📣But first, last month’s poll results 📣

What’s your favorite way to show your supporters some love?

• 36% of you prefer to call or send a personalized text
• 27% of you like to send an email with a personalized video
• 18% of you go for handwritten notes
• 9% of you leverage automations to meet your supporters at their personal milestones
• 9% of you have a different favorite strategy

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Sounds like your supporters are well-loved! I’m also a big fan of a handwritten note in today’s digital-first age, but I appreciate that video emails are a lot easier to scale. Keep reading to participate in this month’s poll.

Quick note: I’m going to be talking about year-end appeals for the next couple of months, because I know that’s a big task many of y’all are facing. But if fundraising isn’t your job? File these away for any time you have a big ask push for the supporters you serve—like season subscriptions or volunteer recruitment. The psychology is the same (donors are just people 😊).

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Deep inside, fundraisers know they're living a lie at year-end.

We send out asks, trumpeting, "Give before the Dec. 31 tax deadline!" All the while, there's a little niggle in our fundraising souls asking, "Do they really care about that?"

Sarah Lawson at Moceanic just published a great piece on why the year-end season is so fruitful for giving. None of her reasons have anything to do with tax benefits. Instead, they include:

• Everyone asking at the same time isn't inbox fatigue. It's actually a form of social proof that prompts donors to think, "This is what people are doing now."
• It's a time of year when people are thinking about giving to others anyway.
• The end of the year is a deadline unto itself.
• Ending something and beginning something else tends to make us reflective.

Those last two points signal to me that year-end is a time to lean into identity-based language in your appeals. Your supporters are already thinking about themselves and the future. So meet them where they are.
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Honoring your supporters’ identities is a core tenet of Donor-Centricity 3.0—a concept pioneered by Dr. Jen Shang and Dr. Adrian Sargeant at the Institute for Sustainable Philanthropy.

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​“In our experience “why” people give is much less powerful than “who” people are when they give. Communications can be designed to make them feel great about being that kind of person. Providing them with information that that kind of person would enjoy and thanking them for being that kind of person can both be powerful strategies in building relationships.”

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So, how do you know who your supporters are (because I promise you, no supporter identifies themself as “lapsed”)?

• Ask them (send surveys, encourage them to reply to emails with why they care, have conversations with key supporters)
• See how they interact with your organization (Have they volunteered? Taken a class? Attended an event?)
• Check their email history to see what kind of emails they engage with

And if you really only have donation history to go on, use that to unlock who they are, not when they gave. Real example from an appeal I did last year: Your support shows that you believe in this community. You find joy and friendship in theatre and want others to find a release from their worries here, too.

(That appeal raised double what they had raised the year before, btw.)

As you write your appeals, ask yourself who your supporters are, what they care about, and the change they'd like to see in the world. Then, ground your ask in those ideas. Not a tax deadline, not a campaign deadline. But a recognition of who they are and an invitation to work together toward a shared vision in the new year.

Monthly Poll

If you had a crystal ball to give you one secret insight about your supporters before writing your year-end appeals, what would you ask for?

• ​👤 Who they really are (their personal identity & what actually motivates them)​
• ​💰 The exact amount they’re comfortable giving this year​
• ​📨 The magic number of emails to send to get them to give without annoying them​
• ​🤝 Whether they’d volunteer AND make a donation​
• ​💬 Something else? (Hit reply and tell me your top question!)​

If you're looking for a crystal ball for grant decisions, my friend Ashley at Thrive Grant Services has the next best thing. She created a simple decision tree to help you decide whether a grant opportunity is worth pursuing. You can grab it here.

Interesting Nonprofit Link

Fundraising has gone through a lot of "centricisms," each one being replaced by the next best thing. If you're with Ferris there, this read is for you. It traces the fundraising evolution from organization- to donor- to community-centered, and suggests a better formula for the future. TL;DR - keep it human.

Nonprofit Good News (update)

I’m thinking of dropping this section to streamline the newsletter. Will you miss it? Reply with a 😢if you’d like it to stay. I’ll keep it if ten of you ask me to.

See you next month!

Lee O'Connell

nonprofit copywriter and supporter loyalty strategist
​leeoconnell.com​

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