Are you looking for end-of-year giving campaign ideas to help you meet your fundraising goals? With Giving Tuesday and a new year right around the corner, now is the time to put those plans in motion! We’ve rounded up a few important tips and deadlines to help you cross that fundraising finish line.
Simple
The holidays can be full of noise, and you want your campaign to be a breath of fresh air. Instead of trying to squeeze as many stories or photos into your communication as possible, prayerfully choose one meaningful story of life change to highlight along with one or two accompanying photos. Our new personal email templates were designed with this type of communication in mind! It may feel counterintuitive, but less is truly more! Here are some questions that can help you brainstorm:
- What prayers have I seen God answer this year?
- How has God moved in unexpected ways?
- In what ways have I seen the gospel transform people’s lives?
- What is a unique need in my culture/context, and how have I seen it met through Christ?
Specific
People love having a specific goal or project to give towards. Are you building your monthly support team before leaving for the field? Set a goal of 15 new monthly partners by the end of the year. Prayerfully consider if there’s a certain milestone the Lord wants you to reach, but also don’t overthink it if He doesn’t lay a specific number on your heart. Even a seemingly arbitrary number can provide excitement and momentum towards accomplishing a shared goal!
This time of year is also great to invite people to give to project-oriented campaigns. Do you need funds to host a pastoral training workshop, replace an unreliable vehicle, or send a team to serve in a remote area? Ask people to invest their end-of-year giving towards that project!
Another way to make your giving communication specific is to tailor it to different audiences. For example, you would speak to your monthly donors differently than you would to people who occasionally give one-time gifts or who have not supported you financially yet. Tools like Mailchimp make it fairly simple to divide your audience into different segments and send specific asks to each group. Mailchimp also features dynamic content blocks which can show content when a donor is in a specific group or has a specific tag assigned to them. It takes some extra time, but the added specificity can really help!
Shared
Fundraising can be overwhelming, but you don’t have to do it alone! Invite your current partners to come alongside you in helping accomplish your end-of-year goals. Social media can be a simple and effective way to get your partners involved and reach new audiences. Ask supporters ahead of time to be praying for and engaged in an upcoming social media campaign. Encourage them to like and comment on your posts or stories to help boost engagement. If you’re sending a special email out, suggest forwarding it to friends who may also be interested in giving.
So, what are you waiting for? Now’s the time to take action towards closing out your goals for this year! We’re cheering you on!