Thanks for following along with these end-of-year posts. Sending various reminders definitely generates more donations for us.

Fund Appeal Reminders

MailChimp

I sent a brief, we’re-enjoying-our-family Christmas email through MailChimp on December 24th. More than 50% of recipients opened the email. One person clicked and gave $200. About a dozen more probably gave because of this email and/or the Christmas cards we sent on December 10th.

I sent out my MailChimp EOYA (end-of-year ask) reminders yesterday. If I were to do it over, I’d make the content more about the reader than about me. I did keep it brief. This email is a reminder and a give button. One-third of recipients opened it. No one has given through this reminder yet (as far as I know).

It’s not too late for you to do this. Take a look at my reminder email, if you’d like an idea. I tried emojis for my subject line for the first time. I used:

🕐 It’s not too late to give for 2018 🕣

Email

I decided to send copies of this reminder email to fourteen ministry partners who aren’t on MailChimp. I added their name to the subject line (should have done that in MailChimp, too.) I have one $100 donation so far from this group.

I’ve made a task for each one to find out in February if they’d like to receive MailChimp emails.

Texting

I also decided to try texting some reminders.  I had quite a few phone numbers that I didn’t know if they were landlines or cellular. WhitePages.com helped. Putting the number in the phone lookup on this site returned an owner’s name. The “phone number details” told me whether the phone was mobile or not. I found nine mobile numbers of people who received an EOYA (but not an email reminder). I started sending some text messages.

I use Pushbullet (synced with my phone) so I can whip these out on my desktop. I only received one response, which was: “Please do not text me again.” Oops and ouch!  (Hence the red “private” mail slot image.) Most of our donors are older. This person did not give me his phone number or permission to text him. I apologized and quit texting. I’ll be more selective next time.

This doesn’t have to be your story. Try texting reminders if you connect well already that way.

Social Media

I used Facebook to send a message to a donor who usually gives annually.

Blogs

I often do a New Year’s greeting via email which is one more gentle reminder. I don’t do this if I’ve sent too much. This year I will because we spent two weeks with our family. I’ll write a blog post with lots of photos on December 30th and send it out that evening through MailChimp.

Additional Option for Your Giving Link

For all the reminders, include a link to your give site, of course. I recommend the following extra steps for your web address value. Use this link for your MailChimp give button and other reminders. You’ll skip two clicks for your ministry partner (which is always recommended… the less clicks the better).

• Go to your Give.Cru.org site.
• Click on the yellow “Give a Gift ” button.
• Choose $100 (for example).
• Copy this specific URL to use as the web address for the give button.

The following image is what your ministry partner will see when they click on the give button. In fact, it might be helpful for you to click on this screenshot and you’ll see this for yourself on our give site. Notice the value of the gift is in the URL.

Again, Best Times to Send Your Reminder Email

Studies show that much of the online giving in December occurs during office hours. Even if you missed December 28th, December 31st is a workday, so send your reminder email that day. Say something positive like: “if you’d like to be a part of the blessing…”

The best times for sending emails are morning and early afternoon:

• For the most opens: 8 a.m., 9 a.m., 3 p.m. and 4 p.m.
• For the most click-throughs: 8 a.m., 9 a.m., 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.

I recommend you choose either 9 a.m. or 3 p.m. for your scheduled reminder email. (Click-throughs, by the way, are the actions of following a link to another website. In this case, to your give.cru.org page.)

If you haven’t created your MailChimp reminder email yet see Sending a MailChimp Reminder Email.

NOTES:

• I created an e4e Google Calendar for all the dates mentioned in this series to help you remember dates in your own calendar.
  • Optional New Year’s greeting on December 30th (Send a family photo through MailChimp).
  • December donations due by noon on January 4th at Donation Services.
  • Buy more USPS  stamps before they go up in price on January 27th.
• This post is part of a series which started with Walking through an End-of-Year Ask with Sus.  I covered some tasks you might want to do that relate to your ask, some sources for content, and more.
  • I also posted more end-of-year tasks in A Timely End-of-Year Post for You.
• Inside MailChimp helps you understand how MailChimp works.
  • You’re welcome to watch my MailChimp workshop (held 11/16/18). Follow along with my PowerPoint. My apologies for the lighting and sound. (I can only get better at this.) The shorter video is the beginning of the talk. We had to start back up with the second video. Watch these on Workplace. The slides are here: http://bit.ly/MC2018EOYslides.
• Photo by Dayne Topkin on Unsplash