Barlow’s blog is a continuation of his article “U.S. Giving Trends and Year-End” from Sharpe Insights, 2024, Issue 3.

With November promising to be a busy month, it will be important to get your year-end message out early before your donors are inundated with communications about the election. Time now spent planning, cultivating, soliciting and stewarding those donors who are responsible for 75%-90% of your giving totals may turn another challenging year into a winner.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

1. Review your donor information as soon as possible. Make sure contact information is updated, or you’ll waste money trying to reach people who have moved, are deceased or long lapsed (i.e., no gifts in the past three to four years).
2. Reinvest your savings (time and money) to take better care of your core contributors, particularly those who have made large gifts or have the capacity to do so. Plan targeted appeals (print and digital) to donors who are more likely to itemize tax deductions with specific information on tax-wise ways to give: bunching deductions, avoiding capital gains, making tax-free IRA QCDs, gifts with carryforwards that might provide multiple years of tax savings, etc.
3. Give thanks. You can’t thank your donors enough for their support. Cards and notes, phone calls, emails, texts, personal visits will let your donors know how grateful you are in whatever way they want to be communicated with.