Ok. It’s Giving Season… but no need to panic. Kambeo has got you covered.
Kambeo offers a variety of online tools for any size nonprofit, charity or business. Our platform is about simplifying the process so you can raise more money, reach more people, save valuable time, and eliminate your risk.
We’ve put together a helpful guide on what’s coming up in the next few months and some suggested strategies for how to make the most of it.
Disclaimer: This is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Your mission is as unique as the demographics you serve and the staff who make it possible.
Data Due Diligence
Before you dive into event planning or campaign creation – Have you done your data check yet? If not, look at the gifts that came in this time last year and plan for each level of giving. If you have some mid-major gifts in there, reach out sooner rather than later because we KNOW the holidays have a way of making people forgetful.
October
This is it – it’s October! As Fall shows us its beauty, Giving Season has officially begun. October is the month to start activating your fundraising campaigns while engaging your donors and strengthening your community.
Opportunities to make the most of:
- Canadian Thanksgiving
- Halloween
- Last of the “good weather” before the snow returns (for many of us)
Any of these holidays or occasions can serve as a chance for you to do an appeal or even an event under their theme. Within the Kambeo community, our most popular event format for October is the Peer-to-Peer style with organizers taking this time to plan a walk/run/ride or even a charity golf tournament.
Download your free 2022 Giving Season guide today!
November
Ahh, November, the most misleading month of the year where we falsely assume that the end is AGES away! While you may want to stop and take a breath here, don’t let procrastination take hold of you!
Opportunities to make the most of:
- Remembrance Day/ Veteran’s Day
- US Thanksgiving
- Black Friday
- Cyber Monday
- Giving Tuesday
- Hanukkah Begins
- Office Holiday Parties & Fundraisers
With many communities facing the cold realities of winter, Kambeo sees a huge increase in silent auctions, and that’s usually before the intensity of Giving Tuesday kicks in. Auctions take time to plan and execute. While we may have the tools, you and your team will need time to procure items! If an auction is in your year-end plan, start early and keep in tune with your progress.
Auction horror stories (and there are a lot of them), are never fun for anyone living it. A poorly run auction can be a donor-relationship killer. As part of the Kambeo Community, creating an online auction is streamlined and easy with our team ready to support the creation process if you need some backup.
Now for Giving Tuesday! A lot of organizations have achieved great things beneath the Giving Tuesday banner. What’s important to note is that planning starts as early as September. Smaller teams often prefer to focus more of their time and resources on their December strategies. With the right tools, this allows you to ride the wave created by Giving Tuesday while building social media awareness specific to it.
Actual Scenario:
Take the example of Kambeo Community Member, The Hamilton Aviary. They are a small exotic bird sanctuary with just one paid staff member, yet in 2020 they managed to surpass their Giving Tuesday goal by 250% using Kambeo and social media.
“The first thing I did was set up a Giving Tuesday-specific event on Kambeo so that all of my communications could direct donors to the same DONATE button. The second thing I did was tie the day’s giving activity to our Annual Bird Sponsorship program. This allowed admirers to sponsor their favorite parrot,” Interim Executive Director, Stephanie Brown explained. “This gave me a clean and easy progress bar to use to motivate our supporters throughout the day with emails, social media posts, and even text messages. In our case, we didn’t just have a monetary goal, we had a secondary goal to get every parrot a sponsor or two by the end of the day. It worked well! By the end of the day, we had one parrot left, and so we created a bit of a bidding war for her via Facebook Live!”
You can choose to opt out of Giving Tuesday, and instead focus on stewarding your donors and supporters with gratitude and updates so that your mission and goals can better align with their philanthropic preferences for the holiday season to come. In some communities, donors are 48% more likely to give if they have been updated and connected with before you make the ask.
December
This is it. The end is near. Just 31 days stand between you and the finish line. If your fiscal year doesn’t wrap up on December 31, you may have the luxury of facing this season with a less-stressed approach. For most, this is the season that yields the biggest returns.
Opportunities to make the most of:
- Faith-based organizations and communities will celebrate
- Christmas
- Kwanza
- Hanukkah wraps up
- Office Holiday Parties & Fundraisers
- Last chance for a 2021 Tax Receipt
- If needed, an urgent appeal to close a BIG gap
If you’re hoping for miracles this season, you’ll still have to work for them. We recommend taking a multi-channel approach for maximum message saturation. Craft your email appeals, direct mailers, social media content, and paid advertisements with the same theme and messaging, and direct all donations back to one donation page. People are generally motivated to give for a variety of complex and personal reasons. You must hit them from all directions to remind them of their giving goals. That’s the tough part! Most organizations will just talk about themselves but don’t forget the true power of being donor-centric.
This is also the time to call for ALL HANDS ON DECK. Every Board member and volunteer needs a to-do list that covers fundraising, stewardship, networking, and promotional to-dos.
Important Reminder: If you feel like you need to deploy an urgent appeal strategy, do so with caution. It’s not something you can do every year, or your supporters will catch on and begin calling your bluff – or worse—leaving your organization for another more “stable” cause. And no, “Hurry now and get your tax receipt” is not an urgent appeal! That’s a practical message that appeals to a specific type of individual. That’s it.
