When the doors close or attendance drops off a cliff, admissions revenue disappears first. Annual giving rarely disappears with it, but it does change shape. Some donors give more and give sooner. Some go quiet because their own finances are shaky. And your usual calendar of mailings, gala asks, and point-of-sale donation prompts may no longer make sense.
The worst plan is to keep running last year’s schedule and hope. The second worst is to scrap everything and improvise week to week. What works better is a short, flexible plan built from the data you already have in Altru, with clear decision points so you can change course without starting over.
Start with who actually gives, not who you wish would
Before you write a single appeal, pull an honest picture of your donor base. In Altru, a few queries against revenue and constituent records will tell you most of what you need:
- Donors by recency. Who gave in the last 12 months, 13 to 24 months ago, and longer ago. Recent donors are your most likely responders in a crisis.
- Donors who are also members. Members already have a relationship with you. Their renewals and their gifts are often connected, so plan them together.
- Where gifts came from. Separate gifts made at the admissions desk or added onto a ticket purchase from gifts made through mail or online appeals. If a large share of your annual fund came in as add-on donations at the point of sale, that channel shrinks when visitors stop coming, and you need to replace it deliberately.
- Your top donors by total giving. These are the people who deserve a personal call, not a mass email.
Check households while you are at it. Crisis appeals often go out fast, and duplicate or poorly linked household records mean two letters to the same couple, which reads as careless at a moment when you want to look steady.
Build three scenarios, not one budget
A single revenue goal set before a crisis is almost certainly wrong. Instead, sketch three versions of the year:
- Short disruption. Closures or restrictions last a few weeks to a couple of months. Most of your normal calendar holds, with one added emergency appeal.
- Extended disruption. Reduced capacity or repeated closures for much of the year. Point-of-sale giving drops, events are cancelled or go virtual, and the annual fund carries more weight.
- Prolonged uncertainty. You genuinely cannot predict reopening. You shift to smaller, more frequent asks tied to specific needs, and you lean on monthly giving and major donor relationships.
For each scenario, write down which appeals you will send, which you will drop, and what would make you move from one scenario to the next. A trigger might be a reopening date announced or pushed back, a renewal rate that falls below what you planned, or a major event cancellation. Deciding the triggers in advance keeps the conversation with leadership short when things change.
Rethink the ask itself
Donors respond to clear, concrete needs. “Help us through this difficult time” is vague. “Feed the animals while we are closed,” “keep our education staff working with schools online,” or “protect the collection while the building is dark” gives people something to picture.
A few practical adjustments that tend to hold up:
- Move your appeal earlier if the need is real now. Waiting for a traditional year-end mailing can leave months of uncovered expenses.
- Segment the tone. Long-time donors and members can hear a direct, urgent ask. Lapsed donors may respond better to an update first and an ask second.
- Offer monthly giving. Recurring gifts smooth out cash flow when everything else is unpredictable. Confirm how your current setup handles recurring gifts in Altru before you promote it, and test the full flow in a sandbox if you have one.
- Ask members to give instead of, or in addition to, renewing. Some members will tell you they don’t need benefits right now but still want to help. Have a clear way to record that as a gift rather than forcing it into a membership transaction.
Set up Altru so you can measure as you go
The plan only works if you can tell quickly whether it is working. Before the first appeal goes out, make sure each effort can be tracked separately. Use distinct appeal or source coding for crisis asks so they don’t blend into regular annual fund revenue. If you are unsure how your organization’s appeals and revenue coding are set up, ask whoever owns your chart of accounts and Altru configuration now, not after the gifts start arriving.
Then build a small set of reports or saved queries you can rerun weekly:
- Gifts received against each appeal, with counts and totals.
- Membership renewals compared with the same period last year.
- New donors versus returning donors.
- Gifts still waiting in open batches, so finance and development are looking at the same numbers.
Weekly is usually enough. Daily checking during a crisis tends to create noise and second-guessing rather than better decisions.
Don’t forget acknowledgment
Gift volume can spike unexpectedly right after a closure announcement. That is exactly when thank-you letters fall behind, and slow acknowledgment during a crisis does real damage. Decide who will process gifts and send acknowledgments if staff are reduced or working remotely, and make sure they can run the acknowledgment process from wherever they are. A short personal call to your top donors, even from a board member, often matters more than the letter.
Plan the recovery appeal now
Crisis donors are often first-time donors. Many will not give again unless you follow up thoughtfully. Put a reopening or “here’s what your gift did” update on the calendar now, before you need it, and plan a second, softer ask for later in the year. Pull a query of everyone who gave to the crisis appeal so you can treat them as their own group when the time comes.
Quick answers
Should we pause appeals out of sensitivity?
Pausing entirely usually costs more than it saves. Adjust tone and timing, and give donors a clear, specific reason to help. Many supporters want to be asked.
How often should we revisit the plan?
Review the numbers weekly and the plan itself monthly, or whenever one of your scenario triggers is hit.
