Make the ask before the holiday chaos

Welcome back to NPQ’s fundraising advice column, Ask Rhea. Rhea Wong is a fundraising expert and professional coach, exuberant author of Get That Money, Honey!, host of the Nonprofit Lowdown podcast, and an unfailingly encouraging voice in a sometimes-bleak landscape. Rhea wants you to succeed, and she’s here to answer your questions.

In this installment of Ask Rhea, Rhea Wong shares how to make the most of Giving Tuesday before the holiday chaos arrives.

Have a fundraising question? Send it to this submission form and choose “Fundraising” from the drop-down menu.

Dear Rhea,

We’re a $5M organization launching our year-end campaign on Giving Tuesday. My team is already stretched, and I’m afraid that once the campaign starts, every hour goes to mass messages, and I’ll lose the donors who matter most.

Is there anyone I can talk to before we launch?

Signed,

Floundering Fundraiser

Dear Floundering Fundraiser,

In short, yes—there are others you can talk to before launch. But real talk: Your list isn’t the problem. The missing structure underneath it is.

You have names. You have a giving history, maybe. You have a gut feeling that these people matter. What you don’t have is a system for deciding what to do with each one, so every name feels urgent and nothing moves. Crickets from the donors, and your team running in circles.

Relationships decide who makes the call. The donor’s stage decides what the call is for. Get those two straight and the list stops being a guilt trip.

Now, let’s walk through it.

The stages of fundraising

The Engagement Fundraising Operating System, licensed from Greg Warner and MarketSmart, has six stages. Each one has one job.

Engagement: The donor is connected to the mission and to someone who cares about them. A board member leads here. No pitch. The board member asks why the donor gives and shuts up long enough to hear the answer.

Preliminary qualification: The donor showed interest. Now you confirm capacity and find the program they care about. The board helps. The next step is a record review with whoever had the conversation.

Relationships decide who makes the call. The donor’s stage decides what the call is for.

Qualification: This is the stage most teams get wrong. A donor isn’t in qualification because they like you. They’re in it when someone has invited them into a specific next step, with dated touches on the calendar. Warm feelings don’t count. A half-hearted “we should catch up” doesn’t count either.

Cultivation: The donor builds a real connection to a specific project through regular, dated contact. The board participates. Staff joins when the relationship calls for it.

Solicitation: The ask. Staff leads, and it happens only after the donor has a specific project and a gift in view. Asking before the relationship is built is how you get a no.

Stewardship: Starts when the gift lands. Thank them within 48 hours. Show them what the money did. Then do it again.

Triage like you mean it.

For each donor, ask one question: Can you name the conversation that put them in this stage? Yes: use that stage. No: mark them unverified. Unverified donors don’t get an ask. Their next step is the conversation that finds out where they actually are.

Check the donors who already gave, too. Were they thanked within 48 hours? Did someone reach out personally, with a next touch on the calendar? If not, that’s your first fix.

Most lists have more unverified names than anyone expects. Good. Now you can see the hole.

Your major donors may not want to talk to you.

Hard truth time: Major donors self-cultivate and self-solicit. They read, they decide, they give when they’re ready. Many of them will never want a call, and chasing them with one is how you become the fundraiser who won’t take a hint.

So stop waiting for a yes to a conversation. Build on-ramps: small, specific invitations they can actually say yes to.

A hand-raising email is the first one. Short. One real project. One question: “Would you like to hear more about this before the holidays? Reply yes and I’ll send the details.” A donor who’s interested says yes in four seconds. A donor who isn’t can ignore it without guilt. Either way, you learned something, and the stage moved.

[S]top waiting for a “yes” to a conversation.

Build a few more. A short update from a program. An invitation to see the work. A question about what matters most to them this year. Every on-ramp gives the donor an easy way to raise their hand, and every yes tells you who’s ready for the next step.

Who to call before launch

Start with donors who historically give in October or earlier. They’re already in giving mode before the rush, so they don’t need a campaign pitch. They need a call that asks what’s on their mind about the work this year and whether they’d like to hear more before the holidays.

Call the ones who raised their hand. Call the ones with a real relationship to someone on your team. Skip the cold list. This isn’t a dial-a-donor contest.

Some will want the deeper conversation. Some will say not yet. Both answers are wins, and both move the stage. Log them.

Use a match gift as the reason to reach out

Your largest donors are where a match gift earns its keep. It gives you a reason to make contact before launch: would they match the campaign’s gifts, with a clear amount and deadline? Specific and honest, tied to a real campaign.

One rule, non-negotiable: Only make a match ask to donors who’ve already said yes to a conversation, through an on-ramp or a call with whoever holds the relationship. A match is still an ask. Pitch it to a stranger and you’ll hear crickets, and you’ll have earned them.

Your readiness checklist before launch

• Pull donors who gave in October or earlier last year and check their full giving pattern before flagging anyone as lapsed.
• Place each donor in a stage with evidence, or mark them unverified.
• Send an on-ramp to every unverified donor with a real relationship to your organization.
• Confirm stewardship for everyone who already gave.
• Identify your top donors who could serve as match gifts and confirm each has said yes to a conversation first.
• Assign one person to each name who holds the relationship.
• Set a call date for each name who says yes. No call, no ask.
• Confirm match terms in writing before you pitch them.

If it’s not on the scorecard, it didn’t happen. Put every name, stage, and date on it.

Your campaign launches on Giving Tuesday either way. Make the calls in October and let the campaign start with conversations already underway.

Keep reaching out,

Rhea

Have a question for Ask Rhea? Send it to this submission form and choose “Fundraising” from the drop-down menu.

You can find more insights and resources from Rhea at rheawong.com.