We are all in the midst of holiday fundraising and I created this Top 10 list of things that you might find yourself doing this holiday season. I’ve intentionally left off number 1 because I want to hear from you.
Things You Might Do this Holiday Season:
10. While writing a thank you letter try to find as many ways as you can to say Happy Holidays without saying Merry Christmas.
9. Frantically work with other departments to put the finishing touches on your holiday cards before it’s too late.
8. Take a deep breath on the week of Christmas because after three weeks of utter chaos your phone doesn’t ring at all.
7. Call donors to try and get them to attend a last minute holiday party.
6. Call those same donors back to cancel your holiday party due to lack of attendance and rescheduling to January for a “winter celebration.”
5. Talk with lapsed donors in droves who seem to appear out of the woodworks for only a few days around the holidays.
4. Gorge yourself on cookies and brownies that everyone seems to put in the kitchen.
3. Discover just how tacky a cubical can be as co-workers decorate trying to make three metal walls into a livable festive space.
2. Consider buying a Santa outfit, a red bucket, and a bell as one more major donor’s gift comes in smaller than the year before.
Lets hear your number 1 leave a comment below.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
1. Sleep under the Christmas tree like the kids did when they were still kids
We’re making a “Giving Tree” where everyone in our family makes an ornament for the tree which represents charitable work we’ve done during the year.
Calculate your ROI on the December mailings you to do donors. I recently wondered how effective this process is as my wife and I are inundated with these. I understand organizations wanting to let people know of year end giving opportunities, but my question is “given all of the mail that people receive during the holidays (wanted and unwanted), is this the best method of reaching out to donors?”
Donate a bit to some families looking to keep warm and safe this Christmas, any little bit is good enough, go to reasontogive.com.
Abs
Create a fort in my office, incorporating my desk and filing cabinet, with the mountain of pillows and blankets and socks and underwear and hats and gloves and mittens brought in by many donors at such a crazy rate that they’re (literally) stacked to my ceiling because I can’t get them out to our clients quick enough.
Our organization just finished a fundraiser that brought in more money to us than anything we have tried in the past. The company can be found at http://www.yourgolddrive.com. What they did for us was amazing. With very little effort or time spent running the gold drive by our members, we were able to get a higher participation rate and raise more money for our cause. The way they run it is simple. People who are interested in participating receive a gold drive pack. All the member has to do is fill the pack with their unwanted and unused old jewelry (like gold, silver, diamonds) This fundraiser not only rewards the organization, but pays the member for their items that are sent in. Our members for the first time were happy not to have to pull money out of their pockets or buy anything and in return they got paid. Our organization was given a large payout at the end of the fundraiser. Simple as that, all we did was promote this to our members and the community and YourGoldDrive did the rest. If ever I was to give my endorsement to an outstanding company it would be for YourGoldDrive. You can find them at their website http://www.yourgolddrive.com (they also have another site that explains their concept in a web video at http://www.goldforyourchurch.com A+ TO YOUR GOLD DRIVE.