‘Tis the season for celebrating and giving, and whatever you’ve got on your wish list, we hope your December is lovely.  It’s also the season for year-end giving, and if you haven’t heard already, we’re offering a fundraising stimulus package to help you out with that.

Here are some additional words of encouragement from Conor’s Fundraising Blog in light of the current economic situation:

People will still want to give money to great causes. And they will give when they feel that it makes a difference, that there is the sense of urgency, and that it will make a difference to their emotional lives. It is critical that, as fundraisers, we continue to ask.

P.S. Conor has been putting together a great series on Recession Fundraising; check out his blog.

And now, on to the monthly December Awareness and NPO highlights!  December is. . .

• AIDS Awareness Month: Desert AIDS Project has raised $45,000 online!
• National Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month: Mothers Against Drunk Driving
• Identity Theft Prevention and Awareness Month: Identity Theft Resource Center
• International Safe Toys and Gifts Month:  Safe Kids Worldwide.

• 1-7 December is National Aplastic Anemia Week. Aplastic Anemia & MDS International Foundation is using Firstgiving for a grassroots fundraising campaign and has raised over $3,000 so far.

• 1 December (was) World AIDS Day
• 3 December is the International Day of Disabled Persons, which aims to promote an understanding of disability issues and mobilize support for the dignity, rights and well-being of persons with disabilities.
• 5 December is International Volunteer Day
• 10 December is Human Rights Day
• 18 December United Nations is International Migrants Day

We know it’s a particularly busy time of year, and we wish you all the best as you campaign and fundraise this month for the causes you care about.  Feel free to drop us a line or post a comment below if you have questions; we’d be happy to help!

Just like retail, many nonprofit organizations earn a lot of their income in the year-end and holiday season, some as much as 35% or more of the whole year’s fundraising income.  Year-end giving, annual funds, and board appeals a big earners for many NPOs, and year-end giving is popular among donors looking to offset their taxes.  This year a lot of people are nervous about fundraising in a down economy, but this note at philanthropy.org suggests that things have to get a lot worse before giving drops significantly:

But based on IRS tax-return statistics, Mr. Sharpe notes, giving as a percentage of income by most Americans held steady at 1.8 percent throughout the Depression and in some cases even went up slightly.

At Firstgiving, we’re running a sale on our donation processing fees starting tomorrow through the end of the year to help our customers get a little extra out of these year-end giving campaigns.  From 11/21 through 12/31, we’re cutting our fee on direct donation in half, from 5% to 2.5%.  This sale applies to donations through any basic or premium start page, but not to donations through personal fundraising pages.  Credit card fees apply as usual.

The discount will be applied automatically, so all you need to do is start sending out your year-end appeal with a link to your Firstgiving start page, or with a link directly to the donate process - just right-click the “donate” button on your start page, and choose “copy link” or “copy shortcut” to find your direct donate URL.

Consider it our little stimulus package.  As always, drop us a line if you have questions.

Here are three things to keep in mind when doing a year-end appeal:

1. Make it real: Remind donors and prospects about the good you’ve done this year, and ask them for a contribution to help you continue to do good in 2009.  Be concrete about what benefit different donation amounts can deliver.
2. Make it brief: Remember how busy everybody is this time of year.  Be respectful of their time and get to the point.  But don’t be afraid to send a reminder or two.
3. Stress tax-deductibility: Year-end financial planning is more than just budgeting for holiday gifts, it also means looking over the whole year and planning for tax time.  Remind donors that charitable contributions can be tax-advantageous in many cases.  Always refer detailed questions to a tax professional.