuesday is the proverbial red-headed stepchild of the family following Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but that doesn’t mean you should miss the opportunity that Thanksgiving offers you. Say THANK YOU before you ask. Use the month of November to send out personal thank you notes to key donors, an update on your programs and mission, or share posts of appreciation on your social media. Or better yet… do all three. Donors rarely get the message of what you are doing without having to ask, and this entire month offers you the opportunity to invest in gratitude before you start making your big asks throughout the month of December.
2. Be strategic in your ask
Throwing together a few quick Giving Tuesday posts for your Facebook page is not enough if you want to be successful. Rather, instead, spend the time it takes to build an entire strategy around Giving Tuesday and/or your annual appeal. Study your CRM. Study your pipeline.
Who has given before? How can you grow their gift?
Who will you target for new gifts? How will you target them?
Why do individuals want to support you?
How do they like to communicate with you?
Send different asks to different people depending on their relationship to you, their interests, and your relationship with them?
⅓ of individual gifts are made in the month of December. Do not waste this opportunity. Too late this year to plan for an elaborate and strategic campaign? Don’t worry. Start planning for next year. Use this year to build brand awareness and to gather data for next year’s effort.
3. Encourage others to ask for you
Do your board members feel comfortable asking for donations? The complaint I hear most often from nonprofit executives is that their board members are not effective fundraisers. That is ok. It just means you have to do the work with them and make it simple and engaging.
Sit with them as a group before the campaign launches and have them each develop a list of 25 people they can ask with contact information for each person. Do this a second time half way through the campaign, so they add to their list of asks.
Provide each of them with their own individual giving pages so they can create a personal fundraising goal and work towards it.
Don’t send them one massive toolkit of content to share. Instead, write the emails for them and send new ones out to them 1-2 times a week that they can cut and paste. Provide them with pre-crafted social media messages. Send them new ones each week. Offer them with a script for phone calls and ask them to each make at least 3 phone calls to their contacts. This may feel intimidating to them, so offer to sit with them when they make their first few calls.
Create a group text chat on which you celebrate gifts and benchmarks. Nothing is better than some consistent positive peer pressure to get people to do their part.
4. Use Giving Tuesday to launch a more consistent appeal campaign
Individual giving is as much about pipeline building and management as any other part of your development plan is. The average donor retention rate is about 40-45%, but we know that established donors tend to repeat more than new donors. Use Giving Tuesday as a way to reconnect with those established donors, but to also meet new ones. Then use the rest of the year to build on those connections to establish a strong relationship that keeps everyone engaged. Donor cultivation is about relationship building. Make sure you have a plan to engage with new and established donors at least quarterly without asking for money. And make sure that you give people the chance to donate more than once a year, so that they consider you to be part of their giving habits.
5. Be direct and honest
Your ask should be clear and reflect what is happening in your organization, but it doesn’t need to be stagnant. Let people know what their donation will be used for and give them choices. A donor who would have donated $100 might give $150 if they know what that extra $50 will buy for your organization and those you serve. A different donor may give you $10,000 if you ask. Don’t lowball your ask because you aren’t comfortable or you are worried you might offend. Rather know your pipeline and your donors so you can differentiate your asks. There are software products available now that will alter your ask depending on the giving history of your donor. If you can’t invest in these yet, consider investing your time instead to build various donation pages and separate email campaigns. You can also let your board select their own giving amounts, so that you connect with their contacts at the appropriate levels of ask.
The Benson Agency is happy to help you implement these and other best practices in building an appeal, but we are also here to simply answer your questions. DM us here and we are happy to set up a free consultation or to answer some questions you may have. And know that we are cheering for your success!
