Most of your year happens in six weeks. Make them count.
Giving pages built for a year-end campaign. A page per audience, live totals, checks and online gifts in one number, and every December donor one click from becoming a monthly donor.
One letter, one link, and no way to tell what worked
The organizations that do this well treat it as several appeals, each written to a different group, each landing on its own page, each measured on its own.
The appeal raises what it raised last year, and nobody can say why.
What is a year-end appeal, and how do you run one?
A year-end appeal is a nonprofit’s fundraising campaign in the final weeks of the calendar year, usually running from early November through December 31, when many donors make their largest annual gift.
FundEasy runs the giving side of it. You build a hosted giving page for each audience you are writing to, so a lapsed-donor appeal and a board appeal land on separate pages with their own copy, goals, and totals.
Each page shows progress, one-time gifts, recurring gifts, new donors, and recurring donors at the top, so you know where the campaign stands while it is still running. Donors can give once or set up a monthly gift, and online gifts get an automatic emailed receipt.
Checks, cash, and wire gifts are recorded as offline transactions and counted in the same totals as online gifts, including the ones that arrive in early January. Payments and payouts reconcile in one dashboard.
When to send
A first touch in early to mid November, Giving Tuesday as its own moment, a mid-December reminder, and the final days of the month, which carry a disproportionate share of the total.
What runs it
Hosted giving pages, crowdfunding, and recurring giving. The Giving Tuesday page covers the day that kicks the season off.
What we do not do
We are not an email platform. Send your letters and emails from the tools you already use, and point each appeal at its own page.
Build it, watch it, close it out
Build the appeal pages
One page per audience. The lapsed-donor letter and the board letter get their own copy, their own goal, and their own URL, so the numbers stay separate.
And in January, the follow-up list writes itself
- New donors added
- Recurring donors added
- Offline gifts by appeal
- Transaction export
What changes when each appeal has its own page
A page for each appeal, not one page for all of them
- Hosted giving pages cover segmented appeals, so each audience gets its own page.
- The letter to lapsed donors and the letter to your board can carry different copy and different asks.
- Each page has its own URL, its own goal, and its own total.
- Which means next September you know which appeal actually worked.
Know where you stand while it is still running
- Every giving page carries a summary band at the top of the page.
- Progress toward goal, one-time gifts, recurring gifts, new donors, and recurring donors.
- Not a report you request. The first thing you see when you open the page.
- So the December 28 question has an answer on December 28.
Count the checks
- Record cash, check, and wire gifts as offline transactions and attach them to the right campaign.
- They roll into the same total as the online gifts.
- The mail that arrives on January 8 still lands where it belongs.
- Entries can be corrected later, because reconciliation always turns something up.
Turn December into next year
- Recurring giving is on every giving page by default.
- Your team can update or cancel a monthly gift for a donor in a few clicks.
- A monthly giving program can live on its own hosted page, so the January ask has a destination.
- The summary band tells you how many recurring donors you added, which is the list to call.
One platform for the appeal, the event that built the list, and the monthly program
How a year-end appeal runs on FundEasy
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Step one
Decide your segments
Lapsed donors, current donors, board and major donors, church partners, first-time givers from the fall event. Even two segments beats one.
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Step two
Build a page for each
Start from a hosted giving page, write to that audience, set the goal and the dates, and embed a short video if you have one.
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Step three
Send from wherever you already send
Mail and email go out from your existing tools. Each appeal points at its own page.
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Step four
Watch it, then close it out
Track each page separately, enter the checks as they arrive, reconcile in the payments dashboard, and follow up in January with a recurring ask.
Next November, duplicate the pages that worked and rewrite the ones that did not.
The best thing a year-end appeal produces is not a December gift
It is the donor who gives $500 in December and, in January, agrees to $50 a month. That donor is worth more over three years than the one-time gift was, and they are far more likely to still be with you.
Recurring giving is on every FundEasy giving page by default. A donor can choose monthly at the moment they give, and afterward they can change their amount or cancel it themselves without emailing your office.
A monthly giving program can also live on its own hosted page, so the January ask has somewhere to go.
Your giving pages tell you who is already recurring and how many recurring donors you added, right in the summary band, so the January follow-up list writes itself.
Which giving page fits which appeal
| Feature | Hosted page (segmented appeal) | Crowdfunding | Easy Giving Page | Monthly Giving Program |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | One appeal written to one audience | A goal-based push with a visible total | The always-on donate page | The recurring ask |
| Goal and progress meter | Optional | Optional | No | Optional |
| Tied to a date or deadline | Optional | Optional | No | No |
| Leaderboard | Optional | Optional | No | Optional |
| Recurring giving | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Pledges and offline gifts | Optional | Optional | Optional | Optional |
| Embedded video | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Summary metrics band | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Automated tax receipts | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Most year-end campaigns use two or three of these together: a crowdfunding page for the public push with a visible goal, a couple of segmented pages for the letters, and the monthly program page waiting for January.
Segmented appeals means a separate page per segment, each with its own numbers. It does not mean the system slices your donor file for you.
Giving Tuesday starts the season. The fall event built the list
- Giving Tuesday is the first Tuesday of your year-end season, not a separate campaign.
- The banquet or walk you ran in the fall is where most of the names on your December list came from.
- The monthly program you point January at runs on the same account as all of it.
See a segmented year-end campaign set up
Tell us about the audiences you write to. In thirty minutes we’ll walk you through how the pages work and how the numbers stay separate.
Select any capability to read what it does.
Select any capability to read what it does.
Year-end appeal questions
Still deciding? Bring last year’s appeal to a demo and we will answer these against your own numbers.
What is a year-end appeal?
A year-end appeal is a nonprofit's fundraising campaign in the final weeks of the calendar year, usually from early November through December 31. For many faith-based organizations it brings in the largest share of annual giving, because donors make their biggest gift of the year in December. The calendar-year deadline concentrates that giving in the last few days. In FundEasy, the appeal runs on giving pages you build for each audience, so every letter and email has its own destination and total.
When should a nonprofit send its year-end appeal?
In practice most organizations start with a first touch in early to mid November, treat Giving Tuesday as its own moment, send a reminder in mid December, and then send again in the final days of the month. That last window carries a disproportionate share of the total, because the calendar-year deadline is December 31. Several touches to the same person is normal, and each one can point at the page written for that audience.
Can we run different appeals for different groups of donors?
Yes. Hosted giving pages cover segmented appeals, so you build a page per audience: lapsed donors, current donors, board and major donors, church partners. Each page has its own copy, its own goal, its own URL, and its own total, so you can compare them afterward rather than guessing which letter worked.
How do we track checks that come in the mail?
Record them as offline transactions. Each cash, check, or wire gift is attached to a contact and to the right appeal page, and it counts in the same total as online gifts. If something changes during reconciliation, you can edit the transaction later. That way the total you report in January is the whole appeal, not just what came through Stripe.
What about gifts that arrive after December 31?
Record them as offline transactions with the correct date and campaign. A check postmarked in December but opened in January can carry its December date, so it lands in the right year and against the right appeal. Your appeal totals then reflect every gift the letter actually produced. Online gifts are dated automatically when they're made.
Do donors get a tax receipt automatically?
Yes. A tax receipt goes out automatically on every gift made through your giving pages, including monthly gifts. That saves your team a December stack of receipts to write by hand. Checks and cash you record as offline transactions are handled through your own receipting process.
How do we turn year-end donors into monthly donors?
Recurring giving is on every giving page by default, so a donor can choose monthly at the moment they give. For the ones who gave once, the summary band tells you how many recurring donors you already have and who is new, which gives you the January call list. A monthly giving program can live on its own hosted page so that ask has a destination.
Do you send the appeal emails and letters?
No. FundEasy runs the giving pages, the totals, and the money. Send your mail and email from the tools you already use, and point each appeal at its own page.