Year-end is in full swing. I'm supporting six wonderful organizations with their campaigns spanning international development, animal welfare, mindfulness training, and local healthcare access.
I've been sharing weekly year-end tips on LinkedIn, so this month's newsletter is a compilation. I'll summarize below, and you can click the links to read the full posts:
7 highly specific and perhaps controversial year-end campaign tips:
#1: Don't send all your year-end emails from individual people. This one received a bit of hot debate in the comments, which makes sense, because every organization has a different history with this. In a nutshell, I think it's worth A/B testing sending a few of your December emails from the organization vs. a person, or planning a mix of both.
#2: Don't skimp on your donation page content. Some people on your list are newer to you, lapsed, or have never given before. They may click to visit your year-end campaign page and still need convincing.
But this is essential: The donation form should be simple and visible above the fold/right away when someone lands on the page (on both mobile and desktop), alongside a donor-centric headline and a succinct 1-2 sentence case for support. The linked post includes more specifics and lovely examples.
#3: Don't assume gift equivalencies are helpful for your cause. By gift equivalencies, I'm referring to lines like "$25 can accomplish X. $50 can accomplish Y." The research is mixed on whether these help or hurt. After reviewing the research and gut-checking as a donor myself, here's my advice:
If your work is quite tangible, such as feeding local families, an animal shelter, helping people afford permanent housing, or funding scholarships for kids, gift equivalencies are likely helpful as long as they feel like good value. If your organization is more complex and gift equivalencies feel manufactured, they might be unnecessary or even backfire.
#4: Ask your monthly donors to upgrade, and do it carefully. First, thank and celebrate your monthly donors multiple times over the next two months via every channel at your disposal. Not just email. Target them with a video ad! Send them a special text message or two!
Then, exclude them from most—but not all—fundraising appeals. Ideally, acknowledge their monthly donor status in the fundraising emails they do receive. This can be as simple as changing one line.
In mid to late December or early January, send them a thoughtful invitation to upgrade their gift amount heading into the new year.
#5: Run your content through the generic copy test. Put every line of your campaign donation page, appeal letter, emails, texts, ad copy—everything—to the test:
"Could this same copy work for another organization?"
If the answer is yes, it's too generic and probably has too much nonprofit jargon, too. Prompts to help you write a more specific, persuasive case for support:
Where does our work happen, who's in the room, and what are the most tangible outcomes?
What is a value or belief guiding our organization that our donors share?
What problems will arise or grow if we don't raise the funds we're asking for this year-end? How would this affect our recipients and donors?
What improvements will result from raising the funds we're asking for this year-end? How will people's (or animals') lives look and feel different? What are some specific, sensory examples?
#6: Document a stewardship plan for before, during, and after your campaign.
How are you thanking 2026 donors for their contributions this year to date?
How will donors be thanked for their year-end gifts while your campaign is running—and then excluded from remaining appeals? Does this depend on their gift amount?
How will year-end donors be collectively thanked in January, and what's the next-step invitation for them?
How will your monthly donors be segmented and treated differently through each of these phases?
The answers to these questions should be documented and woven into your larger campaign plan/content calendar.
#7: Remember, your goal is not their goal. Your mission is. We've seen these lines time and time again, and we've all written them at some point, too:
"Help us meet our $100,000 goal by midnight!"
"This holiday season, we're raising $50,000 for our wonderful programs."
"Today only, take advantage of our 2X match so your dollars go twice as far."
us - our - we - us - our - we
Guess who's motivated by all that? Only the people who are already planning to donate to you this December.
If you're going to share your year-end fundraising goal publicly, the goal needs to be associated with a specific output that matters to your donors, and that's the message you should focus on. Not "Help us meet our goal," but rather, "If we can raise $100,000, we'll be able to deliver X."
If you plan to promote a match this giving season, it's the same concept. The match alone is a common/crowded thing that doesn't register with all donors unless you can connect it to the output.
So many little decisions go into every year-end campaign; it's enough to make you go crazy 🎶 I hope these tips simplify a few of those decisions for you.
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And to wrap with a bit of personal news, after taking seven years off from the in-person conference circuit, I've got my ticket for GiveCon in May. Reply and let me know if you're going too! I'm giddy to meet more of you in person, including those I've worked with for years on screen.
I'm beyond thankful for this community of good people who strive to be even better.
Above all else, my advice this holiday season is:
Save room for pie.
-Caroline
P.S. Want to get to The Good Stuff on LinkedIn too? You could be my 1,500th subscriber!
