5 Unique End-of-Year Fundraising Campaign Ideas
Year-end fundraising campaigns are perfect for those donors who think about giving but keep putting it off, plus for those who are passionate about your mission and want to give a little extra.
Most organizations see a large share of their annual revenue in December. As the end of the year approaches, your organization gets the opportunity to solicit donors at the most generous time of year.
5 Year-End Campaign Ideas
FundEasy creates software that makes events and fundraising simple for nonprofits. Combine nonprofit fundraising software with one of these end-of-year ideas to engage donors and meet or exceed your fundraising goals.
Giving Tuesday
This year, #GivingTuesday is November 29th. Although it’s right around the corner, with FundEasy’s crowdfunding software, you can have your campaign up and running in minutes. Crowdfunding is project funding made simple. With crowdfunding, you receive the following:
Simple Setup
Start funding that project in no time flat! Our simple setup has you raising funds in less than 10 minutes.
Animated Fund-Meter
Every donation fills the thermometer a little higher! Donors see the real-time impact of each donation as they give.
Easy to Share
With a direct link to your Crowdfunding page, it’s easy to connect through Facebook, websites, texting, QR codes, or other tools.
Automatic Receipts
Never stress over donor receipts again! Donors immediately receive receipts after donations are given.
Direct Deposit of Funds
FundEasy directly deposits all donations into your organization’s bank account.
What is the difference between crowdfunding vs. fundraising? Crowdfunding is a form of fundraising. You set a goal, build an event page, and share your event on your website and social media. Your organization asks donors to donate to meet a specific goal.
All charitable organizations should capitalize on Giving Tuesday. Because it’s only 24 hours, it is the perfect time to use FundEasy’s animated Fund-Meter. Every donation fills a thermometer a little higher, and donors see the real-time impact of every donation as they give.
You need to make a significant impact in a short amount of time. Create a Giving Tuesday landing page ready to accept online donations.
Maximize the shorter giving window by creating a sense of urgency. For instance, your message could be, “We have 24 hours to save lives on Giving Tuesday.” ”Help us raise $2022 for 2022.”
“Silent Night” or “No-Run” Run
During the onslaught of COVID-19, most galas or events became virtual. For the last quarter of 2022, promote an event you’re not having. Take advantage of online fundraising but put a twist on the invitation by creating a non-event such as a “Night of Silence” or “No-Run Run.”
By this time of year, your donors and everyone else are exhausted from events, shopping, and time together. Your invitation should read, “Your Presence Is Not Requested.” “We Hope We Don’t See You There.” Or, “You’re Invited…to Stay At Home.”
Determine a non-date, time, and suggested donation for a ticket to not attend your non-event. Choose a theme matching your desired ticket price. For instance, make it a formal non-event for a ticket price of $50 or a casual non-event for $25. Consider a no-run run if your organization’s location is cold and snowy. Most people are thrilled not to participate in a winter 5k.
Send out your non-invitations encouraging donors to enjoy the non-event. Point out that you know how busy everyone is, and you want to relieve their stress with your non-event.
If you have engaged followers, invite them to post selfies enjoying their non-event or post photos of your staff doing nothing. During the days before the non-event, keep a tally of the tickets you’ve sold, and encourage donors to ask their friends not to come either.
You can use FundEasy’s nonprofit event planning software to keep a total of donors who aren’t attending and how many tickets you’ve not sold. Attendance is complete event management for in-person and virtual events. You receive the following:
Customized Registration
Collect the information you need for your event. Use our virtual event check-in via email, and attendance tracking, followed by automatic registration confirmation emails.
Create Professional, Mobile-Friendly Web Pages
Pages include registration, schedules, social sharing, and a landing page to host virtual events. Send automated confirmations, reminders, thank-yous, and follow-ups.
Coordinate
Connect Attendance to just about anything with the help of Zapier and custom integrations. Participants get peace of mind about the security of online payments and sponsorships thanks to our partnership with WePay.
Quick Deposits
Deposits go straight to your organization’s bank account.
“You’re just a few clicks away from headache-free fundraising.”
The Tax Man Cometh
Thank heavens the government still allows deductions for charitable giving. Tax-deductible donations are why more people donate on December 30th and 31st over other days of the year.
Here’s how to communicate a sense of urgency. Remind donors they have a short amount of time left to make a deduction-worthy donation. Choose nonprofit crowdfunding software from FundEasy and easily promote your campaign on social media.
Make sure your campaign isn’t just about tax breaks. Storytelling is an excellent end-of-the-year format for last-minute giving. When potential donors learn about the impact your organization has made in the lives of others, they want to participate.
Use stories of clients, volunteers, and other donors when possible.
The bottom line in successful storytelling is to share a challenge, the action it took to meet the challenge, and the final outcome. We relate to the struggles of others, and knowing an organization changed their lives gives us the confidence to donate.
Not only does storytelling capture attention, but it also tugs at the heartstrings. Everyone loves an inspiring success story. If possible, include a simple video testimony. Be sure the end of the story contains a powerful call to action to donate so the donor can become a part of something bigger in 2023.
“We've helped world-changing nonprofits raise more than $1 billion.”
Let Peers Raise Funds For You
The ideas for peer-to-peer fundraising events are endless. What is peer-to-peer fundraising? If you’ve ever given to a friend’s birthday fundraiser for a specific charity, you’ve participated in one.
Peer-to-peer fundraising equips others to fundraise on your behalf. You can choose to hold a bike-a-thon, bowl-a-thon, dance-a-thon, or walk-a-thon. Participants either take pledges or actual donations from others to join.
Sponsor a scavenger hunt, trivia game night, or bake-off. Choose a viral video challenge that encourages participants to make a video or take a photo of something you’ve asked them to do. They have to, in turn, invite three friends to do the same. If possible, align your challenge with your mission (i.e., performing a safe athletic stunt or a random act of kindness, singing a silly song, or the mannequin challenge).
For those family members who are hard to buy Christmas presents for, consider a Tribute fundraiser. Donors make Christmas donations to honor someone special as a gift or a memorial.
Choose FundEasy’s Peer-to-Peer fundraising software to make your event look and feel as professional as possible. With Peer-to-Peer, you receive the following:
Branded Web Pages and Emails
The consistent and correct representation of your organization is vital. That’s why you define your branding by controlling images and messaging.
Participant Customization Options
Top Fundraisers are active fundraisers. Equip your supporters with all the tools they need to be successful. Participants can add photos and videos to customize their page.
Integrations
Work smarter, not harder. Connect FundEasy to products you use every day, like eKyros, MailChimp, or Google Analytics.
Animated Fund-Meter
Every donation fills the thermometer a little higher! Donors will see the real-time impact of each donation as they give. The Fund-Meter also shows the individual participant’s contributions and pledges on their page.
Online and Offline Donation Tracker
FundEasy Peer-to-Peer offers online giving with automatic receipting. A participant can also record offline cash donations, so fundraising totals are always accurate.
Leaderboard
Who doesn’t love a friendly competition? It’s a race to the top for teams and individuals with real-time raking on the leaderboard. Do you have businesses supporting you? Ask their employees to compete against one another for the bragging rights of being the biggest supporter.
Peer-to-Peer is powerful software that equips others to fundraise on your behalf.
“17,000+ events made easier for nonprofits.”
Make a Difference
Lay it out clearly for your donors. Give them examples of how their gifts make a difference in your organization.
For example, tell them, “a $50 donation provides 10 meals out of the 10,000 you’re hoping to achieve by year’s end.” Or, “a $100 donation provides free medical services for 3 women who visit our clinic this month.”
Provide actual dollar amounts for specific needs, or tie their gifts to a sponsorship program. For instance, “Feed a family of four for a year by pledging $25 per month.” Or “your monthly gift of $100 provides a free ultrasound for four women each month.”
With FundEasy, recurring payments are super easy for donors to set up, and we handle processing the payments and providing tax receipts.
Who To Target For Year-End Giving
Consider asking these prospects for your year-end fundraising appeal:
Major gift donors
All current donors
Previous donors
Business and corporate sponsors
Organization volunteers and peer-to-peer fundraisers
Anyone participating in crowdfunding
Your organization’s vendors or suppliers
Those who benefited or were affected by your organization
Subscribers to your newsletters or blogs
How To Segment Your Email List
Email segmentation breaks your email recipients into smaller, targeted groups and sends them the most relevant information. By creating personalized emails for your year-end campaign, you have greater success.
FundEasy’s software integrates with Zapier to customize your message. With Attendance and Peer-to-Peer software, you can easily segment your emails.
You even receive data regarding email open rates and read statistics. You can send unlimited branded emails and invitations, use our pre-designed email invitations, and personalize emails with merge fields.
Consider dividing your segments into the following groups:
Donation Size
You want to divide your donors into groups based on the size of their donation. Your major donors should receive a very personalized message. Depending on the number of large donors, you may want to speak with them first over the phone or send a personal note instead of a generated email.
Type of Supporter
Segmenting donors based on the event they’ve participated in can also help target your message. Create separate lists for event attendees, previous and current volunteers, committee members, and other donor types.
Date
By noting the date of their last donation, you can focus your message accordingly. If someone has given within the previous month or donates monthly, you can thank them and request one last year-end gift. If they haven’t given in a while, you can remind them of your mission and request they consider a special one-time gift.
Why FundEasy
There are several reasons why you should choose FundEasy for your next fundraising event. Select the plan and pricing that is right for your organization.
We only work with non-profit organizations, so our standard pricing is non-profit pricing.
There are no hidden fees. We charge the subscription price, listed processing, and platform fees (which you can offer donors the option of covering).
Your standard subscription includes unlimited events/fundraisers in one product.
Our easy setup wizard gets your fundraiser built quickly.
All plans allow unlimited users with varying access levels, access to all upcoming and past event/fundraising information, guided tutorials, customer support, and total security and compliance.
No web design experience is necessary to use FundEasy. You receive a mobile-friendly web page for your event and links for easy sharing. Your organization can define brand colors and include photos and videos.
FundEasy creates software that makes events and fundraising simple for nonprofits. Our easy-to-use software helps nonprofits thrive financially.
If you'd like to learn more about our Peer-to-Peer, Attendance, or Crowdfunding products, please reach out! We'd love to chat.
Also, if you haven't joined already, we have an exclusive Facebook Group just for our customers! If you are a current FundEasy Customer and would like to join, go here to learn more and request to be added!
Crystal Hoag
This article was inspired by our customers and written to encourage your fundraising efforts. Although we work with nonprofits and events daily, our team members are not Event Consultants. We encourage you to consult with your event consultant, executive team, and/or affiliate organization before making any major changes to your events.
