A Positive Outlook for Year-End Charity Fundraising Gail Perry - Virtuous
go to original December 12, 2021

The giving season is upon us!

There are lots of reasons to be optimistic for this year-end. So don’t hold back – because the giving environment is extremely positive right now.

Here are giving trends that will help your organization ride to a higher year-end goal.

Donors’ Hearts Seem to Be More Open Than Ever

With the pandemic, we saw a trend of more donors stepping up to help their favorite causes with more generous gifts. It seemed like many donors’ hearts were opened.

In the past year and a half, the media has emphasized community needs, and featured people and organizations impacted by the pandemic. All sorts of issues that needed attention and funding came to the forefront.

This year, because of all this media attention, and the great stories you are telling about your work, donors seem to be more aware of community needs. Reading about the plight of many people during the pandemic has caused many donors to want to give back.

We think donors are emotionally primed to give this year end. Remember, decisions are made emotionally, and then justified with logic. All the research on fundraising continues to point to emotions as the top trigger for the gift decision.

Among our own capital campaign clients, we saw more gifts flowing to all sorts of causes. The organizations that were telling emotional stories clearly really did see increased returns.

All these new skills bode well for year-end fundraising and beyond. Smart fundraisers will be able to close major gifts for the year-end – without even leaving their office or home. They’ll be more efficient, more effective, and donors will probably feel more engaged than ever.

At Gail Perry Group, we’ve focused much of our training and coaching in the past year helping fundraisers learn new virtual skills with donors. They’ve learned how to create rewarding digital experiences for their donors, nurture important donor relationships and actually move forward to discuss gifts with donors. Learn more at Virtuous.org

Read the rest at Virtuous

Related: How to Protect Yourself & Avoid Scams This Holiday Season (WRDE.com)