Creating a Year-End Ask That Sticks with Guest Heather Stewart

September 16, 2022

For some of us, even if we’ve been doing it for years, asking people for money never gets easier. 

In this episode of Nonprofit Marketing with Purpose, we interview Heather Stewart, Director of Development for the Voluntary Action Center (VAC), a pro at the year-end giving ask. 

Following her advice, even those who are most wary about seeking donations can find a simple recipe for success. 

Heather shares:

• The components of a great year-end ask letter
• Suggestions to rally your team 
• Quick tips for formatting an awesome year-end ask
• And more!

Episode Highlights

Introduction to Heather – 1:22
Components of a good year-end ask letter – 4:18
Importance of personal connection in Asks – 8:45
Recap of year-end ask process/donor process – 10:48
How to tie your ask and other marketing together – 14:37
Using your team effectively – 17:34
When and if to use fundraising themes – 20:41
Organizing and segmenting your donor list – 25:24
Should you recycle content – 30:00
Quick tips for creating a year-end ask – 33:27
Learn more about the Voluntary Action Center (VAC) – 36:04

Full Transcript

Monica Pitts  
Hello again. And welcome back to Nonprofit Marketing with Purpose. My name is Monica Pitts, and I am your host and the lucky lady who gets to interview Heather Stewart today. Now, having her and I have known each other for a long time, because you’ve been in the nonprofit community in Columbia, Missouri, for I don’t know, a really long time, she’ll tell us how long in just a second. But last year, when I was prepping for our year-end giving training, Heather volunteered to talk about creating a simple year-end giving asked that stick. And unfortunately, I didn’t get to talk to her about it last year. But man when I was planning that this year, I was like, Ooh, Heather, you’re in the lineup. We got to talk about this, because I do know that writing.

Okay, so asking for money is scary, right? Writing can be scary for some people too. And so then you put them together. And it’s like the perfect cocktail of like, writer’s block, right.

And so my goal today is to talk to Heather and through her experience, empower you to be able to write that year-end giving ask so that way, you can earn the money that you need for your nonprofits. endeavors. Okay, so with that said, tell us about you, Heather, who are you? And where do you work? And what do you do?

Heather Stewart 
Okay, well, thank you, Monica, I’m so glad that you asked me to be part of the podcast. I’m Heather Stewart, I’m with the Voluntary Action Center or VAC however you like to refer to us. I am in the middle of my third year with organization, I was lucky individual that started in February of 2020. Then that lovely pandemic hit. So my, my fundraising specific duties as the Director of Development look a lot different than some people who may have been doing this for years, because I didn’t have the same situations coming up. I had a pandemic I had, I wasn’t in the office. So lots of different obstacles, which made for it to a perfect ground to scrap the old in with the new take out what needed, what was successful and other things, what didn’t work. And then also look at the whole new landscape of who the whole donor cycle, who are the donors, where that’s going so. And it was actually my first time of specifically writing a letter that was going to get mailed with a specific ask. So that was always interesting, and finding the right voice to hit those individuals. So that’s kind of a little bit about me. And you’ve mentioned, yes, I have been in the nonprofit world here in Columbia for 20 plus years. I love it, I left to work for the for profit in a for profit company. For a couple years.

This is my passion and my calling.

And a lot of my colleagues are in the nonprofit world. So it’s a great place to be and I have wonderful resources and individuals that support it. So with that, that’s a little bit about me, and we can get into really why people want to watch.

Monica Pitts  
Exactly, figuring out how they can put together a year in fundraising, ask that sticks, that isn’t so scary. But together. So the first kind of, I don’t know if it’s a myth, but Okay, so for the past few years, we ran what we called our craft your ask, challenge. And what I found was, as we were coaching people through writing their fundraising appeal, for the end of the year, I ended up with like, paragraphs upon paragraphs of content coming back at me, like that’s what people felt like their fundraising appeal was. And I got to be honest with you, I don’t know, like part of me thought we were just going to be reading a couple, you know, like a paragraph. But that’s not how it ended up. So tell me about what you feel like your, your year in, like fundraising ask is, Is it like the whole letter? Or is it just the punch line? Is that the purpose of the fundraiser? Like, introduce me with what you feel like it is? 

Heather Stewart  
Well, I think there’s two different things.

So when you mentioned fundraiser, and then you mentioned the year-end letter, and to me, those are two very different things, because if fundraiser is a specific event that’s raising maybe something for a specific purpose, or it is just a way for people to get together, the year-end ask, or the year-end letter is really a no touch kind of marketing piece, if you will, that’s just gonna kind of go out to whomever and and be a tactile thing for them to look at.

And we tend to just do a letter front and back, because it’s not too much to consume. It’s got our logo on it. It’s so it’s printed on their letterhead traditionally. So it’s got our branding on it and people know what it is there in that letter. 

I don’t like paragraphs, I am a bullet. Tell me what I need to know kind of a thing. There’s a, there’s a time for paragraphs, but I don’t think they should be more seven or eight lines unless there’s something that has to be said in there. Because I think it tends to lose people. When you open up a letter that’s got a whole bunch of text with no like, way to find some piece of information. Honestly, nine times out of 10, you’re probably going to set it aside and not look at it. There has to be something I don’t know if I would say punch line, but there has to be some type of graphic or something that will draw them into why they need to look at it. 

And so, within that letter, briefly, say who our organization is, because they may be, maybe they were a first time donor for a fundraiser. And they may not they need a reminder of what they’re doing. So just a quick reminder of what your organization is, maybe throw in your mission, if that fits it, but it’s not always necessarily the right place for it. Because you want to briefly basically your org information as your short elevator speech, it will draw people in, give some numbers about if you’re in the service industry, the amount of people that you served and how you’ve made that change if you are in a non service industry. And maybe it’s like how many concerts you’ve had, how many people have attended said concerts, how many places you’re in, in the schools to provide the service. 

So something that they can see immediately, okay, here’s kind of the things that we’re doing, and include a story.

And I know that there’s going to be some other, there’s some other components of this series of podcasts, but really telling the story, whether that be a heart wrenching story to kind of pull people in, if that’s your drawing people like it, that’s not necessarily my deal. But I know it works, but then have a success story. So you have to have one and the other. 

And then, as I was talking to Monica, before this started, the one thing that because we’ve said the word asking this several times is the number one reason people do not give to an organization is because we do not ask. So I think don’t bury the Ask within the letter, be clear on what that is. And whether the Ask leads into success story. So $50 allows us to get, you know, an individual to get gas money five times from back to get to and from work or to and from appointments. And then we give a success story about it. So there’s some correlation that ties people into money is actually being spent on what it’s supposed what I’m asking them to do it on. And keeping it to front back of a page. Otherwise, you’ll lose people.

Monica Pitts  
Mm hmm. I agree. I love the bullet points idea, because that makes it way more consumable. I also like when the elements are bolded, because as a skimmer, I’m a big picture person, I’m going to skim through the bullet elements, I’m going to read a few of the bullet points. And then if I’m intrigued, I’ll read the whole darn thing. Like I really will I’ll just sit down and read it then. But I first have to be able to look at it and be like, is this something that I want to read? And then I’ll sit down and read it even as a big picture person, because sometimes they’re written really well. And the story really does draw me in. And I’m like, Yeah, well, and because I’m, I’m reading it to see if I can learn something from how to write a good year-end giving ask.

Heather Stewart  
Right, and one thing that we need to make sure is you put the ways that they can give in the letter. Don’t necessarily assume that they know all the ways to give. And you can go back and forth if you want the expense, the return envelopes. You know the number nine envelopes for those that know all about the world of sending in return envelopes. Those are great because people will leave them. And it’s so funny because you might get them six months later. And you know, it was from that app, but it’s just because they forgot or they put it aside. So there is some value to that. But it also gives them a chance to send some stuff, you know to send it back without having to fire an envelope if you will. But giving the different way to give QR codes are easy. Those individuals that want to click it. The other thing too that we do with this particular letter is we do it in house because we personalize the letter so it can’t go bulk mail. So it goes first class mail, which I think just adds a little bit of connection with those donors. And so the individuals that we know have a special connection. I know there might be some people who are friends of our board remembers, so I could possibly pull up those letters and say, Hey, would you write a note on it? Or I know that people and I read the note before it gets folded and put in there.

So you can make it a little bit more personable, instead of just a blanket bulk mail ask.

Monica Pitts  
I do get a lot of them from the nonprofits that I work with on a regular basis, they’ll have a, like a mailmerge letter, but they’ll write in the margin, like, Hey, Monica, we always appreciate your contributions. You’re an amazing human being. Thank you again, yeah. And it makes me feel good that they took the time to, you know, personalize it, especially since I probably come home like every other week.

So I just want to recap for folks that are listening, for this year-end, fundraising, ask, and I call it a fundraising ask because for us, for my company, it’s part of a campaign, right have multiple months, it’s not just one letter, it’s like, we’re starting talking to people in October, it’s moving all the way through until the end of December. 

But what Heather’s saying is, as you’re writing that piece of content that you’re going to mail to people, we need to remember to say who your organization is, share the mission, if it fits. And when you say who your organization is to do remember that people, you have their contact information. So you have met them at least once before, they have like a slight clue of who you are, you don’t have to have your whole about page from your website in this letter. It could be you know, and then Okay, so who your organization is the mission, if it fits, you’re going to share numbers, you can tell a story through those numbers, like who you served, what you did, you’re basically showing them that you’re going to be a good steward with their donation, the investment that they’re making in your organization. That’s what you’re doing with that you’re like proving to them, Hey, we do great things when you support us. 

And then Heather says it’s great to put a success story in there. And then don’t forget to actually ask for the donation like you have to tell them. And Heather says that you can have an envelope that you can they can mail back or you could put a QR code, whatever it is, but we need to tell them, hey, you need to make a donation. Right. Anything else you want to just like, put on top of that recap, I just wanted to make sure that I like put it really concise-minded.

Heather Stewart  
But as you were as you were going to go in through the process, you’re you’re pretty much recapping what a donor process is. So whether they’ve given before or not, maybe this donor, we got their name, and they may not have donated, but we want to reach out to them for an ask, because I’ve attended something, you’re kind of giving them the journey.

So we’re telling you a little bit about ourselves, we’re telling you, here’s why we’re doing what we’re doing. Here’s what your money goes to, here’s the success story. Now we want you to donate.

So you’re kind of given them, it’s essentially, without holding their hand and talking to them what that donor journey is. And then still reminding them even though they haven’t donated, you’re thanking them for supporting the organization, supporting what you’re doing that kind of stuff. So it is it’s basically your donor journey, in a letter, if kind of summarize what you were what you were saying, when you were recapping what I was telling you, those are the same things you do when you’re talking to a donor.

Monica Pitts  
I think about it, like if they read the letter, and it gives it gave them something that they could talk about at the dinner table that night that I’ve done a good job, like whatever it is, if it’s the person that sticks to the numbers, and they’re like, did you know that we have XYZ in this community, you know, then then you’ve done something great, like you did the letter right? Or, and then I guess the flip side of it is that they feel something, then they would probably be likely to share that at the dinner table as well. So I’m always like, can I make it to where? Yes, you want to donate? But even if you don’t, you remembered like a piece of this communication. And you can share it with others because I mean, it’s not the same thing as a donation. But it’s still a really a powerful part of communication, obviously, is that spiraling effect.

Heather Stewart  
And I would say if you’re doing all if you’re focusing on really doing a good letter and putting a good story and numbers that back it up. That should then also fall into some of your social media posts so that it ties them together. So then they’re seeing the letter, and maybe they’re browsing Facebook or LinkedIn or to Twitter for however, they consume additional information, that that information is consistent. It’s not specific to a letter. So it’s like, okay, we’re just doing it to here. And now it doesn’t exist. It kind of somehow connects everything.

So that it gives that overall continuity of your organization and validity to your organization, that it’s not just a drop in the bucket for this.

It’s, it really does. You know, there is cohesiveness, if that makes sense. Because as one of the questions that we had talked about, we haven’t gotten there right now. But should the Ask be varied? In does it always have to be a letter does it have to be whatever, and I think it should be varied, I think it’s going to be how people do it. Because we oftentimes don’t have email or don’t have addresses for people, because they give online or they’ve given online, and so they don’t provide us with their email or their address necessarily. And so the letter might look have similar content, in fact, probably the same content, it’s just gonna be delivered differently in the email that somebody’s gonna get. And so just having those consistent things, because you might have somebody that doesn’t necessarily they look at it in their email, but they’re like, no, but they see it on LinkedIn, or they see it on Twitter, they see something, they’re like, oh, yeah, I’m gonna donate because that, whatever.

So you have to look at all of the people, it’s no longer a one size fits all. It’s pretty much you have to give it to all different places, and reap that.

But if you’re spending the time doing the letter, spend that time using that same story, that same information in all of those other components. You’re stronger.

Monica Pitts  
Yes. Yes, thank you. Because I feel like what I ended up doing is I write this, hopefully, really like it could end up where you first the first draft of your letter could be like four pages long, because that’s what it took for you to get this conversation going in your own mind and with a person, right, and then you edit it back. And that becomes your two-page letter. But then you have all those other pieces that you can pull out and use. Maybe you have multiple emails where you took, maybe told two stories in your initial draft, and you can only fit one on the mailer. So we’ll send two emails, one with one story and one with another. And then all that stuff gets broken down into little social media posts. And, yeah, I totally agree, Ben, you don’t have to have different stuff for everything, just hold the good stuff and share it again.

Heather Stewart  

But I think as you were talking about as you’re writing stuff down, I am a good storyteller to tell a story. I’m not a good storyteller to just start writing something. But if I have the information, like somebody sat down and said, Oh, we have, like we had a client, that example, an older couple, this is almost a year old now. But that he needed a battery for his glucose monitor, we were they’d already hit their max, we had to do something to get them seven for a monitor, or for this battery doesn’t necessarily translate and heart compelling in a message. But if I know that that’s a story I well, because it’s going to impact different people. Maybe you do a video, because I’m usually good. I did theater, I did other stuff, really good storyteller on video and can convey that type of stuff. It does translate well in the letter.

So you have to look in how to use your time talents and treasures of not only whoever’s writing this, but maybe your other staff members, maybe your board members, that can do it in a different way. Because I might be more compelled to watch the video than I would to read the letter.

So really find out how to use all of those and taking that four pages of notes from that story. And how, how can that set? Or how does that your path for what you want to do?

Monica Pitts  
Yes, so you’re always going to lean into your strengths as a team and as an individual whenever you’re planning your campaign activities for any campaign, it doesn’t matter if you’re if it’s your general marketing campaign, or your year-end giving campaign, you shouldn’t do things that you hate. Now, I do. I’m going to say that. And I’m also going to say that there is going to be writing involved in your right in your outreach. There just there has to be but it and if you’re a terrible writer, then definitely pull from your team, make sure that you read what they wrote, oh my goodness, read it, read it, read it. Because even if you’re not a good writer, because we write for clients all the time clients with extremely scientific backgrounds, they’re they don’t want to write and they have to be able to communicate with the general public. And when they start talking, your eyes just glaze over and you’re like, I don’t even know what those words mean. Right? So they talk to us and we put it in layman’s terms, and then we give it over to them and they can totally edit it. But the initial draft is Like just beyond them, right. And so you guys, lean into the front of your team. But make sure that you stay involved to make sure that your message comes across the way that you want it to be made.

Heather Stewart  
And sometimes you just have to really listen to the team and interpret what they’re saying. Because they may only have bits and pieces now. It and sometimes you just don’t get enough information to make it. So you have to like, push and pull it out. But I think then that makes it stronger for the team and whatever.

But most of the time, you can find that compelling story that will draw a person in on why you’re, why you’re doing what you’re doing, and then have a really good success story.

Monica Pitts  
I kind of want to ask a little bit about themes. I know that sounds a little strange. So I see so often that. So one, one path that I see really often is just in general, what we just talked about, we have this letter, we’re just saying, here’s what’s going on give, right. But then I also see people that tackle it, and they’re like, be worth, like, we need to feed 100 More families, or we need to get a car for Lucy, you know, whatever it is like a very specific thing. Do you have you ever tried that? Does it work? Well? Do you find it compelling? Because I think it’s hard for people to wrap their minds around when they’re writing and planning to make that decision up front. Does that make sense?

Heather Stewart  
It does and I think it really depends on what the organization and what your specific needs are at the time of the ask, is it for funds for operational expense general like just general donations to an organization that not be designated to? Right now we have a fan campaign going on where we’re trying to get people to donate $25 to purchase that for those individuals that need a fan. So they can designate $25 That goes to that fan. So you could do something where that’s because that’s currently what we’re doing at the end of the year, that’s not necessarily the same ask. So it’s really what your needs are. And it could potentially, depending on how your organization is and how the writing is of your letter. And if your asks are clear, you could give two options for those individuals that want to specifically give to something because that’s what they’re passionate about. 

It might be here’s a current need of, you know, $500 for gas to help people with getting to and from work, or, you know, you can just help in the provision of all the services that vac does. From all the basic needs, you can donate here, I think it’s really one depending on the organization and what their current is. And the strength of the content that’s in the letter. Does that make sense? Because if you have really good stuff, it can be separated? If not, it’s gonna look clunky and weird.

But I think that really comes down to what your organization has going. Do you have a bunch of fundraisers happening? Do you have a bunch of things happen on top of each other? Is a generic ask the best thing or a specific ask? Because that’s what you need at that time?

Monica Pitts  
Yeah. Okay. So I hear you and so mind you, yeah. You’re saying, if you have a specific need at that time, don’t be afraid to ask for it clearly. No. And you could do, you could have to, I almost feel like, I would almost lean towards one. And then. And then there’s the year-end giving campaign. And I feel like that is the time when most people are not having a themed fundraiser, so to speak.

Heather Stewart  
I don’t think you I don’t think, yeah, if you’re doing a year-end letter like we like, I would call our traditional year-end letter, it doesn’t have a theme.

It is strictly here we are at the end of the year, here’s what we’ve done so far. We need your help to push us to the end or to get us ready for the next year.

And it’s very clear, it’s not a gimmicky theme. It’s not like you know, and there’s really no punch lines or something like that. It’s really here’s what we’re doing the punch line and some of that stuff can come into the social media posts or to the emails that grab people because you know, you only get a quick second when you’re looking at it but a letter you get a little bit more time with the letter to see what that is. And so I think in the true sense of a year on letter, it should be just a general thing. However, if your organization is going into the year-end and you are needing something specific, you need to ask for that because people are gonna want know what they’re giving to and that that differences and then as soon as you have, as soon as they donate and you have, you’re able to say we were able to find X, Y, and Z or this is this, then you share that with those individuals as in the thank you or a follow-up or something so that they know they’re that, that what they did made a difference, and helps retain them as donors.

Monica Pitts  
Do you segment your year-end giving letters like by your audience at all, because I can imagine where, let’s say that you have hundreds of new contacts that ran your 5k, you don’t have a deep relationship with them. And maybe you have a campaign that you run where you’re getting, I’m thinking year-end, right. So you might be asking for sort of scarves, or mittens or whatever, maybe there’s a very specific thing that you’re asking for it the end of the year. But then you also have this like ayear-end letter, it makes me wonder if you couldn’t segment them and be like, Okay, you people that we don’t know very well. Just remember that there’s buckets, and all the grocery stores and all the schools, I buy scarf, put it in the bucket, thank you so much. And then for the other folks, you might be like, alright, friends, it’s that time of year, we need your help, let’s get this final push underway.

Heather Stewart  
I think that would be great if one that people have the capacity to do that. And I mean capacity both not only in the staffing to do it, or the experience and somebody knowing how to separate that or, and having what whatever you organize your donors in. If you have a donor database, if you have an Excel spreadsheet, something that you can track, because that’s going to take some time to organize that I think that spans if you can do it. But then if you separate them out in you because they are separated, you can’t bulk mail them do you have to have the people to actually do the letters, do the stamps, get them in there and take care of that. So I think it’s more of a capacity thing. There is extreme value in that. Now, on the flip side of that, if you have a donor database that has like, email, things like that, and you know, and those newer donors, I would say, half to nine of nine out of 10 of those individuals come with an email, because they have they found you that you could step out and target them with a separate letter or a separate content saying, Hey, thanks for you know, doing this, and however you do your follow up. But you should already have them segmented or be able to do that, to do a specific ask or targeted towards them. But they’re going to be a capacity. And it’s really going to be a knowledge and experience level with those individuals. To do that, I think there’s definitely good retention rate when you can do that with those donors.

Monica Pitts  
So you’re saying, if that makes it would be better to send the same letter out to every single person regardless, then it would be to not send it out at all, because you were so worried about doing these other complicated things like do the thing that you can do, even if it’s not perfect, do it anyway.

Heather Stewart  
Well, because you know that I think, to you and I have been in marketing for, you know, just a little over five or six years, because, you know, we haven’t been in it that long. But you know, we’re going back to the old touches of people needing seven to 10 touches to really be drawn in and are those donors to grow that stuff. And I think we’re back in that where people need to be shared the information before they make that big commitment. And for some donors in Columbia, it’s they do a donation to kind of touch the waters to see what their donor journey is going to be like for that organization, what the things are going to be what the follow up is going to be.

And sometimes those $25 or $50 donation that might be a first time thing will turn into a larger donation the next year to see how they get interact, and then even larger one in the coming years. 

So you can’t it’s better if you don’t have the capacity to get everything out to do everybody at once that at least they know what everybody’s getting, you know, so that they’re not being left out because better to get something and to get it than to not get it at all and be like, well, they don’t care enough about me to send it because you don’t know if they’re sitting next to somebody at the office that said, Oh, I got my letter from back today. And they said this and they’re like, Well, I didn’t get anything and maybe they gave $500 But because they didn’t you know what I’m saying? Yeah, it’s better to do it all on that in that case, if you don’t have the capacity to do it.

Monica Pitts  
Done is better than perfect. Really, right. You’ve, you’ve been doing the year-end giving campaign with back for like the last three years. One question that I wanted to ask was, do you use the same letter template every year? Or do you freshen it up? Like, how would you suggest people go about doing that?

Heather Stewart  
It’s pretty similar the letter text, like kind of like the specific ask, the more formal ask is pretty much in the letter on the front with a signature. And you know, the traditional stuff that you put in the letter that we’ve already talked about. And then the backside is really where it has more of a success story where you’re making a difference. It might be sometimes we’ve added like a something that was coming up that they needed to know about, kind of an FYI. And then it was very clear, here’s how you can get, here’s what you can do. So this specific ask was on the back. I mean, there was an Ask within the letter, but it was more of a soft ask because it was kind of buried in the letter. But the back is really, here’s how you can donate we’re making it easy for ya go from there. And it changes just for visually just to get things because sometimes you get things more concise, and you just want to change up so it doesn’t get stale. To know you’re getting the same letter every year.

Monica Pitts  
So you use last year’s letter, for the front part, like the traditional letter, you use that as a template, and then you adjust it every year. And then the back part, you’re gonna adjust even more, which is?

Heather Stewart  
Yeah, that’s true. Yeah. And it’s really more of like, and I think that’s to it speaks to whoever the voice is, because you may have had a turnover in whoever’s doing the giving, you might have a new director of development, you might have somebody that switched. And so it, it needs to have the same voice, the same brand of your organization, but that person has to have some ownership for them, it might make it more, you know, you might want to put the ask on top as opposed to the bottom. And just or depending on what content you have, you might actually have a picture one time and you want to put it here, and you want it.

So I think it really depends on that, but you have a structure, it’s traditionally the letter because it is the end of the year letter, you have that more formal type letter. And that’s what a lot of our donors have. The bulk of our donors have expected because we’ve been around for 50-plus years. That’s what they’re used to saying. And we still have a good chunk of those donors, we’re starting to build a better chunk of new donors to the organization. So we still have to keep to some of those old traditions, if you will.

Monica Pitts  
Yeah. So it sounds like too much so that you do send a letter is because it’s something that your donors are used to. But I do think that there’s a place for direct mail and nonprofit marketing that they just didn’t like. And there’s research that shows that you can reach millennials through it as well, because there’s so much clutter everywhere else and somehow isn’t existing as much in your actual mailbox anymore. So it’s like junk mail is now reserved to my email, and the actual letters open and look at. 

Heather Stewart  
Yes. And I think you know, because when you do, when you do those you get, you have to do the like labels or whatever on the letters. So it’s not that bulk mail, and people know that there’s something that they need to take a look at. So yeah, it’s a little bit of an it’s got a real stamp on it, so people will look.

Monica Pitts  

Okay, so before we wrap up, is there anything that you would like to say to people who are trying to create a year-end ask that will stick that will well, that they can use a template year after year, but then also that will compel people to give and create a response.

Heather Stewart  
One is looking at what compels you and what you’ve gotten as a donor because more than likely, you’ve probably given to an organization in the past. Talk to your board members, if you have board members, if you’re writing from that nonprofit world, to find out what compels them, and we have phenomenal board members that will send me correspondence that they’ve gotten from organizations to say, Hey, you did a really good job at this, is there something that we can modify and like, you know, bring into what we’re doing. So look to those people, ask your friends, what they’re interested in doing. And then find some look at what you’ve done in the past. And based on that, if you were successful, because of something you did like a format, maybe that year, it brought in, you know, $45,000 in end of the year giving because it might have been that format.

So just kind of take a look at stuff and find out what works.

I don’t I don’t know that there’s one magical template format that works. It’s got to be for that organization. But ask around find out what works for you. I know how I am and I know how the other people in my community are so I can kind of are in my network of people that I asked and that are down Here’s how to frame that and how to make it look for consumable for them and for me. And so I think it’s really knowing your audience and that kind of stuff. It takes a lot of work, it’s, there’s actually a science to it. And it’s okay, if you fail, it’s okay. I mean, even if you don’t get a whole lot back from it, you still got it in the people’s mailbox, they still had to open it. And they still had to do some type of looking at it. So at least you made some type of an impression. Whether it resulted in your dollars or, you know, $50,000, it still resulted in something and somebody at least got it in their mailbox to see what you were doing.

Monica Pitts  
Yep. And maybe it resulted on the positive side. Maybe it just resulted in the dinner conversation, which is still word-of-mouth advertising. And that’s a beautiful thing. You can’t Yes, yeah, paid for that. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. Heather, will you tell people how they can learn more about VAC or get in contact with you if they like want to pick your brain about something?

Heather Stewart  
Yeah, so you can visit our website, which is www.VACmo.org. Or you can email me at dirdev@vacmo.org. And I’m more than happy to just shoot the breeze with you. I don’t say everything I do is fantastic. I just will share what I’ve done and let you ascertain what you need from it. But I am passionate about what I do. And I think that there are some good things that I’ve done. And there are some things that have completely flopped, but have allowed me to do other good things because I know it, you know how to work it. And so I’m happy to share I don’t have anything that I feel is like my own and I have to guard it like the ring my precious, I will share it because I think we’re all successful in this community is pretty savvy with giving to multiple organizations.

So we should share the wealth and not be siloed.

Monica Pitts  
So that’s I agree. And I know I pick your brain all the time to I’ll be like, hey, what do you think about this, just to get your feedback, because I don’t know, like, sometimes I just get stuck in my own head. And you need to have that little network of people that you can for us to give you really honest feedback.

Heather Stewart  
Yeah, it’s not always the feedback you want to hear. And it may not be helpful at the time, but it might come back. So really, if somebody has questions or whatever, I’m happy to provide some insight. So and thank you for coming to participate in this, Monica, I appreciate it.

Monica Pitts  
No problem. Well, thank you so much for your time today. And thank you to all of our listeners. Hopefully, you learned a thing or two and if you did, you could review this podcast and that would help us meet more people just like you you’re like giving me a digital thumbs up to the search algorithms in the podcast universe every time that you review it. So thank you in advance for your review and until next time, go forth and market with purpose.