A Winning 4th Quarter Plan of Action
The following is a brief overview for your consideration and for future discussion.
Social Media Push – Across all platforms of communication, we want to focus on the crisis you are trying to meet and the need to heighten awareness of that need. A picture is worth a thousand words. Let’s show the need before we make the “ask!”
Early November – I recommend we send all your small business owners a letter about making a contribution through their companies. Most will be meeting with their accountants to get ready for taxes. We pay on March 15th. Planting a seed in their minds could help generate additional dollars. I will write this for you, but we need a database of all that fit into this category. I would also recommend an email reminder to them the last week of the year.
Thank you email in early November – We always ask, we seldom thank. So, consider sending out an email thanking donors for your giving success thus far. This is not an appeal but a cultivation and also serves for what we call warming your list.
First Direct Appeal Letter Week of November 13th – I recommend that your direct appeal end-of-year letter be sent out no later than this date. This letter should have a postage-paid, self-addressed envelope in it for ease of use.
Utilize “Giving Tuesday.” The Tuesday after Thanksgiving is being established across the country as a time when charities are asking people to give. We should piggyback on this with an email strategy asking for a gift that day. Read more about this at https://www.onlinegiving.org/support/giving-tuesday-for-churches.
December Plan of action – I recommend that you ramp up information about the “ask” across all communications platforms. Now, we are specifically asking people to give. Before, we were priming the pump with awareness of need. Now, we work to bring home donations to meet that need. Here are my ideas:
Special Landing Page on your website – We need a special page with a dedicated address. For instance, I once used http://moremoneyformychurch.com, which automatically took people to the signup page for my monthly membership. Yet that looks better than using http://thestewardshipcoach.org/join-now/. Domains are cheap to buy and easy to redirect to your main site. We can talk more about this, but dedicated landing pages are huge. We want to use the web as a base of information.
Social Media – We want to put a face on the “ask” AND provide direct links to the giving page. I recommend starting with one a day early in the month and increasing the rate as we move closer to the end of the year.
Offering talks – Let’s plan out sixty-second offering talks each Sunday in December.
Screen announcements – Let’s have screen announcements about the end-of-year offering that can be utilized on all campuses.
Email campaign – I recommend two emails before Christmas. Christmas is on Monday this year. I would send out one on Monday the 18th and another on Christmas Eve. The Christmas Eve one is short, wishing them a Merry Christmas with a PS reminder that they can give online if they are out of town. The last week of the year, we will send out one email on Wednesday, December 27th, and a final email at 2 PM on the 31st.
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