Step-by-Step: How to Launch Your End of Year Campaign
I know it’s still summer and the idea that we are roughly 100 days away from the end of year asking rush is INSANE, but - as I’ve talked about before, you can’t afford to NOT give your end of year giving the time and attention it deserves.
I’ve seen it time and time again. A development team will spend hours and maybe even a ton of money crafting their best appeal. They will strategize over the content, they will craft the best copy, they will take the most captivating photo - and then, the appeal will flop.
Why you ask? BECAUSE THAT IS ALL THEY DO.
Online marketers report that it takes a person a minimum of seeing something SEVEN times before they will take action. That means someone needs to see something multiple times across multiple channels to be motivated to take action (aka make a donation).
Today, I will walk you through step-by-step what you need to do to launch your upcoming annual giving campaign and ensure once it goes live - you are set up for success.
Buckle up friends - this one is going to be worth your time.
Step 1: GET PREPPED
I did an entire blog post about this - but you really, truly need to do some number crunching before you do anything else. Figure out where you are so you can make a game plan of where you need to go.
Step 2: SET YOUR GOAL(S)
How are you going to know how you and your team perform if you don’t draw a line in the sand? Some suggestions of things to measure:
Revenue raised from the date your campaign starts to the date it ends
The number of gifts that come in from the date your campaign starts to the date it ends
The number of donors retained from the previous year
The number of new donors you secure
The number of new subscribers or followers to your email list or social channels
This one is less measurable, but I’d also advocate for getting a sense of how you/your team is feeling at the start of your campaign compared to the end. Campaigns are a lot of work, but I believe if you plan things out and stay organized, you have a way better chance of feeling less burnt out by the end.
Step 3: MAP OUT YOUR CALENDAR OF EVENTS
One thing I know for sure is that consistency is king, especially leading up to an event. If you go from literally never posting on social media or sending a regular email to suddenly bombarding your audience, you are going to get nothing but unsubscribers. STRAIGHT UP. Decide with your team about what you can commit to doing 60 to 90 days before you send that first ask out. Maybe it’s committing to a monthly email update, it could be you doing three social media posts per week and hopping on “live” one time per week. It might even be you committing to doing a cultivation event leading up to your launch.
Once you decide on your consistent touch points - it’s time to map it all out. There are many ways to stay organized, but if you work on a team, I think putting things on an actual shared calendar is your best bet so everyone is looped in. Before plugging those actions in a calendar though, go get a giant piece of paper or use a white board and mark dates and content. My advice, get as specific as possible and make sure there is continuity with the overall subject. For example, if you are an organization that serves foster youth and you’ve picked your subject, talk about all of the things that roll up to his/her success. Check this example of some content mapping I did for a client.
Step 4: WRITE YOUR APPEAL
Next week (the anticipation!), I’m going to walk you through step-by-step plus best practices of how to write your annual appeal, what to do with your copy (and what not to do) and some tried and true elements that have worked well for me over the years. If you want to get a jump start, think about what your single subject topic will be. Readers tend to relate 1:1 best so rather than tell a story of all of the people/animals/plants you serve - pick one AMAZING impactful story. Start getting their permission, interviewing them, and photographing them if needed.
Step 5: MAKE TIME FOR GRATITUDE
Don’t be that fundraiser who gets sooo busy with the end of the year happenings that you forget one of the most important steps in fundraising: expressing gratitude. If someone sent you some cash in the mail for your birthday, how long would you wait to acknowledge their gift? I’m hoping you said ‘immediately’ in your head. It’s the same with fundraising. In a perfect world, you will make a thank you phone call the day the gift arrives and then you will send a thank you note within a week of the gift arriving. This will also save you from having a PILE of calls and notes to write come early January. So make the time now. Trust me, carving an hour out of your day to do this will pay off in dividends and you will be thanking yourself later!
Step 6: DEVELOP A POST LAUNCH PLAN
Another bit I am going to write out in the coming weeks is a step-by-step guide on writing a post-launch plan. This is something that generally just doesn’t get done. You’ll be tired and over it - I know! I’ve been there. So do the work now.
Think about it - you’ve just raised all of this money. You likely have a new pool of donors that are testing you with their first time gift. Do you want them to lapse? HELL NO. So what are you going to do to engage them, give back to them, add value to THEIR lives over the next several months? A post event plan will map all of that out for you.
Step 7: SCHEDULE A DEBRIEF WITH YOUR TEAM
Are you sensing a theme? Organization from the beginning is a key ingredient to this campaign recipe. Before things get super busy again and people are off to the next item on the to-do list, calendar a debrief with your team. Here, you can go through one-by-one and ask:
What worked well
What could have been improved
Ideas/thoughts for the next campaign
This should be no longer than one-hour and it should be documented so you can review the learnings before the next campaign you launch.
Step 8: LAUNCH, BABY
You’ve done the work. You’ve gotten yourself organized. You’ve planned everything out. YOU DID IT! Now, launch with enthusiasm and pride knowing you are on your way to raising significant dollars. I can’t wait to hear about ALL of the fruits of your labors!