Year-end fundraising is upon us once again. With every nonprofit out there trying to raise money at this time of year, how can you get a piece of the donation dollar pie? It starts small, check your website, have a plan, and test drive your donation page. Without testing these pieces, it won’t matter how amazing your messaging or story is, people will not be able to donate.
To help you capture the details, we have compiled a list of 10 tips for you to think about as you craft and execute your year-end fundraising campaigns. 
Go ahead, serve yourself a slice of that $$ pie!
1. Map it out. Determine your budget, goals, timing and what channels you will use to drive your campaign. Timing and planning are essential since donors are inundated with messages during this time.
2. Tell your story. Why is your organization special? How is your work relevant to the reader’s life-- are there ways that messages can be personalized to reflect past actions or interests, geography, or demographics? What will the donor get from you that they can’t get anywhere else? And why do they need to support you now.
You want to separate yourself from the masses and at the same time send enough messages to be noticed! What makes your work different from all the other charities trying to capitalize on the holidays and year-end? Look for hooks to current news, seasonal relevance, or accomplishments from the prior year that might help you stand out from the crowd.
3. Give your website a check up! Are you driving your site visitors to the right place, or sending them down a dead-end? Make sure anyone coming to your homepage sees a clear ask and an easy and obvious path to donate. Are there donate buttons on all the right pages? Are donation pages search engine optimized? If you haven’t already, why not test a donation light box during December that pops up for all of your website visitors (except those that have already given).
4. Test-drive your donation page. First, make an online donation on your site using a desktop browser and via mobile to test the ease of your online donation process. When testing, think about any elements you might want to test and optimize. Good tests include: size and color of the donate button, text on the donate button, ask strings, and form fields to include. Your donation page should have limited navigation options to keep your donors from getting distracted.
Next, ask three other people to donate, and watch them while they go through the process. Moms, cousins, your neighbor, are all good subjects for this test. Watch for any indication that getting to the donation page and completing the donation is anything but intuitive and smooth.
For the rest of the tips and some awesome infographics, download the tip sheet here!
What pre year-end fundraising activities have you found most helpful?
Useful Resources:
Procastinators Guide to Year End Fundraising
Last Minute Tips for Year-End Fundraising
It’s Not Too Early To Be A Year-End Fundraising Superhero: Part Two
Three Ways to Wake Up Your Donors
Stand Apart From the Crowd with your Year-End Fundraising Campaign
