Fundraising hack for your Holiday appeals

Are you doing Christmas/Holiday fundraising this year?

If you are, you may already be working on it. Or you should soon!

Thinking about the Holidays now in the middle of July can be a bit of a mental strain; it’s just weird and hard to get into the right mindset.

Here’s a weirdly powerful tip for feeling the Holiday when the feeling doesn’t come naturally:

Music.

Music has the power to transport you to a different time and place. And hardly any music is more powerful that music connected to the Holidays.

I used to advise fundraising writers to put on Bing Crosby’s “Merry Christmas” album (first issued in 1945, and reissued many times since).

Now you have more choices, and here’s one I just love:

Classical KING, the noncommercial classical music station in Seattle offers several streams, including a “Classical Christmas” channel. It’s going right now — apparently it makes more sense to keep it going 365 days a year than to turn it on and off for the Holidays:

Listen online here, and scroll down to the Christmas Channel.

You’ll in in the spirit in no time.

If you need something more appropriate for your faith or cultural traditions, I can guarantee you’ll find something online to make seasonal fundraising (any season!) feel right, no matter how far away the season is.

(This post first appeared on July 16, 2025.)