You are feverishly planning for Thanksgiving and Christmas fundraising campaigns, but neither of those holidays come close to the most important fundraising day of the year.
Year after year, consistently across our clients, December 31st brings in significantly more money than any other single day of giving online. Just look at the graph above showing funds raised throughout the year—every other day pales in comparison to the money raised on December 31st!
THE BAD NEWS? THE COMPETITION IS FIERCE.
Everyone is trying to get their message out—and bring the money in—on the last day of the year. In order to cut through the competition, you have to change your email strategy to find success.
In 2016, we watched the behavior of a variety of organizations across a handful of industries and 72% of them emailed more than one time on December 31st. 27% of the organizations emailed 3 or more times. They were also active on social media, filling newsfeeds with multiple posts per day! Ignore those unwritten rules of one-post-a-day . . . this day is too important to your fundraising efforts!
SO HOW SHOULD YOUR ORGANIZATION HANDLE DECEMBER 31ST?
The planning needs to start now, because all your digital channels (email, social media, website, etc.) need to be active and communicating with your donors on this critical date. These messages can be quick and short—make sure you are on your donors’ minds as they consider where they should give before the end of the year. Communicate that time is limited—only hours left to send their tax-deductible year-end gift—and that their gift will change lives!
Connect with us if you have any questions about making this December 31st your best fundraising day of the year.
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