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The end of the year is a time when many donors give to nonprofits and churches. During the holidays, many people are feeling generous and want to give back. About one third of annual giving occurs in December. The end of year giving season is a very important one for nonprofits and churches. We’ve put together five strategies you can use to step up year-end fundraising and increase donations.

Give Thanks

Communicate to your donors how thankful you are for them. Send an email sharing the successes of the past year that were made possible because of their help. Create a custom email receipt that gets sent to new donors thanking them for their donation and asking them to share your giving campaign with their friends via email and on social media sites. A donor is more likely to share your campaign right after their donation and by including call to actions in their receipt it will make it easy for them to share.

Ask for Donations

Create a direct mail, email campaign and social media plan that explains why your donors should support your organization, makes them feel good about giving and asks them to donate. Use a specific “ask” in your appeals, asking for a certain amount and telling exactly what a donation is going towards. A sample ask letter would be - We need X amount of money towards a new X and your donation will go toward that. Can you donate X amount today? Show your donors the direct impact of their donation and how it’s going to make a difference. Remember to send out more emails and make more posts on social media this month than you do during other months. Your donors are busier this month and need more reminders.

Provide Opportunities

Give your donors a variety of ways to support your organization and make it easy for your donors to give. Setup special year-end giving and volunteer opportunities and create a year-end giving page to advertise these opportunities. Providing a recurring giving option makes it easy for donors to automatically give each month. Some donors may be more comfortable in giving a small amount each month rather than donating a large amount at one time. Donors are busy during the holidays so this is a good time to promote electronic giving via your website, mobile app, texting and social media.

Promote Donations as Gifts

Setup donations as shares or memberships that may be purchased online as gifts. Online donations to a nonprofit or charity is an eco-friendly and unique idea. It’s great for the person who has everything. A charitable donation is a gift the giver can feel good about and one that will never go to waste. Buying a donation gift online is great for the shopper that wants to avoid the crowded stores. Send an email out promoting online donations as last minute holiday gifts. Make it easy for your donors by building a giving form page specifically made for these holiday donation shares and memberships.

Stress Tax Deadline

Remind your donors that they can make a year end donation gift to receive immediate tax benefits without having to wait until the next year. Send an email out after Christmas but before the New Year highlighting tax deductible giving opportunities and giving them a last chance to donate before the year end deadline. Provide your donors with mobile giving opportunities so they can make a last minute tax deductible gift anywhere and anytime.

Raising funds for your cause is critical and at Paperless Transactions we understand that. If your church or nonprofit is looking to reach donors in new ways and raise more funds, Paperless Transaction Corporation is here to help. We offer innovative solutions such as mobile giving, event registration, and donor management combined with cost-effective, secure payment processing that is easy to integrate with your current database and website.

Sign up for a demo today to see how Paperless can help your organization increase funds.