Overview:
BlueLena is helping independent news organizations prepare earlier and more strategically for the critical 2026 year-end fundraising season. Beginning September 3, BlueLena will host a five-part workshop series covering CRM and donor prospecting, campaign planning, direct mail, fundraising fundamentals and major-gift cultivation. Publishers can also take advantage of free and tailored year-end email campaigns, including segmented messaging for non-donors, former donors and recurring donors.
The end of the year is a critical time for journalism and newsroom fundraising. However, the most successful campaigns are well-planned and begin weeks in advance. They rely on a clear strategy, knowing your audience, having the right tools, and sharing stories that show why your journalism matters.
This year, we want to help you begin your preparations early.
Starting September 3, BlueLena will offer the following series of workshops to give you practical tools and training for year-end fundraising. The BlueLena team will walk you through the main parts of a strong campaign, including finding your best prospects, getting your CRM ready, using direct mail, building your campaign setup and working on major gifts.
We encourage you to join us for the whole series. Each session covers a different part of fundraising, and together they will help you head into the 2026 year-end season with a stronger plan and better positioning for success.
These workshops are only one part of the support BlueLena offers for the end-of-year season. For 2026, we’re offering:
- A 10-email standardized campaign series (FREE)
- A 13-email tailored campaign series (8 hours support)
- A 16-email tailored campaign series blending NewsMatch (10 hours support)
Our tailored campaigns can include conditional content, so non-donors, former donors and recurring donors each get messages that fit their relationship with your organization.
The campaigns will cover all the key parts of effective year-end fundraising: kickoff and Giving Tuesday appeals, impact stories, a message from a reporter, a year-in-review, a look ahead to 2027, a LYBUNT appeal, year-end urgency and a stewardship message after the campaign concludes in January.
We hope you’ll use these workshops to improve your fundraising strategy, and rely on the BlueLena team and campaign resources to put your plan into action.
Take the next few weeks to make sure your audience, technology, messaging and team are ready for the most important fundraising days of the year.
The first workshop is on September 3, and you can sign up now to receive end-of-year campaign support through early October.
Session #1: CRM Prep for the End-of-Year Season
September 3 | 2pm ET via Zoom
A successful campaign starts with understanding your audience. Megan Wofford (Director of Products) and Judi Kamien (Director of Publisher Success) will show you how to use the BlueDepth and the BlueLena CRM to find your top prospects and create a plan to encourage donors to give more during the end-of-year season.
This session is specifically designed for BlueLena Premium publishers using our CRM, but anyone is invited to join and learn more about these capabilities now powering fundraising for over fifty independent newsrooms.
Session #2: End-of-Year Kickoff
September 17 | 2pm ET via Zoom
This session officially kicks off the campaign season. Teresa Ristow (Director of Publisher Strategy) will go over BlueLena’s end-of-year campaign support, important dates, and the materials you should start collecting now for a strong campaign. She will also share what information we’ll need from you to build a campaign that fits your publication.
Session #3: Direct Mail for Fundraising Success
September 24 | 2pm ET via Zoom
Teresa Ristow (Director of Publisher Strategy) will share the best practices and lessons we’ve learned from our direct mail campaigns over the past two years. You’ll also hear about ways to include direct mail in your fundraising plans for the 2026 end-of-year season and beyond.
Session #4: Foundations for a Successful EOY
October 1 | 2pm ET via Zoom
Effective fundraising starts before you launch a campaign. Judi will walk through the basics you should have in place first, from checking your automations and updating calls to action to making sure your fundraising tools are ready to turn reader interest into donations.
Session #5: Major Gifts Cultivation Panel
October 8 | 2pm ET via Zoom
The end of the year is also a great time to build stronger relationships with people who might make larger gifts to support your journalism. Megan will moderate a panel with BlueLena publishers to discuss their approaches to major gift cultivation during the end-of-year and other campaigns, sharing ideas you can use in your own organization.
We hope you’ll join us for the full series and make use of everything our team has created to support you this year. For any questions please email us at support@bluelena.io
About BlueLena
BlueLena is the journalism industry’s leading strategy consulting, audience and revenue development solution provider, helping more than 300 independent news organizations across North America build sustainable business models.
Founded in 2020 by publishers, journalists, and media technology professionals, BlueLena combines purpose-built technology with embedded strategic consulting and execution support to help publishers grow audiences, strengthen reader relationships, and diversify revenue through subscriptions, memberships, donations, advertising, sponsorships, and major gifts.
Its integrated platform includes audience engagement tools, CRM and moves management, donor intelligence, marketing automation, and analytics, enabling news organizations of all sizes to operate with the capabilities of a much larger organization while remaining focused on serving their communities.
Learn more at BlueLena