Your Biggest Fundraising Mistake Might Happen Before Christmas!

[music] Hey, come on. Merry Christmas. >> Merry Christmas to you, my friend Matthew Murray and Ben Culie. What the heck? What's What's up with this? >> What is going on today? Well, today is a little bit different, isn't it? Today it is the Nonprofit Shows Global Edition. And guess what? It might not quite be December, but we are talking about Christmas, the most wonderful fundraising time of the year. We thought we'd have a bit of fun today, didn't we? And we've got some costumes, which we never normally do here on the nonprofit show, but we thought we'd just spice things up a bit and get people thinking about what really can be the most incredible time of year for you as a nonprofit leader. >> I love it. Well, I couldn't imagine any better anybody better than to lead us in Matthew Murray. He is one of our intrepid co-hosts coming to us from the United Kingdom. and we are welcoming Ben Culie. He's the CEO of Maxwell and Marie. Ben, where are you coming to us from today? >> Well, it's going to sound like I'm just next door to Matthew, but I'm not. I'm actually in Nashville, Tennessee. Um >> All right. >> Living with the home of the brave and the land of the free. >> That That's that British enclave, right? Nashville, Tennessee. Well, we are thrilled that you're here and we are really excited that we get to be here with you because we have amazing presenting sponsors. They include Bloomerang, American Nonprofit Academy, Staffing Boutique, your part-time controller, Third Sector Company, and JMT Consulting. I'm Julia C. Patrick, CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy. With me, the amazing Matthew Murray. He is expand PR based in the United Kingdom but who does work uh globally in the nonprofit sector. Um and we are just delighted uh in fact it was Matthew's idea that we really jump into this topic uh with everybody watching the global edition. The global edition are episodes that we do once, sometimes twice a month, just dedicated to that larger world point view of international work that nonprofits and NOS's do. So, we're really excited to have Matthew and his team join us um as we take a look at what goes on across borders in our sector. Ben Kulie, CEO of Maxwell and Marie, welcome back, sir. Talk to us about what Maxwell and Marie does. Oh, well, we're we are a consultancy company that just helps I mean essentially we help nonprofits grow, give them systems, strategies, um uh expand their voice, their their reach to to grow more, serve more, and help more. Um we do lots of things, but it came out of my own experience of developing a nonprofit from nothing to 12 countries, 45 locations, helping hundreds of thousands of people. So yeah, it's uh it's a great joy to be here. What a joy to talk about Christmas. >> Well, I love it. And Matthew, you know, you know, from your work, um, and you've done so much international work as well about Christmas being such an important time. Can you kind of give us your perspective, Matthew, on what happens during this this season? >> Yeah, well, it's a bit of a a a shock and it was a shock. It was actually during my uh Ben was was one of the people who really helped me expand my uh my fundraising ability at Christmas. So that's why I wanted him to be on the show today because he's in my opinion an expert on this topic. He doesn't just look good in a hat. There's more to him than the costume. He has some real insight on how this um this behavior really changes people at Christmas. I always thought most people think that Christmas is actually the worst possible time to raise money because why everybody's spending money on their families and their friends and their children and you all those really important things and the turkeys are getting bought and the the the you know the toy shops are busy and we we all spend so much money at Christmas. So why on earth would we give money to nonprofits at Christmas? And yet I've come to realize that it's actually the most wonderful fundraising time of the year. That's not just a cliche. It's not just a nice saying. Um, we find that some nonprofits, you know, they can raise 30 40% of their entire income in the last few weeks of the year. So, I mean, that is quite a statement. So, why do they do that? How do they do that? And how do we get your nonprofit to be able to do that? That's really what I want to talk about now for the next few minutes. >> I love it. I think it's really an amazing um concept. Ben, you know, with your work and you've done so much crossborder work now based in the US, do you echo Matthew's con thoughts on this or do you see things different? >> Absolutely. I mean, if you're looking at public fundraising, um or if you're looking at, you know, growing your database to to give unrestricted funding, um this is your time, right? It's your moment. In fact, 64% of online donations um is made in the last two weeks of December. You've got so much um that is planned to give at the end of December, at the beginning of January. And a lot of what that influence comes from, what the influence to to give is actually comes from your Christmas campaign. I've met so many nonprofits that don't uh maximize on this. If if it's like you know um I now live in America, hunting season, it is hunting season. This is the time where from January through to September, you've been growing your database and this is the time to use your database to get them to mobilize them so that you can actually start seeing some finance come into your organization. [clears throat] >> I I love that you said that. I love the way you framed that up because it's true. It doesn't just happen, right? I mean, you have to be preparing what's going on, how you're going to navigate this. Um, Matthew, what do you see in terms of the international responses to the holidays? Um, where you are in the United Kingdom, you know, your weather's changing hopefully [laughter] hopefully soon. I mean, is this a kind of a a date oriented thing or is it seasonal? Is it weather? I mean, when did the decorations come out and and all the I mean, [laughter] I think I think if we're talking about the specific holiday of Christmas, that there's so much, you know, you don't have to be a religious Christian person to celebrate that holiday. Of course, many people celebrate it. [snorts] It there's just something about that time of year which triggers people to give. I mean, obviously, the first Christmas, the the traditional story is is all about giving. You know, the um [snorts] the the sort of biblical story, but we're not specifically talking about that. We're talking about how the season of Christmas just seems to >> bring out the best in people whe whether you're um a Christian or not. It seems to bring out the traits of generosity and kindness and compassion which I think every human being has in them somewhere. So this isn't about a religious festival as such. This is about a a time of of of of the calendar that just inspires us all to be something which we don't perhaps realize we are. And that's why I think nonprofits have got to be very clever and very very strategic because they can tap into people here of religion of no religion. They could tap into the Christian community, but they can also just tap into people who just they just want to do something nice, something kind. And it could be businesses. There's obviously end of year benefits as well in certain countries with tax reasons, although that's becoming less um important. But I think you've got just the general public fundraising as Ben mentioned, you know, you you'd be amazed how much I mean the amount of people I speak to and I think well there's no way they're going to give any money at this time of year. They've got 24 children or they've got they've got they've got big family gatherings and they got to travel around this around the world to visit their uncle and yet they still despite all that seem to find money to give to nonprofits. And that's where we've got to be smart. We got to be planning it now. That's why we're here in hot month with Santa hats on because we're trying to get over to you. >> You don't think about this on in December one. >> No, >> you don't think about this on November one. You think about it now. >> Because now is the time to think about Christmas because >> before you know it's going to be here and before you know it, nonprofits are going to be right. You're going to see commercials on television. you see commercials on on you know road signs and now is the time you know September October by November one you want to be getting that thing all ready to go >> then what do you see >> well I think America's slightly different and I'm going to talk about that just because America unlike most places across the world has two other really important holidays in between Christmas which is Thanksgiving and then I I I want to say Black Friday is a holiday but it's not but there's that whole notion around Giving Tuesday which has echoed across the world but it predominantly sits and lies within um uh within America. So, here's what I think you should be doing, right? If you're thinking, okay, right, um, I feel compelled. Yes, people are, you know, we've talked about the philosophy. People give more 64%. So, there's some like functional practical things that you need to start working with your team in September, right? which is you need to start figuring out what the budget is going to be, what you want to raise, what is it for, so that then your creative team and if you're a small team, hey, this is why I exist, why me and Matthew exist, like we want to help walk this through. We've walked organizations that have never done a Christmas campaign raise $300,000 on their Christmas campaign, right? Um I mean, I used to raise millions on my Christmas campaign, right? So you need to your finance team and your operations your pro you know program team need to figure out what it's for. Is it going to be for a new shelter? Is it going to be for five years of funding? What do for for a certain project? What is it going to be for? Right? Because it needs to be targeted. The second thing that you need to do then is pass it to the creative team to start looking at themes. Right? So it needs to be compelling. It needs to be about story. It needs to be about heart. There are times and seasons in your life where you're going to use data to unlock things. That's great. That's called your endofear report that comes after, right? This is about story. This is about something that's going to compel people that's linked to the program that you're trying to fund. Then the third thing is this too much. I'm sorry if you're NOT TAKING THIS IS FABULOUS. >> Note takers are history makers. Right? So then once you've put that theme together, then you need to start putting into an operational plan that has dates in it, right? So what do I mean by that? Well, Matthew already said, don't be launching this on on the first, right? You need to have waves of communication that is drip feeding it into them of what you want to achieve, right? And that doesn't just start with a direct mail that lands in people's um post boxes, right? That is it. I'm telling you, you still need to do it. A lot of nonprofits are like, "Oh, should we spend the money?" Do it because >> we love direct mail. >> Direct mail is mega, right? >> Yeah. >> But >> everyone just wants to do emails because it's easier and cheaper, right? But there's another tier that you should be doing. You should be planning micro events around it, right? So that you can start building up the relationships. I often say your I'm going to look directly in the camera. Your resources are in your relationships. So now's the time, September, to start working up these relationships. Hey guys, we're going to be launching a Christmas campaign. It's going to be like this. And they're like, Christmas early? I know, but you are so important to us that we're telling you. and they're like, "Whoa, we're important." Yeah, bro. You're so important. Right. So, then you're building up your framework [snorts] of communication. And that isn't just about direct mail, nor is it about emails. It's about text messages. Um Gary Vee says that you can grow your network, your net worth by a million dollars just by people in your phone book. [clears throat] >> Isn't that unbelievable? Most people just go, "Oh, my database or my CRM is only this." Yeah, but how many numbers have you got in your phone? Get them out. Text them. Say, "Hey, I've been thinking about this. Can I grab a coffee? Can you do this?" So, that's your next thing. The fourth thing, sorry if this is way too much. And then you guys just take it FROM HERE. THE FOURTH THING IS when you >> plan your thanking strategy. I when I last time I was on this show, I said thanking equals thanking. >> THAT'S RIGHT. COME ON. Thanking equals banking. So this is this year more than any year before in the history of ever. Right now is the time in September to talk about your workflows and what happens if if they click on this website. What do you take them through channel-wise? How do you start organizing your communication channels so that you can start communicating and bringing people on a donor journey? Because Christmas is just the start. Like the story of Jesus. Jesus being a baby was just the start. He had a plan. Do you have a plan? If you don't, I can I can help you. [laughter] >> I love it. Okay, Matthew, my head is spinning because I love all these things. And my first response is I I think of this as a general thing. And what Ben is saying is maybe it's time to refine and and make that campaign specific to an actual thing like we're going to build a new shelter. We're going to >> What do you think about that versus >> you got a target, you got to have a Christmas, you know, you got to write out your Christmas list. When you sit down the kids and you say, "What do you want for Christmas?" They know what they want, right? They've got a specific specific list. You know, they want a new bike. They want a new um some new trainers. They want, you know, a trip to Spain or Italy or wherever we go around Europe. They know what they want, right? They want to go to Disney for a week. Christmas campaigns need a list. You got to, you know, you got to write out the list and say, "Here's what we want. Here's what we want our Christmas campaign to achieve." >> It's not just a um hey, let's just raise $100,000. No, no, no. We're going to, you know, we did one for human trafficking organization last year and we're going to bring a hundred girls home for Christmas last year. 100 girls who've been trafficked in sex trafficking. We're going to bring them home for Christmas. Boom. Clear. It cost this much per girl. Can you help? Done. Um, you know, it it could be like we're building a new wing on our on our center. You know, we're we're we want to reach this many more people. It's going to cost us Christmas campaigns. I think all fundraising campaigns have to be very specific and very clear and very we don't want vague Christmas lists. Oh, get me whatever you think is right. No, no, no. I want those new trainers, mom. I want that new bike, Dad. I want that new classroom in my school in Ethiopia, granddad. You know, it's like we got to be very specific with our Christmas needs. >> Donors find it they they they put their trust in clarity. >> Yeah, I think you're right. Let's talk about the time frames of this. Um, when we were thinking about the fall and we're getting ready and all that, how early is too early? I don't know about you, but when a lot of times in the the the start of the like the fall, >> it's shocking to go to stores and they're already Christmas music and they've already got all the Christmas decorations up. Do donors ever feel like that? Like, oh, it's too early to be thinking about this? What do I think about that? >> I think I think there's a I think there's a difference between our internal planning of this and our publicity of this. Okay. We you can be a little bit early, I think, putting it out there. I think, you know, if it's if it's like March and you know, we're just we're just like um celebrating Easter or something and then SUDDENLY IT'S LIKE MERRY CHRISTMAS. NO, NO, NO. It's a little bit too soon. However, we don't want to be putting this out there on and in and you know, we want to be I I mean, well, Ben will tell you about the power of Giving Tuesday. Um, and I don't know how much you still believe in the power of Giving Tuesday, Ben, but I guess I guess we're about to find out. >> Yeah. Well, I mean, timing is an interesting one and I will say this uh because I think it's more profound and stated in America than it is uh I mean I've lived in uh England and I've lived in America and uh I think um America seems to be that you put your Christmas tree up the day after um Halloween. So, um, so, um, and I've got friends in this, no joke, in America that have their Christmas tree up all year round, right? So, I I I've not met people in, um, uh, in England that do that, right? Largely because I don't think they have this space. But, um, so I think I think I agree with Matthew in terms of the your planning should be early. I think launching it doesn't have to be doesn't have to be launched as a Christmas campaign, but you can launch the ask and then frame it through more Christmas branding towards the end. But home for Christmas, for example, using that um uh campaign that we worked on together um that was launched um just around Thanksgiving. >> So I think I think you should be giving yourself a six week lead. that's public facing. But I would be starting early November texting and saying, "We've got this big campaign relationship." Maybe having a few events scheduled around people's houses, maybe four or five people that you can ask to host a small intimate party around their house um to to help them with the Christmas campaign. I think that's appropriate. But around just week before Thanksgiving, I think it's a good time for you to get out. Now, here's the thing. You ready? Giving Tuesday. If you're gonna do Giving Tuesday, there is a lot of giving fatigue. Hey, how many of us are finding this around Giving Tuesday? >> I agree. >> It's still it still works that you can get a major donor to help unlock other ones. But if you've noticed, some nonprofits now are not just doing like a a let's say 100,000 matched up to 100,000. they're actually saying now last year I saw it for the first time is that if you donate $1,2 will be donated, right? So it's like triple um uh triple fundraising um because essentially they're trying to stand out. So try and I I hate gimmicks but actually gimmicks work, right? So try and do that. um find find new ways of being, you know, to to stand out because it's noise. There's a lot of noise out there. >> Yeah. Matthew, what do you see about that with Giving Tuesday and that unlocking with that m those matching gifts? >> Well, I think over here in in the UK, you it's not as it's not as big of a deal if I'm honest with you. Gimmicks and events like that don't really pierce the European market like they do in America. >> Yeah, that's That's that's my honest assessment. >> The concept of Giving Tuesday, >> I was working with nonprofit one nonprofit last year. We'd agreed this whole Giving Tuesday thing in UK and they were just they just didn't get it. They just never heard of it. They didn't know what it was. They said I said, "Look, we just got hold on to Giving Tuesday." And they were like, "I don't care about that. That doesn't mean nothing to anyone here. Just just launch it on this date, please." And I'm like, "Okay, you're the boss." So [snorts] I think in America America Yeah. Yeah, America seems to be more hung up on Giving Tuesdays than the Brits do. >> Well, I I'll I'll qualify that because I actually think that it's Giving Tuesdays become global. And so if you look at Australia, if you look at other New Zealand, if you look at Southeast Asia, even like some of the African nations would would participate in some form of Giving Tuesday. But I think Giving Tuesday is aimed at your social media. >> Yeah. And I think it's it's aimed at at micro giving, right? It's not someone is not going to give a 10 grand to Giving Tuesday unless they're doing it to unlock micro giving, right? >> Yeah. >> So, you've just got to see it as that. It's your moment to announce it. It's your moment to kind of like over like populate your stories, do a few reals, let >> $20 $20. >> Yeah. It's it's not but it's it's about unlocking the smaller donations. >> Yeah, I agree with you and I can see um in communities where somebody gets behind it and they might might turn it into kind of like a contest, which nonprofit, you know, gets the most >> donations in 24 hours wins an extra 10 grand or whatever. I think those things um >> another thing to we're talking about key dates here. >> Another key date when people give lots of money is December 25th. >> Now people might think that's ridiculous. Uh you know who gives money on Christmas day? Don't they have better things to do? No. No they don't. They actually don't have anything better to do because they're sat on their phone. They're fat. They've eaten lots of food and they're just scrolling around their phone. You know, the best shopping dates in the calendar for some of the big stores are December 25, December 26 when people sat around family, they're bored, >> they're browsing their phones. So people give on 25th and 26th of December and they give right up until December 31 and they and then suddenly all of a sudden it goes dead. You know, people suddenly think, "Oh man, it's new year, new life. Got to sort my life out. Got to stop spending money. got to blahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah blah blah blah got to lose weight got to got to get back to work and then it goes quiet. >> Yeah. It's it's really interesting. I'm I'm [clears throat] I'm fascinated um Ben with we don't have a lot of time left but what kind of goals should you set if you've never done this before? Is there a percentage that that might make a a sense a good good idea or should you be using year-over-year for your other kind of seasonal campaigns? How should we be thinking about this in terms of >> two schools of thought on this? Two schools of thought. One is if there's a specific need, then do it. There's nothing wrong with setting a target that you don't hit Christmas, but you've launched it and then you do you break it up throughout the rest of the year, right? I've got no problem with that. If you're if you're saying like a million dollars and you're a million-doll charity but a nonprofit and you're like, "We want to raise 1 million and you only raised 400,000." Guess what? You probably raised more because you were asking for more. And so, just make sure you're really good at communicating the kind of target being hit. Um, okay. The the second philosophy is probably getting 10 10 to 15% of what you your operating budget and putting some form of programmatic target to that. Um, okay. But you'll be surprised at how many non nonprofits are actually not doing a a good Christmas campaign. And it's in the planning. You know, everyone knows this phrase, don't they? Say fail to, you know, fail to prepare, prepare to fail. It's entirely true, right? Actually, and if you're not even engaging your staff in this, this is a perfect time for you to engage your staff in it, right? So, um, it's just invitation, invitation, invitation, invitation. Right? I often say fundraising is a numbers game and it really is. Most I've I've met I literally hundreds of nonprofits I've worked with, right? And I say to the I say to the CEO, how many people have you met with this month? How many people have you spoken in front of this month? And what's your conversion rate? >> And that's really important because ultimately people say, well, we didn't have a good Christmas campaign. Well, how many phone calls did you make? >> Right? >> Well, we didn't make phone calls. That was a bit intrusive. Well, you want to know how big nonprofits are doing it? You know how people raise millions is because they're putting their self out there all the time. You have not because you ask not. >> Yeah. I love I love that you said that, Matthew. I've got to believe you see the exact same thing in your work. >> Yeah. So, what what we do now for people and Ben and I do this together. We write we don't just come up with people account. I mean, some people can't come up with their own campaign. So, we help them do that. That's the that's 80% of the job done. Then we write them out a road map of how to raise the money because they don't know what to do. And that's okay. If you don't know what to do, then get someone in to help you. You know, I don't know how to fix my toilet, so I get a plumber in, you know. So, it's okay. It's okay to to not know how to do everything. So, I we go through each people's databases and we say, "Hey, call that person. Call that person. Text that person. Email that person. send that person a social media message and we write down a road map of how to get the money and it always works. It always works. You know, they're like, they're like, "That's not good." I'm like, "If you follow the plan, it'll work." And it's about being strategic. You know, Santa Claus when he delivers all those presents, all those children every year, he's very strategic. He's got a lot to get around. He's got a lot of people to keep happy in that short period of time. be like Santa, nonprofit leader, and plan and reach the masses and bring gifts in and change some lives. >> I love it. Well, you're absolutely right, and the two of you could not be better at articulating that. It's been a lot of fun. Ben Cooling, welcome back to the nonprofit show. It's been really a a great opportunity. Uh Ben is the CEO of Maxwell and Marie. Uh, you can learn more about Ben and his work and his team at Maxwell and Marie.co. Um, of course, Matthew Murray, my ride or die when it comes to all this. Yay. Thank you. Matthew was the one that was like, "Look, we we got to get these hats on. We got to be talking about this. Um, even though it's still warm out and Christmas might seem far away, it is not far away. It's right around the corner." and I loved having both of you gentlemen on to talk about how to road mapap this out and what we should be doing to think about the holiday season. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Been a lot of fun. Hey, uh merry Christmas to our our sponsors because they are here every day and it is like Christmas. Bloomerang American Nonprofit Academy, Staffing Boutique, your part-time controller, Third Sector Company, and JMT Consulting. These are the folks that join us day in and day out. Last week we celebrated our 1,600th episode of the nonprofit show and um again most of these sponsors have been with us since the very beginning seven years ago. So we want to make sure that we tip our Santa cap to them. Um so thank you very very much. Hey everybody, we like to end each and every episode of the nonprofit show with this message and it goes like this. To stay well so you can do well. >> [music]