Are You Starting Year-End Fundraising Too Late? With Mike Kim & Mary Valloni of Fully Funded Academy

This episode is coming out in October, first of October, first week of October.

And so we're we're not behind on this so you can do this right now the the process they're about to explain you can jump in right now don't feel like you're behind but it kind of does start in september for you will you tell us that process what that looks like

yeah so in september what happens in september all the kids go back to school the nfl starts again yes it just feels like people are more serious about life summer's over so send an email to your supporters and say hey happy back to school fall feels like a beginning of a new year in many ways and talk a little bit about what fall is like and what that means for you um well let's say you send out two emails that month the other one could just be about like three books i read this past summer that were really helpful right we've seen so many people send that email out and get such great responses it doesn't have to be a profound post you just be like hey i read this book over the summer or these three books i'd recommend them to you guys keep praying for us and we're praying for you guys yeah and there's not necessarily a direct appeal for support um we have a little footer that goes into our emails that makes it possible for everyone to support but that's just building relationship october uh yes talk about halloween hey we're in this country they celebrate halloween here it's kind of weird like it's a little different right mary lives in mexico the day of the dead yeah but that's in may right and so it's like um you're just bridging communication one of the fun uh posts that a lot of our missionaries write in october is how to pack in five minutes and you guys know how to pack in five minutes well what's the rationale behind that how's that even valuable in raising support well all of your supporters might be traveling in november and december to go see their family for the holidays people hate traveling They hate dealing with all those headaches.

So it's just a fun way to connect and get them to see a little bit of the inside of your world.

November is a layup.

November, it's like first email is like, we're grateful for you.

Here's my gratitude practice.

And the next email is happy Thanksgiving.

And in a few weeks in December, we're going to send a financial review letter, let you know what's been going on this past year.

but in that letter we're also going to share with you the vision god has given us for 2027. yeah so that letter is like a it's like a double whammy it's like a combo so you share the financial review like how and what you guys accomplished and then you're still dovetailing that with the vision for the next year so it doesn't feel like a report yeah right yeah and then in the latter half of december you're sending that support letter we have templates for for our members you can either snail mail it if you normally do that i also want you to email it So that in case they don't open their snail mail, cause I don't open my snail.

Yeah.

Right.

It's just a huge stack of, of, of mail.

Um, send that.

And then the final week of December, you're sending an email reminder.

Hey, remember our support letter? Um, Deadlines come in December 31st.

And what does that say? It's something like 12% of all donations coming in the last three days of the year.

Right.

And the last like 30% comes in the last 45 days of the year.

So if you've been communicating from September or even October, it's not too late.

October, November, December, there is, that is like a marketing campaign in many ways.

Like nobody, um, releases a movie and doesn't talk about it for three months before.

This is like the movie trailer kind of thing, right? As you're going, you're building up.

And that is why so many of our missionaries have seen results.

They're not scrambling, like you were saying, Ben.