Your campaign didn't fail. You never ran one.
Your fundraising campaign didn’t fail. You never ran one.
Harsh. I know. But I’ve had this conversation dozens of times over the years, and it almost always goes the same way.
A few years ago, I was talking with someone who was planning a Mother’s Day campaign.
“Great,” I said. “Walk me through it.”
She got excited. They were going to invite donors to give a gift in honor of a mom in their life. The money would support the moms they serve. It was timely, emotional, and tied to a real moment on the calendar.
I was nodding along. The concept was solid. The timing was right. I could already see the emotional appeal taking shape.
“Love it. So what’s the plan?”
“We’re going to put it in our May newsletter.”
I waited for the rest.
There was no rest.
“That’s… that’s the campaign?” I asked.
“Yeah! We’ll have a section in the newsletter with a donate button.”
I paused. “How far down in the newsletter?”
She thought about it. “Maybe halfway? After the event recap and the volunteer spotlight and the staff update…”
Basically, about 14 scrolls deep. Buried beneath a photo gallery from the spring gala and a note from the executive director about strategic planning.
I did not want to crush her enthusiasm, and a good newsletter can raise money.
Some donors will scroll that far. Some people will click the button and give.
But relying on that as your Mother’s Day campaign is like cutting your lawn with scissors when you have a perfectly good mower in the garage. You’ll get there eventually, but why not just fire up the mower?
A real campaign is the mower.
A real campaign is 8-12 emails over two to three weeks.
It’s a direct mail letter that hits homes before the first email drops.
A postcard as a follow-up.
And social media posts. Not just one either. A steady drumbeat.
It’s phone calls to your top 20 donors.
A text message to anyone who’s given you permission.
And yes, you should probably mention it in your newsletter.
A newsletter ask can be part of a campaign. It just can’t be the campaign.
Some of you are probably thinking, “8-12 emails? That’s way too many. We’ll annoy our donors.“
You might. It’s true.
But let me flip that around.
The people you’re emailing get 100+ emails a day.
They’re bombarded by ads, notifications, news alerts, and messages from every brand they’ve ever bought a candle from.
Their inbox is a war zone.
Two emails is not going to cut through that noise.
You’re not being polite when you ask once and move on. You’re disappearing.
Most of your donors never even saw your first email. Or they meant to open it, but they got distracted. Their kid needed a snack. The meeting ran long. A news alert popped up.
In other words, life happened.
And your email slid down the screen and vanished beneath a pile of other demands.
The worst part?
Donors want to give. They signed up. They raised their hand. They told you they care about your mission.
When you don’t ask, or when you ask so quietly they never hear you, you’re not protecting them from annoyance. You’re robbing them of the chance to do something meaningful.
Multiple touches aren’t desperate. They’re respectful. They say, “This matters enough that I’m going to make sure you actually see it.“
I hear some version of this all the time: “We tried a campaign last year and it didn’t really work.“
But when I dig in, the answer is almost always the same. One email. Maybe two. A donate button on the website. A post on Facebook that got 12 likes and zero clicks.
And then disappointment when they raise $575.
That’s not a failed campaign. That’s a campaign that never actually happened.
It’s like saying you tried job hunting because you updated your LinkedIn profile. Or that you tried learning Spanish because you downloaded Duolingo and opened it once.
It’s not that you used the wrong tool, but the effort has to match the ambition.
To raise real money, the kind that funds programs, pays staff, and moves your mission forward, eventually you’re going to need to ramp up your communication across multiple channels, with multiple touches, using a clear ask repeated with urgency and emotion.
A few sentences buried in your newsletter is a whisper. What you need is a knock on the door.
And not just one knock either.
You keep knocking until someone answers.
Because the people on the other side of that door?
They want to open it. They’re just busy. They’re distracted. They need you to be persistent enough to still be there when they finally get to the door.
So if your last “campaign” underwhelmed you, my question is, “Did you actually run one?”
What a Real Campaign Looks Like: A Checklist
Before your next campaign, make sure you have:
☐ A clear, compelling offer (what does the donor’s gift do?)
☐ A direct, emotional, time-bound ask (why now?)
☐ An email every 3-5 days for the duration of the campaign
☐ A direct mail letter that lands before the first email
☐ A follow-up postcard
☐ 4-6 social media posts minimum
☐ Personal phone calls to your top 20-50 donors
☐ A text campaign to people who’ve opted in
☐ A mention in your newsletter (yes, in addition to everything else)
☐ A clear deadline that creates urgency
☐ A landing page dedicated to this campaign alone
If you’re missing more than two or three of these, you’re not running a campaign.
You’re making a suggestion.
And in my experience, donors don’t respond to suggestions. They respond to invitations.