As a former VP of Development, I understand what it feels like to tell yourself, “This year, it’s going to be different!” You map out ways you will be organized… You work with your team and board members to make a plan to raise more money…And then…life happens and things get BUSY. Case in point: How is it already March?
The Kindest team and I always have one question we are constantly asking ourselves: how can we make fundraising as easy as possible for nonprofits?
As someone who spent years raising money for nonprofit organizations of all sizes, I know that a lot of work goes into coming up with a theme, an ask amount and don’t get me started on all of the copywriting that comes with the territory!
Here are 3 ways you can start planning out your Spring Appeal:
What are you specifically raising money for? The more detailed and exact you can be - the better. For example, do you need to replace a piece of equipment? Do you need to hire a new staff person? Do you need to raise money to serve the 32% increase in applicants that are waiting to come into your program? Whatever it is…pick a specific theme that you can tell compelling stories about to help you meet your goal.
Speaking of goals, donors LOVE a goal post. They really appreciate knowing where you are aiming to reach. For example, rather than saying:
❌ “Help us raise money for our cause!”
Try…
✅ “Help us raise $16,400 to buy a new van that will make 4x the grocery deliveries per month!”
It’s been said that the success or failure of a campaign depends on how well you warm up your donor community.
My advice? Pick a launch date and work your way backwards 6-8 weeks.
For example, let’s say you plan to run your Spring Campaign April 17th through April 21st - that would make April 17th your launch date.
Six weeks before that is: March 6th. That means starting March 6th, you want to be planning multiple communication touch points across email, social media, text message, physical letter/postcard or phone calls to be priming your donor audience before you make the ask.
As you start to map out your Spring Campaigns, we hope you find these tips helpful. And if you need additional resources and support to reach your goals, check out Kindest’s easy to adopt fundraising platform. Kindest is here to help take the stress out of fundraising so you can focus your resources on achieving your mission. To learn more about our fundraising resource support services, make an appointment here.
