Overview:

Christine Holbert provides a strategic framework for timing email communications during year-end fundraising campaigns. The guide emphasizes initiating outreach in early November to build awareness, with increased frequency and urgency as key dates approach, such as Giving Tuesday and the final days of December.

With concerns about the final day of the year falling on a weekend, we looked back at last year’s data to see when campaigns performed best and how to map out your end-of-year reader revenue campaign timeline.

The challenge

In 2022, BlueLena launched end-of-year reader revenue campaigns for 23 clients, representing donation, membership and subscription models. The campaign consisted of 10 emails that spanned from November 24 to December 31. Historically, end-of-year campaigns find the biggest contribution days are Giving Tuesday and the last day of the year — but, in 2022, the last day of the year fell on a Saturday. 

The research

Using campaign performance data from 2022, we were able to map out the 2023 campaign schedule with adjustments for the final day of the year again falling on a weekend.

Conversions concentrated around email delivery dates:

  • 11/29: Giving Tuesday, which saw two campaigns go out
  • 12/15: first of the themed campaigns, elections
  • 12/22: third of the themed campaigns, housing
  • 12/28: “running out of time” message
  • 12/31: urgent, final day message

The most conversions occurred on Giving Tuesday, November 29. The Your Voice campaign included two messages for Giving Tuesday: a morning message and an afternoon follow up.

The message with the second highest conversion rate was the December 28 message with the subject line, “We’re running out of time.” This message featured a dynamic countdown clock.

The third highest-converting message was the final day message, with the urgent subject line, “We’re counting on you!” This message leaned into the general Your Voice theme and pressed the need for support for 2023.

The strategy

From this data, we decided that in 2023, our end-of-year reader revenue campaign would prioritize Giving Tuesday and the final week of the year. We would also choose mid-campaign messaging intentionally and thoughtfully to connect with readers

Our lesson was confirmed by external data as well. M+R, who collects digital fundraising performance data from nonprofits across industries, wrote: “In general our past testing has shown that day of week doesn’t impact performance much when it comes to email message performance — but the trends from a few years of weekend 12/31 timing beg to differ. Nonprofits that anticipated this slowdown and added additional 12/30 messages were able to recoup some of that lost revenue.”

For 2023, we planned a two-fold end to the campaign: a big ask on Friday, December 29, with a mission-focused appeal. Then, two campaigns will be sent over the weekend: Saturday, December 30, and Sunday, December 30, with an increased sense of urgency in the subject lines and email text.

About BlueLena

BlueLena is a strategy consulting and audience management platform founded in 2020 to support the sustainability of independent local media. By combining cutting-edge technology with expert-driven services, BlueLena helps over 250 news organizations across North America develop and manage subscription, membership, and donation models. Its unique shared-resource management approach provides publishers, regardless of size, with access to enterprise-level tools and personalized support, enabling them to focus on high-quality journalism while building loyal, revenue-generating audiences. 

BlueLena is majority employee-owned, and backed by investors including Automattic(the parent company of WordPress), the Local Media Association, and Old Town Media.