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Major Donors, Donation Approach, Donor Relations

Bottom of the Ninth: How One College Pulled the Ultimate Comeback!

by Pat McLaughlin
November 4, 2024

Baseball fans live for those magical moments – bottom of the 9th, down by a few runs, bases empty, and somehow your team strings together a rally that brings the crowd to their feet! Every pitch matters. Every at-bat could make or break the game. One swing could be the difference between celebration and heartbreak.

We just witnessed one of these clutch performances with one of our Christian College clients. Picture this: I get an email from the president that reads like a manager’s nightmare scenario: “Pat, great gameplan, but here’s the situation – we need $2.4-$2.8 million in 120 days, including scholarship commitments. Season ends June 30th.”

“Hold up, Coach,” I replied. “Are you telling me if we don’t hit this number out of the park, the board might have to shut down the program next semester?”

His response? A simple “YEP!”

At TTG, we’ve got a saying that would make any baseball player proud: “Pray like it’s all up to God… hustle like you’re running out an infield single.” Just like you need both talent AND practice to win games, James teaches us that faith without works is dead. This wasn’t about building a fancy new stadium – this was about keeping the team on the field. And just like fans rally behind a team fighting for playoff survival, donors respond to that kind of urgency.

I laid out our lineup card to the president: “You’re our cleanup hitter here. You need to be in the field with me, making contact with donors!” He didn’t hesitate – “Put me in, coach!” He signed off on every play in our strategy, and we started our ninth-inning rally.

Our Gameplan:

  • Scout our “Top 10/Next 20” heavy hitters, plus a farm system of 50 promising prospects
  • Craft custom pitches for each potential donor with specific ask amounts
  • Get face time with donors – no pitching via mail (That’s like trying to win a game with only bunts – 1-5% success rate vs. 80-85% when you swing for the fences in person)
  • Build an all-star team of board members, faculty, and staff who could help us connect with donors
  • Draft a power-hitting Chief Development Officer who could drive in major gifts

Just like the World Series trophy isn’t won by one player, this became a true team effort. The president even installed countdown clocks around campus for the final 30-day stretch – like having the scoreboard lighting up those final crucial innings.

And guess what? WALK-OFF GRAND SLAM! We didn’t just hit our target of $2.4-2.8 million – we crushed it with $3.2 million! Plus, we added not one but TWO stewardship officers and a development dream team. It was like watching a rookie hit a game-winning homer in Game 7 of the World Series – a miracle I’ve been blessed to witness with clients worldwide since I stepped up to the fundraising plate in 1981.

Want to stage your own comeback? You’ll need a clear gameplan, specific targets, a committed roster from the board to the bullpen, a president who’s ready to step up to the plate, and that World Series-level intensity. If you’re down late in the game here in 2024, let us help you draw up the perfect rally strategy!

About the Author: Pat McLaughlin;

President/Founder – Pat started The Timothy Group in 1990 to serve Christian ministries as they raise money to advance their missions. TTG has assisted more 2,100 Christian organizations around the world with capital, annual, and endowment campaigns. More than 25,000 of Pat’s books, Major Donor Game Plan, The C Factor: The Common Cure for your Capital Campaign Conundrums, and Haggai & Friends have helped fundraisers understand the art and science of major donor engagement. Pat makes more than one hundred major donor visits annually and provides counsel to multiple capital campaigns.

The image shows two hands outstretched, with block letters within them forming the word "give". Text reading "#GivingTuesday" appears to the right of the hands.
Fundraising, Donation Approach

A Simple Guide for a Productive Giving Tuesday – Part 2

by Jon Helder
November 4, 2024

Giving Tuesday is less than a month away but there is still time to pull together a compelling and productive campaign. Last time, in A Simple Guide to Productive Giving Tuesday – Part 1 we covered how to segment to your best target audience and provided tools to leverage your campaign. This time, we’ll lay out a simple communications plan by addressing campaign strategies, incentives, and a framework.

What will people be giving to and why does it matter now?
My old boss used to tell me, “Need is not a case; hope is not a strategy.” Your case for support must be more than just covering your organization’s financial needs. Your Giving Tuesday campaign should evoke two “I’s”: Immediacy (why donors need to give now), and Impact (what will result from my gift). If you can make a compelling, concise case for your general operating fund that covers both I’s, then feel free to do so.

Conversely, if your general fund is in good shape as you approach year end, you may want to raise money for special projects or capital assets like new computers for a school, new canoes for a camp, or winter coats for your rescue mission. These projects can provide prospective donors with an easy to understand, tangible outcome for the campaign.

A third option is to take an item from your general fund budget and “projectize” it by turning it into its own campaign. Your organization may already have a $10,000 technology budget but that doesn’t mean that you can’t raise funds for computers. Any funds raised for this campaign would be restricted to that budget line item but the net result to your general fund is the same.

How will you incentivize people to give?
One of the biggest negatives to Giving Tuesday is that thousands of nonprofits are simultaneously vying for donations at the same time. As a result, differentiation and incentives really matter. One of the most common ways to incentivize gifts is to offer a matching fund. While I don’t encourage you to send Giving Tuesday materials to your top donors who give in the last week of the year, donors in this group are keen to the idea of using their gift to incentivize others. Could you ask your board members to pledge a matching gift fund? Is there a champion donor that would love to see you maximize their gift in this way? Creating a matching fund can be as simple as asking some key donors to make their commitments early. If that isn’t an option, you could offer a promo mug or t-shirt for any donor that gives a certain amount or more (ala NPR or PBS). Such promotions can be a great way to on-ramp new donors.

Where should they give?
Does your donation software allow you to make a one-off campaign page (all the good ones do)? If you opt for your ministry’s main donation page, be sure to add something to make the website visit feel a bit more special like adding a banner, making the case for support relevant to the campaign, or highlighting the incentives. Follow through on your campaign importance and immediacy by making a landing page worth giving to.

Communication Calendar
Because Giving Tuesday falls only days after Thanksgiving, Black Friday, etc., your donors will have the holidays on their minds. As a result, communications need to be direct, frequent, and only start when the donors have the capacity to receive them. 

Purpose. First, remember that the purpose of your social media campaign is to bring awareness and anticipation for Giving Tuesday. Launch “Countdown to Giving Tuesday.” Starting on Friday, you can post mission-centric stories that convey the impact of your work while “counting down” to Giving Tuesday. Maybe you could have 4 ways that gifts impact your mission or the people you serve? Studies have shown that adding numerals to your subject lines/posts increase engagement (did the “4” above stand out to you?). However, if you need content for a post, you could mention the upcoming match or promo item associated with the campaign.

Emails. Your Giving Tuesday campaign can be done in as little as three emails (four if you include Thanksgiving). Sunday afternoon is a great time to reveal the campaign to your donors who might not be as engaged on social media. Use this time to tell them what Giving Tuesday is, how they can get involved, and why their giving matters. Perhaps counter-intuitively, include a “Give for Giving Tuesday Button” at the bottom of this email in case donors would like to give on Sunday as you hate to have willing donors needlessly wait till Tuesday to give to your campaign.  

Communications Framework. While the content for this table could easily become an entirely new article, this simple framework and suggested subject lines provide a good starting point for your campaign:

Remember, the goal is to have a simple, yet productive Giving Tuesday campaign. Taking care of the basics (communications, incentives, and updates to your website) and following this framework will maximize your efforts.

If this article inspires you to launch a Giving Tuesday campaign this year, reach out to us and let us know how you did. What were your expectations vs. results? What did you learn from the experience? The Timothy Group is always excited to learn and share best practices, so we’d love to hear about your experience.

About the Author: Jonathan Helder, CFRE, ECRF, Consultant

With over a decade of proven fundraising experience and a love for data, Jonathan is blessed to serve nonprofits and help bolster their impact on the community. Jon enjoys helping ministries implement data-based strategies and tools to improve fundraising and organizational effectiveness. Jonathan has written articles as well as presented to local and national organizations including the Association of Fundraising Professionals (West Michigan), Do More Good, Nonprofit Hub and the Lakeshore Nonprofit Alliance.

The image shows two hands outstretched, with block letters within them forming the word "give". Text reading "#GivingTuesday" appears to the right of the hands.
Fundraising, Donation Approach

A Simple Guide for a Productive Giving Tuesday – Part 1

by Jon Helder
November 4, 2024

It’s that time of year again. Fundraising events are in full swing, year-end appeals are being drafted, and nonprofit professionals everywhere are working tirelessly to boost their year-end fundraising. In the midst of this chaos, a well-intentioned colleague or board member is usually bound to ask “So, what are your plans for Giving Tuesday?” No matter how you feel about Giving Tuesday, there is no question that its popularity is growing and simply ignoring it is likely to the detriment of your organization. However, engaging in a Giving Tuesday campaign doesn’t have to complicated, expensive, or disproportionately time consuming. In this article, we’ll discuss how to target the ideal audience and choose the best tools to leverage for your campaign. Next time, we’ll lay out a simple communications plan and ways your organization can incentivize donors to give.

The Audience

As my Marketing 101 professor always said, “it’s all about the who.” As with any fundraising/marketing communication, you must identify “who” you are targeting. When you understand “who,” you can customize and cater your communications content and mode to reach them. A great article about this topic is Donor Insights You Need to Know for Giving Tuesday. In short, the research shows that your Giving Tuesday donors are not your average year-end giver. The best strategy is to remove your top year-end donors from your Giving Tuesday campaign communications. You don’t want to encourage them to give a smaller amount than they would have given otherwise (aka “tipping”) or, at the very least, you don’t want to needlessly send them another solicitation.  Likewise, your Giving Tuesday crowd likely won’t respond as well to a highly personalized year end mailer if they have never given to you via check. It is more effective to treat each group as their own segment.

Here are some helpful suggestions on whom to include/exclude from your Giving Tuesday segment:

Include

  • Individuals who are active on your organization’s social media and email marketing platforms
  • Their average gift is $100 or less
  • Given to past online campaigns
  • Given via credit card or EFT

Exclude ***

  • History of giving in the last week of the calendar year
  • Individuals who have never given online (only check or cash) and whose average gift is $250+
  • Individuals who have given for the first time in the last month
  • Individuals who have given a gift of $250 or more in the last 2 months

The Tools

Now that you have your audience, the next step is to use your best internal tools to reach that group. In general, your tools or “mode of communication” tends to produce a parallel response. For example, paper mailers will produce paper responses (i.e., checks/cash in the mail). Digital tools, like social media and email marketing, tend to produce likes, shares, and hopefully, an online donation. Since Giving Tuesday is primarily celebrated digitally, your focus should be to raise online donations through digital tools:

Email Marketing (Mailchimp, Hubspot, Constant Contact, etc.)

Outside of direct mail, most organizations use some form of mass email communications to reach their community. Aside from being significantly cheaper, email marketing tools enable nonprofits to see the level of engagement from each contact which in turn allows nonprofits to focus content to the recipient. In fact, individuals who are the most engaged with your organizations email campaigns are likely your best prospects, your most committed donors, and your best audience for Giving Tuesday. Importantly, it has been shown that email marketing far out paces social media with regards to conversion rates (the number of donations that result per ask) and return on investment (dollar raised per dollar spent). In an ideal world, your Donor CRM would integrate with your email marketing software so that you could easily identify and pull out the “excluded” people above. If your CRM doesn’t, I would highly suggest running a list of your top YE donors from your CRM and simply tagging those individuals in your email marketing software. That will allow you to pull those profiles out of the campaign emails.

Social Media (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snackbuzz, etc.)

There are so many platforms these days that it can be hard to keep up. Case in point, when you read “Snackbuzz” above, did it spark a bit of terror in you? Don’t worry, I made that one up. ? Regardless, the constant steam of applications like LinkedIn, TikTok, Twitter, Snapchat, WhatsApp, etc. can cause many nonprofit professionals to throw their hands in the air in frustration. Although understandable, based on the number of millennials and older that use it (who also have greatest giving capacity) Facebook is currently the best social media site for your organization to invest its resources. If for some reason your mission lends well to visual imagery (schools, international organizations, animal shelters, etc.), Instagram can also be a worthwhile site for increasing engagement and awareness of the organization. While your Giving Tuesday campaign should include social media, social media is more important for promoting the campaign. Email Marketing will have a greater conversion rate.

Direct Mail?

While some organizations use direct mail as part of their Giving Tuesday campaign, I’m not convinced that the investment in time and resources for a specific Giving Tuesday mailing is worthwhile. You would be further ahead to use those resources for your year-end appeal that will reach everyone we “excluded” above. If you need some content for your fall newsletter, it would be fine to feature a “save the date” style announcement. However, it’s not too effective to seek a digital response from a paper-based communication.

Join us for our next article where we’ll share a quick and actionable Giving Tuesday campaign communications plan.

*** While you may not exclude these types of donors from your Giving Tuesday communications, one of these donors could provide a helpful boost to your campaign. More on that next time… 🙂

About the Author: Jonathan Helder, CFRE, ECRF, Consultant

With over a decade of proven fundraising experience and a love for data, Jonathan is blessed to serve nonprofits and help bolster their impact on the community. Jon enjoys helping ministries implement data-based strategies and tools to improve fundraising and organizational effectiveness. Jonathan has written articles as well as presented to local and national organizations including the Association of Fundraising Professionals (West Michigan), Do More Good, Nonprofit Hub and the Lakeshore Nonprofit Alliance.

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