The spirit of the holidays puts many of us in a more giving mood, making year’s end the time when most nonprofits receive the majority of their donations. To encourage others to give this season, you need an effective fundraising strategy.

The success of your campaign will likely come down to how well your message was received and shared amongst your supporters and their networks. Sharing on social media doesn’t just reach your existing contributors, it helps you reach out to potential new ones as well.

The following tips can help your nonprofit increase the sharing of your fundraising messages and other appeals.

Save Your Supporters Time to Encourage Sharing

Make it easy for your supporters to share your posts with their family and friends. For example, customise trending hashtags so that they are relevant to your cause and so that others that are searching for similar topics can discover your nonprofit’s posts.

Creating ready-made fundraising tweets for your donors to use will save them time, and, help them to stay on topic in their messaging for your campaign. Pre-made visuals and other fundraising appeals will make it easier for your supporters to create their own personalised fundraising campaign for your nonprofit.

When deciding what types of visuals to prepackage for your supporters to use and share, keep in mind the following key advantages of using imagery to tell your NFP’s story.

Clear, captivating photos increase the emotional appeal of your cause to current and new donors.  Sharing an infographic makes it easier to understand complex information that’s relevant to your cause, encouraging others to give. Videos remain a great way to illustrate the impact and appeal to others on a personal level.

Illustrate Real-Time Results to Increase Engagement

On your NFP’s website, and, in your social media campaigns, use charts and graphs that show your fundraising goal, and, how much you’ve raised to date. Look for tools that will allow your NFP to update the totals in real-time to build excitement among your donors, and, encourage greater participation in your fundraising event.

Get Everyone on Board and Directly Involved

Talk with your central committee members, board members and ambassadors about how they can help support your NFP’s fundraising efforts. Give them the information that they need to reach out to their own contacts and make personal fundraising appeals. Provide some training, and keep them up-to-date, on last-minute changes to end of year events and other fundraising details so that they can answer questions about your nonprofit.

Segment Your Donor Base to Encourage Giving, and, Avoid Burnout

Using your donor management software to segment your donors to customise the messages that you send is a good practice throughout the year, but, especially during the holidays. If donors have already made their contribution, you can use your segmentation feature to avoid sending repeated appeals once someone has donated. Receiving too many appeals, especially once a donation has been made, can turn some of your donors off and lead to burnout.

If someone has not already donated during the holidays, don’t be reluctant to send out more than one email as the end of the year approaches. An end of year giving campaign is the perfect time to remind your donors about the progress that you’ve made, and how much even a small donation before year’s end can help the beneficiaries of your nonprofit.