5 Easy Fundraising Ideas for Your End-of-Year Fundraising Push

Adam Weinger is the President of Double the Donation, the leading provider of matching gift tools to nonprofit organizations and educational institutions. Adam created Double the Donation in order to help nonprofits increase their annual revenue through corporate matching gift and volunteer grant programs.

December can get pretty hectic, so how can nonprofit organizations like yours continue to ramp up fundraising efforts during the holiday season without placing additional strain on your org’s time and resources? The key is to work smarter, not harder, by implementing underutilized fundraising approaches into your organization’s fundraising plan this month.

Look no further than these simple, easy-to-execute fundraising ideas for the end of the year—courtesy of our partners at Double the Donation—to boost your organization’s revenue and reach your annual goals.

• Leverage Corporate Matching Gifts
• Engage Donors with Peer-to-Peer Fundraising
• Capitalize on Text Fundraising
• Take Your Holiday Fundraising Drive to the Next Level with Matching Gifts
• Make the Most of Personalized End-of-Year Thank You Emails

Read on to find out more about these simple but effective ways to drive your end-of-year donations!

Tip 1: Leverage Corporate Matching Gifts

Employer matching gift programs can double the impact of every donation your organization receives by essentially netting two donations for the time and cost of soliciting one. Matching gift programs are a form of corporate philanthropy in which employers financially match donations their employees make to nonprofit organizations (sometimes even at 2:1, 3:1, or even 4:1 ratio!). While over 18 million individuals work for companies with matching gift programs, an estimated $4-7 billion in matching gift funds goes unclaimed each year.

The disconnect often lies in the fact that many donors are unaware of matching gift programs or their eligibility status, or are unaware of how to go about requesting matching gifts from their employer. Matching gift automation software is the best tool for streamlining this process from start to finish, and 360MatchPro by Double the Donation integrates into Qgiv’s software to maximize matching gift revenue. 

From identifying eligible donors to driving home the matching gift process by automatically prompting donors to complete their company’s matching gift request forms, the Qgiv and 360MatchPro integration assists your organization every step of the way to boost your fundraising while saving your organization’s time and resources for the important missions you carry out every day.

Tip 2: Engage Donors with Peer-to-Peer Fundraising

Engage your pre-existing donors with your next fundraising campaign by providing your donor base with information and materials to conduct peer-to-peer fundraising. Committed donors will enjoy the opportunity to feel more personally involved with your organization’s mission when you create accessible opportunities for them to participate in reaching your goals. 

Qgiv’s software provides tools that make peer-to-peer fundraising fun and successful, with functions like leaderboards, badges, and thermometers to boost engagement. Plus, their peer-to-peer fundraising tools integrate with 360MatchPro to make tracking and maximizing your donations as simple and efficient as possible!

Tip 3: Capitalize on Text Fundraising

An effective way to kickstart fundraising efforts is to meet donors where they are (which is often on their smartphones). At a hectic time of the year, giving donors the option to donate straight from their mobile device can be a simple way to bolster revenue for your org. Invest in a text-to-donate program to increase your organization’s digital presence, increase accessibility for donors, and create momentum across platforms for your fundraising campaigns.

Tip 4: Take your Holiday Fundraising Drive to the Next Level with Matching Gifts

Is your organization running a holiday fundraising drive? Why not make matching gifts a focus for your fundraising campaign this holiday season? 84% of donors say they’re more likely to donate if their gift will be matched, and 1 in 3 donors indicate that they would give a larger gift if matching applied to their donation.

Incorporating matching gifts as a central part of your holiday fundraising campaign can not only motivate pre-existing donors to give more, but assist in cultivating new donors as the information and campaign is shared through digital channels and social media. Boost donor awareness about employer gift matching to see your revenue go through the roof this holiday season!

Tip 5: Make the Most of Personalized End-of-Year Thank- You Emails

Your org likely already makes use of sending personalized thank- you emails to donors to let them know how appreciated their gifts are. Personalized thank-you notes and emails will make your donors feel recognized and more inclined to either continue giving regularly to your org or to become a regular contributor in some other way, like volunteering! You can also make the most of end-of-year gratitude messages by incorporating some educational information to donors about matching gift programs.

Donors love to know their gifts are valued and are also more likely to continue their contributions if they’re given simple, actionable ways to support your organization moving forward. An end-of-year reminder or prompt about matching-gift eligibility can also give donors another opportunity to submit matching gift forms to their employer for any donations they’ve made throughout the year before their company’s end-of-year submission deadlines. Turn one-time donors into loyal supporters and expand your base by providing matching gift information in materials you’re already planning to send out! 

Bolstering your organization’s fundraising revenue this season doesn’t have to mean a higher workload or heavier burden placed on your org’s staff. Approach fundraising from the smartest angle possible by making the most of underutilized resources available to you right now. By identifying key areas in which new tools and approaches can be integrated into your current systems to maximize revenue and awareness, you’ll reach your annual fundraising goals with ease.

About Double the Donation: There’s an unnecessary gap between fundraising organizations and corporate giving programs, to the tune of $4-7 billion in unclaimed matching gift revenue annually. Double the Donation helps nonprofits and educational institutions increase fundraising from corporate matching gift and employee volunteer grant programs. Double the Donation maintains a database of employee matching gift and volunteer grant programs. With more than 20,000 entries in the database, Double the Donation presents match-eligible donors with their company’s specific program requirements, including a direct link to their company’s online matching gift submission portal or PDF download.