The Summer Slowdown Myth: 5 Ways to Prepare Now for Year-End Fundraising Success
With the heat index rising and beach chairs beckoning, it is exactly the right time for those of us in nonprofit leadership roles to shift our attention from events and appeals to…setting the stage for a winning close to the calendar year!
You read that right. As tempting as it is to slow down during the quieter summer weeks, it is important to acknowledge that the most successful organizations use this time to build the foundation for successful year-end campaigns.
With that in mind, here are five key areas to focus on right now to ensure that you don't just meet, but exceed, your year-end fundraising goals:
1. Audit & Clean Your Donor Database
A messy database leads to wasted effort and lost revenue. Use this time to clean up your data. Segment your donor lists and ensure that contact information is complete and accurate. Is this a time-consuming back-office task? Yes. Would you prefer to kick this activity down the road? Who wouldn’t? Does it qualify as foundational action that will support the next round of appeals and events? Absolutely.
2. Map Out Your Communications Calendar
Last-minute campaign planning creates stress and less-than-stellar results. Use this time to plan your entire fourth quarter communications calendar. Make decisions about themes, draft compelling messages for emails and social media, and schedule key dates for appeals – including Giving Tuesday. The effort it will take to coordinate communications on all platforms now will be well worth it when, in the fall, you can devote your energy to relationship building.
3. Research and Prepare Grant Applications
The grant application process is deadline driven and heavy on the paperwork, making it difficult to manage alongside other activities. Summer is an excellent time to dive into researching new grant opportunities. Prepare boilerplate narratives of your mission statement, key programs, and evaluation and impact reports. Assemble and update budgets, board lists, annual reports and tax returns. For active grants, review and update reporting schedules and requirements, and gather up as much of the needed documentation as you can in advance of deadlines. If you don’t already have one, set up a tracking system for your grant activity.
4. Prepare Your Fundraising Materials
Don’t leave yourself, or your team, scrambling for testimonials and impact statistics once your fall campaign season goes live. Gather and organize your assets, including updated program data, high-resolution images and videos, and powerful quotes.
In addition to providing valuable tools for your team, this is a great opportunity to engage across your nonprofit’s departments. You will deepen your understanding into what goes into fulfilling your organization’s mission. Administrators and staffers outside the advancement circle will learn more about what brings donors to your door.
5. Solidify Your Donor Stewardship Plan
Failing to thank and engage current donors leads to poor retention. Some estimate the cost of acquiring a new donor to be as much as five times that of retaining an existing one, which makes every active donor on your list very valuable. Update – or create – a formal plan for acknowledging gifts promptly and reporting back on their impact. Plan touchpoints for your most important donors that don’t involve an “ask.’ This requires discipline, proper donor management, and coordination to ensure that individual donor journeys are mapped and pursued.
The Key to Executing Your Plan: Strategic Delegation
Although this five-point plan is the blueprint for success, it will be impossible to execute if you and your team are already stretched thin. The key is delegating the administrative and operational work. Don’t see a way forward with your current staffing model? Consider the value a fractional professional can bring to the table. With a fractional nonprofit expert handling database cleanup, grant preparation, communications scheduling and administrative buildup, you will be able to focus on the high-level strategy and relationship-building that only you can do.
The groundwork you lay during the summer will determine how you finish 2025. By focusing on these five areas, you will be prepared, not panicked. And if you're ready to reclaim time to focus on your mission, let's talk. A Nonprofit Virtual Assistant (NPVA®) has the nonprofit experience to manage these tasks, allowing you to focus on raising more funds and making more impact.
Click here to learn about how More Than Giving can help you meet your year-end fundraising goals.