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Church leaders know that year-end giving can have a big impact on their annual budget, which helps to fulfill their mission. In fact, churches receive an average of 30% of their annual donations in the month of December alone! This is why creating an engaging and effective end-of-year giving campaign is essential to your church’s financial health and its ability to continue impacting your community.
If you haven’t started planning yet, don’t worry! This guide will show you what to communicate and how to get your message across, as well as the best giving tools to maximize your year-end gifts.
The key to creating an effective giving campaign is to focus on your donors. These are your partners in ministry, individuals who believe in your mission enough to offer support out of their own pockets!
Here are five best practices to effectively communicate your end-of-year giving campaign:
Express genuine gratitude to your members who have given their time and money to your organization. Maintain a positive message throughout your communications with donors, and share stories of success that resulted from their generosity.
People have limited time and attention, so make every word count! Focus on the reader and only include what is compelling and relevant.
Excite your donors by celebrating every win—like financial goals your church accomplished throughout the year leading up to your campaign. Demonstrate how you’re doing good by sharing real-life stories and testimonies. Paint a picture of your impact on the world with numbers and statistics. For example, “With your help, 100 people gave their lives to Christ”, or “Your support allowed us to send 12 mission teams around the world.”
Spread your vision for the next year and outline your goals. Be sure to provide specific and attainable objectives that inspire your donors. Your community will feel more compelled to donate to make your well-planned vision a reality.
This is also a good time to remind donors about any of your current or upcoming in-person or online fundraising events.
Once you’ve thanked your donors, shared this year’s achievements, and outlined your goals, it’s time to call your donors to action. Clearly relay what you’re asking from them, as well as the options they have for donating. Point donors to your giving website, custom mobile app, and text-to-give solutions. Also, highlight tax deductions and any other benefits they may receive from their contributions.
When it comes to fundraising appeals, communication is key. Taking a multichannel approach to sharing your year-end giving message will most effectively raise awareness for your church’s goals and financial needs. This means having a consistent message and driving awareness through each channel, including your church’s website, custom mobile app, social media, and email. It also lays the groundwork for receiving more donations in the future. Let’s take a look at some effective ways you can do this.
Before sending any communication, start by creating some engaging images and multimedia content to attract people to your campaign. Create videos of testimonials from your volunteers, as well as those who have been impacted by your church’s outreach. Don’t forget to celebrate milestones and thank your supporters for their generosity!
Having these elements in place will help you more effectively communicate your message. They also provide useful resources for your supporters to share on their individual social media pages.
Here are the channels you should use to communicate and engage your donors:
Pro tip! With Subsplash Giving, your donors can choose to give smaller recurring donations instead of a larger single gift. Recurring giving will become ongoing support for your ministry into the next year.
Before engaging your donors, be sure your giving channels are in top shape. If you haven’t set up online giving, consider this—churches that offer an online giving solution see an average increase of 32% in overall giving!
Encourage generosity by providing your supporters with multiple convenient ways to donate. Here are the top three donation channels you need to have:
Creating a donation page on your church website provides a convenient way for your users to give to your church. Be sure to include these giving features:
People spend hours on their phones every day using apps, and 90% of adults make purchases through their smartphones. Because people prefer to spend more time with their mobile devices compared to laptops or computers, offering an in-app giving option is one of the most effective ways to increase donations!
Many people will want to give to your church this year, but not all of them want to go through the hassle of creating a giving account to do so.
Subsplash gives your church a "Guest Giving" option that allows people to give without creating an account. This allows your donors to give quickly without unwanted extra steps.
Just as the name implies, text-to-give allows your donors to give by texting from their smartphone. Subsplash Giving offers this service at no charge. Here’s how it works:
Taking these steps for communicating your end-of-year fundraising campaign will help energize your donor base and increase your overall donations. A well-thought-out campaign can significantly help your church benefit from the year-end giving season.
While most giving solutions only help your church collect donations, only Subsplash Giving is a part of a larger suite of engagement tools—The Ultimate Engagement Platform™. This all-in-one solution makes it simple for you to communicate with your audience and receive donations through your website, app, and text-to-give.
To find out just how much Subsplash tools can increase your giving and engagement with your community, [.blog-contact-cta]connect with a ministry consultant today![.blog-contact-cta]
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