Is your Christmas Appeal running short? A few ideas to get it across the line

AppealI bet you are watching the dashboards in your CRM to see how your Christmas Appeal is performing. You might be bit anxious because your Christmas Appeal appears to be running short of goal and short in terms of year on year numbers. It’s not too late to take a few easy steps to achieve your goals in these final days before the Christmas and New Year’s break.

Ideas that Work

Here are a few ideas you might try to make a big impact on your Christmas Appeal campaign.

  1. Call the top 50 donors to last year’s Christmas Appeal.
    • Ask them to renew their support at the level given to the 2017 Christmas Appeal.
    • Take their donation over the telephone.
    • Send them a personal email thanking them for taking the step to support your non-profit organisation during this busy time of year.
  2. Send an SMS to all constituents sent the 2018 appeal and who have not yet responded.
    • Ask them to give by Christmas eve.
    • Provide a link to your online giving page to capture their donation easily and quickly.
  3. Send an Email to all constituents who do not respond to the SMS by 21 December asking them to give by 31 December.

In the US, the Christmas season is also tax time. We do not have that same issue (or, some might say, advantage) in Australia. Nonetheless, we can all tug on the heart-strings of people during this giving season and encourage them to support our non-profit organisation by making a gift. Adding the sense of urgency and using channels easily available to us may help us to reach busy people this time of year and to encourage them to give one last donation before the close of the calendar year.

We hope your Christmas Appeal exceeds your expectations. Merry Christmas!