As the fiscal year draws to a close for most colleges and universities, the pressure is on to secure those last-minute gifts that will bring institutions over their annual goal lines. Thankfully, there is still plenty of time to make significant gains in both dollars and donors, and EverTrue is here to help!
As we all know, this is the time of year when it’s all about LYBUNTs, the donors who gave last year, but unfortunately not this year. These folks are already in your corner. They’ve raised their hand before. Now’s the moment to make sure they don’t slip through the cracks.
Think it’s too late to pull together a last-minute LYBUNT campaign? Think again! With Clarity and Signal, it couldn’t be easier to target LYBUNTs for strategic and personalized asks in plenty of time to see results before you close out the fiscal year. Here are two ways to make it happen, whether you’re on the major gifts side or running point for annual giving.
Major Gifts: LYBUNTs in Portfolios
We get it. Sometimes you pull your prospects out of traditional annual giving appeals, thinking you’re about to ask them for a major gift, only to find that the year has flown by and they haven’t been solicited for anything. But never fear. If you’re worried there might be some LYBUNTs lurking in your major gift portfolio, here’s a great way to reach out to them using Clarity and Signal.
Step by step
1. From Clarity, open the Annual Giving Summary dashboard.
2. Make the following filter selections:
- Change the Timeframe from “YTD” to “Full Year.”
- Look at the dollar filters. If you don’t want to limit your list by dollar amount, replace the “High Amount” filter with a string of “9”s. This will mean you’ll get donors of any amount.
- Go to the “Current Solicitor” filter and de-select “All.”
- Next, scroll down to your name and just check the box next to it. This will result in only showing the prospects in your own portfolio.
- Finally, in the “See Details” filter, select “LYBUNTs.”
3. After you’ve added these filters, click on the button marked “Data” near the “Retention” visualization.
Now you will see a handy list of all the prospects in your portfolio who haven’t given this year. From here, you can create a list in Signal by following the handy steps on the left side of your screen, and you can drop that list into an outreach cadence so you can reach out to them before the fiscal year ends.
Don’t worry: major donors who are paying down a pledge will not be counted in the list of LYBUNTs unless they haven’t made their pledge payment this year. And in that case, maybe they’d appreciate a friendly reminder?
If you want to get extra credit:
Check the Portfolio Pipeline dashboard in Clarity to make sure you have no overdue asks, and take a look at the pending asks to see if anyone on the list could use a friendly touchpoint. Check this out for tips on how to do it.
Annual Giving: Target Your Top LYBUNTs
For Annual Giving teams, this is the time of year to be laser-focused on LYBUNTs. Clarity and Signal offer plenty of ways to help you get started, but let’s begin with a modified version of the use case above.
Step by step
1. From Clarity, open the Annual Giving Summary dashboard.
2. Make the following filter selections:
- Change the Timeframe from “YTD” to “Full Year.”
- Look at the dollar filters. You may want to consider running several searches so you can put the LYBUNT lists into groups according to their past giving levels. For example, a search limited between $1,000 and $9,999 might yield an excellent list for a DXO or leadership annual giving officer to tackle.
- Consider using the “Unit” filter if you’d like to separate constituents according to the unit they are affiliated with (for example, a specific college or campus).
- If you’d like to remove prospects that are assigned, you can go to the “Current Solicitor” filter and de-select “All.”
- Next, scroll down to “Not Assigned” and check the box next to it. This will result in only showing unassigned prospects.
- Finally, in the “See Details” filter, select “LYBUNTs.”
3. After you have filtered the data using these options, click on the button marked “Data” near the “Retention” visualization.
Now you will see a handy list of all the prospects that match your filter criteria who haven’t given this year. From this point, follow the steps on the left side of your screen to create a new list with these constituents.
Here's a tip:
Check out Signal’s new List Filters to further refine your list. We recommend filtering out any deceased records and any records with Solicitation Codes that you want to avoid (e.g., “Do not solicit”). After the list is filtered, you can review it manually or simply copy all the records and place them into a Signal cadence for an end-of-year ask.
Conclusion
Year-end fundraising isn’t just about hitting goals—it’s about building momentum for the future. When you pair Clarity’s insights with Signal’s outreach tools (by the way, have you heard about Signal Video?), you’ll ensure that every LYBUNT gets a personal touchpoint in time to make a gift before June 30.
You’ve still got time. You’ve got the tools. And we’ve got your back.
Let’s make it happen!
