If you’re treating Giving Tuesday like a one-and-done campaign, you’re missing the point – and the potential.
​
I want you to think of it differently. Think of Giving Tuesday as your momentum builder. The snowball at the top of the year-end giving hill. Not just a date on the calendar, but the kickoff to your most generous season of the year.

When you plan it right, Giving Tuesday becomes the moment your donors start paying attention again. The moment they re-engage, make that first gift, and feel the energy behind your mission. It gives you stories to tell in December, a list of donors to follow up with, and progress to build on.

This isn’t about chasing trends. This is about strategy.

And if you want it to work, you’ve got to start now.

My friend, Jake Strang said it best:

“As fundraisers, we need to ask ourselves what our donors are asking themselves: ‘Why today?’”

That question is everything. Your donors want to make a difference – not just by giving, but by giving on a day that matters.

Giving Tuesday answers that question. It creates urgency. It offers momentum. It taps into a global spirit of generosity and focuses it on your mission.

But only if you’ve done the work to meet them there. If the messaging isn’t clear, if the plan is rushed, if it’s just another email in the inbox… you’ll miss the moment.
​
The magic is in the lead-up. And the lead-up starts now.

1. Line up your challenge match now.

A matching gift is one of the strongest incentives you can offer on Giving Tuesday. But the kind of donors who fund matches – your board, your loyal givers, your major donors – need time.

Time to understand the impact.
Time to coordinate logistics.
Time to feel ownership of the campaign.

Don’t treat your match as a checkbox on a planning list. Build it as a strategic asset. Ask now, while there’s room to shape it well.

2. Invite your major donors into the campaign early.

Don’t just ask them for money. Give them a role.

They can:

• Make their own gift early to seed momentum
• Participate in challenge matches
• Help recruit other donors or ambassadors
• Share their own giving story on video or social

Major donors want to be part of something bigger. Giving Tuesday gives you a clear “why now” to help them say yes.

3. Pre-load your pledge list.

Here’s one I swear by: Take pledges before the day. Use events, meetings, or board gatherings to ask for early commitments.

Then, on Giving Tuesday, your team has a clear list to follow up with. These aren’t cold calls – they’re reminders. “Today’s the day.” That kind of focused effort drives real results.

4. Plan for analog tactics (they still work).

Want to send handwritten postcards? Want to use the phone effectively? Want to get a thank-you letter in the mail before year-end?

You need to start now.

Donors are inundated with email. But the mailbox? That’s a quieter space. A handwritten note cuts through. A real phone call builds connection. These tactics take time, and that’s exactly why they work.

5. Build your multi-channel plan early.

When you start now, you don’t have to rely on one message in one channel. You can actually coordinate email, social, print, phone, and even live events with intention.

That’s how you stand out.

You can code your appeals. Track what’s working. Share updates in real time. You have space to think like a strategist, not a last-minute firefighter.

6. Leave a little space for improv.

You’re not planning to control every detail. You’re planning to give yourself room to respond.

Maybe a donor offers a surprise match. Maybe a social post gains traction. Maybe the campaign falls just short at midnight, and you need to extend.
​
When your plan isn’t packed too tight, you can adjust with ease – and sometimes those pivots are what make the day feel alive.

Treat it like what it really is: your launchpad.

The starting line for your most generous season.
The moment your donors start leaning back in.
The energy surge you’ll need to carry you through December.
​
And the best part? You don’t need to overhaul your shop to make this happen. You just need to start early, plan with purpose, and stay connected to why it all matters in the first place.

If you’re looking for a sign to start working on Giving Tuesday 2025… this is it.

Get your match lined up.
Draft that pledge form.
Sketch out your outreach plan.

Then get ready to make this the year your Giving Tuesday becomes more than a day – it becomes a difference-maker.
​
Cheers,

P.S. Like this kind of insight?
Subscribe to Real Deal Fundraising and get my best articles, tools, and curated resources every week – including webinars, videos, and free downloads.

If you liked this… 

• What Worked for Giving Tuesday 2024
• How to Build a Philanthropy Calendar That Drives Digital Donations
• All About Giving Days (Interview with Jake Strang)
• Cut Through the Clutter: Focus on the Two Planned Giving Options That Really Work
• Spoilt for Choice: Why Giving Donors Direction Works

Ever open your email and feel like your brain’s going to short-circuit?

You're not alone. Seventy-four percent of U.S. adults say they feel overwhelmed by email. More than half of U.S. consumers (56%) say they’ll unsubscribe if they receive four or more marketing messages from the same company within 30 days. And it’s not just Boomers. Eighty-one percent of Gen Z and 78% of Millennials say they wish it were easier to disconnect from digital devices.

These are your future major donors asking for fewer pixels and more presence.
​
That’s the opening fundraisers need. The real opportunity isn’t another email subject line tweak or fancy GIF. It’s a return to what’s real: mail and phone. Tangible. Human. Hard to ignore.

​This isn’t nostalgia talking. It’s data. And it might just be the smartest pivot you make this year.

In the race to do more, cheaper, we forgot what actually works.

Physical mail gets opened 80–90% of the time, while emails land between 20–30%. Direct mail spending has even grown recently – reaching about $39.4 billion in the U.S. in 2023.

And here’s the kicker: when mail and digital work together, results jump. In one test, donors who received both mail and email were 60.5% more likely to respond to the mail piece than those who got mail alone.

That tracks with what I saw last year. Inspired by the project Postcards to Swing States, my team handwrote and mailed over 200 postcards promoting our Giving Tuesday match. It was a standout success. Part of the magic was the form itself: a postcard is immediate – no envelope, no delay, just message received.

The phone didn’t stop working. Most programs just stopped dialing.

Organizations that add professional telemarketing to their strategy see an average 27% increase in annual donations compared to those relying solely on mail or digital campaigns.

Why? Because personalized calling does what algorithms can’t – it builds connection.

And that connection drives results. DCM’s 2023 telefundraising trends report found that contact rates have remained stable since the pandemic – holding strong at about 2.5 contacts per hour. Advocacy and political campaigns saw average gift amounts rise by 19% between 2018 and 2023, thanks to high-touch calling models.

I’ve seen the impact firsthand. Last year, I worked with a college to rebuild their phonathon from the ground up: stronger management, better scripting, and smart segmentation. In 2022, they raised $134,317. This year? $396,309. And their youngest alumni – graduates since 2020 – are showing a participation rate over 17%. That kind of traction doesn’t come from wishful thinking. It comes from consistent, human contact. 
​
Telemarketing gets a bad rap, but it’s still the only channel that delivers personalized conversations at scale. It’s strategic because it’s still deeply personal.

So if you think phone is “old school,” think again. It’s working better than ever – for those who use it well.

Here’s where things get interesting: Millennials and Gen Z aren’t avoiding analog as expected but they are getting burnt out on digital.

More than 80% of Gen Z (80%) and Millennials (78%) say they share interesting mail with someone else. That’s a viral loop, but with ink and paper.

They’re open to analog – especially when it connects to the digital world. QR codes. Custom URLs. Interactive print. That’s not outdated. That’s modern engagement with real presence.

Gen X? They’ll still take your call and they appreciate personalized pieces.

Boomers? They’re the MVPs of mail. They read it, they act on it, and yes – they still pick up the phone when the number’s familiar.

We’re in the relationship business, not just the metrics business. Somewhere along the way, digital promised us scale and forgot to tell us we’d lose connection.

If you want your message to stand out, don't just add to the digital pile-up. Get in someone’s mailbox. Pick up the phone. Make it personal. Make it human.

Analog hasn’t vanished – it’s been waiting. And right now? It’s the cleanest path to cutting through.

This isn’t a call to throw out your digital playbook. It’s a nudge to rebalance. To layer your strategy. To stop thinking in either/or.

You don’t need to call everyone or mail every donor. Segment. Experiment. Pair analog with your digital. Measure. Adjust.

I’ve been doing this long enough to tell you: this is where fundraising is heading next.

I’m betting on analog. Because I’ve seen the numbers. I’ve seen the results. And I’ve seen how a phone call or handwritten postcard can do what a hundred emails never could.
​
Let’s go back to what works. Not because it’s old – but because it still moves the needle.

This isn’t a blip or a nostalgia play. The signs are clear: digital fatigue is rising, mail spend is climbing, and younger donors are just as responsive to tangible, personal outreach as their parents and grandparents.

We’re not at the plateau. We’re on the upswing.

That’s why the institutions that recalibrate now – layering mail and phone back into their strategies for all generations – will see the payoff not just in annual giving but in the major gift and planned giving pipelines for decades to come. Early engagement drives loyalty, and loyalty drives legacy.

The inbox is saturated. The mailbox and the phone line are open. The organizations willing to seize that opening today are the ones who will own the donor relationships of tomorrow.

Fundraising’s next edge won’t come from squeezing another 0.2% out of your email subject line. It’ll come from showing up where people are actually ready to listen.

Cheers!
​
Jessica

P.S. Like this kind of insight? Subscribe to Real Deal Fundraising and get my best articles, tools, and curated resources every week – including webinars, videos, and free downloads.

If you liked this…

• Phonathons Are STILL Not Dead – Busting the Biggest Myths About Calling Donors
• 31 Ways to Hit the Refresh Button on Direct Mail
• Kickstart the Year: Setting Annual Giving Projections for Success
• Spoilt for Choice: Why Giving Donors Direction Works
• 10 Traits All Former Phonathon Callers Share

Works Cited:

• GlockApps – Email Fatigue and Overload
• GetApp – Why Users Unsubscribe
• Quad + Harris Poll – Gen Z & Millennial Digital Disconnect
• Postalytics – Direct Mail Stats
• Winterberry Group – 2023 Direct Mail Performance
• NextAfter – Mail + Email Synergy Study
• Callin.io – 27% Giving Increase via Telemarketing
• DCM Telefundraising Trends – Contact Rates + Gift Growth
• Lob – 2025 Direct Mail Consumer Insights
• USPS Delivers – Generational Preferences for Mail & Phone

A few years back, I worked with a team that was stuck in microwave fundraising mode. If there was a quick-cash tactic out there, they were doing it: golf tournaments, raffles, sponsorship deals heavy on the benefits, you name it. It kept the lights on, but it wasn’t building anything lasting. I gave a presentation about crockpot fundraising – relationship-building, long-term strategy, donor engagement – and it started to click. I wanted to challenge them to try something new and to move out of their "microwave" comfort zone. I promised them that if they could do that, it would pay dividends down the line and make fundraising easier and more enjoyable.

I've been in rooms full of nonprofit leaders who are scrambling to make payroll, stressed over budget gaps, or just plain overwhelmed by the pressure to "do more with less." And in those moments, it's tempting to reach for the quick fix – a car wash, a 5K, a golf tournament, a donut sale, a last-minute sponsorship deal. These microwave fundraising tactics can bring in a little fast cash, and I won't pretend they never have a place. But let's be honest: they're not going to carry your mission for the long haul.

Microwave fundraising is all about urgency. It's transactional. It gets warm fast, but it cools off just as quickly. These events are often labor-intensive, draining your staff and volunteers. The ROI is usually modest. They’re familiar, easy to organize, and feel reliable. But they’re not always the healthiest choice for your organization. They only feed a few folks, and they don’t build connection to your mission or long-term sustainability.
​
Here's a side-by-side breakdown that captures the heart of the metaphor:

Caption: Microwave vs. Crockpot Fundraising: A visual comparison of quick, transactional tactics vs. slow, relationship-centered strategies.

Then there's crockpot fundraising. It takes longer to get cooking, no doubt. And yes, there’s a learning curve. But it’s healthier for your mission in the long run. These strategies usually involve more “vegetables” – meaning thoughtful, nourishing activities like donor conversations, stewardship touches, and consistent storytelling. It takes time. You can’t flip a switch and expect results tomorrow. But when you commit to it – when you really let it simmer – the flavor builds. The connections deepen. The nourishment multiplies.

Crockpot fundraising feeds a crowd. You’re not just generating one-time gifts – you’re building community. It’s transformational. It deepens loyalty. It keeps donors connected to the mission. It gives your work staying power.

It means investing in consistent donor communications, one-on-one conversations, thank-you calls, stewardship, and strategic asks. First-time donors become recurring givers. Recurring givers become advocates. Advocates become legacy donors.

Is it slower? Yes. But it is sustainable. It doesn’t burn you out or box your organization into lopsided agreements just to chase a check. It feeds your mission in a way that microwave tactics never will. It keeps your team grounded and your donors inspired.

So when you're weighing your next move, ask yourself: Are we microwaving or crockpotting this? One will keep you hustling for scraps. The other will feed your mission for years to come.

Let it simmer. You'll be glad you did.
​
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…

• Why Most Fundraising Plans Fail
• Your Board Wants to Help with Fundraising – They Just Don’t Know How
• Don’t Add Another Event Until You Read This
• The Problem with Totes and T-Shirts: Why Freebies Can Undermine Fundraising
• Beautiful on a Budget: How to Design Stunning Fundraising Event Decor for $250 or Less

Let’s be honest: a lot of “fundraising plans” aren’t really plans.

They’re a collection of ideas scribbled in the margins of a notebook. A to-do list that gets buried under meeting notes. Or a spreadsheet no one has opened since last fiscal year.

And when things feel uncertain or urgent, even the most well-intentioned plan gets abandoned.
​
So why do most fundraising plans fail? After 20+ years of working in and coaching nonprofit teams, here’s what I’ve seen over and over again:

Too many plans are built for imaginary versions of our organizations. You know the ones: the org with unlimited time, a full development team, and a budget for days. In real life, you’ve got a stretched-thin staff, a volunteer board, and one printer that jams every third sheet.

The best fundraising plans start where you are. They work with your current capacity – not against it. They help you make choices, not just lists.

Staff turnover is one of the biggest challenges that can set you back in fundraising and burnout is often the cause. If you build your plan around the staff you have and use technology to leverage that plan, you can mitigate burnout and turnover.

If your plan doesn’t tell you how much money you can expect to raise – and from which methods – it’s not a plan. It’s a wish list.

A strong fundraising plan includes projections based on past data, average gift sizes, and realistic conversion rates. This lets you set expectations, allocate resources wisely, and make the case for investments when needed. I did an entire blog post showing you how to build those projections so you know what you are able to raise, not just what you wish you would raise.

No more spaghetti-on-the-wall fundraising. Just clear goals with measurable outcomes.

​Even when a plan exists, it often fails at the handoff: no one knows who’s doing what – or worse, everyone thinks someone else is handling it.

That’s why the final step of a good plan is assigning each task to a specific person. And then assigning a backup person to be cross-trained. This keeps your plan running when life happens – vacations, sick days, job changes – and builds resilience into your team. That’s why I wrote about building a responsibility calendar to protect your plan and ensure it becomes real.

No more scrambling. Everyone knows their role, and the show goes on.

It’s clear. It’s doable. And it starts with what I call the MVPPP Framework, which is part of my Smart Start Fundraising System course:

• Message – Your compelling case for support
• Vehicles – The channels you’ll use to reach donors
• Prospects – Who you’re asking
• Partners – Who’s helping you ask
• Plan – Bringing it all together with structure and accountability

This framework works whether you’re a one-person shop or leading a full advancement team. It’s not about doing everything. It’s about doing the right things on purpose.

My new course, The Smart Start Fundraising System, is officially here! It’s designed for nonprofit leaders who are tired of spinning their wheels and ready to raise more  –  strategically, confidently, and without burnout.

🎯 Inside, you'll learn how to craft a compelling message, choose the right methods, identify and engage donors, mobilize your board, and build a plan you can actually execute  –  all using my proven MVPPP framework.

✅ 5 Pre-approved CFRE credit hours available
✅ Four high-impact bonus trainings included
✅ A 21 page workbook plus tools, templates, and spreadsheets you can plug and play
💻 Enrollment is open now! Price is $549

Take a look, see what’s inside, and get started at your own pace:
👉 Take a closer look here.
Because passion doesn’t build a fundraising plan. But clarity? That’ll take you the distance.
​
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!

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.
​
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

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.
​
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.
​
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.

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!​​

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!​​

When your team is working on your strategic plan, you’ll find that sometimes you will have a hard time imagining what environment you will be working in beyond 2 years or so. Here are two things you can truly be certain of: 1) If you don’t do anything different, things will not get better. 2) There will inevitably be a change in circumstance that you will not have been able to predict. Things will change in ways you don’t expect.

Strategic planning should mostly be about things you can control. Actions you will take in order to increase revenue for your organization’s mission. But, an amazing strategic plan takes into account the unexpected.
For instance, there is for most areas of the country, natural disasters of one kind or another that are likely to occur at some point. Where I live, it’s hurricanes and tornadoes. At the seminary I work for in California, it is earthquakes. Floods and fire can happen anywhere. Your strategic plan should think through how your organization will handle these kinds of emergencies.

On the first level, there is preparedness. Do you back-up files regularly? Every employee should regularly back up key files on a thumb drive and those should be collected and kept at an off-site location (perhaps the CEO’s home). Your staff should regularly review emergency plans at staff meetings (once or twice per year) including contingencies for fire, tornado and active shooter incidents. This should also be part of any new employees’ orientation process. For instance, in every office at the seminary I work for, there is a 5 gallon bucket filled with earthquake supplies and the protocols are reviewed regularly with staff. The school estimates that it could take care of 100 people for up to 3 days if necessary.

But, your fundraising strategic plan should go to another level with this preparedness. You should plan for how your staff will coordinate a response in the event of such a crisis and, if necessary, how you will mobilize quickly to maximize fundraising. Your constituents will want to help immediately if a disaster affects your organization.

I got experience with this first-hand at The University of Southern Mississippi, when a tornado sliced through our campus in 2013. We had a website and a new emergency relief fund ready within hours, and a huge direct mail campaign within 2 weeks (which was record breaking). We blocked affected zip codes from phonathon calling immediately. Luckily, our phonathon was off-campus so we didn't have to stop calling entirely. Within about 2 months, we coordinated our first “Day of Giving” campaign to raise funds to replace over 70 lost trees and restore the beautiful landscaping. Was it grueling and sad to see our campus and community so damaged? Yes. Was this campaign a tremendous success that helped the school recover, including funds given directly to affected employees? Yes.

Who will be responsible for the different elements (data, web, social media, etc.)? What if those employees are affected by the same disaster? How will you cross-train employees so that you have back-ups for all functions in an emergency? How might you continue phone fundraising if your student callers aren't allowed on campus or have been affected by the disaster? What are the public relations elements you must think through? It is likely that your CEO will be too busy to provide intense direction in this kind of a situation, so review how protocol will be modified now. Think through these things now and train your staff to think this way. If the unexpected happens, you will be glad you did.

Hi! It's Jessica. I draw on these concepts in this article in my webinar presentation titled Fundraising in a Crisis. This webinar will launch Wednesday 3/18/20 for free as a resource for nonprofits to respond to the COVID-19 crisis. You can register here: www.realdealfundraising.com/crisiswebinar.

Goal: a personal or organizational desired end

Projection: a calculation of some future thing

These two terms are related but subtly different. Generally speaking, for a healthy organization, the projections drive the goal setting process. However, at some organizations, the goal is a different (and perhaps totally unrelated) number to what you project that you can actually raise.

At some institutions, an unreasonable, unrealistic goal situation may arise from a team leader that doesn't understand the difference between a goal and a projection and they pick an arbitrary figure that sounds good. ("Let's raise 10% more this year than last year", for example.) Or, it may have come about because of real budgetary needs of the institution for unrestricted support.

Creating projections is a tedious process requiring a patient analysis of past performance and building models for future performance. So, if you have a firm goal set before you that you know (or believe) you cannot reach, why should you bother to create elaborate projections? 

Here are three important reasons to do projections even if your goal is already set: 
 
1) Projections will help you to pinpoint the shortfall

​Setting projections shows you where the program is not performing to expectations and why the goal is not feasible (assuming that's true). It helps you to tell the story to those in management of what is really happening with the fundraising.

2) The process may help you to identify potential areas of opportunity

Projections can show you opportunities that you might have overlooked. You build your projections segment by segment and it is possible that you might have some new segments that you haven't solicited before or that you have a new strategy for. These may help you get closer to your goal.

3) You need the projections to become a lobbyist for your program.

It's illogical to do the same thing every year and expect different results. With a projections spreadsheet, you can show what's possible with more budgetary resources. You can tell the story that with [this much] future investment in the program, [this much] more revenue can result.