Year-End Appeals

Did you know that around 30% of giving to Young Life comes in December? Check out this helpful guide from Field Development for tips on year-end appeals, and don't miss this great season of giving!

• In October/early November secure a Matching Gift that can be used at Year End.
• Look to current top 20% donors.
• Look for a donor that might give a larger gift if they knew they were seeding a match.
• Look to Committee/TDS Team to consider going in together to set up the match. One idea is to have each person write the amount they would give or raise towards a match on a piece of paper and secretly give it to you. Add up the total and make that the match.
• Develop PPL/List of who will be approached at year end and how they will be approached.
• Who has the capacity to give a large year end gift? These people should be met with Face-to-Face for a year end update and ask. A letter informing them of the year end opportunity may come before the meeting but the letter should not make the ask but let them know that you would like to meet and will be calling them.
• For the rest of the PPL/list decide on a strategy:
• Letter to everyone with no follow up (Good but not Great).
• Letter to everyone and followed up with a phone call (Much Better).
• Blended strategy – those with moderate potential get a letter and a phone call and those with limited capacity/lower likeliness to give just receive the letter for efficiency.
• In October/November write/revise letters and prep all necessary materials.
• Letters should be received the Monday after Thanksgiving.
• Don’t wait until mid or late December – you will miss it and it is hard to ask a donor to give attention to your appeal at Christmas! They may have already given somewhere else.
• This is a good time to include a gift (i.e. Young Life Calendar) as a Thank You.
• Do a special thank you and update to donors at Year End. Share the story. Give them inspiration to make a year end gift! Make Young Life stand out.
• Involve the Committee in writing year end Thank You’s to donors and visiting donors at year end.
• Make sure at year end that all potential donors that have not given in the current calendar year get contacted and have a chance to give a gift. For those who have just forgotten or gotten missed this can make a big difference.
  
• A year end appeal should be a part of a larger yearlong fundraising plan (TDS Financial Master Plan). If you are just organizing your plan, go after the year end appeal hard and then sit down in January and lay out the year long plan.