From the Desk of: Steve Elliott

I recently shared why year-end fundraising is so important. Now I want to offer a few ideas for your 2025 year-end plan.

The first is obvious but too often overlooked: set a goal for year-end giving.

+ + The year-end goal....

As I noted, year-end giving in December accounts for, on average, 20-30% of non-profit giving. We used 25% as a benchmark.

I suggest building a year-end campaign with a funding goal based on some percentage of your year-end giving goal. It's best if the year-end campaign can have specificity -- not just general funds. Frame your plan around something new you are launching or some critical need you have.

Many organizations utilize the mechanism of a donor "challenge" -- a sum of funds that one or more major donors have pledged or donated that can then be "matched." These "challenges" work on both ends: recruiting major gifts and inspiring others to give.

So start with a goal. Then, put down your year-end "anchor"...

+ + The "anchor" for your year-end

There are many reasons why direct mail is an excellent "anchor" of your entire year-end strategy. 

First, the longer time line requires/forces advanced planning and will help you frame all your year-end messaging. A mature direct mail program tends to produce a steady stream of support, with a significant bump at year end. Plus, your team will be busy opening envelopes well past the new year.

If you're not doing direct mail, perhaps start by asking yourself, "How come we're not doing direct mail?" If you are concerned about the costs and whether mail works, then there's not a better time than year-end to test and see if it will work for your organization. If year-end mailers work, you can add regular mailers to your annual plan.

+ + The built-in kickoff...

Next, build a plan for Giving Tuesday, which is the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. Giving Tuesday is growing every year, with 36 million people donating in 2024 on this date. I suggest creating a specific Giving Tuesday goal, which is part of your year-end goal.

More important than the raw dollars raised on this date is what Giving Tuesday can do to super-charge your entire year-end plan. According to Advancement Resources:

"Organizations [that] promoted Giving Tuesday received donations from 40-60% more donors during the end-of-year giving season, and they had higher retention and recurring growth rates."

Plus, the average gift on Giving Tuesday is about $100. Not bad.

+ + Building to the year-end

With your direct mail plan in place and your Giving Tuesday strategy igniting the final month, it's time to craft your social media, email and texting content. Here, you can build and build and build towards the end of the year.

The key is to be in front of your donors in those final days (and hours) of the year when some will make key decisions about their giving. As you likely know, the changes in the tax laws have caused most filers to no longer claim the deduction for their donation to your organization. The data shows that less than 10% now itemize and claim charitable deductions.

But...

The vast majority of those who do claim deductions for charitable donations earn more than $100,000 annually and half of all the charitable deductions claimed on tax returns are taken by those earning $1 million or more. Apparently, some significant percentage of those millionaires are literally sitting down on December 31 to get their charity giving done.

Which brings me to the final piece of advice -- load up on December 31. Email early and often. Send a text. Get your social media planned. The goal is to be in front of those higher-end donors on that last day when 5% of all giving happens.

I've been involved in many aspects of development work, but what I enjoy most (and am perhaps best at) is helping organizations to identify and frame the vision and put that vision into a development plan.

I'd be glad to serve as part of your year-end strategy team. Or perhaps my team can set up everything from direct mail to email to texting to social media.

Let's chat, and here's to a Happy Year End!

Steve Elliott
[email protected]

P.S. If you are not currently engaged in a direct mail program, or your program could use some horsepower, let me know. We have an amazing partner I can connect you with.

Set up a 15 minute call with Steve.

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 © 2025 Steve Elliott. Grassroots Action, Inc. 

Stephen Elliott

About

Steve Elliott is the co-founder of Grassfire, a 1.5 million member liberty-based citizen network. Steve likes to talk about politics, tech, faith and family.