More $$ or More Gifts?

22 Sep More $$ or More Gifts?

22 September 2026

By David Allen, Development for Conservation

Plan your fall fundraising this week.

More on “More” this week.

Do yourself a favor and project the outcome(s) of your Fall fundraising efforts. Fall fundraising should not be about throwing out your nets and seeing what comes back. Fingers crossed! Rather, it should be about employing specific strategies designed to deliver specific results.

Do you want to raise a specific amount of money? How much? Write it down – specifically. Then write down specific results expected from the different components: email, letter, Giving Tuesday, Fall Gala event, and so on.

In a perfect world, your expressed goal amount should be constructed as a NET number. In other words, subtract out the associated costs. The result is the amount of money you are making available to other programs.

If you DON’T do this, you won’t have context for evaluating your results. Or, more to the point, the only context you will have is the amount of money raised last year. In which case, you’re potentially stuck saying that you weren’t able to raise enough, but you raised more than last year!

Then:

• Press send on your email, drop your letters at the post office, and/or make your appointments to meet in person.
• Carry out your plan.
• Measure the results.
• Adjust as needed and prepare your follow-ups.

Did you meet your targets? If not, there will still be time before January 1 to send another follow-up.

Plan to succeed.

OR – perhaps you want to generate a specific response – a target for participation. This might be true if you are trying to grow, generate new members, or recruit volunteers. In these cases, you care more about how many give than about how much they give.

Same thing – How many? Write it down – specifically. Then write down specific results expected from the different components: email, letter, Giving Tuesday, Fall Gala event, and so on. And in January, evaluate. Did you meet your targets? What worked? What fell short of expectations? What can you learn? What will you do differently next year?

If your goal is to raise a specific amount of money, ask for more money. With some practical upper limitations, the more you ask for, the more you will make. Asking for $50 will result in more money raised than asking for $35. Asking for $100 will raise even more, but fewer will respond. Asking for $250 or $365 will result in even more raised from fewer donors.

And so on.

If you ask for less money – $35 for example – more people will respond and you will raise less.

Counterintuitively, if you do not ask for a specific amount, you will have fewer people responding AND you will raise less money.

So, ALWAYS ask for a specific amount.

Two other quick points:

If you are anticipating using follow-up messages, you do not have to ask for the same amount in each one. You can ask for $100 in the first message – to raise more money. And ask for $35 in the reminder – to encourage more participation.

And providing an “ask string” of several options is the same as asking for the lowest value in the string. In other words, asking for $35, $50, $100, or OTHER, is the same as asking for $35.

It’s tempting to see getting the appeal out as the goal. But it’s a self-defeating premise. The goal is to raise a specific amount of money for the mission. Or to encourage a specific number of participants.

Either way, know the goal and plan to succeed.

Cheers, and have a great week.

-da

PS: Your comments on these posts are welcomed and warmly requested. If you have not posted a comment before, or if you are using a new email address, please know that there may be a delay in seeing your posted comment. That’s my SPAM defense at work. I approve all comments as soon as I am able during the day.

Photo courtesy of Pixabay.