Fundraising: why your “annual” appeal shouldn’t be once a year

Now that you’ve mailed out your annual year end  appeal, I’m hoping you are getting ready to mail many of your donors again in a few weeks.

Too soon, you say. Mustn’t bother our donors but once a year, you protest.

I’m with you that it might be too soon for those donors who always send you a generous gift at the end of the year. (Though many direct marketers would dispute that).

But what about the donors who haven’t responded to your annual appeal?

In our work, we often encounter small nonprofits or new fundraisers who believe that the “annual” appeal is just that, a once-a-year request for a donation.

These small organizations often don’t analyze the giving patterns of their donors. They may have no useful donor database, or haven’t thought about what just how much work it might take to get donors to give again.

If an “annual” appeal raises the same amount of money or even just a bit more than it did the year before, it’s considered a success. But what isn’t known Read more