It’s that time of year again. Feel like you are completely behind in your year-end appeals? Well, cheer up! The end of year fundraising party doesn’t really get started until after Christmas when the bulk of year-end money comes in.  So if you are just getting started now, it’s not too late.

However, you may be drowning in a sea of information and may not really know where to start. First off, this isn’t the time to talk about list building or community building on Facebook.  It’s too late for that. Strategically, you really only have two things to do between now and December 31st.  You need to inspire your audience and to make sure that you are asking for funds.

We’ve got five tactics you can accomplish in 24 hours or less to ramp up your year-end fundraising:

  1. Be open for business. This may seem obvious, but when was the last time you actually checked your website’s “donate now” button to see if it works properly? Make sure it works the way you want it to work. And not only make sure it works, make sure it is your site’s primary focus this time of year.
  2. Add your mailing address and your phone number to your homepage. Again, this seems obvious, but most nonprofits don’t do this. Not everyone wants to give online. If you make it hard for them to find your address or phone number, they will go – and give – elsewhere. 
  3. What makes you proud? Take 30 seconds and write down the five things that make you proudest to be doing what you’re doing.  Don’t over-think it – keep it simple. Tack that list up next to your computer until December 31st and send that list, with very little added, in an email as a way of telling your donors why you are inspired by what you do. 
  4. Find pictures that inspire you. Go through your website, find the image that you think is the most inspiring or the most powerful, or the one that best exemplifies you work, and put it on the homepage. Leave it on the homepage between now and the end of the year.
  5. Ask, ask, ask. No, really, ask three times! This year, send emails on December 27th, December 29th and December 31st. Most of the money you are going to raise online in December is going to come in that last week of the year. Making sure that you are at the top of people’s email inbox at during that time is going to be terribly, terribly important. Start creating those emails now and be sure to include the list you made in #3.

Remember, focus on those you have already connected to. Move them, inspire them, then ask them, and you will reap a great harvest this gift-giving season.

For more information, listen to my Nonprofit 911 webinar on this topic.

Have questions? Email Mark at Sea Change Strategies: research and strategies for remarkable causes.

Adapted by Kristina Leroux