How Nonprofits Can Use Summer Slump to Build Relationships, Maximize Year-End Giving

The slow days of summer have arrived. Kids are out of school, families are taking vacations together, and everyone is outside enjoying the sun and warm weather. As a result, fewer people are dedicating attention to their favorite charities. For nonprofits, this annual summer slowdown is an expected part of the ebb and flow of charitable giving. 

This year, the summer slump comes with additional challenges as nonprofits face a triple squeeze of funding:

1. Many organizations expect to see spending cuts or freezes due to shifting federal budget priorities that have already resulted in nearly $400 million in cuts to active grants, leading to the shutdown of more than 1,000 programs. 
2. Individual donors are giving less and to fewer organizations. 
3. Nonprofits face rising demands for services across all sectors.

The summer season presents an opportunity for nonprofits to recharge and adopt a strategic approach. According to recent data, 25% of annual giving comes in between GivingTuesday and Dec. 31 — with a 5% occurring on Dec. 31. With these facts in mind, nonprofits should deploy strategies to turn the slower summer months into a time for building momentum and strengthening donor relations in preparation for a year-end fundraising blitz.  

The Retention Reality Check

Many nonprofits fall into the trap of prioritizing new donor acquisition over donor retention. However, this approach runs counter to several important facts. First, according to the most recent information from Giving USA, charitable giving grew by 1.9% in 2023, which did not outpace inflation, resulting in a slight gain turning into a 2.1% loss. Second, nonprofits, on average, lost 80% of their first-time donors last year, and acquiring new donors costs 10 to 20 times more than retaining existing ones. 

This acquisition-focused approach forces nonprofits to work harder while sidelining their most valuable resource: existing supporters. Instead, nonprofits can bolster their fundraising efforts by creating strategies to retain existing donors while still pursuing new ones. After all, existing donors have already bought into the mission and have decided to give. Nonprofits that can effectively engage this group and deliver a 10% increase in retention could yield up to a 200% increase in donor lifetime value. Talk about delivering bang for your buck!

This approach can yield exceptional results and offer a much more cost-effective path forward than constantly chasing new support. The summer slump is the ideal time to develop a strategy to engage your existing donor base before the year-end giving season kicks off with GivingTuesday. 

The Four-Month Summer Strategy Framework

Many nonprofits operate in a perpetual survival mode, which makes it challenging to conduct consistent donor outreach, let alone create a proactive plan for summer communication. When September arrives, organizations that haven't prepared appeals, drafted campaigns or segmented donor lists will be left scrambling. The 2025 giving season could be the most important one yet, and failing to do any strategic preparation for the fall would be a significant misstep. 

This four-month framework is built on the four S's of successful donor nurturing

• Segmenting donor lists.
• Stewarding relationships.
• Sharing impact.
• Showing up consistently.

This process begins in June and continues with consistent communication throughout the summer. 

June: Segment and Audit

The first item on a nonprofit's agenda should be to segment its donor list. A great place to start is by grouping donors into categories, such as first-time donors, recurring donors and lapsed donors. Understanding a donor's giving history is just the first step. Nonprofits also need to know their donors well enough to understand how to reach them. So, track information about how each donor prefers to be contacted. 

The next step is for organizations to audit their processes for recognizing donor gifts. A tax receipt is not a thank-you message. Donor gifts are precious commodities that deserve authentic acknowledgment. June is the time to review these processes to ensure donors are being addressed correctly.  

July: Gratitude and Campaign Preparation

Once a nonprofit has organized its donor list, it's time to reach out to supporters with heartfelt gratitude messages. Many organizations make the mistake of going silent during summer, which creates doubt in your supporters’ minds about the organization's stability and impact. Nonprofits can shift this dynamic by using the July slow period to contact their donors with messages of gratitude and lay the foundation for a direct appeal once fall arrives. 

The donor segmentation work of June will begin to prove valuable here. Organizations should tailor gratitude messages based on each donor's status and send them within the first two weeks of July. For example, first-time donors could receive personalized thank-you notes. Lapsed donors could receive "we missed you" messages. Recurring donors could receive customized messages from the executive director. The goal here is to make supporters feel valued, appreciated and seen, without asking for something in return. 

Using donor-centric language (think "you" more than "we") will also go a long way to reinforce how much donor support matters in enacting an organization's mission. Rather than “We were able to serve 500 families this year,” try “Thanks to your generous support, 500 families received the help they needed this year.”

At the same time, nonprofits should use July to begin drafting a three-part September content series with the themes, "Look what you make possible," "Here's what's next. We'd love to have you join us" and "Help us finish the year strong" with a direct donation request.   

August: Impact Reports and Recurring Gift Push

Another frequent mistake nonprofits make is to push impact reporting until the end of the year. However, if an organization wants to maximize year-end giving, it should be demonstrating its impact well in advance. So, as summer begins to wane, nonprofits should shift their focus to telling their story and connecting it with a recurring gift push. 

First, it's critical to define what impact is and what it is not. Impact is not a list of programs, internal goals, or activities. It's not a group of vague phrases. Impact is actually tied to a specific outcome or transformation. Demonstrating impact is "20 families were housed this month," not "we ran housing programs." It's, "you gave, here's what happened." 

With this guidance in mind, nonprofits should focus their impact outreach on summer and first-time donors who may not yet fully understand the organization's reach. It could be a story — “Because of your support, Jane was able to attend school with all the supplies she needed.” Or, it could be a number — “Your donations helped 97% of students report feeling safer at school.” Then, tie the giving invitation to the outcome. "A $25 monthly donation provides school supplies for one child all year" or "A $50 monthly gift funds safety programs that reach 10 students."

Nonprofits shouldn't overthink this step. The goals are to demonstrate how donor support creates a long-term impact and prime supporters to give at the end of the year.  

September: Campaign Launch and Fourth-Quarter Preparation

Now it's September and time for nonprofits to roll out the three-part series they drafted in July — "Look what you make possible," "Here's what's next," and "Let’s finish the year strong together" — to begin preparing for year-end giving. 

Nonprofits need to understand their outreach channels and utilize what fundraising experts call the three-times-two method. This is three personalized touch points using the two most effective channels. For some organizations, that will be email and social. For others, it might be phone calls and direct mail. Once an organization has defined its two top channels, it can then syndicate content across all other donor touchpoints. 

When September ends, nonprofits will have executed a sophisticated yet manageable strategy that segments donors, stewards relationships, shares impact and shows up consistently, all while priming supporters to give during the all-important year-end donation season when a quarter of annual giving occurs. With this foundation in place, organizations will be well-positioned for GivingTuesday and the crucial final days of December.

From Survival Mode to Strategic Planning

For too long, summer has been a season nonprofits endure rather than enjoy. While donors are vacationing and giving rates slow, organizations often go silent, miss opportunities, and arrive at the fall unprepared. However, by shifting perspective, organizations can transform this slow season into a period of strategic relationship-building that sets up their donor base to maximize year-end giving. 

This strategy doesn't require the wholesale overhaul of a nonprofit's communications operation. It's simply pursuing small, consistent actions during the slower summer months that have the potential to deliver major results. 

Don't let your organization miss out on this crucial summer season. The entire nonprofit sector is facing unprecedented challenges, from federal funding cuts to declining individual giving, which require all of us to work more diligently to deliver the results we believe in so much. As you build your strategies, keep the four S's at the center of everything you do: segment donor lists in June, steward relationships in July, share impact in August and show up consistently through September and beyond.

By using this framework, you can turn summer into the lynchpin for your entire year and ensure your mission continues moving forward regardless of how challenging conditions may be. Start as soon as you can. Your donors are waiting to hear from you. 

The preceding content was provided by a contributor unaffiliated with NonProfit PRO. The views expressed within may not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of the staff of NonProfit PRO.