As the busiest time of the fundraising year kicks off, nonprofits are using a mix of conventional approaches while stepping up personalized solicitations and rigorously tested online appeals.
For many nonprofits, year-end giving has become a year-round effort. That is in part because experts say at least a third of all donations nationwide are made in the last three months of the year, representing roughly $110-billion that nonprofits use to support their work.
The outlook for year-end donations is mixed. A report released last week by Blackbaud shows that overall giving grew 4 percent in June, July, and August, but several analysts tentatively predict that year-end donations might not grow much beyond 2013. For groups that rely on the affluent, the performance of the stock market in the next month or two could make a big difference in how the last quarter goes, but those organizations, like Fidelity Charitable, have already been seeing big gains.
However, for charities that rely heavily on middle-class and poor donors, the pressure to get donors giving now is intense.
Catholic Charities began its year-end appeals “right after Labor Day,” says Brian Gavin, senior vice president for advancement at Catholic Charities USA. The organization’s first appeal for the last quarter went out in early September, compared with last October a year ago.
Mr. Gavin says the organization has benefited from pushing one message consistently: It emphasizes how donors can reduce poverty and hunger through their gifts in every direct-mail and digital appeal.
Mr. Gavin intensified the focus on consistency after taking over the group’s fundraising division a year ago.
His colleagues test messages leading into the year-end campaign and analyze key words and the response they draw throughout the year. The focus helps hone the solicitations in the key year-end period, Mr. Gavin says.
Action words have worked well: Messages like “You can help end poverty” have increased the number of people who click on email links to donate pages.
The charity also adds a more prominent donate feature to its web page during the holiday season to capture dollars and the spirit of generosity.
Its approach appears to be working: Online gifts in the year-end season for Catholic Charities USA and its member organizations increased 69.2 percent from 2012 to 2013.
Starting Early
More charities appear to be starting their campaigns earlier than in the past.
“There is a lot of tweeting and blogging and conventional-wisdom advice given out about how important the last 48 hours of the year are to giving, but the really smart organizations, and those that develop sophisticated fundraising programs, don’t view it that way. They view it as the last 60 to 90 days of the year,” says Steve MacLaughlin, director of the Idea Lab at Blackbaud, a company that provides software to help charities raise more money. “They have over the years optimized their programs around a much broader window of time, as opposed to waiting to the last minute.”
Anecdotally, Mr. MacLaughlin says he noticed a slight decrease in the usual flood of email solicitations sent on December 30 and 31 of 2013.
“There must be something they’re seeing that told them it wasn’t worth it to make that last-minute push,” Mr. MacLaughlin says.
Showing Off Results
As they plan their year-end strategies, many nonprofits are increasingly trying to appeal to a donor’s desire for results, not just the warm feelings that come from giving.
Child and Family Services of Southwestern Michigan will take a new approach this year by decorating a giving tree in the Orchard Mall, in Benton Harbor, Mich. It’s an approach used by many charities, and one the social-service group adopted to offset losses in government grants and United Way dollars.
Envelopes on the tree will be tagged with dollar amounts ranging up to $100, and signs will explain what a donation will buy: a blanket for a shelter or a gallon of milk for a child. The tree will go up in October and stay in place through Christmas.
“It’s a new thing,” says Joseph Goepfrich, executive director of the organization, which has a $3-million annual budget. “This agency doesn’t have a long history of doing fundraising because it never needed to until 2008, when the economy went sour and the process of government grants changed.”
Seeing Services in Action
In Milwaukee, the Aurora Health Care Foundation hosts holiday-season gatherings as part of a tribute appeal that connects the families of hospice patients with those who provide care to dying relatives.
The nonprofit sends appeals in October and December, then hosts the emotional gatherings in early December, according to Patrick Rath, vice president for foundation development. The campaign focused on hospice care raises about $350,000 annually, including $25,000 from the holiday gatherings in December.
The events build a connection among supporters and the reason they’re giving, says Mr. Rath. “They have seen these services in action and already appreciate the impact the program has,” he says. “So the reason we have such a strong outpouring of support is that the impact is authentic and the spirit for why we ask is consistent with what they see as the needs as well.”
In Mr. Rath’s view, too much of the year-end push by nonprofits becomes dominated by large-scale processes.
“We tend to do things on a mass scale because we have the ability to do things on a mass scale, instead of connecting to individuals and what is important to them,” he says. “The real question is how are we going to sustain that relationship.”
Enlisting Board Members
Family Centers, which operates early-childhood education and family support programs in and around Greenwich, Conn., also plans to improve on its personal appeals this holiday season.
Alice Holbrook, a board member, pushed the idea of sending holiday cards seeking donations in 2013, but the effort started too late to have significant impact.
This year, Ms. Holbrook expects about 60 board members to share the cards with their friends and families earlier, and in greater numbers. The cards ask donors to contribute to the Family Centers in lieu of holiday gifts.
“This is not so much about raising giant amounts of cash but raising awareness,” Ms. Holbrook says. “My brother lives in Florida and so does my sister. They’re never going to come to an event, but if they get a personal plea from me, then they’ll do it. It’s a different audience. “This conversation is one I wish we were having three years from now, because I’m hoping it will really take off,” she says. “If it raises $5,000 to $10,000 this year, I’ll consider it a success. It’s another giving vehicle and an awareness vehicle.”
Giving Tuesday
While such in-person events are important, many groups are also putting a lot of their energy online.
The success of #GivingTuesday, a social-media phenomenon that generated more than $35-million in its second year, highlights the impact that the platforms are having on year-end philanthropy.
This year, more than 10,000 nonprofits, foundations, schools, companies, and religious groups are joining the push to capture attention in the same way as the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping days. Organizations are arranging both fundraising and volunteer activities.
Share Our Strength, which runs a No Kid Hungry campaign, seeks to build awareness and its network of supporters through #GivingTuesday.
But it also capitalizes on the generosity of the season through a web-page campaign it starts in early November.
A feature on the organization’s site allows a donor to build a plate of food for a child, showing the impact of each dollar of their donation.
Throughout December, Share Our Strength also shares its most compelling stories of the year, the successes of its efforts to match food providers with schools and food programs.
“What we’re trying to convey is the power of how the money goes directly to helping a child, a child at a specific school,” says Jeanne Horne, senior manager for digital communications. “We show a school that has been struggling with low attendance, low-performing students, and behavioral problems and show how supplying breakfast makes a real change.”
Near the end of December, Share Our Strength also changes its home page into a simple donation platform that puts all the focus on giving and nothing else, an approach a growing number of nonprofits are taking.
“We did it last year for the last day of the year,” Ms. Horne says. “This year, we might do it for the last week.”
Wendy Marinaccio Husman, an adviser to charities who works at Donor Digital, says more and more nonprofits are adapting that strategy to make sure donors don’t get distracted by anything else when they turn to a charity site.”
No one is going to your website on December 30 or 31 to research your organization,” she says. “They’re going to make a gift.”
Nervous Time of Year
As fundraisers gear up for the busiest time of year, many charity officials and advisers say they wish the day would come when fundraising could be more year-round rather than so focused on the last quarter of the year.
“You would think that, over time, that would have changed,” says Catherine Connolly, a fundraising consultant. “It makes me nervous as a consultant, the percentage [of giving] that nonprofits rely on at year end.
“If we on the nonprofit side could change that, we would,” Ms. Connolly says.
