In our 09 Year-End Fundraising Strategies Telesummit interviews, Kim Klein shared a great strategy for the last days of December.

She noted that 40% of on-line donors give in December. (!!!) I have to say that I did NOT know that and it is a real surprise to me. Wow, this means that we have two months, at best, to design the right kind of e-fundraising effort that will actually touch the hearts of our on-line donors right there at the end of the year.

Even more interesting, 40% – 60% of those on-line donations will come in the last two days of December, Kim says.

Can’t you just imagine all those e- gifts streaming into your account right there at year-end? What a sack of presents to greet you!

What will it take to get there?  You need to plan NOW for an email campaign to reach those donors. Start writing copy for those emails right now.  Engage a great e-marketing consultant to help you craft the right messages and strategies.

Remember, the psychology of on-line giving is quite different from donors who give through the mail.  Attention spans are far shorter. Copy must be lively.  Web sites need to be alive, and get updated often.  Just getting your folks to open your email is an art that you need to study carefully.

Lots of times a last minute challenge gift or matching gift can help inspire people to open their hearts and wallets.

And you should remember that your mail donors often check out your web site before they send that paper check in the mail. Yet another reason to have a snappy, interactive web site that has a call to action right in front.

It was August, and that meant time to create our dreaded Annual Report.  I was working on one of my least favorite projects as a Development Director.  I was worried that the content was pretty deadly, with the standard “Letter from the Chair” and pie charts of expenditures.

Creating this and the rest of our publications was a painful, lengthy process. I also knew that no one would read it if it were boring.

What to say and how to say it?  This is the perennial challenge of nonprofit fundraisers. And we usually don’t do a very good job in our attempts at “messaging.”

This morning I was reading marketing guru Seth Godin’s blog and, as usual, he nailed this issue. He said this is where marketing is heading:

“Big companies, non-profits and even candidates will discover (the best communications are) hyperlocal, hyperspecialized, hyperrelevant . . . this is where we are going.”

What he means is that people (donors) want to receive messages from their favorite nonprofits that are “anticipated, personal and relevant.” And if the nonprofit marketing communication they are receiving fits these criteria, then they’ll read it.

If your letters, reports, brochures, invitations are not “anticipated, personal and relevant,” then you are not going to be heard or read or paid attention to.

How do we make our communications “hyperlocal?”  By referring to something that is going on locally. Or that the reader is currently involved in.

How about “hyperspecialized” – what does that look like?  It means that the folks who attended your auction get special communications about how well the auction did and what you did with the funds raised.

How about “hyperrelevant?” It means that donors who gave to help teach prison inmates to read get updates about that particular program.

This is a tall order for nonprofit organizations with few fundraising resources.  But focusing on your current donors, and sending them relevant information that they are actually interested in, can keep them involved and coming back for more.

And that’s the basis of our holy grail – a sustainable fundraising program, full of repeat donors who are enthusaistic and passionate advocates for your cause.

I was talking today with my friend and client Cynda Heward of the Saint Mary’s Hospital Foundation in Montreal.  She was telling me about the Foundation’s new web site that is being developed.

She used an interesting term that we should all embrace:  a “story platform.”  This means that you tell a story right at the beginning of your web site.  Remember that “narrative” or “story-telling” is by far the most effective way of communicating an idea or concept.

Just about the most important thing you can do on your home page is to launch a heartfelt story about someone who was helped by your organization.  And we all know that one story is more effective than three, right?

Most nonprofits want to crowd 5 pictures where only one would be much more effective. And many folks seem to think that instead of “less is more,” they believe “more is more.”

Are you telling stories everywhere you can?  Try the “story platform” for your annual report, your brochures, your handouts, your powerpoint presentations, and most of all – your fundraising solicition letters and grant proposals.

Stories are stickier than statistics.  They are more compelling than facts.  And people can remember them a lot better.

Best of all, stories carry emotion.  And we all know that people give out of emotion.  So if your web page looks like a static brochure on  information overload, I’d recommend going back to the drawing board and starting with a story.

What are you asking your folks to do? I mean to actually do?  In your email communications and on your web site, even in your solicitation letters and your annual report or brochures- are  you asking people to take action?

I see so very many communications pieces by nonprofits that just seem namby-panby. They beat around the bush.  They sorta hint at what help the nonprofit needs.

If they are asking for financial support, usually the request is not quite direct enough.  ”We’d be pleased if you would consider a gift of $xxx for your annual gift to . . . ”  Now I was taught this years ago at Duke University when I was starting out in fundraising – and we were all into being genteel and “nice.”  This is the South down here, you know.

But times have changed. There is serious urgency in the air.  So very many people are hurting!  We are about to reach a global environmental crisis!  You and I can’t even count how much help the world needs.

It’s time for us to be much more explicit in our appeals.

We have to be a lot stronger.  We have to tell people exactly what we need them to do.  How to write a check. Where to send it. And above all – we have to say “do this NOW.”