Running out of ideas for your end of year campaign? Nowadays, you should be utilizing online fundraising techniques – some of these ideas could make a big impact for your nonprofit.
Good end of year fundraising starts with good ideas and then takes good planning and follow-through. If one or several of these ideas strike a chord with you, why not give it a shot?
1. Use The Google Ad Grant
Did you know that nonprofits can use up $10,000 every month for free in advertising from Google?
It’s a powerful tool that not enough nonprofits know about that you can use to drive potential donors to your website when they are searching Google.
There are people are searching for quality nonprofits when they make end of gifts. Why can’t that nonprofit be yours?
Download the Google Ad Grant Cheat Sheet to learn how you can make the most of this amazing program.
Contact us at info@treerootsnonprofits.com if you need help. We can help get you set up for success. It can take a bit of effort to get it going, but it’s well worth it in the end.
2. A Membership Drive
If your nonprofit has the possibility of membership, why not try a drive for the end of the year? You can set a realistic goal and try to get your current members to bring others on board.
Maybe people can get a family membership at a discounted price for the end of the year?
3. A Giving Tuesday Campaign
Facebook and Paypal doubled 7 million dollars worth of donations in the US last year on Giving Tuesday last year. Pretty incredible. Millions and millions of dollars are given away every year on giving Tuesday. Make the most of this time when people are in a giving spirit and keep an eye out for matching donations.
4. Ask For Matching Gifts Via Software
Speaking of matching gifts, there is now some great software out there so that when someone donates they can check if their company will double the donation.
You might also want to plan in advance of a day like giving Tuesday or your end of year campaign in general to try to find a donor, perhaps a board member, so that you can use their matching gift to really inspire more donations.
5. Ask People To Donate Their Change For A Month Via Apps
You don’t need volunteers on the street like the Salvation Army to be collecting people’s change at the end of the year. A number of fundraising apps allow people to donate their spare change to your nonprofit.
They’re worth looking into – perhaps you can get people to commit to doing it for the whole month of December?
6. Digital Holiday Cards
You can send your supporters a holiday card without going to the post office. There’s a lot you can do with email – see below for more ideas – but it’s worth considering sending a card for the holidays.
You’ll certainly want to thank your current supporters in some way at the end of the year – hopefully this encourages them in and of itself to give more. It’s a reminder how much you appreciate their support.
Beyond general holiday cards, you could design a card so that someone can donate as a gift to someone else and then give that card to that person – or you send the email to them yourself on the day that they choose.
7. Sell Holiday Gifts
There are now a number of websites out there that let you customize gifts to sell – several are geared specifically for nonprofits. Many give a lot of the proceeds to nonprofits. You can try this out for the holidays if you haven’t already.
Instead of selling gifts you can send small ones that are relevant to your nonprofit – even if it’s just a branded magnet or bumper sticker – along with a donation over a certain amount. This can be combined with the membership drive above.
People will be walking around promoting your cause in addition to helping you raise money.
8. Buying Gifts With Amazon Smile
You don’t have to sell gifts directly to raise money. Even if it’s just you, your board and your staff, when you buy your gifts, as you normally might, on Amazon, a small portion of that can go to your nonprofit. You’ll need to sign up but Amazon lets nonprofits take back .5% of qualifying purchases with their Amazon Smile program.
This might even be worth sending an email out or following up with supporters via email. It’s an easy way for people to give back and over time, especially around the holidays, it can really add up.
Contact us if you need help.
9. Gifts With Cashback Sites And Apps
Outside of Amazon, there are other ways for people to shop online and make a donation at the same time. These sites include Good Search and iGive. You might want to start with Amazon, but it’s worth looking into these sites too.
You might want to survey your supporters to find out where they usually shop for gifts and if they would be interested in giving in this way.
10. Ask People To Host A Facebook Birthday Fundraiser
Facebook is a very powerful fundraising tool and now Facebook is making it easier and easier for people to host fundraisers on their birthday. Around the giving season why not look into who is willing to give back on their birthday? Plus, a fundraiser on Facebook is cheaper than many crowdfunding sites as they do not charge a processing fee.
11. Host A Holiday Auction
You can auction of items gifted to you by businesses – if you are a local nonprofit these might be easier to get. This could be a weekend getaway, tickets to an event, etc.
You can even try to bring in gifts for a future auction around the holidays.
12. Put Together Holiday Content
Content marketing is crucial in this day and age. Think about a video appeal or long-form blog article that is relevant to both your cause and the time of year. Evergreen content is great to have, but you really want to seem timely here.
Try to draw a connection to why your cause is particularly important to support around the holidays.
13. Crowdfunding
If you’ve been successful at crowdfunding before, why not try it again at this time of the year? You can tie together some of the above ideas – a quality video and putting together gift swag based on how much someone gives. If you have a specific need and it relates to the end of the year this can be a powerful time to launch it.
14. Email Appeal
Beyond blogging or a video, you need to think through your email content. Many nonprofits appeal to their supporters at the end of the year and for good reason. Beyond just one generic email that you send every year, this year you can think through sending a few emails or even using an email funnel. So when someone clicks on a link or opens an email they get a different email.
Email funnels can be very powerful. Why not test them out at this time of year? It could make your nonprofit’s email campaign really stand out.
You can also segment your email list and send different emails to people in different cities or new subscribers versus old subscribers, etc.
15. Social Media Blitz
Emails are crucial but don’t forget about social media. Plan out your content with the right hashtags – including #GivingTuesday if it fits – and with the right visuals. People expect you to be appealing towards the end of the year so you can use that to your advantage by asking for resources more often than you might otherwise. Don’t overdo it – but not doing it is worse at this time of the year than doing it too much. Try to plan this out in advance so you’re not worrying about it at the last minute.
Make sure that you are paying attention to the right social media metrics.
16. A Holiday Appeal On Your Website
Don’t forget about your website either. You can use a good nonprofit squeeze page with a direct appeal that you post in other places – or direct traffic to with the Google Ad Grant for example. You can write out some long-form content as noted above – to do this study what makes a good nonprofit landing page.
You can change the banner image on the front page or add in a new holiday donation menu item. If you launch any sort of holiday campaign don’t forget to make it stand out – preferably in a few ways – on your website.
You can also create an online fundraising site.
17. New Year’s Eve Drive
You can start the new year off with more supporters. This can even continue into the new year. Maybe you prefer to take your time and plan out a fundraiser and this makes the most sense at this point. Perhaps you can make it around New Year’s resolution. It doesn’t have to be about fundraising money directly – it could be about volunteering – but it could also be about pledges. Maybe some supporters couldn’t commit to giving much this holiday season, but you could appeal to them to donate a certain amount of money in the new year.
Some donors might be waiting until the end of the year to donate to declare it on their taxes for this year – you don’t want to miss out on these donors and a New Year campaign can keep your nonprofit top of mind.
18. Infographic Showing Your Impact
Infographics are very easy to create thanks to design tools like canva – which they are currently offering to nonprofits for free. If you can quantify your impact, an infographic can be a great way to display that. You can include it for your other fundraising efforts. Many donors like to see where their money went for the year especially when considering donating more around the holidays and an infographic is a great visual way to get that message across.
Alternatively, an infographic could be a great way to show off your fundraising totals.
19. Utilize Paid Ads
Sometimes nonprofits need to spend ad money. Make use of at least some of the above first – including the Ad Grant if you quality. Just don’t forget that this is an option. Maybe you want to run a remarketing campaign with a discount code from Google or with a discount code from Bing to test it on the cheap when you retarget people who landed on your donation age but didn’t donate. This can be cheaper than targeting a cold audience.
Or maybe you do want to at least experiment with targeting a larger audience that you wouldn’t be able to reach easily otherwise. In any case, you don’t need much to at least experiment.
20. Host A Virtual Fundraiser
You don’t need to have a big in-person event to be successful at the end of the year. Maybe you host something virtual – it could even be educational. Or maybe you do have an in-person event but also sell virtual tickets so people that aren’t able to make it can attend.
End Of Year Fundraising Ideas Conclusion
Your end of year campaign ideas are only limited by your creativity. Try to plan in advance and decide which fundraising efforts make the most sense for your team and your supporters. Don’t try to do everything on this list but maybe doing a few of these instead of a big in-person event can end up raising more money and taking less effort.
If you need help deciding which is best for your nonprofit, please sign up for a free digital evaluation with our team. We can help you narrow in on a strategy.