Three High Impact Strategies to Do Before 12/31

Jeff Schreifels

Welcome to the podcast today. I'm Jeff Schreifels. Today, I've invited two of our coaches, Theresa Tapocsi and Matt Korn to join me as we discuss high impact strategies that you should do right now to make the most of this last week of the year. But before we dive in, I want to give Theresa and Matt an opportunity to introduce themselves. Theresa, why don't you go first?

Theresa Tapocsi

Sure. Hi everyone. I'm Theresa Tapocsi. I am a Client Experience Leader with Veritus. I have been with Veritus for about six years now, which has been a joy. I am based out of Cleveland, Ohio, and prior to joining Veritus, I worked with a number of different non-profit organizations in the Cleveland area as a Director of Development and a Capital Campaign Manager.

Jeff Schreifels

Awesome. Matt?

Matt Korn

Yeah, good to be with you, Jeff and Theresa. And thanks for joining us at home, everyone. I'm Matt Korn. Like Theresa. I'm an Ohioan as well, but now call Atlanta, Georgia home. I've been with Veritus for a year and a half. I have 20 plus years of non-profit fundraising and stewardship experience that includes working with domestic and international organizations.

Jeff Schreifels

I can't believe it's only been a year and a half. Theresa, I feel like Matt's been here for a long time with us, don't you?

Theresa Tapocsi

Oh yeah, it feels crazy to me that it hasn't been that long.

Matt Korn

I know.

Jeff Schreifels

Awesome. All right. So as you both know, at this point in the year, what will happen is the donor's giving is out of the fundraiser's hands, right? And we also say that as long as you're working your plan, I mean, that's all you can do to secure a gift at the end of the year or any time of the year. But there are still some impactful things you can do right now that are realistic and achievable. So let's start with the first point, which is focusing in on those donors who gave in the last two weeks of December last year. Matt, why don't you start by sharing what you've been coaching your clients on for these donors.

Matt Korn

Sure. With only a week or two to go before calendar year-end as a fundraiser, you really want to focus on two areas. And this is what I've been talking to the fundraisers I work with about on a weekly basis. Your list of donors who gave in the last two weeks of December 2023 is the first area you want to focus on and time permitting, your donors who gave in December and November 2023 but have not yet given. And that second area is really focused on the daily gift reports. So looking at that first area, keep a close eye on donors who prefer to give this time of year. For the donors you are reaching out to who gave last year but haven't given yet this year, keep your touch points simple and use their preferred communication method. By this time, they likely received your calendar year-end touch points, your calls, your emails, your handwritten notes, along with many DM touch points. This final touch point can be a short and simple check in, thank you, a quick impact story for a holiday message. With so much going on during the holidays, it can be helpful to remind your donor about the impact of their giving to your organization. So it's all about cutting through that clutter.

Theresa Tapocsi

I cannot agree more, Matt. Like this week, I've been telling all my clients, your donor's attention span is tiny right now. Like they've got a lot of stuff going on. There's... they're getting a lot of noise. If they give to you, they might give to other organizations and see the same thing. So making sure you speak to their communication preferences and build it up that way they'll respond to you, even if they don't see everything else. So that's what you want to focus on there.

Matt Korn

Absolutely, Theresa. And why do donors give? It's because we ask them to give. Never going to hurt to give them that reminder. That second area, also be looking daily at the gift reports. There are a large volume of gifts this time of year, and it's easy to fall behind on tracking your gifts. One of the worst things we can do as fundraisers is to call a donor asking for a gift and that gift has already been received. It can create some awkward conversations, so really keep an eye on those. The daily gift reports for those of you using the Veritus DEP, which we highly recommend, by keeping revenue updated daily in your DEP, you can then easily sort by the variance column to quickly track your highest value donors that have yet to give. This helps you prioritize outreach to your donors at calendar year-end. Again, this is something I am doing on a weekly basis with the fundraisers I am working with, and it's unbelievable how much it helps them prioritize their outreach at year-end. One final thought, if you have any donors who said they would give through a DAF or stock, you'll also want to keep them updated on whether or not you've seen that gift come in.

Jeff Schreifels

Yeah, you know, so much of what makes an impact this time of year is focusing on the right donors and keeping the relationship in focus. But there are many times when you need to ask, or where an ask is an important part of that final push. Theresa, why don't you share some more about that?

Theresa Tapocsi

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think there's a few different strategies around an ask that you might think about. Even though it is the end of the year, there's still some things. As Matt said, why do donors give? Because we ask them. The first might be a last week of December email strategy, you know, or those final couple weeks. Maybe your direct response team and you have been working on something, or maybe this is just something that you are doing by yourself, that you want to send out to your portfolio donors. Either way, you want to think about what are the things you could be communicating there. Make yourself available to answer follow up questions and make sure the donors know you're available, when you're available, and how they can reach you during this giving season.

Theresa Tapocsi

If you have a matching gift opportunity, you may also want to update them on the impact of the match and how the match is going, and how close they are to the goal, and a gentle reminder of the deadline. This is actually one of my easy go-to strategies. If you have a match at year-end, your DM team is likely sending out emails about the match already. So what you can do is just forward one of those emails, because your donor might not look at everything from the organization, but they look at everything from you. So you just say, "Hey, making sure you saw this. Just letting you know if you're in a position to make a gift, this is a great opportunity to take advantage of." And it just can be as simple as that. It doesn't have to be anything lengthy. You know, many donors will also give an extra gift at year-end because you remind them, or because there's a match, or something like that.

Theresa Tapocsi

Echoing a lot of what Matt was just saying, in the past few weeks, I've seen a lot of examples of this, and I've seen it in the past few years: a simple reminder, like what we'd call an echo letter, or a year- to-date giving statement that shows donors how much they gave in the past years compared to how much they've given year to date, this year. It's just informational to them, but it's a reminder that they could continue to make a gift if they so choose. One tip here that I like to give at year-end, which is really echoing Matt's comment about not asking for money if they've already made a gift, is put a little disclaimer on your communications; a little PS, that says, "If this email has crossed paths with your gift, please disregard and thank you so much for your support," or something like that. You just want to cover your bases there.

Theresa Tapocsi

And the other thing is ask again. I know there's some fundraisers listening to this, going, "What? Absolutely not!" You probably have a lot of donors in your portfolio who give one time a year. But why is that? Do you know? You probably don't, and it's probably because we have not asked them more than one time a year, so we just see their past giving pattern and continue to follow it.

Theresa Tapocsi

But if you know your donor, and you know their passions and interests, and they haven't directly told you that they only give once a year, why not consider putting together an additional donor offer for year-end? Don't write the story for your donor. That is one of my big soap boxes with my clients, is don't presume things on behalf of your donor. Let them make the decisions. Don't allow your mind to play tricks on you in that way. You know, one of the most important things to remember about this is that your need is real.

Theresa Tapocsi

Yeah.

Jeff Schreifels

Yeah, yep.

Theresa Tapocsi

If the need wasn't real, you wouldn't be asking for it, if your organization couldn't spend that money. So if the need is real, and your donor has a passion for supporting that need, then just present them with that need, make an ask, and let them decide.

Jeff Schreifels

Yeah.

Theresa Tapocsi

The worst thing they can say is no.

Jeff Schreifels

I know. And we forget that. We have this... we just think that donors will only do this one thing, and we get in our head and we don't challenge our donors to do more. And we would be surprised, especially if we have a compelling need, right? And we're matching that up with their passions and interests, why not give them an opportunity to do more?

Jeff Schreifels

Here's another thought, I was wondering what you two think about this, but you know, we're... the last week of the year, I mean, some of our frontline fundraisers are not actually in the office. And I'm wondering, how do you feel about having the fundraiser, you know, if they're waiting for a gift to come in or whatever, actually gives out their cell phone number to the donor, to say, "Hey, if you need to reach me, no problem. Call me." Because you obviously want to make sure that donor is giving, and give them the opportunity to call, and you know, make a last-minute gift, or last part of the week gift, and just wondered what your thoughts were on that. I know that I've talked to some MGOs who do that, and they've had donors call them and, you know, get their stock number or whatever it was that they needed to. So just wanted to get your thoughts on that.

Theresa Tapocsi

I mean, I think what's really important is, if you are going to be out for a portion of the holiday season, which hopefully a lot of us are, you know, making sure that your donors have all the information they need. And whether it's giving them your cell phone because you have access or, I think we've actually put out a blog in the past about all the good information to put in your out-of-office for year-end, like your stock number and your, you know, your non-profit ID number. All of those pieces, so that your donors have all... and who they can call if they have a question if you aren't available. Just making sure they have that information. All the information. It's okay to give them more at this time of year, because you want to just, you don't want to make them feel like they have to run around with their heads cut off trying to figure out what they need to do.

Jeff Schreifels

Yeah.

Matt Korn

Absolutely. I agree with everything you're saying Theresa, and it's important to set your boundaries as a fundraiser. We always encourage fundraisers to do what is comfortable to them, but depending on that relationship that you have with donors, certainly advocate for sharing as much information as you're comfortable. It's about making the giving as easy as possible for the donor. And as Theresa said, the more information you can provide up front before we get to the point where they feel like they need to make a phone call to you, the better off you're going to be at year-end.

Theresa Tapocsi

I've actually seen clients around those same last few weeks in December say, "Hey, I know you make a stock gift. If you haven't made it, I just wanted to re-share the information and let me know if you have any questions before I go on my holiday break." So you can use your holiday break as an excuse to follow up and give that information, too.

Jeff Schreifels

Yup. Good. You know, something we talk about all year with our clients is to have them make sure you have a strategic follow up, thank you, and impact reporting plan in place. And this is especially important at year-end, when there's so many gifts coming in. Matt, why don't you talk about some of the tips for that?

Matt Korn

Sure. So we were just talking about planning. And at Veritus, we are big planners. It's not just about making your life easier as a fundraiser, but it's to help meaningfully engage your donors. Too many times, frontline fundraisers take a mental break after the holidays and delay those donor thank yous. We're all exhausted at this point. November and December are huge months for all of us, but you really want to spend some time creating a follow up plan for all of your year-end gifts. You are likely going to have quite a few donors that give between now and calendar year-end, and you don't want to delay their thank yous. Have a plan now for how you're going to go about that follow up.

Matt Korn

A few thoughts on that. You can draft a simple thank you call, an email script to have at the ready to thank donors as gifts come in. Theresa was just mentioning matching gift opportunities. Let's say you're successful in reaching that match, which many of you will be. Let your donors know as a part of your thank you. If you're a direct service provider and your program team has impact numbers available, include that data. A short script can easily be drafted for all these options, and then you simply plug in relevant numbers. This can reduce a lot of your workload at calendar year-end.

Matt Korn

One other thing to think about is to have cards, a pen, thank you cards, holiday cards, a pen and stamps at the ready as large gifts come in, or if you have a very personal and strong relationship with certain donors and you're anticipating certain gifts, as those gifts come in, just write a quick, Happy New Year thank you card that you can you can pop in the mail. We know that your hands are probably tired at this point. You've done a lot of handwriting, but one more handwritten card to a few select donors or in response to a few gifts can really set the stage for solicitations in the coming year?

Theresa Tapocsi

Agreed.

Jeff Schreifels

Yeah! Alright. Well, I know we said there would just be three... there would be three main strategies, but I thought we could add a bonus one. And one of the most important things you need to do right now is, and Theresa you alluded to this, is you gotta take care of yourself. And you've been working so hard for months pouring into these donors. So it's my hope that you're stepping away when you can right now to enjoy the season and give yourself some time off. I know that might not really be possible right now, and if not, I hope you've scheduled time off in the new year. Even just having a vacation to look forward to can be impactful. So Theresa and Matt, are there any tips you have for fundraisers who are feeling tired at this point in the year?

Theresa Tapocsi

You know, I have to say, celebrate your wins, even when they're small wins. I was just talking with a client the other day, who, right before the holidays, she sent out text messages to 16 of her portfolio donors that she... just a Happy Thanksgiving, lovely message. All 16 of them responded. That is a huge win. A huge, huge win. And yes, that was not tied to any money. She wasn't making asks in those texts. But we still celebrated that win. Because that's a huge victory to get that many responses back, you know, from a simple text message. So if you don't celebrate those wins and remind yourself that all of these little wins accumulate to something and mean something for your organization, you're gonna burn out. If you just wait for the big six figure gift wins and not celebrate the little ones, you'll burn out.

Jeff Schreifels

Good point.

Theresa Tapocsi

So, YMAD yourself is basically the tip. Celebrate the wins and YMAD yourself.

Matt Korn

I love that idea of YMADing yourself. I am going to take that and bring that into my own work. But yeah, everybody doing this work, it's such impactful work. And speaking of burnout, what I'd like to add to what Theresa was just sharing, is plan ahead. So you see a theme here. We're talking a lot about planning ahead to make your workload easier. The more you can plan your touch points for the coming, the first quarter of the new year, so January, February, and March, the better off you're going to be in being able to focus on your year-end thank yous. So get those touch points, those general touch points, in order for the first couple months of 2025 and you'll be setting yourself up to really focus where you need to, to follow up with your donors who give during the holidays.

Jeff Schreifels

That's awesome. Well, Theresa and Matt, thank you so much for joining me today. And I hope each of you listening were inspired and motivated to try one of these strategies to make an impact with your donors over the next few days. We love getting to partner with you, not just at year-end, but throughout the year, and we are regularly sharing tips and free resources to help you create authentic relationships with your donors. If you'd like to get best practices from us right in your inbox, be sure to sign up for our three times a week blog. You can sign up at the link in the show notes, or just head over to our website. Thanks for joining us, and we’ll see you next time.