8 WISE Tips for Successful Annual Campaigns
A successful annual campaign will bring in sustainable, unrestricted revenue and build long-term donor relationships. Wise Resource Development can help you plan for and implement your annual campaign through the following best practices:
1. Set a Goal
Set a realistic stretch goal for your annual campaign. To come up with this, analyze previous campaign giving, special giving appeals and overall individual giving. While we recommend that you keep your campaign goal focused on unrestricted revenue, it is helpful to create a theme with language that explains the importance of the goal. What can the revenue do for your organization? Create a gift chart that shows the different levels of giving and how they can help serve your mission.
2. Determine Your Timeframe
Successful campaigns are timebound. We recommend a three-month campaign. If you stretch your annual campaign to last a year, it will linger on, lose momentum and become unfocused. Giving your campaign a deadline will ensure that you have revenue when you need it – consider the timing of your campaign – and keep the momentum going until the goal is met.
3. Integrate All Activities
Reflect on your donor activities throughout the year. Are you conducting a giving day campaign? Do you have a giving society? Are you soliciting event sponsorship? Are you hosting an open house? Consider how you can integrate ALL of your activities into your campaign plan so that you don’t confuse donors or burn them out with too many disconnected asks. You may need to combine asks or cancel activities that conflict with your campaign plan.
4. Segment Donors
As you develop your plan, pull a list of donors who have given during the last three to five years. Review their total annual giving and their largest single gift for each year, and note whether this gift was tied to a specific giving opportunity. Now segment your donors into at least three categories: those who can give major gifts, those who can give significant gifts and those who will likely give small gifts. Consider utilizing a prospect screening tool to help you determine segmentation. This process is a combination of analyzing data and using your knowledge about your donors. Based on which segment they’re in, you will engage them in different ways throughout the campaign.
5. Recruit a Committee
Recruit a campaign chair and a committee of volunteers who are dedicated to helping you reach your goal. This will be your team. Give them clear job descriptions that define both their roles and your expectations. Train them on the campaign plan and how they fit in. Ask them to help you sign letters, thank donors, reach out to previous donors and invite new prospects to learn more about the organization.
6. TakE Advantage of a Silent Phase for Leadership Giving
Review the list of donors in your top segment. These are most likely to give major gifts and are the ones you should engage at the beginning of your campaign. Schedule a time to meet with them in person to tell them about your campaign. Thank them for being a mission partner and ask if they would consider serving on the committee and giving a leadership gift. Be specific with your requests and explain how their participation in the campaign will motivate others to do the same. You need their help to be successful. One or more of these donors may be a challenge gift prospect; give them an option to let you leverage their gift for a greater impact by inviting other donors to match it during the public phase of the campaign.
7. Be High-Touch
Your campaign should include thank-you calls to previous donors, invitations to meetings, tours and volunteer opportunities. This is how you create engaged long-term donors. Your committee will help you with these efforts.
8. Steward Your Donors
After the campaign is over, don’t forget about your donors. Have a plan for how you will steward them throughout the year.