Over the past year at GiveForward, we’ve seen that there are often a flurry of donations in the two or three days before a fundraiser ends.  This happens because donors feel a greater sense of urgency towards the end of a fundraiser.  In other words, all those people you have asked to donate and who have procrastinated for weeks (or months) often seem to get their act together right before the proverbial  buzzer.

To help maximize the amount of money you raise for your cause, you’ll want to make sure you reach out to all your procrastinating amigos and family members in the final days before your fundraiser ends.   Here’s what we suggest you do to finish your fundraiser with a surge of donations:

(1) Three to four days before your fundraiser ends, send a mass email or a Facebook message to all your contacts  encouraging them to make one last push before the deadline.

(2) To spice it up a bit, if your fundraiser is ending on January 13, ask them to donate $13 on that day or if it is ending on February 5th, ask for $5 on the 5th.   People will usually give more than the amount you ask for, so don’t worry if your fundraiser ends on the 2nd or 3rd of the month.  If you want, however, you can ask for $20 instead of $2 or $30 instead of $3, or alternatively ask for donations ending in the number (e.g. $2, $12, $22, $52, $102)

(3) Lastly, make sure to send a friendly reminder email on the morning of the last day to remind them to donate.

(4) Voila!  Lots of donations shall be coming your way.

This strategy has worked well for many of our users in the past so hopefully, it will work for you too!

Oh, and one last thing — if the actual fundraiser ends on, say, the 25th of July, you might want to tell people it ends on July 24th.  This will allow most people to get their donations in on the 24, but  will also allow the super-duper stragglers to make their donations the next day if they forget to do so on the 24th.