Three Messages to Send Donors in January

This week on Life and Mission: End-of-year fundraising may be over, but that only sets up some key messaging for January.  In this episode, I'll give you three key messages to send donors in January (plus a bonus).

Transcript

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Kay  0:00  
Hey, this week on life and mission podcast, I'm talking to you fundraisers in the year fundraising may be over. But that only sets up some key messaging for January. So what do you need to send donors in January? In this episode, I'll give you three important messages to send donors in January.

Kay  0:31  
So after the big year in fundraising campaign, it's really tempting to just let out a big sigh of relief and sit back for a bit. Sorry, we can't do it. We need to nurture those donors, you got new donors over the year and push right, you sent out things and you had people give that you never thought they were going to let you like, I'm going to drop them off my email list, you know, because they haven't engaged, that they've been quietly listening. They think quietly watching you, they've been looking, you know, especially if you've been improving your storytelling and things like that. And now they're starting to go, Okay, now I understand what they do. Now, I understand why this is important. Now, I understand, you know what, I want to be part of that. And then they get now those first time donors, even if they've been people that have kind of followed you for a long time, they need some special attention. And so that's one of the big things we're going to talk about towards the end of this video. But first, I'm going to hit some of the obvious things. 

Kay  1:35  
Number one, January, it's statement time, it's time to send out your statements to your donors. Hey, this is how much you gave in the last year. Thank you so much. And, you know, this is the obvious piece of mail that you need to get out to donors this month. And this giving statement, you have to send them out for anyone who gave $250 or more. But as my friend, David Oaks likes to say, Do not send a naked statement. What is a naked statement? Okay, according to David, and by the way, you should listen to his podcast if you don't, it's Minor Touches Major Impact. What he says basically, is that a naked statement is where you just send out the numbers, you get that little thing that your your software spits out says, Here's what they gave a little table of, of giving there on the page, and you put a really dry text over it, you know, enclosed, please find your giving statement for whatever year it is. And then you have that text that you're required to put by the IRS of no gifts and services were received in exchange, blah, blah, blah. 

Kay  2:42  
Okay, so you do that, you can make sure you have all the legal stuff in there that you need to have. But then the rest of that letter is a great opportunity. Because guess what? Your people are going to open it! Hello. You know, this is an important piece of mail to them. And so this is a great opportunity for you to stick things in that envelope that are going to mean something to them that connect them more closely to your mission, that giving statement is a cause for celebration. Look at what you did last year. You gave this much. But here's what you accomplished. So go back over the year, go back what and if you know that that person gave gifts for a specific thing, yes, this takes a little more work, but But it's worth it. If you know they gave toward a specific part of your mission. And you can connect that gift to that and say, here's the remember, here's I just thought I'd drop a picture in here from that thing that you support it you know, I don't know, whatever that looks like. Like, just be creative with it. Like you don't have to just because it's a it's an official IRS compliant piece of mail right? Does not mean you have to be boring with it, it does not mean that you have to be just a stick in the mud, you know, that shows up and blah, blah, blah, and they throw it on their desk. But But you, you use it, you celebrate them, you celebrate their involvement in your mission in the mission in your life. When I say yours like yours like yours and theirs. shared mission, you see. And because it is a shared mission, because they are a part of it. 

Kay  4:25  
So celebrate that celebrate those accomplishments. The souls reached the live, save whatever the mission, let your donors know that their donations are still being celebrated, and that there's more work to do. You're excited they're with you because X, Y and Z still needs to be done right? These things that added up. So you are thanking them. You're celebrating them as you're also saying now we're in a new year. We are still in this race together. We are so glad you're with us. Let's go. We're gonna go do this And so you take off with him on that, that's going to be a really good thing to put in your giving statement. The 

Kay  5:07  
The other thing with this is, even though the IRS only says you need to do the giving statements for people who gave $250 or more to take this opportunity to thank everyone who donated to your nonprofit in the last year, not just in December, and not just those who gave more than $250. Which brings us to the next message that you need to send in January. And that is the one that says thank everybody, celebrate them celebrate the role that they play in your mission, thank people who donated their time and energy. volunteers give you their time. And what I don't want you to ever forget, is that we can make more money, but we cannot make more time. So your volunteers are big time. See what I did there -  donors. They're big donors, when they give their time. And so celebrate that a lot of times. We say Oh, well, you know, volunteers, they only serve for this. And then they just kind of drift away. Well, they went if they're drifting away, you've got to ask why? Why are they drifting? And there are reasons that they have that they that they leave, but also one of the reasons is they don't feel appreciated, or they don't feel like they're really making an impact. 

Kay  6:31  
And so you have to draw the line for them between the work that they do and the end impact on the ground, our ministry for a while worked in Uganda. And we would have people working in the office in Virginia in the USA, and they were stuffing envelopes, or they were helping to create profiles for children that were being sponsored and things like that, or they were organizing things for us or preparing for an event. But we wanted to tie what they did to the actual end result of children who lived and did not die of children who made their way through school have children who saw hope of what they could be in the future, they saw the potential was greater than than their past. And, and so we had to tie that we had to share the stories, we had to make sure we shared stories. And what I would do is while volunteers were stuffing envelopes, I would come in with a pizza and I would call a break. And I wouldn't just drop off the pizza, I would sit and tell stories just with them. And they would ask questions and all these things. And they would get connected to these kids. And, you know, they had just read somebody's profile. And they said, Well, what about this one? Do you know this one? Like do you do have you interacted personally with this child and I might share something about him if I had and, and. And so it was just a really great way to connect them in a more direct way to what was happening as a result of their work. They're in office, they were pushing papers around a table. But when I came down and sat with them and spent time with them, appreciated them, and celebrated the work that they were doing, but also then told the stories of what was happening, what I had seen with my eyes. In Uganda, then they became closer and more more connected to the ministry as a result. And so I always loved that day, too. That was always a great way. Great thing for both of us. 

Kay  8:36  
So thank everybody, especially your volunteers that maybe don't get thanked as much as people who give money, but they are major donors. So remember that. So thank everybody. And so you can send out like a big kind of just thank you celebration a message and and for other people. So I get this question, too. We had somebody asked in the group. Do I think that people who didn't give I think that seems weird to send out like an email that says thank you so much for supporting us. Well, you don't know what they pray. That is support. Because let me tell you, the real work of what you do doesn't happen without those prayers, and you want them praying and you don't know who's praying and who's not. So thank everybody. Okay, that's one reason. The other thing is you just thank them. You just, you just show that you have a heart of gratitude. Listen, that heart of gratitude. It's not a technique. It's not a fundraising tactic. It's just something you should have. 

Kay  9:36  
At some point, these people said, I'm really interested in what you're doing. And you don't know what their resources are, what their heart is. And so you just want to show that heart of of gratitude. Thank you for being with us. Thank you for sharing. And when you thank them for different things, you're also giving them ideas of what they could do. Don't say, thank you so much. Here's what you can do next. Just say thank you for sharing. Thank you for praying Thank you for giving. And and the people who have a heart tag to do one of those things, we'll do those things, that's fine. But just have that heart of gratitude show that heart of gratitude to the people that are walking with you in this mission in whatever capacity.

Kay  10:19  
Now this next thing, this next message that you want to send out, is really key, because you've just come out of a big fundraising push, and that is to welcome new donors with a sequence of emails, or maybe a printed welcome packet. So during the year in fundraising, you've picked up new donors, and you only have a tiny window to invite them into a deeper relationship. On days, like giving Tuesday and then through your year end push between 70 and 75%. Of your one time donors during this period from say, let's call it from Thanksgiving, through the end of the year 70 to 75%. Of your one time donations are from brand new donors, okay? Your numbers might be different, but generally speaking, this is what fundraisers have found. So you have new donors who've never given to you before. Brand new donors don't necessarily know you well. Brand new donors can quickly forget you and move on to the next thing. Brand new donors if you have not thanked them properly,

Unknown Speaker  11:35  
may feel unappreciated or even duped. Ouch. Right. These will likely leave and not come back. So what do you do? You start by thanking them again, right, you had an automated thing maybe that went out. But make sure there's a real letter of appreciation from a real person that says, hey, we noticed you. We appreciate you. We're so thankful and grateful for you. Thank you so much for making that decision to to give to this cause, I really hope that you have an up to date, email, welcome series, and a welcome packet that you can mail to them. If you don't have a welcome packet already made, then what you can do is you write a personal thank you letter, let them know how glad you are that they chose to join you in the mission. And if they gave to a particular appeal or need, right, as I've said before, then address that. Speak to them about that thing that will be accomplished because they chose to act, and let them know about any highlights in your upcoming schedule. But keep it about them and the vision and drop in your latest newsletter. And that's what you do you just welcome them it's not doesn't have to be super complicated, super hard. 

Kay  12:57  
It's really nice. If you have a welcome packet already made, that you can grab and go with it right just makes it easier to send it out quickly. But if you don't have one, just put those things together. And that will be a nice welcome into your organization. 

Kay  13:16  
Okay, those were three. But I want to hit you up with one more. Okay, but let's put the next. This is the bonus when the for the fourth message that you can send out in January and this is to prepare people for what's to come. Your thank you message could include something on what they can expect from your organization in the months ahead, you can remind them about how their support makes this possible. What do you have planned this year? Do you have any new events, major annual campaigns coming up new initiatives to make personal messages to highlight these types of involvements that your donors like so if somebody donated to your spring fundraising campaign last year, when you send a thank you message that we mentioned earlier, just include a reminder that you're running a similar campaign again, this year, that way they can plan, you know, a lot of people plan they're giving out over the year there I'm gonna give when they do the 5k or I'm gonna give when they do the matching campaign. So if you know that let them know when or about when that's going to come about so that they can plan and they can budget for that they'll be ready. And so when you learn what your donors want, then you can point them to where those things are in your schedule in the coming year. You obviously this is a lot of repetition, a lot of thanking people and celebrating them. So you can combine these messages all through the month. You know, you can you could do this all in one or two letters. That's fine. You could but also make sure that you're staying top of mind okay that you spread your messaging out through the year. There are three of the month and that way that you're, you're in front of them. 

Kay  15:05  
So tell stories like you always do. You can combine these messages in any way that it makes sense for you and your mission. But just make sure that you spend extra time and extra effort on those new donors, okay, more than 80% of new donors will never give again. The reason that they don't give again, is often because they don't get properly appreciated, or properly welcomed in after that first gift. So you can fix that. This is not just a thing, okay? They're not it's, they don't never give again, because they're flighty and fickle. And, you know, we just go well, at least they gave once. But but if we realize that these new donors and everybody really need to be nurtured and cared for and loved, so if they want to be more involved, then you just do that. Right? You just you just do that, celebrate your people. And look ahead, that's your main message for January. So that's it. There's your messages that you need to send in January. God bless. I'm Kay Helm, and this is the life and mission podcast. Find your voice, tell your story, change the world.

Kay  16:38  
Mission writers is a one year course where you'll develop and practice essential storytelling skills to help increase funding for your mission. You'll learn the exact stories that every ministry missionary and nonprofit needs to tell. Develop your storytelling and direct response copywriting skills, learn the fundraising story calendar, build your story library and know when and how to tell your stories. You'll do that with coaching calls. I've got a course library that's already beginning to fill up with lessons and you'll have the community support. You do not have to do this alone. But you do need to tell stories in order to raise funds. I have a free video workshop that you can get at my website. Kay helm.com. That's kyhelm.com Scroll down the page about two thirds of the way down, hit the purple button. And it'll take you to sign up for that video of the three stories that every ministry mission and nonprofit needs to tell

Transcribed by https://otter.ai