By Laura Weinman, Vice President, KEES

It has been a challenging six months for everybody, and the nonprofit sector has certainly not been spared. As a firm dedicated to working exclusively with nonprofits, the KEES team has seen challenging national economic times before – although admittedly, never under these particularly unique circumstances.

We know your Development/Advancement team has likely been impacted by COVID, and you may now find yourself facing the end of the calendar year without your usual staff support in place. End-of-year is the most significant time for incoming donor support for many organizations – and we know that once a recession hits, philanthropy suffers its biggest effects 6-9 months later. A strong annual appeal is more important now than ever as a vital tool to set up your organization for success in 2021.

KEES CAN HELP.

Multiple clients have engaged us to help with appeals over the years. Two recent client success stories demonstrate the positive impact our partnership can have on your organization:

• Reviewed 40,000 entries from 16 different sources to identify the top 1800 donors for a direct mail appeal and raised 600%+ more than the previous year’s client-managed appeal.
• Increased funds raised by 338% over the previous year’s client-run campaign by designing a strategy focusing on specific asks and re-engagement of previous donors.

You may have reconfigured your team and no longer have someone solely focused on annual fund/year end work. KEES can provide a variety of flexible annual fund services and support as you navigate your way through this unusual time, including any combination of the following:

• Planning calendars
• Data cleaning and sorting
• List pulling
• Appeal segmentation
• Appeal writing
• Appeal design
• Project management for design, print, distribution and donor acknowledgement
• Social media strategy and implementation
• Email strategy and implementation
• U.S. mail strategy and implementation
• Donor acknowledgement strategy and implementation
• Follow up analysis and recommendations

You can design a partnership that is focused on as little as 5 hours a week or full-spectrum support for a minimum of 8 weeks. Reach out to us directly to discuss exactly how KEES can best support you and your team, and make sure your organization is positioned for growth and success in 2021 and beyond.