Earlier this week I was reading this article on Mashable which has a lot of information about the month of December and charitable giving. Some interesting stats:

– Charitable organizations receive as much as 40% of their annual donations during the month of December

– Of the $263 billion that Americans alone give to non-profits each year, 5.7% is given online, with 30% of online donations being made in December alone.

What does that mean for an IndieGoGo campaign owner? A couple of things.

1. At least part of your audience, I would wager, is going to make a donation to something online this December.

2. That online donation might as well be to your campaign.

Of course those donations aren't just going to fly off the shelves and hit you in the forehead. You have to ask for them.

We talk a lot about ways of promoting your campaign on this blog, but I wanted to leave you with a few tips for asking for December contributions to your campaign from those people closest to you.

– Use a personal plea via email. Be straightforward.

– Give your potential contributors a little background on your project, on IndieGoGo, on what crowdfunding is and how it works.

– Use the old, "Instead of asking for gift this holiday season, we're…"

– Don't forget to provide a direct link to your campaign.

– Perhaps explain how some of your perks (if applicable) would make good holiday gifts (if you can deliver them in time).

– If you're tax-deductible, be sure to include that valuable piece of information in your ask.

Remember: this is a time of year when people are already making charitable contributions online. But you've got to get the information out to them in order to take advantage of the trends in end-of-year giving.

Photo courtesy Flickr user striatic.