8 Tips for Fiscal Year End Fundraising

Editor’s Note: This post was updated in April 2025 for accuracy and relevance to our audience.

Every year, GiveCampus supports schools in the final stretch before the fiscal year ends. We take this role seriously, ensuring our Partner institutions have the support, tools, and inspiration they need to reach their fiscal year goals.

Our comprehensive platform helps schools run successful FYE campaigns with greater ease and impact. From GC Intelligence, which simplifies identifying high-potential donors, to GC Outreach, which streamlines creating a multi-channel personalized messaging approach, we have solutions for every stage of the donor lifecycle.

But, a successful fiscal year-end strategy goes beyond having the right tools and tech and requires the human touch to bring donors across the finish line. The most effective campaigns find ways to make giving feel timely, personal, and purposeful. From leaning into storytelling and community rituals like graduation to surfacing urgent calls-to-action and real-time progress updates, fiscal year-end success often comes down to how well you connect your community to your cause—at just the right time. 

To help you end on a strong note, below are eight communications strategies to test during fiscal year end. With the right strategies—and the right platform—you can make every gift count, right up until the final hour.

1. Choose a theme or purpose

While your fiscal year may close on June 30, that deadline likely doesn’t hold the same weight for your donors. That’s why it’s so important to lead with a compelling theme or unifying purpose—something that resonates emotionally, feels urgent, and reinforces the collective impact your community can make.

A thoughtful campaign theme isn’t just a creative touch; it’s a powerful motivator. It provides context for your appeal, helps distinguish your campaign from the many other messages your audience receives, and gives donors a reason to see their gift as part of something larger. A strong theme can tap into nostalgia, pride, school spirit, or shared values—and it helps donors feel like they’re making a meaningful contribution rather than merely executing a transaction.

Below are some examples of how your peers have utilized GC Online Giving to showcase specific, meaningful campaign themes:

Smith College’s “Plant What You Love” campaign beautifully connects giving with growth, inviting donors to plant seeds of support in the areas that matter most to them—from student life to sustainability. This thematic approach empowers the community to nurture the Smith experience in meaningful, personal ways.

Colgate University’s “Fourth Quarter Countdown” campaign channels the energy of a winning season into one final push. With record-breaking achievements across academics and athletics among their student-athletes, this campaign celebrates excellence and invites supporters to fuel future victories before the fiscal year ends.

This example comes from our Partner Success Team but the theme is ripe for the taking nonetheless. This campaign puts the importance of continuous giving front and center. Check out the full campaign page to see how they motivate donors to maintain their “streak.”

2. Find emotional ties—graduation is a great one

Graduation is one of the most emotionally resonant moments on the academic calendar—and it’s a powerful opportunity to connect donors to your institution’s mission. This milestone symbolizes growth, transformation, and community, making it an ideal narrative to tap into during your fiscal year-end appeals.

Whether they graduated last year or decades ago, alumni are often moved by the sights and sounds of commencement: caps in the air, familiar campus landmarks, speeches that inspire. Share photos, highlight reels, and livestreams of graduation ceremonies to evoke nostalgia and pride. These visual and emotional cues can remind alumni of their own journey and the role your institution played in shaping their path.

If you’re hosting a celebration for graduating seniors, don’t forget to add a FYE fundraising component to your event page. With GC Events, you can easily link your event registration page to a campaign page or giving form. An impressive 10 percent of guests who register for an event on the GiveCampus platform choose to make a gift at the same time during checkout—don’t sleep on this opportunity to generate some final FYE gifts!

3. Layer in a second ask

Just because a donor has already given during the fiscal year doesn’t mean they’re done giving. In fact, fiscal year-end is a smart time to re-engage existing supporters, especially when you pair gratitude with a clear, compelling reason to give again. Express genuine appreciation for their earlier gift and demonstrate the tangible results it helped achieve—then frame the second ask as an opportunity to help reach a specific goal or unlock a new milestone. Many donors, particularly loyal ones, are open to a second contribution when the timing, message, and motivation align.

But here’s the thing: if your second-ask strategy still solely involves blasting a generic follow-up to all previous donors, it’s time to level up. A more effective approach involves identifying which donors are most likely to give again, and why, and then tailoring your outreach accordingly.

This is where GC Intelligence can help. Instead of relying on traditional segments like “repeat donors” or “LYBUNTs,” GC Intelligence surfaces high-potential donors based on actual behavioral data and likelihood models. It can help you create a second-ask segment specifically targeted at those most likely to respond positively, saving time and increasing return. Some valuable example smart segments include: highly likely to make a recurring gift, likely to be an advocate, and likely to make a leadership gift. 

With Smart Ask Amounts, these appeals can also be customized to suggest gift levels that reflect each donor’s capacity and giving history—removing guesswork and maximizing conversion. In fact, donors are 30% more likely to accept a suggested amount, and 25% more likely to give their biggest gift yet.

4. Solicit LYBUNTS strategically

Fiscal year-end is one of the best times to renew support from donors who gave last year but haven’t yet contributed this year—commonly referred to as LYBUNTs. These donors are often still engaged and mission-aligned, and with the right message at the right time, they can be persuaded to renew their support.

GiveCampus Smart Appeals and pre-built segments allow you to quickly and dynamically generate lists of donors who are primed for a timely renewal message. Want to see who gave last June but not this year? Or who typically gives late in the fiscal year? Those segments are already built in the platform and ready to leverage.

Using GC Outreach, you can then deliver personalized messages that reference each donor’s history, suggest the optimal gift amount, and even pre-select the recurring gift option when appropriate. Plus, GiveCampus makes it easy to use a multi-channel approach, allowing you and your advocates to send emails and text messages all from within the platform. 

FYE is the best moment to win back these donors—and with the right data and tools, your renewal strategy can feel as personalized and intentional as your acquisition efforts.

5. Make it quick and easy for donors to give

You’ve done the hard work of identifying and reaching the right donors—don’t let a clunky donation experience stop them from completing their gift.

A streamlined, mobile-friendly giving experience can make the difference between a completed donation and an abandoned form. That means reducing friction at every step—especially when it comes to how people pay.

Digital wallets are quickly becoming a game-changing part of that experience—and now there are more ways to pay than ever before. GiveCampus now supports two powerful new options that are improving conversion rates and unlocking donor potential:

• Link by Stripe. Link allows donors to securely save and reuse payment details for a faster checkout experience. It’s especially popular among younger constituents.
•  DAFpay by Chariot. DAFpay enables donors to contribute through donor-advised funds with just a few clicks. Early results show that average gift sizes through DAFpay are 4–5x larger than standard gifts, and 20 percent of donors increase their intended gift amount midway through the process.

By enabling these digital wallet options on your FYE campaign pages and giving forms, you’re meeting donors where they are, how they give, and on the devices they use most. When giving is fast, familiar, and frictionless, donors are more likely to come back and give again.

6. Embrace a multichannel approach

If you’re relying on just one or two channels to communicate with your donors during fiscal year-end, you’re likely leaving engagement—and donations—on the table. Today’s donors are spread across inboxes, devices, and platforms, and your campaign strategy should reflect that reality.

Reaching donors through multiple touchpoints increases visibility and reinforces your message in a way that builds trust and drives action. A multichannel approach also gives you flexibility. A donor might ignore an email but click a text reminder. Someone who scrolls past your campaign on Instagram might stop to watch a 20-second video message from a student. Diversifying your outreach increases the odds that your message lands—and sticks. FYE is the perfect time to experiment with new formats, mix up your cadence, and ensure no one misses the opportunity to give.

GiveCampus Partners are leveraging tools like GC Outreach to orchestrate these touchpoints with more precision and ease. They can send personalized email and SMS campaigns all from the same platform used to host their FYE campaign and any end-of-year events!

7. Focus on the thank-you messaging

While thank-you messages for gifts and volunteer efforts are standard practice, this is the moment to take them a step further. Rather than generic acknowledgments, consider customizing your stewardship based on what individuals actually contributed—be it time, advocacy, or a specific type of gift. A volunteer who recruited five classmates, a donor who increased their giving from last year, or someone who made a first-time recurring gift all deserve tailored recognition. These details matter, and they reflect that you’re paying attention.

That level of personalization might sound time-intensive, especially during the busiest weeks of your fiscal year—but this is where built-in AI-powered outreach tools can be a game-changer. GC Outreach allows advancement teams to send personalized thank-you messages at scale using custom variables to dynamically insert names, gift details, volunteer roles, and more—all from within the GiveCampus platform. 

Learn more about GC Outreach

8. Consider the gift that keeps on giving—long after FYE is in the books

FYE is a prime time to secure recurring gifts from your community. In fact, GiveCampus data suggests that donors who receive a recurring gift nudge in the six weeks leading up to both CYE and FYE switch their one-time gift to a recurring gift 6.8% of the time. The key is to make recurring giving feel intentional, easy, and valued. Use this moment of campaign momentum to invite donors to extend their impact with ongoing support. Position recurring gifts as an investment in the long-term success of students, faculty, and programs—not just a one-time goal.

With GC Online Giving, you can easily highlight recurring gift options on donation forms in ways that feel seamless and natural. You can pre-select monthly giving, offer AI-recommended ask amounts, or include messaging that emphasizes convenience and impact (e.g., “$10/month = 12 meals in the dining hall” or “Support every class, every season, all year long”). And don’t forget, GiveCampus makes it easy to identify the donors most primed to commit to a recurring gift with the “likely to make a recurring gift” Smart Segments built by GC Intelligence. This takes the guesswork out of putting the right ask in front of the right donor.

Make the most of your FYE fundraising with GiveCampus

Whether you’re in the midst of planning this year’s FYE initiatives or already thinking ahead to next year, GiveCampus is here to help your advancement team fundraise more effectively and efficiently. Join us for one of our drop-in demos—held on the first and third Thursday of each month—for a quick, 45-minute walkthrough of the GiveCampus platform. It’s a great way to see what’s new on the platform and gather fresh ideas to reach more donors, raise more dollars, and save time along the way.

Save your spot for our next Drop-In Demo