The glow of the computer screen was the only light in the room to push away the darkness. I sat staring into the monitor, attempting to will the words into existence. The class’s final paper was due tomorrow, and I had just started. It felt like just yesterday I had weeks to write it—why rush? Yet, somehow, the time was nigh, and my night would be spent here, racing against the clock.

In the end, it all turned out okay. But the paper could have been better. I am sure nearly all of us have memories like this. Now I encourage you to consider them as you begin to think about end of calendar year fundraising. Don’t be me (or yourself) so many years ago in that dark college dorm room!

It’s time to plan ahead.

It may seem early to talk about end of calendar year digital fundraising, especially with the election coming up and COVID still raging. Plus, when it comes to digital it may seem as if you can wait until the last minute. You needn’t worry about getting something “to the printer.” There is no rush to “edit spots.” You don’t even need to decide on premiums (as I know you are not focusing on premiums online). But competition at this time of year is MASSIVE. While different nonprofit sectors have various “hot zones” during the year, the fact is that end of calendar year is being chased by EVERY. SINGLE. FUNDRAISER.

According to Charity Navigator, December represents 31% of total nonprofit giving for the year. This competitive challenge is especially pronounced for digital. So let’s look at the top three ways the competition will challenge you, making it especially important to start digital end of calendar year planning early.

First, you will need to be unique—that is to say, don’t follow the herd.  Again, think of the thousands of other nonprofits out there competing for share of profit. How will you outcompete them? In nature, animals succeed by evolving and finding their niche. You need to do the same. As an important example, more and more nonprofits rely on Giving Tuesday as the focus of their EOCY strategy. I previously covered why that might not be the best idea here.

While the focus for that blog entry was Giving Tuesday Now, the thesis holds true. On Giving Tuesday, there will be a massive number of nonprofits in your media market competing for share of wallet ON THE SAME DAY, using THE SAME GRAPHICS AND CREATIVE. Should you take part in Giving Tuesday? Absolutely, but don’t devote too much time and attention to that specific date when there is so much open calendar in the remainder of the year.

Second, during the EOCY you cannot simply assume one or two exceptional messages will get through—content volume is a necessity. EOCY is a numbers game. If you receive political fundraising emails, you may have noticed the intensely high volume. That volume is driven by the numbers game. According to M+R, in 2020 the response rate for emails (across all nonprofit segments) was .04%. That means to get 40 donations you would need to send 100,000 emails. This volume requires you to constantly put new content in front of donors and potential donors and creating that content takes time. Think of the copy, graphics and coding that need to go into each email. Plus, if you decide to use a pop-up on your page, you’ll need 2-5 of them during the course of your EOCY campaign to avoid banner blindness. This doesn’t even begin to consider needing to vary the style of your messages, recognizing that what appeals to some may not appeal to another.

Looking back to the animal kingdom, evolution is not the only technique animals use that applies to EOCY fundraising—the other is the sheer volume of offspring animals have. Sunfish give birth to up to 300 million offspring at any one time and rabbits can give birth to nearly 50 babies a year. In those cases, nature is playing the numbers game because the majority of their offspring will not survive due competition in nature. For species to not just survive, but thrive, they need as many offspring as possible. I encourage you to treat your emails in much the same way. Each individual email may generate very few donations due to competition. So you must rise to this occasion by sending a larger number of emails.

Third, planning is crucial, and you must allow time to make decisions. Some estimate that for every minute of planning, you could save up to ten minutes in execution. If you think about time as money, you are already increasing your NET revenue simply by planning! Planning will also cut down on the odds of substandard content. Imagine the time you’ll save by sparing your member services team from having to answer repeated notifications that you had a typo or other mistake in your email.

Taking time for planning will also allow you to better utilize data to determine your path forward. Pull your data from previous years. If you already have quality content you can repurpose, that will help you every step of the way. Or perhaps you noticed that emails sent at a particular time of day worked best. Taking the time to review your data is key to building your EOCY plan—both for timing and content. You may think your donors are only providing value through their donations, but the data they leave in their wake is invaluable. You just need to give yourself time to review and act on their gift.

Whether we look to the animal kingdom, the political sphere or simply lesson learned from our own experiences, the same moral arises—preparation is key. Competition requires adaptation, and you can adapt better if you aren’t stuck thinking on the fly. We’re all going through an intense, unprecedented time, a time that reminds us we never know what might happen next. While that can feel overwhelming, I encourage you to let it motivate you to start thinking of contingency plans now, so you’re ready for whatever tomorrow brings. They say Rome wasn’t built in a day, and your EOCY digital program shouldn’t be either. Get to it and good luck!