Year-end fundraising is too important to figure out by yourself.

This year, we're working personally with 10 nonprofit organizations to help them plan, write, strengthen, and get their year-end fundraising out the door.

You'll have Chris Davenport and Josh Alcorn working alongside you on your appeal, emails, fundraising offer, giving page, major donors, and the decisions that determine how much you raise.

This year, we're doing it with 10 organizations. It's called Year-End, Handled.

Because we're actually getting into the work with you, there's a limit to how many organizations we can help this way.

"We followed Chris and Josh's advice and met our goal. In fact, we more than tripled, if not quadrupled, what the same campaign did last year."
~ Jenny Darlington-Person, Executive Director, Arts Council of Placer County

$50,000? $100,000? $200,000? More?

Year-End, Handled costs $3,800.

For that, you add two experienced fundraisers to your team through December 31, working with you on the campaign responsible for raising that money.

We're not handing you a course and wishing you luck.

We're getting into the work with you: helping make the decisions, shape the campaign, strengthen what you write, and get it out the door.

That's what Year-End, Handled is about.

From the day you join through December 31, Chris Davenport and Josh Alcorn join your fundraising team. You bring us the number you need to raise, where you are now, and what you have to work with. We help you figure out the best way to go after it, then work alongside you to get the fundraising done.

Start with the number

Maybe you need another $25,000 before the end of the year. Maybe it's $100,000. Maybe that money keeps a program running, makes payroll, lets you hire someone you need, or simply lets you start January with some breathing room.

Our first question is not, "What should your appeal say?"

It is: Where is the money most likely to come from?

Your year-end appeal? Your email list? Lapsed donors? Five people who could make a significant gift? Some combination of all of them?

We help you find the real opportunities first. Then we build the fundraising around them.

Then we help you do the work

Your seat is open from the day you join through December 31. In that time, we'll help you find the story, write your fundraising letters and emails, strengthen your donation page, and figure out which major donors to contact, what to ask them for, and how to approach them.

Come with a draft, a rough idea, or nothing but a date on the calendar. We'll meet you where you are and work alongside you from there.

First we figure out what needs to happen. Then we help you make it happen.

And we don’t stop at fundraising appeals.

Your year-end fundraising is bigger than one letter.

We can help you think through your emails, your giving page, your campaign timing, your follow-up, your major donors, and the other fundraising decisions that come up between now and December 31.

If you’re wondering whether to send another email, how to approach a major donor, what to change on the giving page, whether your offer is clear enough, or what to do when something isn’t working, bring it to us.

The point is that you have experienced fundraisers on your team while year-end is actually happening.

Major donors are part of that too.

We’ll help you decide who deserves personal attention, what you want to talk with them about, what you’re asking them to make possible, and how to approach them before the year ends.

"I followed the process, trusted the feedback, and it worked. The appeal had a monumental response. We got more checks, more forms back, gifts from people who hadn't given in years, and increased gifts from current donors."
~ Janet Kleyn, President & CEO, Agape Villages Foster Family Agency

We Get Your Campaign Started With You

On Tuesdays and Fridays we'll get together on Zoom.

These are working sessions, not another training. We'll help you figure out the story your campaign should be built around, what you're asking donors to help make possible, and how those pieces fit together. You can come with ideas already in place or start from scratch.

The goal is to leave the session knowing what your year-end campaign is about and having the Story and Offer you can use to start building your letter, emails, giving page, and other campaign materials.

And that’s just the start.

This is where your year-end campaign gets built.

When we make a decision together, it goes into the campaign you’re actually building.

By the time year-end arrives, this won’t be a workbook full of ideas.

It’ll be your campaign.

We're LIVE four days a week

There are four opportunities every week to get help. You don't need to attend all four. Come when you need us.

Tuesdays: Reviews and Strategies

Open sessions with both of us. Whatever's in front of you is what we work on. Your plan, your story, your offer, your letter, your emails, your giving page, your major donor outreach. We talk it through, look at the work, and figure out the next move with you.

Other fundraisers are at the table too, and you can show up and just listen. It's common for somebody else to ask questions you didn't know you had.

Wednesdays: Write-It Wednesdays

Time on your calendar to actually write. You show up, you work, and we're right there when you get stuck. Most fundraising meetings send you home with more notes and less time. You'll leave this one with words on the page.

Thursdays: Tactical Thursdays

Every Thursday, Josh brings in a guest to share what they know and opens the conversation up for questions.

You’ll hear new ideas and perspectives from fundraisers, consultants, and other experts. Then, inside Pro, we can keep the conversation going. We can talk about whether an idea makes sense for your organization, how you might use it, and help you put it into practice.

Fridays: Reviews and Strategies

Same as Tuesdays. Whatever's in front of you is what we work on. Your plan, your story, your offer, your letter, your emails, your giving page, your major donor outreach. We talk it through, look at the work, and figure out the next move with you.

Come to all of them, come to one, or skip a week when you're moving along fine on your own. There's no curriculum here to fall behind on.

Imagine Getting to Year-End With This Already Handled

Your campaign had a clear goal.

You gave donors something specific to make possible. You found a story that gave them a reason to care.

Your appeal went out. Your emails went out. Your giving page supported the campaign.

You personally reached out to the major donors who mattered.

And through the whole process, Chris and Josh were on your team, helping you make the decisions, strengthen the fundraising, and get it all out the door.

That’s Year-End, Handled.

"Pro changed the way we approach fundraising. Before, every appeal felt like we were starting from scratch. Now our fundraising is easier, clearer, and more focused. We have a purpose behind what we're doing, a structure we can follow, and much more confidence. We don't have to reinvent the wheel every time we write an appeal."
~ Eric Steigerwald, Senior Director of Marketing & Program Development, Bring Magic to Kids in Hospitals

Story. Offer. Ask.

Everything we build with you runs on three questions.

Story. Why should this donor care?

Offer. What does their gift make possible?

Ask. What do you want them to do?

Campaigns usually skip the part about getting a donor to care.  And then organizations wonder why the Ask didn't work well. During your year end campaign, you'll use Story Offer Ask to write messages more of your donors will respond to.

Year-end won't be the only thing on your desk

Between now and December there'll be thank-you letters, monthly giving messages, major donor notes, event invitations, stewardship emails, landing pages, and a board presentation somebody dropped on you with a week's notice.

None of that gets set aside because we're working on the year-end campaign. If it's in front of you, we work on it with you. If you fundraise with it, we'll help you make it stronger.

Pro has helped us move toward a more donor-focused plan for our fundraising. We’ve improved our appeals and newsletters, added new things like urgent e-appeals and a gift catalog, and raised money in ways we had never tried before.
~ Kimberlee Casavan, Operations & Fundraising Manager, Copper River Watershed Project

Year-End Major Donor Plan

Year-end is also when you reach out personally to the donors who could give more.

We'll help you figure out which major donors to focus on, who should make the call, what the conversation should be about, what to ask for, and how all of it fits with the campaign you're already sending.

What you end up with is a plan your team can actually use in the last months of the year.

Who you're working with

Chris Davenport is the founder of the Nonprofit Storytelling Conference and author of Stories That Raise Money. For 19 years, he has helped nonprofit organizations use storytelling to raise more money and build stronger relationships with donors. He has trained thousands of fundraisers, but much of his work is also done sitting alongside fundraising teams, helping them find the right story, figure out what to ask donors to make possible, and turn those decisions into fundraising that gets sent.

Josh Alcorn has been raising money since his elementary school’s “Tags for Tots Coin Drive” in 1988. Since then, he’s raised money for schools, political campaigns, and charitable causes near and dear to his heart. He now co-produces the Nonprofit Storytelling Conference, hosts Tactical Thursdays, and spends much of his time working alongside nonprofit fundraisers as they figure out what to say, what to ask for, and how to make their fundraising stronger.

We read fundraising letters every week. Most of them break in the same few places, and we can show you where yours does before your donors ever see it.

Every organization at our table runs a year-end campaign, and every fall we work on them one after another. We know what the last eight weeks of the year feel like from the inside.

This is a good fit if

• You're starting your year-end campaign from a blank page
• You already have one and you know it could be better
• You want someone to look at the important pieces before they go out
• You'd rather have help when you need it than a course you have to keep up with
• You want to see how other nonprofits are solving the same problems you are

Join by September 30 and you’ll also get all of this.

Year-End, Handled gives you Chris and Josh working alongside you through December 31.

Join by September 30, and we’ll also give you the tools to keep strengthening your fundraising long after this year-end campaign is over.

Stories That Raise Money — $30 value
Chris’s new book gives you the thinking behind Story. Offer. Ask. and the storytelling principles we’ll be using as we work on your campaign.

Stories That Raise Money Toolkit — $99 value
Five practical field guides, the Story. Offer. Ask. Map, worksheets, templates, and the Story Bank spreadsheet.

The guides help you find the right story, interview it well, get permission, help your staff recognize stories, keep what you collect organized, and check your fundraising before it goes out. 

One year of NPSC Membership — $295 value
A full year inside the Nonprofit Storytelling Club, including the training library, member resources, and member benefits.

That’s $424 in additional resources included when you join by September 30.