Blog

“Yes, I’m the Executive Director but we have a small staff. I also handle development, marketing, finance, and I’m responsible for the capital campaign and our annual gala.”

This may sound outrageous to some in the nonprofit space but, for many small organizations, this scenario is all too familiar. Staff wear multiple hats and take on more responsibility as the organization grows, but the expansion of resources do not follow the growth trajectory. This problem has been plaguing nonprofits for decades. (As I addressed way back in 2016!)

When this ED lost a significant funder for the capital campaign, the best laid plans for a new building came to a screeching halt. In a panic, she decided it was time to turn her attention to an end-of-year campaign. Not to make up the deficit of the funding, that would have been impossible, but to start an intentional annual giving plan to bring in some much needed cash and establish a new revenue stream.

Many organizations are faced with difficult decisions when resources are razor thin. They find themselves in a similar boat as our ED, particularly with the recent loss of federal grants and funding. They do not have the luxury of creating a growth funnel strategy, crafting an integrated campaign, or the time to create an impact-effort matrix to help prioritize tasks and plan for the future. Even the concept of my simple “pick three” strategy for year-end campaigns may seem entirely overwhelming.

How do we tackle a problem like this? Let’s look at the steps taken with this ED and her organization. These include evaluating supporting technology, the available channels and audiences, and simple ways to maximize the campaign with limited resources.

Supporting Technology

The first step will be to examine the technology to determine what might be available for our campaign. This includes:

• A database of record. This is the CRM that records the information and activity of prospects and donors.
• An email system. Not a personal email platform like Outlook but one that is used for mass marketing to send e-newsletters, such as Mailchimp or Constant Contact.
• A donation form. Critical for accepting online donations.
• Social media. Active platforms with an audience of followers such as Facebook or Instagram.
• Telemarketing and/or texting. Platforms and services that allow for mass calling or texting.

In the case of our organization at hand, they had the first four supporting technology elements but not telemarketing or texting.

Available Channels

Next we look at the available channels to determine what tactics can be used in our campaign. This includes:

• Mail. Either a direct mail program or a local mail house to send mass letters or postcards. If neither of these, is there capacity to send letters in-house by using internal staff, board members, or trusted volunteers?
• Email. Having an email system and using if regularly will make a difference. Is there an existing cadence for sending mass emails such as newsletters or consistent communications to an active audience?
• Online ads. Does the organization place social ads (such as boosting posts), search ads (such as Google or Microsoft), or have a Google Ad Grant that can be utilized?
• Calls and texts. A telemarketing/texting campaign or the ability to make direct phone calls.

Our ED did not have a direct mail program but they have used a combination of a local mail house and sending letters internally. They have consistent promotional email newsletters. Our ED has never placed ads and does not have a Google Ad Grant. So, we decided to incorporate boosted posts on Facebook and Instagram. They do have the ability to make in-house phone calls.

Available Audiences

Now we can dive into any and all available audiences to target with the campaign messages. These can include:

• Prospects. Audiences who have never donated before or are “deep lapsed” (those who have not made a gift in the past several years). Included in this pool of individuals are newsletter subscribers, event attendees, or general volunteers. In direct mail, this would be an acquisition list of targeted audiences from sources such as co-op databases, magazine subscribers, and donors to like organizations.
• Donors. Audiences who have given at some point in the past few years.
• Board members, council/committee volunteers or ambassadors. Groups that have significant involvement in the day-to-day of the organization.
• Lookalike, similar interests, or regional audiences. Specifically used for ad targeting or re-targeting (i.e. ads that target website visitors).
• Corporate partners. Used to either sponsor the campaign (as recognition for a donation) or to offer a match challenge.

Our ED has a list of about 4,000 non-donor prospects, about 1,000 donors, some board members and volunteers. They do not have corporate partners.

We decided to use the mail house to send letters to the prospect list that introduces the case for support. In-house letters will be reserved for donors. This list will be segmented with a different message to small-dollar donors (focused on continued investment) and major donors (sharing details about the capital campaign and plans for the new building). We aimed to get these into mailboxes before Thanksgiving and send a follow-up, reminder postcard in December to donors who had not yet made their donation.

Since the organization does not regularly send fundraising messages to the large newsletter lists, we decided to use the segmented lists for targeted outreach to deliver around the time that letters and postcards will hit mailboxes, as well as a few additional touchpoints the last week of the year. The ED will personally send emails to the top 30 largest donors.

Board members and volunteers will be asked to call the top 100 donors. Boosted posts will target the mail and email recipients, as well as lookalike and regional audiences.

Maximizing the Campaign

There are several fairly simple ideas to boost the success of a campaign. These include:

• Creating a goal. Determining a monetary goal can enhance the urgency of a campaign, particularly during year-end counting down to midnight on December 31.
• Match challenge. Engaging a corporate partner to contribute matching dollars can significantly boost performance, since the donor’s dollar will go further (or twice as far). This is a compelling incentive to give.
• Monthly donations. Sustaining donors offer on-going and continuous revenue that can help stabilize your revenue portfolio.
• Buckslips and QR codes. Including a small flyer in a mailed envelope adds an opportunity for promotion or to call out a particular element of the campaign. Adding a QR code to any printed materials makes it easy for the recipient to access online information or make a gift quickly.
• Website ads or banners. Offers additional campaign promotion.
• Testimonials. Incorporating board member, client, volunteer or existing donor testimonials is a third-party validator and endorsement of the value and credibility of the organization.

The ED was able to set a goal based on revenue raised from a simple fundraising letter sent the prior year. While they did not have time to get a corporate partner for a match challenge, they were able to offer monthly donation options and they created a buckslip promoting their upcoming events with a QR code to go right to the donation form. Time was short, so there wasn’t a chance to launch website ads or get testimonials.