Ep. 174: The Campaign Hangover: What To Do When You’re Exhausted (and Still Need to Raise More)
EPISODE 174
The Campaign Hangover: What To Do When You’re Exhausted (and Still Need to Raise More)
About the Episode:
If you’ve hit that post-campaign wall, tired, drained, and wondering if anyone else feels the same, this episode is for you.
In today’s episode, I share what to do when you’re completely wiped from GivingTuesday or a year-end push but still have fundraising goals to hit. You’ll learn how to recover strategically (without going silent), re-engage donors who gave once, and use short “sprint campaigns” to rebuild your energy and results. Because burnout isn’t a sign that you’re doing it wrong, it’s a signal that you need structure, rest, and a smarter rhythm to your fundraising.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
What is the campaign hangover, and why is it completely normal
How to recover from fundraising fatigue without losing momentum
Why rest and structure are non-negotiable for sustainable growth
How to design “sprint-style” campaigns that prevent burnout
Why donors often give again within the same 30-day window
The importance of shifting your message post-campaign, not going silent
Quick two-minute tweaks to boost conversions without new content
How to reuse winning posts, emails, and videos from earlier campaigns
The three ways to reset your energy fast (walk, talk, or move your body)
How to push smarter, not harder, through the end of the year
It’s not your stories—it’s how you’re telling them. If your amazing work isn’t getting the attention (and donations) it deserves, it’s time for a messaging shift. The Brave Fundraiser’s Guide guide gives you 10 done-for-you donor prompts to make your message impossible to ignore. Get it for free here! https://christinaedwards.krtra.com/t/xKuLs6tOiPZa
Christina’s Favorite Takeaways:
“December is our ‘Super Bowl’ season. Now is the time to fundraise.”
“November and December are truly the heaviest fundraising months of the year.”
“Fundraising shouldn't look like a constant, frantic state of running as fast as you can. Your campaigns should be sprints, where for a short period of time you are giving it your all, and then you rest and recover, and then, again, you sprint.”
“When your energy is low, your street team can help be that heavy doing, that heavy lifting for you so you're not stuck in solo fundraising mode.”
“The cost of going silent is big, and it is bigger in December than it is in any other month of the year.”
“Silence reduces December revenue.”
“Recovery period means strategic rest and touches, not silence.”
FREE Resources from Splendid Consulting:
How to Work with Christina and Splendid Consulting:
Double Your Donations - Raise More From Your Laptop Without Chasing Grants or Galas
Easy Emails For Impact™ - Turn Your Inbox into an Income Stream
Donations on Demand: Build a $5K Email Campaign System in 30 min/week
The SPRINT Method™ - Fundraise Like a Pro, 5 Figures At a Time
Connect with Christina and Splendid Consulting:
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*Links may be affiliate links which means I may earn a commission at no cost to you.
Christina Edwards 0:00So you've wrapped up a big push. You're coming up from the fog and the frantic feeling of GivingTuesday or a previous November fundraiser, maybe you're even feeling that dread that I know is really, really common and prevalent and normal that you feel in December, and you're not sure what to do next. You know you've got more fundraising to do another appeal, to send another campaign, to push out. Your inbox is full. Your energy is low. Everyone wants something. And the little voice in your head says everyone who is going to give already gave. I should just stop. I'm so tired. This is enough. That's the campaign hangover, and that's what we're dealing with today. What to do when you're feeling that physical and mental exhaustion, but let's be honest, you still need to raise more. So if that's you, you're not alone, and I'm going to give you the tools to rise to the occasion, because it is our Super Bowl season. It is December. Now is the time.
So everyone's version of this hangover, this crash, may be a little different. It might look like avoidance, it might look like physical exhaustion. It might look like burnout. It might look like distracting yourself. Maybe you're finding yourself scrolling on Tiktok or Instagram more than you would. Maybe it's I just want to, like, hide under the covers and Netflix and chill, but you know, you got donors to call text, to send emails, to follow up on. It might be the reluctance to ask again. It might be reluctance to follow up on those texts, those phone calls, those conversations, that fear that you're pushing too hard, doing too much, asking too much. This isn't a personal weakness. It's a predictable phase of launching, and I can say this with absolute certainty, because running any sort of campaign which is everything that I've described is an element of a fundraising campaign is actually very similar to the work that I do. So my business is one too many, so I have two primary programs, one for small, emerging organizations and solo shop nonprofits called The SPRINT Method™, and one for larger, larger, more established teams who are scaling up, called The Purpose & Profit Club. Both of those require me to launch. Require me to launch publicly, even my email course, same thing. And I know what it's like to have that sprint feeling where it's like, all right, buckle up. Here we go. And when the campaign closes, when my launch closes, I know these feelings. I literally have dealt with a campaign hangover myself. And so everything that I'm teaching you today is something that I've had a flavor of, have supported my clients of through a flavor through and also I just want to normalize is part of the deal. Like if you run a sprint, if you run a 5k if you go and physically push yourself. It's normal to feel sore the next day, right? It's normal to feel like a little hungrier the next day, a little more depleted, like you just need a little rest. So we're going to talk about the rest. We're going to talk about the refresh as well. So November and December are truly the heaviest fundraising months of the year for most of my clients, that rings true. For many organizations, we see 30 to 40% of annual revenue coming in in this two month window like that is real. So this this fatigue and also this excitement. Let's talk about that like the dopamine response when you get that $50,000 check, when you hit that $5,000 goal, whatever the number is that is also part of this mix, because your brain is like, this feels amazing. This feels amazing. And then when you don't get it the next day or the next week, you actually feel even that depletion in that dopamine response. So all of that is normal.
Christina Edwards 4:26
Yeah, so year end fundraising is heavy because it was designed to be heavy. It's not a sign that anything has gone wrong. So again, if you feel that, feel that fullness in your calendar, that fullness in maybe pressure, that is part of the deal, but we're going to level that out today. So last year, giving in the United States reached more than $590 billion. this was the first inflation positive year since 2020, So that means that people are still giving. They're giving generously. Generosity isn't shrinking. We are not in a decline. This sector, though commonly, teaches you on this old operating system, traditional old school fundraising. So it treats it treats fundraisers to treat year end, like a marathon with no breaks. And that's why burnout so common. That's why the stress cycle is so Common. You run, September, you run, GivingTuesday, you run, December, you push, you push, you push, you push. No trained athlete pushes like this, right? Runs 26 miles at full speed without breaks. You actually watch, if you've watched these, like long distance races, there is a strategy to them. Even seasoned athletes slow down. Think about it. They like stretch before they start a longer distance race. What do they do? They will literally go from a run to a jog. They'll pull over, they'll hydrate. I've even seen what marathon was recently. Was it the New York Marathon that was, yeah, like, pull over, get a cheer, get like, connect with their family, the people holding the signs. You know, those that that rest, that recovery period is part of it. So without that structure, you crash. And fundraising should work the same way. So that's why I created this concept of Sprint campaigns because I believe that fundraising shouldn't look like a constant frantic state of running as fast you can. I actually believe that your campaigns should be sprints, where for a short period of time you are giving it your all, and the what do you do? You rest, you recover, you take a walk, you stretch, you recuperate, and then what do you do again? You sprint. Okay. And every sprint campaign has a different goal attached to it, and that is a conversation for another day, another strategy for another day. But we can, for the sake of this conversation, you can think of GivingTuesday as like a single sprint. So without those sprints built inside your marathon, you do lose that momentum, and you do tire out. And most nonprofits are symptomatic of this, primarily in year end. They think and operate in global fundraiser mode, right? Where you're just like, I just need to raise x number of money, just in general, right? Everything is vaguely named. Year end, everything is vaguely connected. Nothing has that sharp urgency, that sharp connection attached to it. When you don't have a theme, a timeline, a countdown, an anchor point, you feel like you're pushing the same rock over the sea up the same hill again and again each day. And that's why the donor conversations feel harder, because you aren't tying the ask to something specific. And that's a huge part of what we teach our clients to do, is when you have a clear campaign, a clear sprint, it actually makes the donor conversation so much easier versus when you don't, when you're just in a constant state of like, we just need money. We just need donations. That's like driving without directions. So I want to share a recent client example. So my client had a handful of lapsed donors and major donors that had not yet made their annual gift to call
Christina Edwards 8:33
She knew she had this group of very warm donors, and then this group of previously warm donors elapsed donors that she needed to call, and she was struggling with even booking the call and then what to say once the call was booked. And what I realized she recently joined the club, what I realized is that she didn't actually have a clear campaign in place, right? So once she defined that campaign, everything clicked, and the theme gave her purpose. It literally did the heavy lifting, the goal, the theme, the story. She had a clear destination to bring donors towards, to answer the question, Why should I give now and not in six months? Why should I give now and not next year? You with me? That changed everything. She made those calls and she booked those meetings that week. So a sprint campaign has a beginning, a focus, a close in a short recovery period. It allows you to create that quick momentum, take a mini break and then re engage donors with a fresh angle. It is the antidote to the campaign hangover, because you physically, your body, your your mental state, you know a rest period is coming, and your donors do too your donors aren't like, boy, they're this organization is just peppering me hammer. Me with fundraising appeals, they actually like we both are on the same ride together. We both know that this is coming. So the trick here is, with sprints, you don't need a long rest. You need a structured cycle. You need a structured cycle. And this is why my clients in both of my programs are moving faster with half that exhaustion. Because campaigns have this shape, they have this container to them, and that shape lowers the fatigue, because you can even see in your calendar, rest is coming. Now let's just drill into consumer behavior, because I think this is so important, this time of year, really important. Consumers are donors, donors. Donors are consumers. So your holiday shoppers, the people who are shopping at Target, shopping at Nordstrom, shop, shopping at their favorite local bookstore, wherever they're shopping, shopping, are also your donors. You with me, same person. Consumers do not buy all of their holiday gifts in one day, even the most like organized Martha Stewart, best intended person who tries to shop, you know, early and get her gift wrap done early, even she has a few impulse buys, right? They shop in rounds. And I would think of all of the different shopping behaviors. Think about like, I think about like my aunt, who may have a little bit more of that, like structured shopping. Then I think about the person who's like, the last minute guy like my dad, who's like, December 24 What do you need? What do you want? I'm at the mall now. I remember that growing up, he's like, What size is she? What does she like? Right? So there's all these different buyer types, but ultimately, even the people who shop early shop again. Why am I telling you this? They grab one thing in November, maybe again in December, maybe again mid month, maybe something when sales happen. Why? Because donors can behave the same way. One of the the misconceptions is that somebody who gave to your October or November campaign is done, dusted out of here. Christina, I can't ask them again. They're not going to give again. The only thing they're going to be is annoyed, wrong? We very commonly see people give to your GivingTuesday fundraiser or a year end campaign. They may give again after Christmas on that same month in the same 30 day period. Why? Why do they give? Because you have a campaign that has that built in theme, that built in reason that would, that would propel them to give twice.
Christina Edwards 12:35
And if we're going to and even this, we will drill into this more in a future episode. But I want you to think about post Christmas, post Hanukkah. You grabbed all of your gifts, you did all your holiday shopping. It was a great time. What happens? What happens that last week of the year, more shopping? Think about a West Elm, an anthropology a Pottery Barn. They don't stop selling. Target. They don't stop selling. They shift their message early December, holiday gifting, December 26 through the end of the year, clearance, final sale. NEW SEASON incoming, right? I was just telling somebody so at the time I'm recording this, this is like, right before Thanksgiving. And I was just telling somebody like, oh, I need to get my kids some new coats. And we're in Atlanta, so it doesn't really get cold until, really December and January, and they need, like, big winter coat. And it was like, I always just shop on Black Friday for them, because that's when the best deals are, right. And so people have this. I'm not the only one. People do the exact same thing after Christmas. They're like, I'm gonna, you know, buy my blah blah blah, blah, after Christmas, when it's on sale. So it's the same thing. You can shift your message, but you cannot go silent, because there are buyers and donors who want to help you somebody who gives on GivingTuesday, a one time gift. Let's say they give $100 to your GivingTuesday campaign, and that campaign was for a very specific story, right? Maybe you're trying to do fund 100 spay and neuters for a cat rescue, right? That's a very specific story. Maybe you have a wait list, and you have recently a cat colony, and you have 100 spay and neuters to do. Okay? So they give $100 to that. That same person may also this is crazy, but stick with me. Opt to become a $25 a month monthly donor year end. Why would they do that? Totally different reason. The reason they gave to the GivingTuesday campaign was a very different reason than the reason they're going to give monthly.
Christina Edwards 14:58
They may choose to become a return. Recurring donor, because they know that you have 500 cats in your rescue and they want to make sure that you have enough supplies so that those cats get food and clean litter and new toys on a year round basis. That's a completely different lever you're pulling. So when you have different campaigns run at key points throughout the year, you're pulling those different levers. Now I want to drill into the recovery angle.
Christina Edwards 15:32
So before you can sprint and sprint again and sprint again, I want you to just drill in to some ways that you can recover, some physical and some more psychological, emotional ways that you can recover.
Number one, give yourself some time off. Figure out what, what helps fill your cup so that can be an afternoon off that can be make sure you're calendaring in your time off. All of my clients. I've probably said this 1000 times to them, but I'm not going to stop saying it. Please schedule out your emails during the holidays. Please schedule out your social posts, because you can be fundraising while you sleep, while you have that time off, and I want you to be so if it's December 31 you better have scheduled out your stuff, right? You can schedule that in advance so you can take rest and recover.
The second piece I want you to think about this concept of giving up versus hitting the gas when you're in sprint mode, when you're in campaign mode and you feel like giving up, I've asked everyone. I'm nagging everyone. I'm just tired. I don't want to annoy everyone. I want you to talk to that part of yourself and say, What if I'm just one action away from a huge win. What if I'm just one action away from a huge breakthrough? I have been in your shoes. I live in your shoes where it's like so easy to give up, and then I remind myself, am I one email away? Am I one follow up away? Am I one webinar away from hitting my goal, and the answer is usually yes. So what is one thing I can do now, not 100 What's one thing I can do now, think about micro asks.
Christina Edwards 17:18
What's one? Direct micro ask, I can make one person, one outreach, I can follow up to social street team. This is a huge part of what we teach in the purpose and profit club. Who are the five people, micro influencers, ambassadors, people already in our world that can change everything. Social street teams, just five of them can outperform your entire list. When your energy is low there, your street team can help be that heavy, doing that heavy lifting for you so you're not stuck in solo fundraising mode. Your voice doesn't actually have to carry everything. Your voice shouldn't carry everything. You should not be responsible for the success of the entire campaign. That's why I love the concept of a street team, because you're leveraging other people's audiences.
This is another good one. Reuse winners. You know that beautiful email, or that really awesome video, or that amazing high performing social post you did earlier in the year, like maybe it happened in March or April. You know you can recycle that right? Grab that same social post, grab that same email, whatever that content piece is, you can recycle 89% of it. Give me a fresh caption with it. Give me a fresh subject line. Seriously, you can repost this. You can recycle that testimonial that's efficient, smart and strategic. Your audience you know already responds well to it.
Christina Edwards 18:45
So ask yourself, what is a quick way that I can recycle this content piece that will drive traffic towards my goal? And the last piece I want you to think about, what's a two minute tweak that can lift conversion without writing anything new? So we spend a lot of time talking about donation pages, because not all donation pages are created equal. You're talking about your fundraiser, you're talking about your year end campaign. But I want you to think, and I want you to evaluate. I want you to look at it. Are people landing on your donation page or form but not really taking action? Do you want to tweak the subject line or the headline? Do you want to tweak the the photo or video there. These are all like two minute tweaks you can make that can have a huge impact on your conversion without having to do anything brand new and from scratch. So remember that the cost of going silent is big here. It is bigger in December than it is in any other month of the year. And that's the other piece I've been telling a lot of my clients, is q1 January, it's going to be a beautiful time for us to plan. It's going to be a beautiful time for us to go a little quiet, to head down focus work. Do some planning, do some tech anyone who is switching CRMs, anyone who's doing any tech improvements, right? That's a really great time for. For it q1 now is not a great time for head down, going silent. You with me, because that silent kills momentum, that silence kills that breaks that priming, that silence reduces December revenue retention data shows that small donor segments continue to slip, so you can't afford to go silent now when your audience is already warm, this is the most top of mind your audience, you are with your organization, okay, so when you just disappear after a campaign, simply put, you will raise less, and now is not the time to disappear.
Christina Edwards 20:45
so remember that that recovery period means strategic rest, strategic touches and not silence. Momentum comes from this consistency, but it doesn't have to be this, like hyper intensive feeling through the next 30 days, our clients avoid this crash because they have these defined campaigns. They know what they're working towards. They're committed to that goal. They know it, it's inevitable, and they take action towards that goal, and they take time off to refill their cup. So when you're off at the end of the day, be off at the end of the day, be off at the end of the day when you're feeling a little funky, like, say, you wake up on a Tuesday and you're just like, I'm just not feeling it today. I won't call anyone like you're feeling that way. Listen again, I am in your shoes. I know this feeling my I've basically three tips for that, where you're just like, I don't want to do it. I don't want to my first tip is touch grass. Literally go outside. Touch grass, touch the earth. If it's cold where you are, then you don't have to take your shoes off. It's warmer you are, literally take your shoes off. Feel the sun, touch grass. Can't do that. Go for a walk like you need to just take and I mean, if you're like, I don't have time to go for a walk. You have five minutes to walk up and down the street. That's all it can take, five minutes. That's my first tip. My second tip is, you need to, again, physically get out. So go to your favorite coffee shop. If you don't want to work from there, that's fine. I want you to talk to your barista. I want you to go to your favorite bookstore and take 10 minutes and talk to somebody. My point is, I want you to just have a human interaction that has very low stakes, that always stems me out of it. My third one. If you're like, I cannot leave today. I need to be home. I want you to listen to music and move your body five minutes. That's it, something that makes you feel good any song. It could be a throwback. It could be a top 40. I don't care. It could be anything. Move your body, dance, shut the door in your office, wherever you are, and just dance, move your body. All of those things work, they will literally take you out of your own, you know, funky space that you're in.
Christina Edwards 23:07
sometimes I will literally move my hands, move my arms. I'm doing that as I'm recording this right now, and that will literally help me shake off the like funky feeling. So all of those things you can do in less than five minutes or close to it, if you have to drive to a coffee shop, then maybe a little bit longer. But you get my point. So literally, take if you wake up in the morning and you say, I don't want to do this. I want you to go. Okay, I hear that, but I'm not accepting that today, because that's December, it's go time. So we're doing this. So which one of these three things do I want to do? Five minute walk five minute like dance a THON, Shake It Off moment or I want to go talk to somebody like those are, that's it. And pick one. It works every time.
Christina Edwards 24:00
iSo remember, your end is not just about grinding through and pushing harder. It is about pushing smarter. You're allowed to rest. You're allowed to shift your message, you're allowed to shift your message. You're allowed to iterate during the campaign. You're allowed to be creative. You're allowed to ask again. If you hear nothing from this, hear that you're allowed to ask again. Your donors are ready. They are receptive. They want to help. They knew do not operate in the one and done cycle. The Hangover fades when the strategy is sound. So be kind to yourself. Be kind to your donors. You've got this I'm cheering you on. I'll see you next week.