January appeals

anacdotal evidence is that the best response comes from a mailing in January. Several people have told me this, although I have not yet had the courage to try it!

David

Erica: From my experience, and in my opinion, the month of January could be just as good or bad for charitable solicitation as any month. It all depends on who is asking, how the asking is done, to whom, etc. Over many years, with all sorts of campaigns and methods, I generally ignored which month it was, except when with deliberation to solicit in time for recording responses before our June 30 fiscal year’s end, and for the December 31 year-end contribution deadline some of our donors favored and had reported as such to us.

Otherwise, I paid no attention to a particular month, one way or another, because types of campaigns and methods of solicitation differed greatly from one year to the next. Thus, would some “seasonality” results reported by this charity or that charity vary greatly as well. Most of the published reports I have seen citing good and bad months were heavily weighted by factors regarding Direct Mail to cold prospects, the critically important packaging of the solicitation, and the size of the mailing. Such mostly Direct Mail results, and their unique aspects, have been erroneously applied to other, traditional, types of fund-raising campaigns for certain good month or bad month declarations.

I've learned from mailing authorities that seasonality is not a particularly good guide to timing solicitations. They have told me that reports which claim to indicate which months are more favorable than others simply report which are in fact their most convenient months for soliciting donations. Nothing is proved that way, based on what is more a comfort level for the asking of money. Those months change from year to year and they certainly change, or differ, from one organization to another. I would get going to get the money when when ready.

My approach to fund-raising has always been that we don’t wait for the “right” moment---or month---we ask now. When we look for the right month, or the right time, to ask for the money, we will never find it. We have to be ready, willing, and able to make the solicitation when we are ready.

Fund-raising is a continuous, year-round process, and we should press on when we are ready because we stand the chance to lose money and our contributors while waiting for the right time to ask. At least, that's how I see it.

Best fund-raising wishes,
Tony