Have you ever thought that annual giving is just a classic roller coaster? You might think I’m referring to thrill you get from the ride – but I’m thinking deeper about the science behind the ride.
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Roller coasters use a combination of gravity, inertia and momentum to propel riders through the track. If you look closely, the biggest hill is first. This is called the lift hill. The lift hill uses a chain or other mechanism to pull the cars to the top. Take yourself back to your last roller coaster ride. Do you remember the excitement and anticipation you felt slowly creeping towards the top? When you reach the top of the lift hill, the train is filled with potential energy – in fact the height of that hill has a direct impact on the rest of the ride. As the train tips over the top of the lift hill, gravity, momentum and inertia take over.

For a rollercoaster, the kinetic energy gained from the initial descent dictates how the rest of the ride will go. If the lift hill is too short, there will not be enough energy built up for the cars to make it through the entire ride.

In annual giving, the three months before the fiscal year start is our lift hill. This is the time where you should be looking ahead towards the next fiscal year and setting your plan. Setting the plan now allows time to ensure that your strategy can make an impact starting on day 1. Ask yourself:

• What key initiatives do I want to anchor my fundraising calendar? A good strategy typically includes a key initiative for each quarter (i.e. initial donor renewal, calendar year end, giving day, fiscal year end, etc…)
• Do I have the tools necessary to implement my strategy? The pre-fiscal year period is a great time to ensure that you will have the platforms and vendors needed to implement your vision.
• Do I have the staff needed to execute my vision? If you are adding new initiatives or expanding initiatives, you may need additional personnel or expertise to successfully implement.

Have you ever noticed how a roller coaster doesn’t just have a series of loops? It has turns, slopes and other elements to ensure that as the train moves through the track it can build up more energy. In annual giving, your plan should be like the rollercoaster and include more than just solicitation.

• Be Prompt with Stewardship. Thank your donors quickly to reassure the donor that their gift was received and appreciated. Always include a quick thank you (like an immediate email). You may also want to have larger “thank a donor” campaign included as part of a key initiative.
• Always be Cultivating. In annual giving, it is all about cultivation. Our goal is to influence donor behavior, encouraging them to climb the donor pyramid with increasing and repeating support. A key component of this is cultivation. Your donors should receive outreach intended to engage and keep them connected with your mission. You should ensure your magazine, website and social media also include strategically timed gifts-at-work examples.
• Space It Out. To avoid donor fatigue, be mindful of the donor view and ensure your plan includes adequate spacing between solicitation appeals to the same audience. When planning your 1st quarter initiatives, think about the timing and how closely that may match up with any fiscal year end audiences.

Another key part of any roller coaster ride is ensuring that all the passengers are ready for the ride. Amusement park attendants do final checks to ensure passengers are secure. As you look ahead to the next fiscal year, be sure that your prospects are ready for your outreach. Studies continue to show that fundraising campaigns utilizing multiple channels of outreach create more opportunities for potential donors to connect with your organization and have higher rates of conversion. Now is a great time to ensure that your prospects will be able to receive your omnichannel outreach.

• Enrich The Data. Send key prospects to data enrichment services to capture and verify demographic information like address, email and cell phone.
• Collect Donor Preferences. Ensure online donor forms and event registration forms include areas to provide preferred contact information as well as opt-in by communication channel.
• Update your CRM. Ensure demographic updates received through returned mail, email correspondence or phone outreach are updated in your CRM. Ensure your outreach CRM is compliance ready with spaces to store opt-in preferences by channel.

When I started out in annual giving, the running joke was that once the fiscal year flips, you wipe the slate clean and start all over again. But after two decades of leading annual giving fundraising strategy, I’ve learned that it is far from the truth. What you do in the final quarter of your fiscal year has a direct impact on the next year’s results. So, as you are looking ahead to next year, remember the importance of a good design. Have a strong initial climb with a mixture of loops, turns and slopes throughout the path.  And always ensure your passengers are ready for the ride!

​Melissa Derrick Adair

If you liked this… 

• How to Build a Philanthropy Calendar That Drives Digital Donations
• Kickstart the Year: Setting Annual Giving Projections for Success
• Culture of Philanthropy Check Up
• Planning for the Unexpected
• The Missing Piece of Your Strategic Planning: A Benchmarking Study

Every year in November, National Philanthropy Day would roll around and I’d sigh and say to myself: “Next year, I’m going to be ready.” I’d swear that I would plan ahead, write the emails, prep the social media graphics, and really celebrate the day with our donors.

Then February would roll around and I’d see adorable Valentine’s Day posts from other schools – “We ❤️ our donors!” – and then again on St. Patrick’s Day – “We’re lucky to have you!” And I’d think: Next year. Definitely next year.

Finally, last summer, I had had enough.

We blocked time, pulled out the project management software, and started building a full philanthropy calendar – complete with stewardship moments, giving day content, and awareness-based messaging. And now? We don’t miss those chances to talk about philanthropy. We show up with intention. And the best part? Once this year is done, we’ll already have an entire year’s worth of content ready to refresh and reuse next time around.

Honestly – it’s one of the best things we’ve done.

If you’re in higher ed advancement (and especially if your fiscal year starts July 1), now is the time to build your calendar for the next year – before you're juggling events, campaigns, and year-end appeals.

When you plan your giving-focused content in advance, you give your team the time and space to tie fundraising to moments that matter – national observances, cause-based awareness days, and your own institutional milestones. You stop scrambling. You start seeing results.
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Digital fundraising isn’t just about being visible. It’s about being intentional.

Start with the obvious ones: your founding date, commencement, homecoming, or the birthday of a beloved former president with a named scholarship fund. Then build out from there.

Here are a few ideas to get you thinking:

• World Gratitude Day (Sept 21) – a lovely touchpoint to show donor appreciation
• National Philanthropy Day (Nov 15) – a perfect moment to thank donors and highlight giving’s impact
• National Estate Planning Awareness Week (3rd week of October) – opens the door for gentle legacy giving education
• National Scholarship Month (November) – great for student stories, recruitment, and stewardship

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The more your calendar reflects your organization’s story, the more it will resonate with your community. These aren't throwaway posts – they’re meaningful messages that reinforce your mission and make giving feel timely and personal.

Use scheduling tools like Buffer, Later, or Hootsuite to plan ahead. Build Canva templates you can reuse year after year. And make sure someone on your team is tracking which content types drive engagement – not just likes, but actual clicks, gifts, or email signups.

Once you get into the rhythm of planning ahead, the content starts to build on itself – and pretty soon, you're not starting from scratch every year. You’re refining, reusing, and getting stronger with every cycle.
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You don’t need a massive team or a fancy agency. Just a plan, a few tools, and a commitment to showing up for your donors in meaningful ways.

I’ve done the heavy lifting for you  –  get your free Year-Round Philanthropy Calendar with dates organized by theme and by month and ideas for implementation.
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This curated list of dozens of dates is tailor-made for fundraising, stewardship, and storytelling – including giving days, mission-aligned observances, and the quirky holidays that make for surprisingly great donor content.

Just drop your email, and you’ll be able to download it instantly. Easy.
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One calendar. A year’s worth of opportunities to show up, connect with your donors, and tell the story of your mission.

What dates are important for your messaging and content throughout the year? Let me know in the comments.
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Cheers,

​PS - I hope you’ll continue the conversation by subscribing to Real Deal Fundraising. When you subscribe, you’ll get my e-newsletter, which includes the best articles on fundraising, productivity, and cool stuff every week. The whole thing is curated awesomeness as well as freebies like webinars, instructional videos, and whatever else I can put together to be helpful to you!

If you liked this…

• The Responsibility Calendar: The Best Way to Execute Your Fundraising Plans
• Why Nonprofits Can’t Afford to Sleep on IRA Rollovers
• What Should Your Strategic Fundraising Plan Contain?
• Leveraging National Estate Planning Awareness Week for Planned Giving Success
• Kickstart the Year: Setting Annual Giving Projections for Success

I learned the power of recurring gifts when I ran a faculty/staff giving campaign. I saw how quickly even $5 payroll deductions added up across the year when dozens upon dozens of donor participated. When I arrived at a much smaller institution that really needed unrestricted gifts, I knew they needed a strong monthly giving program that would help us reach our annual goals.
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Recurring giving is a powerful strategy that can transform your nonprofit’s fundraising model. A successful recurring gift program provides steady, unrestricted income and builds a loyal donor base that supports your mission long-term. Here’s how to build a thriving recurring gift program from scratch.

A recurring gift program allows donors to give smaller, automated contributions on a monthly basis, typically via credit/debit card or bank draft. These "set it and forget it" donations make giving simple and budget-friendly for donors, while providing nonprofits with reliable revenue.

Why You Should Launch a Recurring Gift Program:

• Cost-Effective: Solicited only once, recurring gifts reduce acquisition costs.
• Predictable Revenue: Monthly gifts offer a consistent income stream.
• Higher Lifetime Value: Studies show that recurring donors give more over time compared to one-time or annual donors.
• Increased Donor Loyalty: The regular engagement helps deepen the relationship with your organization.

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Why Donors Love Monthly Giving
Monthly giving resonates with donors for several key reasons:

• Convenience: Automated payments make it easy to maintain their support without additional steps.
• Budget-Friendly: Smaller, regular donations are easier to fit into monthly budgets.
• Eco-Friendly: Recurring gifts reduce paper usage and reliance on direct mail, aligning with donor values around sustainability.
• Impactful: Donors feel a deeper connection, knowing their consistent support enables ongoing projects and growth.

Here’s a step-by-step approach to creating a sustainable recurring gift program that will drive long-term success.

Choose a donation platform that securely stores donor payment information and processes automated monthly contributions. Key features to consider include:

• Mobile Optimization: Ensure the sign-up process is seamless on all devices.
• Security: Look for Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance and encrypted data storage.
• User-Friendly Maintenance System: Make sure the system is easy for staff to manage, update, and integrate with your CRM.

Pro Tip: The ability to automate receipts and acknowledgments in your software will save staff time and maintain a consistent donor experience.

Engage your team and leadership early. Present a clear case for why a recurring gift program is a strategic priority using data and examples:

• Highlight the benefits of consistent revenue and lower acquisition costs.
• Address any concerns about additional workload or technology investment.

Share a short executive summary and draft donation page copy with key stakeholders to secure buy-in and streamline implementation.

Develop a unique brand identity for your recurring giving group to create a sense of community. Consider naming the group and designing a logo (e.g., "The [Organization] Sustainers"). This branding helps build a strong identity and a feeling of belonging among donors.
Examples:

• Charity: Water’s "The Spring" 
• The Adventure Project’s "The Collective" 
• Starr King School for the Ministry’s "The Starr King Sustainers"

Begin by reaching out personally to a select group of 25-50 loyal donors, volunteers, or board members. These individuals are likely to be early adopters and provide valuable feedback for refining your program.
Action Steps:

• Make personalized calls or set up Zoom meetings to introduce the program.
• Explain the benefits of becoming a founding member and gather testimonials from these early donors.

Once you’ve piloted your program, it’s time for a full launch. Use a multi-channel approach to reach your audience:

• Email: Highlight the ease and impact of monthly giving.
• Social Media: Share testimonials and visual stories of impact.
• Direct Mail: Include a simple option to sign up for monthly giving on reply cards.
• Phone Campaigns: Engage donors directly and answer any questions they have.

Keep the momentum going by regularly reporting progress. Consider using a thermometer graphic to illustrate growth in monthly donors and total contributions.

While your main goal is sustainable support, offering small perks can enhance donor loyalty without significantly increasing costs:

• Access to an exclusive Facebook group or early event registration.
• An annual Zoom Q&A with your CEO or program director.
• Personalized thank-you notes or recognition on your website.

These gestures help make donors feel special and connected to your mission.

Ongoing maintenance is key to the success of your program. Be proactive about updating expired credit cards and follow up with donors whose payments fail. In January, send timely letters for tax purposes covering all of the gifts the donor made in the previous tax year. I’ve always liked to send monthly donors a sticker and/or car decal for every year they are in the program. 
Upgrade Strategy:

• Every 12-24 months, ask existing donors if they’d consider increasing their monthly gift. Even a small increase can have a big impact over time.

Persistence is crucial when building a recurring gift program. Plan an annual campaign to recruit new donors and replace any who have lapsed.
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Case Study: When we started "The Starr King Sustainers" program in 2016, we had just 11 donors giving under $1,000 monthly. By 2024, we grew to over 110 monthly donors contributing nearly $6,000 each month, providing a stable base of support for our mission.

​Building a successful recurring gift program takes time and effort, but the payoff is substantial. With a thoughtful approach and consistent stewardship, you’ll create a loyal base of donors who are passionate about supporting your mission month after month.

When my boss at The University of Southern Mississippi Foundation asked me to develop my goal for next year’s annual fund, I leaned into my expertise with spreadsheets and data. Piece by piece, I built a realistic projection for what we could raise through direct mail, email marketing, and our phonathon. Confident in the numbers, I presented them to him, and he was skeptical because the figure was three times more than the previous decade of annual results.

He suggested revising the estimate to a modest 10% increase, but I firmly stood by my projections, stating they were my low-end projections. He challenged me by saying, “If you hit these numbers, I’ll let you put a pie in my face.” We formalized the bet with a signed contract displayed in the office, which became a motivator for the team.

As the year unfolded, the energy around this goal grew. Even as we processed triple the usual number of gifts, everyone rallied around the challenge. My projections were so accurate that our phonathon came within $100 of my estimates, proving the strategy worked.
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At a faculty and staff event marking the year’s end, we celebrated with the promised pie-in-the-face moment. My boss, albeit wearing protective gear, took the pie as I reveled in knowing that meticulous planning and confidence in my expertise led to such a monumental achievement.

As we enter a new year, the promise of fresh opportunities is balanced by the practical need to set realistic projections. For nonprofit professionals, this is a pivotal step in crafting a fundraising strategy that not only meets but exceeds organizational goals. Even if you are on a July - June fiscal year, now is the time to planning and projecting because you will likely need to lobby for budget resources in February or March for the upcoming new fiscal/academic year.

But let’s start with some clarity: a goal is a desired end state – what you hope to achieve. A projection, however, is an educated calculation based on data and trends – a tool to guide your way.

While these terms are related, their distinctions are critical. In healthy organizations, projections should drive goal setting. Yet, many of us have faced the challenge of working under arbitrary or unrealistic goals set without a solid foundation in data.
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So, how do you ensure your projections are both reliable and actionable? Let’s dive into how to create, use, and leverage them to empower your program and set yourself up for success.

Whether your organization has given you a set goal or you have the freedom to build it, projections are indispensable. Even if the target feels unattainable, projections are worth your time because they:

1. Pinpoint the Shortfall
   By analyzing past performance and calculating realistic returns, projections can reveal where your program may fall short. This allows you to identify gaps, explain challenges to leadership, and show with data why certain outcomes are unlikely.
2. Identify Opportunities
   Projections force you to look at each segment of your program, which might reveal untapped opportunities. Is there a new group to solicit? A fresh strategy to implement? These insights can help you stretch toward your goal, even if it initially feels out of reach.
   
3. Tell a Story to Advocate for Resources
   When your projections highlight the potential for growth with additional resources, they become a lobbying tool. Imagine presenting leadership with clear evidence: “If we invest X dollars in this program, we project an increase of Y dollars in revenue.” This positions you as a forward-thinking fundraiser who makes decisions based on data, not guesses.

Giving Tuesday 2024 is officially in the books, and I’m thrilled to share what worked for us this year! The seminary I work for has participated in Giving Tuesday on and off for almost a decade, but this year, we took bold steps that paid off in a record-breaking campaign.

​Spoiler alert: We set a $20,000 challenge match - our highest ever - and not only met it but exceeded it, raising $40,000! (We even used a strategic extension to cross the finish line - more on that later.)
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Whether you’re looking for fresh ideas or want to refine your strategy, here’s what made our campaign a success:

Challenge matches are a must-have in your Giving Tuesday toolbox. This year, our $20,000 match created a sense of urgency and gave donors an irresistible reason to give.

Why It Worked: It answered the critical question, “Why should I give today?” A generic “it’s Giving Tuesday” doesn’t cut it anymore because every nonprofit is vying for attention. A match is specific, exciting, and makes donors feel like their gift has double the impact.

What if I told you that there was a source of annual fund dollars out there that could cost you 18 cents to raise a dollar and raise those funds very quickly in a short period of time?
 
And what if I told you that you probably were not currently utilizing this particular source of revenue for your institution? You would be interested, right?
 
Let me tell you what the secret source of revenue is . . . Facebook ads.
 
Yep, Facebook ads. Believe it or not, I recently did a test in which I ran Facebook ads for year-end fundraising and the cost to raise a dollar was as low as 18 cents.
 
In all honesty, this test grew out of the fact that I work for a very small shop and I’m the only fundraiser. I needed to come up with a calendar year-end giving campaign for our social media. Last year I spent a lot of time crafting unique messages to be used for each day in December. This year I was just running out of time and had no real creativity left in me.
 
So instead, I decided to craft three very targeted year-end promotional messages and boost them significantly with Facebook ads. I had a little bit of extra money in my budget that I re-purposed in order to do this. Not a ton. I'm talking less than $1,200 to experiment with.
 
So I divided my ad dollars up between three boosted ads. The first two were to promote general giving. One was targeted to those outside of our normal constituency on Facebook (people who don’t currently like our page). The second I boosted specifically to people within our community (who currently like our page).  
 
The third leg of this campaign was a specific boost to encourage our constituents to become “sustainers” (recurring monthly donors). All three of these campaigns were successful.
 
First, our campaign outside of our normal constituency reached over 44,000 people who may or may not have ever heard of the school before but had our affinity with the religious community that we serve. We also garnered 14 new page likes.
 
In the general year-end giving part of the campaign, over 500 people clicked on our giving website. We got 24 gifts out of this campaign, totaling almost $5,000. The results came out to only $0.18 to raise a dollar! This was revelatory to think that we could not only do public relations and communications work, developing our constituencies on social media, but at the same time raise some serious money
 
The monthly sustainer campaign was also quite successful. We did not spend very much on that campaign, only about $100 but we got 4 new sustainer donors. These new donors represent $65 monthly (or $780 more per year). That doesn’t even fully represent the lifetime value of those monthly donors. If you just take the first year of value from those monthly donors then it was 34 cents to raise a dollar for this micro-campaign. I would argue it is well worth it when you consider that most of these donors will roll on from year to year as ongoing monthly donors
 
I was surprised that something like Facebook ads could actually work for fundraising. I think my bias against it is because we want these digital mediums to be a free way to reach people. We know they have power to reach people but don’t want to pay for it.
 
And yet, we know that mail and phone are worth the investment. Why are we not willing to invest real money in the digital mediums yet?
 
Facebook (at least) is here to stay. It’s a reliable way of reaching people and we should start thinking about Facebook (and other forms of social media) with the same mindset we use when we think about phone to mail.

Namely, that you have to spend money to make money.
 
We need to start being smart about spending part of our fundraising budget on social media. Run some tests. Look at them with an eye to return on investment. Track the same kind of statistics that we track for phone and mail fundraising, including cost to raise a dollar.
 
If you haven't been utilizing Facebook ads in order to grow your constituency on Facebook and raise real money, I would encourage you to undertake a test. Maybe run your fiscal year-end campaign or use it around a day of giving or some other point of urgency.

​You can gain new donors, new Facebook fans, and real money. You can do all those things to the tune of 20 cents to raise a dollar. I would argue it is worth the investment. Can you lobby for a little extra money in your budget ($500 or $1,000 or $2,000) to experiment with this medium? If it works, put it into your plan for next fiscal year.

Do you already do Facebook ads? If not, is this something you could try? Let me know how it goes.

As always, comments and questions are welcome and encouraged!

Cheers,

Jessica

PS - If you liked this post, you might also like these: 

• 5 Steps to Promote Your Video
• All About Giving Days
• The 30 Minute Fundraiser
• Crisis Communication
• Getting Communications and Development Staff to Function as a Team

​
PPS - If you found this article helpful, please comment and let me know. Also subscribe to Real Deal Fundraising so you don't miss a post! You'll get my  guide to Call Center Games for Free!​​

Building and maintaining a culture of philanthropy is hard work. It is deep work that takes years to build and moments to destroy. But having a healthy culture of philanthropy makes work more fun and makes fundraising easier. It’s worth having a periodic check-up to assess how your institution is doing.

Answer these questions for your institution:

Board Support

• Does your board of directors (or board of trustees) support the organization as current year donors at 100% participation?
• Board support is a sign of stakeholder investment. It also shows that your closest advocates are current with their support. The level of the support doesn't matter so much as the consistency and recency of that support. PS - It's easier to ask for others to give if you are a current donor.

Staff Support

• Does your fundraising staff support the organization as current year donors at 100% participation?
• Does at least 50% of your organization’s overall staff (and faculty) support the organization as current year donors?
• Again, staff support is a measurement of stakeholder investment. Does your staff (especially your fundraising staff, believe in the mission enough to back it with their personal funds? The level doesn't mean as much as the participation.

Alumni support (or Grateful Patient support)

• This category assesses whether those served by your organization’s mission give back to the organization later. This is a sign of institutional effectiveness.
• What is your alumni (or similar) participation rate? You’ll know whether this is good for your organization or not. The level at which this metric is outstanding varies widely from institution to institution.

Fun Factor

• Does your organization frequently have concrete signs that fundraising is seen as an enjoyable community endeavor? (For example, an annual gala, a stewardship picnic, a “Dancing with the Deans” competition, etc.)
• List what you currently do to put the “fun” in fundraising.
• Write down three new ideas to improve your fun factor.

Communications

• How often do your constituents hear from the organization without a fundraising pitch?
• Do these communications include stories of impact?
• Are you communicating in different media? Email, print, video, etc?

Stewardship and Donor Relations

• Do you have meaningful giving societies?
• Do you have a person designated to assist donors with any “customer service” type issues? 
• How is your data management and data integrity? Nothing kills a philanthropic feeling like your name being wrong on an invitation.
• Stewardship is not just the purview of the staff member with "donor relations" in his or her title. It is an office-wide perspective of service and connection. From your front desk associates to student workers/interns to your accountants on staff to gift officers and especially advancement services and gift processing staff, improving donor relations should be everyone's primary objective.

Other questions to think about:

• Does your organization show the impact of giving clearly and broadly?
• For major donors, do you create unique reports and experiences that connect for them their gift to the impact in the world?
• Do you see expressions of gratitude at all levels of the organization? Where could your organization do better?
• Are the needs of the institution are clearly expressed for donors of all levels using different media?
• Does the institution set expectations for giving through specific asks, giving society thresholds and endowment minimums?
• Are fundraising goals embraced by both fundraising staff and program staff/faculty?

How did you feel about the assessment? Where are you doing well? Where should you improve? 

As always, comments and questions are welcome and encouraged!

Cheers,

Jessica

PS - If you liked this post, you might also like these: 

• Goals versus projections
• What should a strategic plan contain?
• Planning for the Unexpected
• Conducting a Benchmarking Study
• My Exhaustive Event Planning Checklist

PPS - If you found this article helpful, please comment and let me know. Also subscribe to Real Deal Fundraising so you don't miss a post! You'll get my  guide to Call Center Games for Free!​​

1. Select a different signatory. If your CEO or President usually signs the letters, consider having a donor, volunteer, board member, student, scholarship recipient, grateful patient, recent graduate or faculty member sign the letter this year. Write from their perspective.
2. Do an “Ugly Betty”. So named because it isn’t pretty. This kind of mailing looks like those magazine subscription renewal letters you get. Almost no copy but just a perfunctory reminder to renew giving. People do them all the time because they work.
3. Write a copy-heavy letter. Most of the direct mail pieces I’m seeing in higher education are graphics heavy and, in my opinion, over-produced. Take inspiration from small nonprofits and write a long form letter, going into greater detail about your mission and impact. Don’t be afraid of 3 or 4 or more pages of copy.
4. Break up your copy with bold font, underlines, small paragraphs and block quotes.
5. Don’t forget the PS. Everybody reads the PS. Reiterate your call-to-action here. Don’t be afraid to add a PPS.
6. Go super-short. If you normally write a longer letter, try an abbreviated copy that will force you to squeeze the mission and call-to-action in as quickly as possible. The front of one letter sized page with letterhead would be my recommendation. I've gone as short as the space between the bottom of the letterhead and the top of the bottom third (which was a tear off reply card) with success!
7. Put your “updates” on the back. All that great stuff that faculty and/or program staff want you to communicate doesn’t belong front and center in a fundraising letter. A solicitation isn’t their annual newsletter. Put pictures and “talking points” on the back of the letter.
8. Consider doing a planned giving focused letter. Select a targeted group and write with the goal of generating leads for your planned giving staff rather than dollars-in-the-door right now.
9. Test including matching gift brochures in your mailing. Include a blurb about matching gifts in the PS. (You can get brochures here.) 
10. Get inspired by looking at samples on SOFII, the Showcase of Fundraising Innovation and Inspiration.
11. Find and tell the most compelling story you can. Pull some heartstrings. Be emotional.
12. On the other hand, you might need to go to the data. Put in some graphs that show how the cost of an education has changed. Or how much state support has decreased. This might be old news for you but revelatory for your prospects.
13. Write about student debt loads at your institution by checking out your statistics at The Project on Student Debt. Here's my post about how to use student debt data. 
14. Change your focus. If you normally solicit for the college level, consider a general fund letter or a departmental letter.
15. Work with major gift officers to secure a matching donation. Write a challenge letter and have the donor sign it.
16. Research “envelope tricks” and try something new on the outside of your letter.
17. Make sure your institution is doing all that they can with data research to have correct addresses. Here’s a quick introduction to basic research. 
18. Ask your mail vendor to send you a stack of samples. Even if you don’t use a mail processing vendor now, you can inquire with one and they will send you samples.
19. Ban the phrase “make a difference”. Get a large white board and write as many phrases as you can in answer to the question, “What do I mean when I say the donor’s gift will make a difference?” Characterize the difference. What does it look like, feel like, or do in the world?
20. Construct a peer-solicitation strategy. Recruit representatives to sign the letters from each class year and segment accordingly.
21. Put your name on the mailing list of 10 different nonprofits you admire. Within a month, you’ll have a stack of samples. Read them and see which ones move you and why.
22. Write your direct mail FAR in advance. Start writing your fall mailings now. The longer lead time you give yourself, the freer you’ll be to be creative and try new things.
23. Find a story highlighted in another department and expand upon it. A story of a scholarship recipient shared on social media. The story of a bequest that was in the planned giving newsletter. The student highlighted in the admissions mailing because they won the Rhodes Scholarship. It’s okay to re-use, especially if they have different audiences.
24. Try a survey mailing. Ask your constituents about how they feel about the institution, how they like to give, and why they give. Include an ask too, of course.
25. If this is appropriate to your mission, include a petition for a lobbying issue. Ask them to give to the same issue.
26. Stay away from premiums! Giveaways should be used for stewardship not acquisition. If they send you $10 because you gave them a luggage tag or address labels, why would they give next year? You’ll be putting yourself on a hamster wheel.
27. Do a big quality check on your organization’s addressee and salutation fields. If these are wrong or wonky, it can make your organization look very silly and prevent prospects from EVER opening your letters.
28. This one is hard. Consider whether you really need a refresh. Are your donors bored? Or are YOU bored? If the results bear out that your current strategy is working, don’t mess with success. Instead, ask your supervisor whether you can expand your work into another area in order to keep yourself growing and challenged.
29. Find inspiration from the for-profit world of direct marketing. Follow Direct Marketing News on Facebook. Here’s some of their resources. 
30. Research donor-centric copy. This post was pivotal when I was teaching myself to write copy for direct mail: Future Fundraising Now, Some Donor Centered Copy Examples
31. ​Write your donor using engaging narration. You’ve probably heard it before but take your draft and write it again using the word “you” more often. Make it about how the donor is changing something for the better because they gave (or will be giving).

Did you get at least 2 good ideas to pursue from this list?

Which one was most helpful? Do you have any tips for my readers struggling to make their direct mail copy fresh?

Comments and questions are, as always, welcomed and encouraged!

Best of luck in your copywriting! Cheers,
 
Jessica Cloud
 
PS – I TOLD YOU EVERYONE READS THE PS! If you liked this post, you might also like these:

• Spoilt for Choice: Why Giving Donors Direction Works
• Is Direct Mail Really Dead?
• Five Steps to Break Through Your Direct  Mail Writer's Block
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PPS - If you found this article helpful, please comment and let me know. Also subscribe to Real Deal Fundraising so you don't miss a post! You'll get my guide to Call Center Games for Free!​​

Tis the Season for Strategic Planning! Now is the time of year that many higher education fundraisers are doing two things:

1. Working it hard to reach our fiscal year end goals and,
2. Planning how we might do things better next year.

I totally understand you are busy. Trust me. Between travel, work, and personal responsibilities, I’m stretched too.

But, I think you should consider one more project: a benchmarking study. It's the missing piece of your strategic planning process.

A benchmarking study is a survey of peer organizations that will give you insightful information about what your program should be doing. I assure you that this process doesn’t take long. The data you obtain will be so useful to you, I guarantee you that you will not regret investing the time.

A benchmarking study can help you:
​

• Check your fundraising results versus peer institutions.
  • Are they raising more or less than you? Why?
• Assess your portfolio of programs and provide supporting evidence to start new programs or drop unproductive ones.
  • For instance, say your biggest rival school does a day-of-giving and you don't. They raise more money than you overall and have a higher alumni participation rate. This is a persuasive reason for you to try a day-of-giving. Likewise, if your leadership believes the reunion giving is the most important thing in the world, but none of your peers do this and it always takes a ton of time for not much revenue, recommend dropping it.
• Give you justification to lobby for more budgetary resources.
  • If another school has 25 calling stations and calls year round successfully, and your phonathon only has 15 calling stations and doesn’t call in the summer, perhaps you need to add more stations or calling hours.
• Inspire you with ideas but also provide important return-on-investment data of those ideas.
  • With the questions I will recommend you ask, you’ll get inspired but avoid the temptation to implement ideas that sound great but don’t pull real results.
• Open a window onto what’s possible, as well as confirming where you are doing well.

How do I get started? I have no time for this…

This doesn’t have to take a long time. If you employ an intern or student worker, have them help you with the process. The first phase of identifying your peer institutions is the hardest part. Just hang with me and you'll find you can fit this in and that the long term benefits (to your institution and your own career) are worth it.

Here’s the 5 phase process for doing a benchmarking study:

1. Research
2. Create survey
3. Solicit participation
4. Analysis
5. Follow-up

Phase 1: Research

List your “peer institutions”. You know at least some of them. They might be your in-state rivals or other nearby institutions of similar size, age and student population. Your peer institutions are the ones that your boss always asks about in meetings: “What is XYZ College doing in this area?”

Note: There is a big difference between a peer institution and an aspirant institution.

An aspirant institutions is one that your institution wants to be like but isn’t. They are a significant level-up from you. They may have 50-100 years more institutional history, a much larger endowment, a larger student body or other significant indicators that make them just a bit beyond your organization.

Sometimes leadership or volunteers believe a rival institution is a peer institution when it is actually a aspirant institution. When I was at Southern Miss, we were frequently compared with Mississippi State and Ole Miss, but Southern Miss is actually much more like Eastern Carolina University or the University of Memphis than either of those in-state rivals.

It’s a bit dangerous to confuse an aspirant institution with a peer institution. You would be comparing apples to papayas. However, you can include them in your study because they are a great source of inspiration and ideas. Just mark them clearly in your data as aspirant and understand that they will likely have bigger budgets and bigger results.

If you only can come up with a few institutions, do some internet searches to find similar organizations. You might google, “liberal arts colleges more than 100 years old” or “southern universities with endowments of less than $100 Million”. I recommend you have a list of 10-12 peer institutions and perhaps 3-5 aspirant institutions because not all the institutions will respond.

Once you have a short list of potential peer and aspirant institutions, you (or your intern) should do a bit of research. You need to identity the equivalent program director at those places. For example, if your study is for annual giving, you will want to find the Director of Annual Giving at each place on your list. Record this staffer’s name, title, phone and email address in a spreadsheet.

Phase 2: Create survey

I recommend you ask a mixture of questions in these categories:

• Institutional questions
  • Student body, Endowment size, type of institution, year founded, etc. These questions provide confirmation of their peer status to your institution and establish where you are alike and different.
• Overall Fundraising Results Questions
  • Dollars, donors, alumni participation, etc.
• Resource Questions
  • Resources at the disposal of their program, including monetary resources, space, software, equipment and staff.
• Program Questions
  • Major gifts, lead annual fund, giving societies, events, direct mail, digital promotions, student philanthropy, phonathon, etc.

You can follow this process to design your survey for any area of development but here is what I’ve used before for annual giving.

Annual Fund Questionnaire

1. Institution:
2. Alumni Base:
3. Overall Annual Fund statistics:
   1. Overall Dollars Raised in most recently completed fiscal year:
   2. Overall number of donors (or pledges):
   3. Overall participation rate:
4. Other constituencies that you solicit: (Please indicate the total amount of dollars and number of donors that each program generates towards your totals above.)
   1. Parents?
   2. Students?
   3. Friends?
   4. Faculty/Staff/Retirees?
   5. Other?
5. Methods Utilized:  Please describe how you use this, the scope, etc. (Please indicate the total amount of dollars and number of donors that each program generates towards your totals above.)
   1. Phone
   2. Direct Mail
   3. E-solicitations
   4. Other e-mails (for reminders, stewardship, etc.)
   5. Social Media
   6. Personal Visits (High End Annual)
   7. Events
   8. Other Methods
6. Do you recognize or have special solicitation plans for any of the following groups: (Please indicate the total amount of dollars and number of donors that each program generates towards your totals above.)
   1. Young Alumni
   2. High Level Annual Societies
   3. Consecutive Year donors
   4. 1st time donors
   5. Reunion giving
7. Can you describe your research/data integrity plan?
8. Can you broadly describe how you segment your data for phone and direct mail?
9. Can you describe your fulfillment and stewardship cycles?
10. Do you undertake any student philanthropy education?

Phase 3: Solicit participation

Take your own survey for your institution putting in your data and make sure each question is clear and makes sense. When you do this, time yourself, so you have an accurate range of how long this will take.

Construct an email to the staffers you recorded contact info for in Phase 1. Let them know that you would love for them to participate and the survey will only take XX minutes. (I would recommend that it take no longer than 15 minutes.)

Then, and this is important, tell them that you will share the results of the survey with them to benefit their program as a thank you for their participation. Provide a deadline and let them know that you’ll remind them closer to the deadline. Keep your window not longer than 2 weeks out, otherwise there is no urgency to participate.

Remind them 4-5 days later if they haven’t participated and again closer to the deadline. You can even through in a phone call 3 days before the deadline, especially if there is a school that you need feedback from for political reasons.

Phase 4: Analysis

Review your survey results, noting where your institution does well and where you fall short. What are the great ideas that stick out? What resources do other organizations have that you don’t? How might you get access to those resources?

Compose your results into an executive summary sheet of 1-3 pages that can be included with your strategic plan or sent to relevant stakeholders as a stand-alone report. This report will be for your institution. You'll also need to consolidate and package up the raw survey results to send to your peer participants in Phase 5.

Phase 5: Follow-Up

Be professional and prompt with your follow up. Send a copy of every survey or the consolidated results to all survey participants. Do this within 2 weeks from the survey deadline. Thank them profusely and perhaps include an invitation to establish an on-going professional support relationship.

Maybe you start a Facebook or LinkedIn group where you can compare data throughout the year on an ad-hoc basis. These relationships are of great value to your institution and to your own career.

Conclusion

This process shouldn’t be intimidating and when you are done with it, you will have some important tools in your strategic planning process.

I did this exact process at The University of Southern Mississippi to prove my point that the annual fund had historically under-performed. The benchmarking study certainly showed the under-performance but it also showed similar institutions were raising so much more money, which meant there was no reason Southern Miss couldn’t do it too with strategy, consistency and investment. I’m happy to say that’s exactly what happened. I’m pleased to report the program has now exceeded the five year goals I set for it back in 2011-2012 when I did the benchmarking study.

If you do this project, you’ll have some persuasive data to lobby for changes to your program. Plus, you’ll be seen as a self-starter not only in your office or institution but in the broader development community as well. It’s worth it.

Have you undertaken a benchmarking study? Why or why not? What conclusions came out of your study?

As always, comments and questions are welcome and encouraged!

Cheers,

Jessica

PS - If you liked this post, you might also like these: 

• Goals versus projections
• What should a strategic plan contain?
• Planning for the Unexpected

PPS - If you found this article helpful, please comment and let me know. Also subscribe to Real Deal Fundraising so you don't miss a post! You'll get my  guide to Call Center Games for Free!​​

Connecting with a donor or potential donor is so vital before you ask for a gift. It's like removing many of the roadblocks between you and that "YES!" response you want.

People want to give to people they like. It's not much of a secret. Ultimately, as a fundraiser you are a conduit for the relationship between that donor and the institution (not with you personally) but they must enjoy speaking with you to want to continue a relationship with the institution.

This is an important skill for any fundraiser to develop, from phonathon callers on up to executive directors, deans and development officers.

I have been to MANY call centers where they use the same tired rapport-building questions year after year after year. We cannot let this happen. No one wants to spend their precious time telling a new person why they haven't been back to campus lately just like they did last year.

Bad rapport-building has the opposite effect on the donor than that which we wish to cultivate.

The first rule of building rapport is it must be DIALOG not MONOLOGUE. You must ask questions that will solicit meaningful conversation and back and forth. You (no matter if you are a student caller or the Vice President of Advancement) must not deliver a litany of great-stuff-happening-at-our-institution without stopping for breath.

So, following this rule, we must construct meaningful rapport building questions.

The second rule about rapport building is that these questions get stale. Every year (at least) new rapport builders should be generated and put into rotation.

Here is some guiding criteria for generating these questions. Rapport building questions should:

• Extract meaningful information (like employment and campus affinities).
• Make the prospect like the caller/staffer as quickly as possible.
• Be delivered in a genuine way.
• Not be able to be answered with “Yes” or “No”.
• Not merely deliver talking points about the college or university.
• Provide opportunities for smooth transitions to the first ask.
• Collect new demographic information about prospects and verify current info (but not in a “canned” or perfunctory way).

What are some examples of strong rapport-building questions?

• Were you close to any faculty members while you earned your degree?
• Are working in the same field in which you earned your degree?
• Did you know that the <> recently <>? Isn't that great?
• I thought you might like to know that we've had a lot of success in <>. What do think about that?
• I see that you attended our recent <>. Do you have any feedback for <> about that event that I could pass along?
• You know, I am not sure about the answer to that question. But I can get back to you if I could get your cell phone number or email. I'll research that and contact you.
• Why did you make your first gift to <>? What keeps you giving?
• What are you most passionate about here at <>?
• I see you are <> as I was/am. That's wonderful to know. Do you know <>?

Does your rapport building need a refresh? Do you have some favorite rapport-building questions that I forgot to mention on my list? Comments and questions are, as always, welcomed and encouraged!

Cheers,
​
Jessica Cloud

PS - If you liked this post, you might also like these:

• 5 Ideas to Improve Mock Calling
• Annual Fund versus Annual Giving: What's the difference?
• The 30 Minute Fundraiser

PPS - If you found this article helpful, please comment and let me know. Also subscribe to Real Deal Fundraising so you don't miss a post! You'll get my guide to Call Center Games for Free!​​