Latest / We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits / 162. 10 Must Do's Before Year End - Jonathan McCoy, CFRE and Becky Endicott, CFRE

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162. 10 Must Do's Before Year End - Jonathan McCoy, CFRE and Becky Endicott, CFRE · We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits

• 0:01
  Jonathan McCoy: Hey, I'm john.
• 0:02
  Becky Endicott: And I'm Becky. And this is the we are for good podcast. nonprofits are faced with more challenges to accomplish their missions and the growing pressure to do more, raise more and be more for the causes that improve
• 0:13
  Jonathan McCoy: our world. We're here to learn with you from some of the best in the industry, bringing the most innovative ideas, inspirational stories, all to create an impact uprising.
• 0:23
  Becky Endicott: So welcome to the good community, where nonprofit professionals, philanthropist, world changers and rabid fans who are striving to bring a little more goodness into the world. So let's get started. Howdy, Becky, Happy Friday, Happy Friday to everybody. It's our first Friday of
• 0:40
  Jonathan McCoy: the new season. This is awesome. September,
• 0:42
  Becky Endicott: we should talk about the end of the year, we should
• 0:44
  Jonathan McCoy: like Has everybody had that moment when you're like, Oh, my gosh, the end of the year is like almost here.
• 0:49
  Becky Endicott: Can I just like, get in my confessional and say that john and i almost every year coming up on year, you know, you're in would say, Oh, crap, we haven't done anything. What are we doing? To get it?
• 1:03
  Jonathan McCoy: Calling kettle black, this is we have been here with you. We're always in the same space. So we thought, let's carve out a Friday. And let's talk about, let's get clear about what we really should do over the next three months, because this is a really critical time for all of us.
• 1:17
  Becky Endicott: And when you consider that nearly a third of all annual giving happens in December. And that 12% of all annual giving occurs in the last three days of December. We just got to level up our game and make sure that we have a solid plan that's going to diversify our revenue. That's going to help us hit our right audience. And it's going to give you the right tools for your toolbox.
• 1:39
  Jonathan McCoy: Yep. So we're talking community building, we're talking fundraising, we're talking aligning your marketing, there's something here for every person on your team to feel like they can plug in to the strategy to make your your and the most successful ever. So let's do some tone setting. You know, I love setting some of the keys that we're going to talk about today. And we think they should be key no matter not just talking your end just all the time is how are you diversifying your revenue? Right? We talked about this a lot are all your eggs in the basket of an in person event or gala? I think that's probably been rocked the last year or the last year or two. So this conversation is about diversifying your revenue. It's about making sure that you're saying the right things to the right people. We have a lot of different audiences with a lot of different motivations. And we spend a lot of episodes talking about motivations. It's time to use that intelligence and be really, really smart.
• 2:28
  Becky Endicott: I also think multichannel is key it we've gone are the days of sending one direct mail letter out and just leaving it with a prayer. I also think don't just ask, don't just put an ask out there storytel. Let somebody else talk about your mission through the lens of how they see it. Get human and get real. And
• 2:50
  Jonathan McCoy: don't use open ended. Ask Be specific. What do you need? What does the program need? People want to respond to that. So it allows you to be bolder and more intentional on your ask which is going to serve you well.
• 3:01
  Becky Endicott: And I think the last thing is preparation and stewardship are the keys to urine success.
• 3:07
  Jonathan McCoy: So today we're walking through 10 must do so I want to walk through these and say this is exactly the same counsel we give our one on one clients, you know, we love getting to walk alongside a lot of nonprofits that are living and breathing this and the strategies work today. I mean, this is what we're doing post COVID are in the middle of COVID. It's because it's core. So let's dive into the first one.
• 3:27
  Becky Endicott: Number one, did you steward last year stoners if you have not begin immediately. So this is about really making sure that this is what we call impact lead staging, we're trying to set someone up to understand that their gift already made a difference and inspire them to make another gift. So look at last year's donors, circle back with them tell the story of impact. And let that be your starting point.
• 3:52
  Jonathan McCoy: I love that. Okay, next one. Number two, this is core you have to look at last year's data. And comparing year over year is a really great way to do it. Because the months kind of flux throughout the year. But you want to look at what is my year end compared to the last couple years and look for trends. How much was raised who gave who was upgrading. Those are all good questions to start. But if you're on the marketing team, look at the data of your web traffic. Where did it come from? What were kind of some of the benchmarks and the conversion rates for your online giving. Understanding the data is going to allow you to set goals which I want to kind of tease this and make a game plan those are coming at you but you can't do that without the lens of really great data.
• 4:32
  Becky Endicott: I feel like a fraud going into number three because goals is your thing, john, but it really is about setting goals. And PS not just financial goals. It's about taking a step back and saying what are we really trying to achieve with here and certainly we have a financial goal. We are here for fundraising. We are here to build up our mission. However, the more that you can expand community have your story ripple is going to have edifact that lives well beyond urine. So think about these things. What is your financial goal? What is your engagement goal? How many people? Are you trying to get in front of how many people? Are you trying to get to respond to things? Do you have a volunteer activation goal? Are you trying to push people to your website? So maybe consider some goals like unique visits to your website? Maybe open emails? Are you acquiring email addresses? How many social media impressions Have you gotten? How many different engagement points are connected by virtue of having a multi channel urine gift? So when you think about goals, don't just land at the financial because we think you'll it'll just fall a little bit short, because there is so much opportunity in casting that vision and that goal in a very wide way?
• 5:47
  Jonathan McCoy: Yep. And it's a team sport, so everybody can plug into a goal that makes sense for their area. Okay, so now that you've got clarity on your stats, you've got clarity on your goals, it's time to there you go build a dang plan before? Yes, it's always on every recommendation we give you. Because clarity comes when you start putting together timelines and tactics, and understanding what's the sequence of communication and dates that are going to be coming up. And honestly, for us, I'll say, sometimes it's a struggle to sit down and actually make the plan. We're going through this with the launch of this right now. It makes you feel so much better if you can just literally take the time as a team and say, what's the next logical step? And then what's the next logical step after that, and you'll have clarity of this is the exact path to follow. Because you don't want to spend time waking up every day wondering what's the next right step to achieve your goal, you want to wake up and have clarity of knowing exactly what you need to do each day or each week.
• 6:41
  Becky Endicott: And it just gives so much comfort to have that. So you really need to just ask yourself, what is our fundraising focus? Are you Have you picked your program? Is it a particular program? Is it a piece of equipment? Are you elevating professional development, identify that and discover why is it needed? And why do you need it now. So our little pro tip here is, if you're going to make a dang plan, make sure that it's multi channel, don't just rest on in the safety of the way that it's always been done with your direct mail appeal. So sorry, john, I had to jump in there. I
• 7:13
  Jonathan McCoy: know, I love that. And I feel like you know, if multi channel is a word that you don't get, it's thinking through all the different lanes that you can activate, you know, it's not your donor is not just in one place, they're seeing and connecting with you and lots of different ways in person, possibly online, on social on your website. So it's just trying to give a cohesive experience to everywhere that people engage with you.
• 7:34
  Becky Endicott: Thank you for giving that definition because sometimes we move too fast. And we want this to be something that makes sense to you that you can absorb. So okay, we're ready to move into number five.
• 7:45
  Jonathan McCoy: Okay, we're talking so much annual giving strategy today, because that's what annual giving lives for his year end, right. But we want to put a pause around this and say, have some courage. This is the perfect time of year to be strategic, and get some major gift asks out before your end.
• 8:38
  Becky Endicott: The reason I love this one so much is because I think the way that we've been taught in the past is that every single department stays in their lane within within a foundation or an organization. And I will say to you, I don't think annual giving major gifts, whatever you were in is are mutually exclusive. There is a path here for major gifts to engage in your urine campaign. Find a donor who aligns with your funding goal. If you're buying a piece of equipment in a particular area, you know, a donor has passion in that area, go approach them for a really unique ask, engage corporate or foundation partners bring them into the story. Maybe you could seek out a matching gift or two. We did this with an organization last year, they found a major gift, it teed up a matching gift. And honestly, it was so shocking to us because that matching gift inspired a second match from someone who actually just got the piece and was so inspired by it. So you can really look at matching gifts as a tiered to get to a higher option. So what we're saying is have some courage. You can do major gifts pair with your major gift team talk strategy, who needs to be elevated, this is not going to be a six figure, ask this is a gentle light, depending on the size of your organization, it could be $5,000, it could be $10,000, it could be 50,000, whatever is appropriate. But we're saying have some courage. Go out there cast your vision, find a big donor that you can attach to this project, you bet and
• 10:07
  Jonathan McCoy: small shops really looking at you because don't just focus on all this grass roots that you leave that moment to really make those transformational asks, Okay, number six. This is all about segmenting your audiences determining the right platform and messages for each not to sound like a broken record. But this is one of the key strategies that can really help you lift your indivior giving campaign, whatever that looks like. And what it means is just starting to look at your donors and groups of people, so you can talk more specifically to them. So everyone is on their own journey, we've talked a lot about the donor journey on this podcast. So go back and find some of those episodes. But people that have given before are thinking different than someone that's never made a gift before. And somebody that's on your board, or the volunteers every week, is gonna think about your organization a little bit different than maybe somebody that just gives once a year. So the more that you can create intentionality in those messages, you're going to have a much higher conversion success rate, and getting the donation or whatever your goal is.
• 11:04
  Becky Endicott: And I think the thing that you're trying to aim to do with segmentation and with key messaging is, you want your donor to feel like you're speaking directly to them, and their experience. So this is really going to challenge you to refocus your message, adapt to the now be present, be honest and vulnerable. If COVID has thrown a wrench in your organization, if you need support in one particular area, talk about it, talk about the effects of it, be honest and open and vulnerable. And I think it will make that one person feel like you're speaking directly to them. And then the other thing is, now that you have segmentation, you have your key messages. Now it's time to look and say what makes sense to put each of these people on the specific multichannel platform that john referenced before, you wouldn't put boomers in the tick tock queue, they're probably not going to see your message. And so align accordingly. Look at who you need to include. And if you are an incredibly brave soul, here's a little pro tip for you split your appeal into a and b messaging. And then you can test What does best what performs best. And so when you're going back next year, to look at your data, you can see you're teeing yourself up for next year to find out what worked.
• 12:23
  Jonathan McCoy: Taking a quick pause to share some exciting news from our friends over at give butter, they just launched an even better way to give with an end to end fundraising solution. They've paired their beloved virtual events and online fundraising platform with an integrated CRM and built in tools to engage your supporters through custom emails, texts, and more. And the best part, it's completely free. It's easy to see why good butter is loved by more than 35,000 nonprofits and other good causes just like yours NPS. They're also loved by the three of us who are super fans ready to get started with give butter, check them out at give butter calm. And we talk a lot about the development, the forward facing side of things. But we don't want to leave our friends on the operation side in the dust. And we definitely don't want them in the dark about the plan. And so number seven is really is your backup shop ready for gifts for stewardship and for really this plan that you're putting together. So I think that the texture of your plan, the color of your plan is going to get a lot more bright, if you can start sharing that with your entire team. And how this matters is everything that Becky just described, all of the modern CRMs and especially some of our favorites that you're talking about on the podcast, automate this kind of stuff for you make it super easy, looking at you platforms, like virtuous and give butter that are gonna make it really simple for you to segment. So if you're not having those conversations with the techie people with the ops people that are really making this work in the background, then you're leaving money on the table of how can we do this really well. This is an incredible conversation that I feel like is missed most of the time, and can really get you in a better position to have success at indivior stewardship we've already talked about, but do you have something ready to go in the can for when the gifts start coming in? I'll tell you we've shared our favorite stories of giving a couple times on the podcast specifically at year end, I feel like maybe a year ago, and the organizations that were ready with meaningful stewardship that was timely are the stories that Becky and Julie's both shared, which I think is really interesting, because we have a lot of giving experiences and a lot of organizations, but those that find a personalized way. That's just ready. That's timely. That's what's memorable.
• 14:24
  Becky Endicott: I have to mention it again, because I just think it was so smart. But one of the one of my favorite organizations as positive tomorrows, it's a Oklahoma City based school for homeless children. And after I made a Giving Tuesday, gift to them, which to me is a part of the lexicon of hearing giving. I mean, you really are triggered whether you're starting with the appeal, whether you're starting with Giving Tuesday, thanksgiving cards, whatever it is, but I made that Giving Tuesday gift. And then two weeks later, and I will say I got my Thank you immediately 48 hours afterward. Thank you positive tomorrow's. But two weeks later, I got a little handwritten card from the development lead with an ornament that was made by a child who had her picture on it thanking me for my gift and I will hang that on my tree every single year and think of positive tomorrows. That's next level stewardship. And I just think if you can automate these processes, look at your pledge forms. Look at your online giving pages, set up appeal code so you can track all of these different segmentations is your website updated? Is it mobile friendly, there are a lot of things to make sure our humming and running really well in the back of shop. And you want those to be fully integrated, fully ready to go. See, when you make the ask, they just kind of happen.
• 15:43
  Jonathan McCoy: And one more plug for automation meet stewardship best in class, check out our friends at Thank you, oh my gosh, it's so easy. If you don't have time to actually make a physical ornament or something, you can easily record a 32nd video that's super meaningful, and that can be delivered automatically. So lean into the automations here and just have fun with it.
• 16:04
  Becky Endicott: No kidding. You're in giving does not have to be stagnant. It does not have to be something that you dread, we can actually make this something that is vibrant. It's in community. And it's actually helping you reach your goals, fundraising goals. Okay, getting near the end. Number eight, embrace social media, and build an intentional engagement strategy to humanize and draw your followers into the story. So what we're saying is, it is time to syndicate. And for those that don't know what we're saying around syndication, what we're saying is, take a really strong piece of content, in this case, at your annual appeal, break it apart, take chunks of it, take sentences, take quotes, take stats, and put it into your various social media channels, then ask questions, do things that make people feeling caged, you know, I'm going to challenge you a little bit and say, pull out your phone, grab some video, it does not have to be highly produced. In fact, we think now, the fact that you can be so human and relatable is actually going to draw people to you even more. So give a humanizing interview, interview a beneficiary, maybe you want to take somebody on a little tour of your facility, or introduce them to somebody that's really special that's connected to your mission. So we're saying get an intentional social media plan, talk about it with the team, automate it. And if you need a little bit of tip, go and listen to Cameron Bartlett, who is an amazing social media strategist. It's Episode 122, he walks through creating a digital donor journey. And if you're going to employ that, I think this is a great time to test it out.
• 17:41
  Jonathan McCoy: Okay, digital is where it's at, right? I mean, all these stats about how things have moved, and it's not surprising. So my question for you friends, is what is your front door looking like, actually, mine's got all these shoes piled in front of it, because I have so many kids here. But what is your digital front door for your organization look like? and spend some time with it, we've put together a workshop, this is an area that we completely geek out on, because we feel like it's so critical. And it's low hanging fruit, to make sure that your website is aligned with your strategy aligned with your goal. And just through 10, easy steps, we put together a workshop that follows some of the framework we've talked about today, but gives you even more tools to get started. It's weird for good comm slash website. And you can get started with that. But just to lift a couple of big things in there. It's going to take you through the same ideas of Do you know what your web traffic is doing? So you can start to track and understand what Where are the bottlenecks where people getting stuck, and starting to make content that aligns with the goals that you're trying to do? If monthly giving is your focus, my first question for you is how prominent is monthly giving on your website. So start to align those strategies. And this workshop will be a really good 45 minutes that really will help you in that I
• 18:51
  Becky Endicott: just think leveling up your website is going to help propel your urine giving even further, especially if you have a strong digital presence. So one other little pro tip that we would give as a hack is embrace the mystery shopper. So for those who are not familiar with this marketing term, it's literally having maybe five volunteers, staff members, friends, whomever, go shop through your site, give them the process, send the email, you know, and have them walk through making a gift and then have them detail everything they notice. Good, bad, ugly, confusion, whatever it is, because we want to know what the barriers to entry are. We want to know what the pain points are. And if you can do that on the front end, before you actually launch the campaign, your website is going to be seamless, and people will be able to give so easily online. Okay,
• 19:42
  Jonathan McCoy: so I hope we haven't overwhelmed you. But that last one really kind of brings us all together. If you hang around the podcast much or us, you'll know that we always want you to turn up the volume on innovation and trying stuff. This doesn't mean that you're going to do this every year in for the rest of eternity. It means what something new, what's one thing that you can try? What's one thing that you can toggle a different way to just test and see what works. You know, we've talked about a lot of them, but let me lift if you find that matching gift donor if you've never done that before, it's an instant way to literally double what you could raise with one major gift ask paired with community. I mean you start to thread those two together and it becomes a really compelling thing for people to be a part of. Are you looking at corporate partners in that way? We've talked about this on the show a lot but corporations are looking for that soul You know, this is a time when they need a storyline like your To champion alongside in finding the alignment of values and vision can really set you up to have an incredible corporate partnership that can come to fruition before you're in.
• 20:43
  Becky Endicott: I think Mobile Giving is really key. And if you're someone that wants to text out cure solicitations, we've seen this with some of our clients, and they've had great success with it. I would say don't put everybody into that queue. But again, go back to your segmentation and say, who would it really make sense to get a mobile solicitation? Look at crowdfunding, I think the peer to peer fundraising is so untapped for so many organizations who absolutely and positively love your organization, find your rabid fans and put together a crowdfunding piece. And the last pro tip is branded baby. We always want to brand anything that we're ever going to do, to connect it visually, back to our mission to connect the messaging and the resonance back to the things we're trying to achieve. So get a theme, tie your stewardship to that theme, reference it in your key messages and stewardship. You know, we geek out on all things marketing and branding. But we do think that that is a way to elevate and differentiate your urine giving from any other thing that you're doing during this year.
• 21:50
  Jonathan McCoy: Okay, so we're in the last quarter, three months, I feel the clock ticking. I hope we've given you some things for months. Hey, good, you got a free month. I can't do math, which is really wonderful.
• 22:02
  Becky Endicott: I love that we just gonna roll with that because it's true. And this is what we're saying you have got to be so nimble. And if you get your dang plan if you can put something together that is completely strategic. It includes all people and finds them in their place. You are going to have a rockin your end this year.
• 22:21
  Jonathan McCoy: Yeah, we're pulling for you. And we've got tons of resources coming together for you. So I hope you see us as a partner to help guide you through that and cheering for you. We have the we're for good community where you can always find inspiration and friends for free. We are for good community calm and Pro. It's coming.
• 22:36
  Becky Endicott: I could not get off of this episode without saying folks, we are coming at you in five days with something totally groundbreaking and revolutionary for nonprofit professional development. So stay tuned. We watching your social channels, and we're hoping we're gonna knock your socks off.
• 22:53
  Jonathan McCoy: We're here for good pro.com go join the waitlist. We want to see you there. Okay, you've got this friends. We're rooting for you.
• 23:01
  Julie Confer: Hey, friends, thanks so much for being here. Did you know we create a landing page for each podcast episode with helpful links, freebies and even shareable graphics. Be sure to check it out at the link in this episode's description. You probably hear it in our voices but we love connecting you with the most innovative people to help you achieve more for your mission than ever before. We'd love for you to join our good community it's free and you can think of it as the after party to each podcast episode. You can sign up today at we are for good comm backslash Hello. One more thing if you loved what you heard today, would you mind leaving us a podcast rating and review? It means the world to us and Your support helps more people find our community. Thanks friends. I'm our producer Julie Confer and our theme song is sunray by Remy Boris boom