4 Year-End Fundraising Goals You Must Set

Do you have written goals for your end-of-the-year fundraising? You’ve probably heard this illustration before: having goals is like having a destination for a trip. If you get in the car and start heading somewhere without setting a destination, you’ll end up heading nowhere. The same is true for your goals. Do you have somewhere you’d like to reach? In this article, you will learn different types of end-of-the-year goals you can set. This isn’t an exhaustive list but instead an excellent place to start.

1. Income Goals

For most organizations, about 50% of their annual income arrives during October, November, and December, with a majority generated in December. This isn’t true for all organizations. If you have a strong monthly giving program, your income may be spread out more evenly during the year.

The first step to setting your income goals for this quarter is understanding your income mix. Do you have a lot of monthly donors? Major donors? Foundation or corporate grants? These types of donations may impact your cash flow and the percentage of donations that come in at year-end.

How Do I Set an Income Goal?

If you have annual targets set, look at the percentage of your income for each department in the previous three years. This will give you a good idea of what percentage you should set for your annual goal to come in this quarter.

If you don’t have an annual goal for fundraising income, you can look at past revenue numbers, and based on your typical growth percentage, estimate what your goal should be for this quarter.

If you don’t have an annual target and your nonprofit is too new for historical clues, you’ll need to set goals based on what campaigns you’re running and what your expectations are. Many nonprofits target raising funds at a 3:1 or 4:1 return, meaning you raise $3 for every $1 you spend or $4 for every $1 you spend. This will help inform your goal setting.

2. New Donors Goals

New donor acquisition during this quarter can be very beneficial to your nonprofit. Typically, donor acquisition is profitable in 18-24 months, meaning for every $1 you spend on donor acquisition, you get a dollar back within 18-24 months. Acquiring during a time where people are feeling generous can help shorten that payoff period.

Even if you don’t have a formal donor acquisition program (you DEFINITELY need one), you should set goals for new donor acquisition this quarter. New donors are required to continue your fundraising programs. I don’t have definitive data on this, but I believe many nonprofits are unfortunately in a downward spiral with their fundraising programs, and they may not realize why. If they do not measure how many donors lapse each year, they don’t know how many donors are required to maintain and grow revenue. Therefore, they’re not adding new donors onto the file as quickly as required. As the donor file shrinks, the remaining committed donors give more than the average, making it appear the donor file is declining but not as bad as it is.

This leads to fundraising death for the organization.

Don’t fall into this spiral. It would be best if you started adding new donors to your donor file. Set a goal this quarter for the number of new donors you’d like to add.

3. Lead Generation Goals

In the fourth quarter of the calendar year, you will be sending a lot of emails. Building a well-targeted and engaged audience will result in better income for the organization. Audience growth is dependent on great lead generation. We run different lead generation programs year-round, but the benefits from these programs are often seen at the end-of-the-year.

Keep in mind that not all leads are equal. For example, a lead for a t-shirt giveaway campaign will not have the commitment that a lead generated for a 6-week video training course. Though you will often receive fewer leads for opportunities that require a more significant commitment, these leads often convert at a higher rate to support your organization.

How Do I Set Lead Generation Goals?

Set lead goals based on the campaigns and opportunities you’ll run this quarter. We used historical data from similar campaigns to estimate how many leads come in from a particular type of campaign. If you don’t have historical data, set an arbitrary goal until you understand what kinds of campaigns result in leads.

4. Organizational Goals

Many organizations have other campaigns and annual events that must be accomplished to be considered a success. I’ll label these as “Organizational Goals” for the sake of a better term, but they could be any number of things you need to achieve in addition to your normal fundraising plan.

For example, perhaps you have a Turkey Trot race your organization sponsors that you need to manage. You’ll need to accomplish this goal in addition to your fundraising goals. Set an appropriate goal for the type of event, campaign, or other need that you’ll be managing. This could be something as simple as brand exposure or gathering leads. When you set a goal, you’ll create strategies to achieve those goals.

During the last quarter of the year, achieving your goals is crucial for your success. For many nonprofit organizations, half of your revenue arrives this quarter. Focusing on achieving these goals will help you find success.