Year-End Donor Follow-Up: How to Engage Your Supporters at the Start of the New Year

8 min read

December 31st, 2024

Every nonprofit leader knows that year-end giving is often the biggest fundraising event of the year. Throughout the holiday season, the spirit of giving is strong, and businesses are also looking for last-minute opportunities to increase their tax write-offs for the year. 

So, when the twinkle lights are taken down and holiday treats are traded in for gym memberships, how can nonprofit organizations maintain the year-end momentum and carry donor engagement beyond the holiday season?

Consider the following New Year donor communication strategies to help your nonprofit maintain engagement and ride the year-end giving momentum well beyond midnight on January 1st. 

The Year-End Follow-Up: 10 Strategies to Maintain Donor Engagement Through the New Year

1. Send a Memorable Donor Thank You

Donor acknowledgments should always be sent immediately after your organization receives a gift. However, nonprofits are also required to send year-end acknowledgments that document their cumulative giving over the course of the year. You can use this requirement as an opportunity to connect with your donors in a unique and memorable way.

Consider the following ideas for making your year-end acknowledgments more memorable:

• Include a small gift or token of your appreciation like a sticker, magnet, calendar, pen, or brochure (Bonus if the gift also acts as a reminder and advertisement for your nonprofit!)
• Handwrite the addresses on the envelopes
• Ensure the letter is personally addressed
• Sign your name at the bottom of the letters with a pen
• Send a bouquet of flowers, a gift basket, or another token that represents your mission to major donors

When you appreciate your donors, they will feel more included in the good you do and be more likely to stay engaged with your cause. 

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2. Demonstrate Impact

In addition to thanking your donors and including the compliance-required information in your year-end donor acknowledgment, you should also demonstrate the impact each donor had on your organization and its mission. Use your accounting data to tell your donor in concrete terms what their gift helped you accomplish. For example, "Your donation of X dollars paid for X number of meals," "Your donation of X item raised X dollars that purchased X pairs of shoes for children in need," or "Your donation of X hours of legal expertise allowed us to house X number of individuals for X number of nights." 

These kinds of statements are fairly simple to extrapolate from your financial data, and they can make a real difference in helping your donor base understand the power of positivity behind the charitable donations they make. 

3. Focus on Your Mission

To maintain donor engagement, you need to focus on what motivated them to support your organization in the first place, your mission. Be sure to maintain consistent messaging around your nonprofit's mission, its goals for the upcoming year, and what kind of support you need to accomplish your mission-related goals. 

Personalize the impact you and your donors make by telling stories about the individuals who have benefited from their gifts and about the challenges your organization has overcome and is still working on overcoming. 

4. Welcome New Donors

Keep track of all the new donors you attracted with your year-end giving campaign and begin the New Year by welcoming them with a month-long series of electronic or snail-mail communications specifically tailored to "onboarding" them into your organization. 

In the first week, send a video message from your executive director or another representative thanking them for their support. Introduce your organization, welcome them into your nonprofit's community, and let them know that you will be in touch with additional communication that will help them learn more about your mission and how they can get involved in it. 

In the second week, send more information about your impact. Explain what your organization does and how you make a difference. Provide some key statistics and infographics. Then tell the story of your nonprofit from its beginnings to where it is now. 

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In the third week, talk about your future vision for your nonprofit and its mission. Focus on short and long-term goals and the kind of support that

is needed to achieve them. Describe the events and programs you have planned for the coming year and explain how they support the organization's mission. 

In the final week, provide information about all the ways your new community member can support your nonprofit. Provide information on gifting methods, recurring donations, volunteer opportunities, and your in-kind donation policy. Be sure to close out by telling them how grateful and happy you are to have their support in the coming year. 

5. Revitalize Your Online Presence

There's a lot of competition online, but your organization needs to hold its ground and work hard to earn your audience's attention. Make a commitment to revitalizing your online presence. Start posting video updates on your mission, plans, events, needs, and upcoming volunteer opportunities. Encourage your audience to engage with your social media and be sure to always provide links to your secure online giving portals. 

6. Send Out a Survey

You can be more intentional about how you design your donor retention and engagement strategy by asking your donors about their preferences. Distribute a survey to everyone who participated in your year-end giving campaign. The survey can cover topics such as:

• Communication preferences (email, snail-mail, phone, etc.)
• Volunteer experiences (what worked and what could be improved)
• Project ideas
• Event opportunities (what kinds of events would they be most likely to participate in)
• Giving preferences (payment methods, giving structure, etc.)

Surveys not only show that you truly value your donors' opinions and that you are committed to improving your nonprofit, but they also help you design a much more effective strategy for donor communication, retention, and engagement. 

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7. Encourage Recurring Giving

Year-end fundraising generates a large portion of annual revenue. For most organizations, year-end gifts account for the lion's share of funds. This creates the challenge of generating reliable revenue sources throughout the rest of the year. One way to counter the year-end-heavy timing of charitable donations is to encourage donors to sign up for recurring giving. 

One way to encourage this while also increasing the total amount your organization receives is to ask your donors to divide their year-end gift by ten and donate that amount monthly, instead of a lump sum at the end of the year. If donors don't wish to increase their total gift, they can, of course, always divide by twelve. 

8. Go Beyond Donations to Connect

Of course, the goal of keeping donors engaged is ultimately to keep them donating. However, you can also engage your donors in other ways besides asking for gifts. You can extend your donor relationship beyond monetary gifts by:

• Including them in volunteer opportunities
• Inviting them to fundraising events
• Hosting a donor meet and greet party
• Encouraging them to like and follow you on social media

Inviting new donors to participate in an upcoming event or volunteer opportunity, for example, helps them feel like a more integral part of your nonprofit's community, and they will feel further compelled to continue supporting your mission. 

When asking your donors to go beyond the donation, be sure to explain why you're asking, how it will help support the mission, and how they can benefit from being more involved. 

9. Consider Non-Financial Asks

Do not overlook the value and potential of in-kind donations. Your donor base might not even be aware that you accept or could use in-kind donations. Every nonprofit should have an in-kind donation policy that outlines your rules for what kinds of goods and services you can accept and explains how you use them. 

In-kind donations can include items that you directly need for your mission, running your office, or hosting a fundraiser auction event. They can also include the donation of services like professional skills, expertise, advice, and consulting. In-kind donations can be great for nonprofits because they have the potential to be very valuable while also providing donors with a wide range of giving options. 

10. Make Data-Driven Decisions

While working to maintain year-end giving momentum through the New Year, you should keep close track of the strategies you use and how well they work. Be sure to implement a system for documenting procedures and strategies, collecting data, and measuring performance. Keeping track of how well each strategy works to engage donors and maintain momentum will help you continuously hone your processes while ensuring your fundraising budget gets spent on the most effective donor communications to maximize engagement and giving. 

Align Your Donor Engagement Strategy, Mission, and Financial Strategy With a Better Back Office

Every aspect of your organization, including nonprofit donor relations, should be aligned with your mission. You can improve donor engagement and retention while ensuring you continue working toward your mission and maximizing the impact of every dollar you spend. 

With a high-functioning back office equipped with automated systems, streamlined data collection, fully integrated donor management applications, and real-time reporting, you can easily track your donors and determine which engagement strategies work best. Teaming up with a nonprofit-experienced outsourced accounting provider in the New Year can help you boost donor engagement and maximize impact while cutting costs to achieve your mission.