End-of-Year Giving 

The end of the year is just around the corner. As a nonprofit organization, this upcoming holiday season can be both stressful and exciting. Many people are inclined to feel the warm and fuzzy emotions that come with helping others and choose to make charitable donations during this time. 

One poll found that 70% of Americans find the holiday season the best time to give back to others, and 65% of respondents are making it a personal goal to donate more. This means your nonprofit faces an excellent opportunity to engage with donors through your year-end giving fundraiser and gain more support. Let’s discuss some 2022 year-end giving campaign ideas to help your nonprofit stand out this holiday season.

Get Started Early 

Getting a head start on your campaigns and events means you’ll be ready to go way ahead of time and can prepare more thoroughly for the busiest giving season of the year. Instead of scrambling days before you launch your campaign to send out emails and social media posts, it’s important to have everything planned and ready to go. 

Even after Giving Tuesday, many people still feel the inspiration to give an end-of-year donation during the holiday season. By having everything prepped ahead of time, you can continue to engage supporters throughout the rest of 2022. 

Emphasize Donor Stewardship  

Donor stewardship is highly important at this time of year, both for old and new donors. In addition to making your old donors feel appreciated by thanking them for their year-end giving, be sure to also focus on building a strong mutual relationship with the influx of new donors your nonprofit will receive during the holiday months. 

The best way to retain your donors is to make them feel welcome and follow up with efficient communication on ways they can stay involved with your nonprofit. The more active you are with your donors, the more likely they will return for each end-of-year giving campaign. 

Engage with Donors 

No matter what time of year it is, keeping your donors engaged should be a top priority in your nonprofit organization. After all, your mission depends on donors to keep your efforts going, so it’s important they feel valued and appreciated for their contributions, time, and support. 

As part of your donor stewardship efforts, you want to actively seek out supporters instead of waiting for them to come to you. Engaging your donor network can help build excitement and awareness about your campaign, bringing in more money to fund your projects. You can engage donors through:

• Email marketing
• Targeted social media posts
• Sponsored or paid content
• Local news networks or radio stations
• Word of mouth and peer-to-peer fundraising

No matter which avenues you choose, be sure to deliver a strong appeal and a clear call to action. Remind your donors of your nonprofit’s mission and let them read real-life stories of your impact on those you serve. 

Understand Target Demographics

In the U.S., more than one-third of annual donations occur between Thanksgiving and Christmas, a period known as the “giving season”. As a nonprofit, donations are critical to your mission, so it’s important to consider broader audiences on top of your specific targets. Understanding your target demographics can help you increase donations and connect directly with those who share a personal or emotional connection to your cause. 

For example, women are more likely to donate to nonprofits than men. Researchers also found that, between 2016 and 2019, women contributed over two-thirds of the total donations on Giving Tuesday annually and were more likely to donate online than men. When it comes to the older generation versus the younger generation, some nonprofits may see a similar difference.  

Some studies suggest older adults of the Baby Boomer generation are more likely to give to charity than Millennials and other young people, but they tend to only donate to causes that impact those in their local area. However, other studies show that the younger crowd is more likely to volunteer and support educational nonprofits than their elders. This giving season, it’s important to research your target audience and determine how they may prefer to engage with your nonprofit’s mission.

Build out Multiple Campaigns and Events 

During Giving Season, there are endless end-of-year opportunities for giving. By planning your events in advance, you can make the most of the end of 2022 and maximize your support from donors. To help inspire creative ideas, you can utilize campaign management software to access analytics and data that help you come up with unique themes. 

Implementing fundraising software can also empower you to build multiple campaigns and events at once. Planning even one campaign and setting up marketing strategies can be time-consuming, and you may not always have enough resources to plan events. With the right tools and solutions, however, your nonprofit team can keep the giving ball rolling all the way into the new year. 

Make Things Easier with Technology 

Running a campaign during the busiest and most hectic time of the year can put a lot of pressure on you and your team. Using donor and fundraising management software makes your work easier by helping you get more done to create a seamless campaign. 

With a fundraising platform, your nonprofit organization can:

• Find new donors: Nonprofit campaign software makes it easy to connect and communicate with new supporters through multiple engagement channels, such as email, text, social media, and personalized messages. 
• Analytics and reporting: With an intuitive dashboard, Google analytics, and various customer relationship management (CRM) integrations, your nonprofit has access to everything you need to view donor data and build your campaign accordingly. 
• Utilize the power of mobile fundraising: Event management software enables your nonprofit to conduct mobile bidding and auctions, virtual and hybrid fundraising, text-to-donate features, and many other solutions that make it easy for donors to connect with your campaign on any device. 
• Gain insights for future success: In addition to robust reporting, fundraising platforms also provide a real-time view of donor behavior, traffic, conversion, and channels so you can track campaign performance and feel confident in your ROI. 

This holiday season could be your strongest one yet. Having the right tools on hand can make your end-of-year campaigns more successful and keep donors engaged for years to come. 

End the Year with GiveSmart 

End-of-year giving is a wonderful opportunity to fund important projects and initiatives in your nonprofit, but it’s just as beneficial for gaining and retaining new donors through your successful and engaging campaigns. At GiveSmart, we know how vital it is for nonprofit organizations to connect seamlessly with donors and build fundraisers and events that are accessible in many ways. 

Our fundraising software helps nonprofits track donors, manage events, centralize fundraising, and create enhanced donor experiences in a user-friendly solution. To learn more about the features and integrations your nonprofit can benefit from this giving season, request a demo today.