One Seriously Saturated Season: 3 Reasons Nonprofits Should NOT Overdo It Around the Holidays

Is that jingle bells, or a series of nonstop email notifications?

The holidays have been a bustling time of the year for decades, but the 21st century really kicked things into overdrive. In fact, 2024 is the first year that average consumer spending in the United States on holiday gifts is going to exceed $1,000. Such a spike in spending is like catnip to most companies, so the marketing of the holiday season simply hasn’t stopped accelerating.

Unfortunately, there are some serious downsides to such a saturated season. By and large, customers are weary of holiday-themed commercialism, and brands waste over $600 million per year on ad spend with little or no return on investment (ROI). Simply put, many industries are overdoing it around the holidays, and the nonprofit sector is no exception.

Is your organization sending out several mass appeal marketing campaigns this holiday season? What if I told you that such a strategy might actually be hurting your chances at long-term success?

Nearly every nonprofit organization gears up for intensive marketing at the start of the holiday season. That said, you might actually be better off by going against the grain. After many years of partnering with a variety of successful nonprofits, these are the three reasons I consistently encourage organizations to NOT overdo it around the holidays.

It exacerbates donor fatigue. 

Have you ever played the informal social game Desert Island? It’s the one where you choose a category, such as books, movies, or food, then discuss as a group which items from those categories you would take with you when stranded on an island. To read forever. To watch forever. To eat forever. I could never really choose because I figured there wasn’t a single item anywhere I wouldn’t grow to detest after a year or two of constant consumption.

Donor fatigue is rooted in logic, and it’s already a consistent problem for nonprofit organizations no matter the time of year. Once the holiday season arrives, and almost every organization is blasting their donor appeals from the snow-covered rooftops, you can only imagine how much fatigue gets generated. Tips and donations were already sinking last holiday season, so it stands to reason that something about the ecosystem is bothering supporters.

Some say that donor fatigue is a myth, pointing to the large number of donations pulled in during such a small portion of the year. However, that isn’t the whole picture. These patterns have been orchestrated by the system itself, and such figures never consider the question of efficiency.

Things to remember:

• Close to 10% of all giving gets crammed into the last three days of the year.
• If your organization does launch a campaign, find ways to be creative about it.

It degrades your organization’s uniqueness. 

If you take a tiny amount of white paint and mix it together with a large amount of red paint, the white will largely disappear. In fact, if the amount of paint is disproportionate enough, you might not even be able to tell that the color has changed.

Studies have shown that small- to medium-sized nonprofits need to make “a name” for themselves to be successful, meaning they need to cultivate a strong brand in what is an increasingly saturated market. However, when you’re just another organization in a sea of organizations sending out heartfelt messages around the holidays, your brand can get weakened — or lost altogether. Sure, holiday giving might bring an influx of cash with every season, but at what cost?

Things to remember:

• Uniqueness should be baked into your organizational values. Do your vision and mission need another look?
• Start thinking strategically about how your organization will deal with market saturation during any season.

It offers poor ROI. 

If you plant 100 seeds of almost anything, you’re bound to produce a few seedlings. However, most gardeners look at that task in a much larger context. What percentage of seeds actually germinated? How much of the garden was used? How much water did they require? How did the process affect the garden itself?

Nonprofit organizations have the habit of depending heavily on end-of-the-year email marketing campaigns. The system is built around these yearly patterns of giving, so many organizations gear up for their annual email blasts without even thinking about the actual ROI. What are we really getting in return? How does this come across to our community of supporters? Is there another way to do this?

You might be annoying more supporters than you are actually reaching. Over 16% of emails from nonprofit organizations are not delivered or sent directly to spam. During the holidays, response rates for these campaigns commonly dip to 1% or lower. Even paid campaigns suffer under such market saturation because you need to spend more to reach the same amount of people.

Things to remember:

• Email revenue for nonprofit organizations continues to decline with a 7% dip just last year.
• Are you tracking your holiday marketing ROI? If so, take an analytical look at the past.

What to do instead? 

If you aren’t joining in on the jingle bells of marketing madness, what do you do instead? The number one thing all nonprofit organizations should concern themselves with around the holidays is further cultivating their community of relationships.

Show joy and gratitude throughout the season. Wish people a happy holiday — in person, or with a phone call. Take your staff to the doors of your biggest supporters to sing carols and offer support. Or, save your communication for January when people are out from under the weight of the holiday marketing blitz.

Written by Donald Summers, Ed.M.
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