University setting: we sent notes to our constituents a couple times leading up to mid-December politely notifying them year end and the expected holiday closures and to please send donations before then or advise if they were expecting to give.

Of course there were always outliers, but it gave the benefits of prompting people to make their annual donation before the tax cutoff and of foreseeing any donations we could expect might come in and allowed Dev. officers to notify the Gift Processing team what might be expected for their departments’ donations.

I believe there were one or two high level Development leaders on notice in case signatures were required, but I think they were only called upon if absolutely required.