Gail Perry-Top 10 Fundraising Tips to Take You Over Goal for Year-End

By Gail Perry

Did you know that billions of contributions are in play right now? Donors will, in fact, be giving vast amounts of money to charities in the next three weeks. Many organizations will receive up to a third of their entire annual giving this month.

So let's make sure this money comes to YOU and your wonderful cause — and not to another organization down the street. If you focus carefully, you can really impact your year-end totals.

Here's my Top 10 Tip Sheet for you:

Use the phone. Call your donors who have not renewed and ask them to join the cause again.
Focus on lapsed donors first. Find out who gave in 2013 but have not yet given this year — and connect with them first.
Use holiday gifts to remind your donors. Your holiday gift should not be a photo of your smiling staff. Instead it should be about the wonderful work your donor is funding.
Plan plenty of email reminders. I recommend a minimum of five email touches in December with at least two of them the last three days of the year.
Use the MPI fundraising formula. Ask for a specific amount of Money, for a specific Project/Purpose that will bring in a specific Impact. This is the way to shape your ask so today's donors will respond.
Use a consistent theme across all channels. That means your mailings and your email need to look similar. Then they will reinforce each other in your donors' minds.
Use one powerful image to tell your story. One picture is more powerful than three. Make it a closeup, with the person looking directly at the camera to make eye contact with your donor.
Use a matching gift to inspire generosity. Study after study says that a matching-gift challenge will get more attention and bring in more money.
Optimize your homepage the last week of the year. Take down your regular landing page and instead put up your donation page. Make sure your donation page has a clear ask and call to action.
Rework your donation page. Make it simple. Get rid of unnecessary words, phrases, images and boxes. Make it welcoming to your donor. Test your page to be sure it's easy to use!

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Gail Perry Author's page Gail believes in parties first, rabble-rousing second, and having fun while changing the world. Gail Perry CFRE is an international fundraising coach, speaker, trainer and thought-leader. She is a leader in a new breed of fundraisers who are on the cutting edge of fundraising today. Her Fired-Up Fundraising approach, developed over the past 25 years as a nonprofit philanthropy expert, has helped organizations raise hundreds of millions in gifts. Gail's practical and refreshing approach to raising money in today's world is based on the very latest innovative fundraising strategies. An inspirational and popular speaker, she leads energizing fundraising workshops and board retreats around the globe. She particularly enjoys working with nonprofit board members, introducing them to a new perspective on fundraising and ways they can be successful at it. Gail's book, Fired-Up Fundraising, has been called the "gold standard guide to building successful fundraising boards." Gail got her start in fundraising at Duke University, and then went on to lead fundraising at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. You can read Gail's weekly blogs at FiredUpFundraising.com, and also find her provocative articles at FundraisingSuccess, Guidestar, and Capital Campaign Magic.