The holiday season is just around the corner, and so is Giving Tuesday.
In 2021, Giving Tuesday raised over $2.7 billion! Various experts predict 2022 to surpass 2021 giving, despite current financial uncertainty. This year, more than ever, it’s essential to diversify who you’re appealing to, how you’re appealing to them, and the ways you’re accepting donations.
To help your nonprofit prepare for Giving Tuesday, we’ve put together a toolkit with tips, worksheets, and free templates to inspire you, give ideas, and provide examples to help you reach your fundraising goals.
Table of Contents:
- What is Giving Tuesday?
- How to Prep for Giving Tuesday
- Step 1: Review Last Year’s Key Learnings
- Step 2: Define One Clear Goal
- Step 3: Create a Giving Tuesday Workback Plan
- Step 4: Craft a Compelling Giving Tuesday Campaign
- Step 5: Gather Supporting Assets
- Step 6: Set Up Your Online Giving Tuesday Campaign Page
- Step 7: Promote Your Giving Tuesday Campaign
What is Giving Tuesday?
Let’s start from the top. What is Giving Tuesday? Giving Tuesday began in 2012. The day was born and incubated in New York City at the 92nd Street Y and its Belfer Center for Innovation & Social Impact. Giving Tuesday takes place on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving and Black Friday and Cyber Monday holiday shopping days.
The concept is simple: a day dedicated to charitable giving. During a time that has become so focused on material things and getting the best deal on gifts, Giving Tuesday is a good reminder of what the holiday season is really about. This movement creates an opportunity to dedicate time or contribute dollars to help others or a cause.
How to Prepare for Giving Tuesday
Now that you understand the day, let’s dive into how to prepare!
Step 1: Review last year’s key learnings:
When an annual event such as Giving Tuesday occurs, before diving into this year’s plan, take a moment to reflect on last year’s successes and areas for improvement. If this is your first year working on a Giving Tuesday Campaign, it’s likely that someone else in your organization has done this before. Work with your team to answer these questions.
Answer these two important Giving Tuesday Prep Questions:
- What worked well last year?
- Evaluate why it worked out well
- Consider if you should repeat.
- Is there something that didn’t return the results you had hoped for?
- Evaluate why it didn’t turn out the way you expected
- Consider how you would do things differently.
Your answers should provide insight and direction for how to do things even better this year. Better could mean raising more funds, or executing in a less stressful way, or not down to the wire. If the latter is the case, what can you do earlier, quicker, skip or do differently this year?
Step 2: Define One Clear Goal
Most nonprofits participate in Giving Tuesday and vying for the same attention and dollars. Giving Tuesday campaign strategies are most successful when you take a simple and direct approach. While you may want to achieve many things, select one cause or beneficiary to focus your efforts on for Giving Tuesday. Determine what you’ll ask participants to give: dollars, time, or something else.
Step 3: Create a Giving Tuesday Workback Plan
Whether you have one month or one week until Giving Tuesday, plan what you will do each day leading up to Giving Tuesday to help you achieve your goal. There are many different methods for project management, and workback plans are an excellent choice for Giving Tuesday and other projects with an immovable deadline.
A workback plan is when you create a plan that identifies tasks needed to complete from end to beginning rather than from beginning to end. With this type of plan, you are more focused on the deadline and what needs to get done to get you there. Some people also refer to a workback plan as a reverse timeline.
A workback plan ensures that everything is scheduled within the Giving Tuesday timeframe. Giving Tuesday will happen whether you’re ready for it or not. A workback plan helps you not to go over schedule.
Your Giving Tuesday Workback Plan
To develop a Giving Tuesday workback plan, create a calendar that clearly outlines all the tasks required to meet your deadline. Starting from November 29 and working your way back to the date you are starting. Consider adding your plan directly to a digital calendar so that you and your team can edit and visually see the timeframe you are working within and the tasks that must be completed each day.
What to include in your workback plan
Within your workback plan, designate a team owner for each task. By adding ownership to each task–even if multiple people will contribute to a particular task–you create accountability which helps to ensure that the task is completed on time. Also, the rest of the team will know where to direct their questions.
Next, list the needed resources, from reams of paper and envelopes to technology. Specify what you already have and what you need. Think through workflows, and consider if your current CRM already connects to your email marketing platform. If not, you’ll need to build in extra time for downloading, cleaning up lists, and uploading. In this scenario, you will need to pay special attention to potential data quality issues or time that could be saved if your current technology doesn’t meet your needs. For example, Giveffect, a 10-in-1 nonprofit management software, includes a relationship management database, donor management, volunteer management, and email marketing. So segmenting and sending personalized emails to a variety of constituents is fast and easy. And you can feel confident that all of your data comes from one source of truth.
When Ordering Materials
When ordering materials, keep in mind that it may take time to receive them via mail. Be sure to double-check all shipping dates and provide yourself with a buffer. By identifying resources needed to support your efforts in advance, your team can ensure you have everything you need to complete your tasks on time.
Step 4: Craft a Compelling Giving Tuesday Campaign
Almost every nonprofit or cause will also have a Giving Tuesday campaign, so it’s essential to make your organization stand out.
When creating a pitch or campaign, reflect on your determined goal and determine your call to action or CTA. A call to action, or CTA, is what you want your audience to do.
Next, determine how to encourage your audience to take action. Successful pitches or campaigns typically share a compelling narrative. Capture your donor or potential donor’s attention by taking your donor’s on a journey to inspire them to care, get involved, and open up their wallets.
Consider why your project or mission is worthy of support. Here are a few thought-starters to get the ideas flowing:
- How does this project build on your last project and expand the possibilities and depth of your work?
- What have you accomplished so far, and what is left to do to solve a challenge?
- Does your project give visibility to an issue of importance? Describe how and why this is important.
Of course, you must also consider who comprises your audience. For more in-depth information on demographics and the donor journey, read our recent article on the topic.
Step 5: Gather Supporting Assets
The old saying goes, “a picture (or video) is worth a thousand words.” This is especially true when creating a compelling Giving Tuesday campaign. Saying you help children, for example, is wonderful, but showing photos or videos of the children you help and how your organization has made a positive impact is compelling.
So gather the images and videos you’ve captured throughout the year to support your narrative. For example, you can easily repackage an image using a tool such as Canva. One idea is to add a frame around the image and include the hashtag #GivingTuesday. More on hashtags a little later in this toolkit.
Step 6: Set up your Giving Tuesday Campaign Page
Now that you’ve crafted your story and gathered supporting assets, you’re ready to set up your campaign webpage.
Campaign web pages share detailed information about the impact and needs of your campaign and have a clear call to action, such as a donate button which leads to an easy-to-use donation checkout flow.
Unlike more “evergreen” donation webpages, campaign pages typically have a start and end date and time, such as Giving Tuesday. These pages may include sections featuring sponsors, a list of donors, and images or videos sharing a narrative. These pages may also have a community message board to ask questions or create an opportunity for discussion.
Think of your campaign webpage as your home base. It is the one-stop location where donors can learn everything they need about the campaign. Every communication you share should point your donor back to your campaign page. Giveffect makes it easy to create campaign pages. It takes less than five minutes to create them, including options to customize them.
No matter how you create your campaign page, be sure to:
- Use a user-friendly layout that encourages your viewers to move their eyes down the page.
- Don’t make your page a solid block of text.
- Do use visuals such as images or videos to help you tell your story and complement the text
- Use eye-catching and descriptive headlines and subheadlines.
- Use bold type, but sparingly, to make the most important points stand out.
Create a Streamlined Donation Checkout Flow
Each campaign page’s donate button must navigate to a donation checkout page. When you’ve gotten your potential donor this far, don’t lose them now.
Your checkout page must be streamlined and easy to use. Include opportunities to leverage this touchpoint further to build a relationship with your donor. For example, add the option to turn this one-time gift into a recurring donation. Within Giveffet’s checkout flow, for example, turning a one-time contribution into a recurring one is as simple as checking a box.
Or include a field for Corporate Matching. Many companies will match the contributions of their employees to nonprofits. Employer matching amounts vary from 1 to 1 matching or multiples of the initial employee donation. Adding a field for corporate matching is a great way to increase dollars raised without additional effort.
Step 7: Promote Your Giving Tuesday Campaign
Now that you’ve crafted your pitch and your campaign page is live and ready to accept donations, it’s time to start promoting it. The promotion for Giving Tuesday shouldn’t start on Giving Tuesday. Instead, start with a soft launch in the days and weeks leading up to Giving Tuesday. There are so many communications at your disposal. Begin to share your campaign across your communication channels, including social media, email, SMS text messaging, and more, as a soft launch.
Social Media for Giving Tuesday
As we mentioned at the top of this guide and toolkit, Giving Tuesday is a global giving movement that started from a hashtag, so it makes sense that it garners massive attention on social media. Just how massive? According to GivingTuesday.org, in 2019, the hashtag #GivingTuesday saw more than 20 billion social media impressions. In 2020, social media activity was present all around the world.
Social media is a key driver of traffic and donations to your Giving Tuesday campaign. To leverage the power of social media, it’s essential to understand the best ways to engage current supporters, attract new followers, and acquire new donors.
To increase social media’s impact, follow these 4 tips:
- Use hashtags strategically. The biggest reasons for using hashtags is for the increased exposure and discovery. Using hashtags is a way to group conversations or content around a particular topic, making it easy for people to find content that interests them.
To use a hashtag, add # before your word or phrase. Do not use spaces or punctuation within a hashtag—for example, #GivingTuesday. Using hashtags strategically means understanding each platform’s best practices. Then, get creative to increase discoverability and awareness for your cause.
The number of hashtags that should be used in one post by social media platform is as follows:
- Twitter: Stick with one or two hashtags per tweet to keep your message concise. Tweets have a 280-character limit, and hashtags count toward your limit.
- Instagram: Within the caption, only use one to three hashtags. Additionally, or alternatively, you may add more as the first comment where up to 30 hashtags are acceptable. However, this is not to say that you should use 30 hashtags for every post.
- LinkedIn: Use three hashtags per post, two of which should be broader and one more niche. Place your hashtags at the end of your content, not in the comments.
- Facebook: Stay between one and three hashtags per Facebook post for the highest engagement.
- Stick to your social strategy. Ideally, your nonprofit participates in community building on social media year-round. If so, you’ve likely created a social media strategy with guides on which platforms you are active on, your objectives, and how you will achieve your objectives. Now, don’t stray from your social media strategy regarding Giving Tuesday. Plan special Giving Tuesday content that engages your followers that you’ve worked hard to acquire. It’s important to note that being active on every social platform is unnecessary. Instead, it’s better to be genuinely engaged on one platform than only existing on three. And, Giving Tuesday is not the time to start posting on a new platform. For example, don’t post on Tik Tok for the first time on November 29. Your efforts and time are better spent engaging with your existing followers and community. However, if you join a new platform as part of your social media strategy, join well before a big day such as Giving Tuesday. And once you start posting, keep up with it regularly to see the long-term benefits.
- Create quality Giving Tuesday content. Put thought into the best ways to share your content using a mix of text, video, and images. They don’t necessarily need to have been created by a professional graphic designer. Tools such as Canva are easy for someone with at least some knowledge of social media best practices and a creative eye to create engaging content. Canva even has templates with the correct size specification for different types of posts on each platform. Most important when designing your social media strategy is being true to your brand as a nonprofit and using each post to communicate your story and a call to action. Be authentic.
- Automate posting, and keep an eye on trends and analytics. Consider using tools such as SproutSocial, Hootsuite, or Co-Schedule to help you schedule your posts. Each tool has various features that will help you understand how well your posts perform. Some tools, such as SproutSocial, include intelligence to help you discover what your audience is talking about. Such findings can guide your strategy for how to participate in the conversation on various social platforms.
Email and Direct Mail for Giving Tuesday
Giving Tuesday communication doesn’t just start on November 29. Instead, use email and direct mail to soft launch your Giving Tuesday campaign. Send out emails and letters in the days and weeks leading up to Giving Tuesday to build momentum. Consider including the following within your emails and appeal letters:
- Wish your supporters a Happy Holiday.
- Educate your supporters about Giving Tuesday.
- Share what you have planned for Giving Giving Tuesday.
- Give them an idea of how much you hope they will give.
- Tell them about the group of people who will be impacted.
- Share how to donate and provide them with the link to your campaign page.
- Tell them about any upcoming projects and why you need their support now.
- Describe the impact of their donation.
- Of course, be sure to thank them.
Personalization is key when it comes to email or direct mail.
Personalization means more than just adding your recipient’s name to the salutation. It means showing your constituents that they matter by incorporating preferences, interests, donations, and touchpoints.
Throughout the year, you’ve collected and stored data on your constituents in your CRM. And by data, we mean information such as preferences – they prefer email over direct mail or SMS text messages as opposed to phone calls. You’ve collected information on their work and whether their employer has a donation matching program. You’ve captured which campaigns they contributed to and how much.
While we would all love the opportunity to send each constituent a unique and heartfelt message personally. You and your team don’t have the time. So use the data you’ve gathered and automate the process using nonprofit management software such as Giveffect, which within the 10-in-1 nonprofit software solution includes your CRM and email marketing tool. You can seamlessly segment your audiences and send customized emails to those audiences, including variable data, without downloading and uploading lists. And view email performance all within the same software suite.
SMS Marketing or Text-to-Give for Giving Tuesday
Text message marketing is a form of communication in which you contact your supporters using text messages. Text-to-give fundraising uses text messages, also called SMS (short message service), to fundraise for a cause. Messages are sent out as texts directly to your constituents’ phones. With an open rate of 82%, SMS text messaging can help you reach your target audience when and where they spend their time — on their phones.
Not only does SMS marketing let you reach your constituents more quickly, but they’re also more likely to read your message. This is why using SMS marketing is part of your Giving Tuesday, and Year-end campaigns can help you cut through the clutter during this busy season.
Consider using text to give alongside your email marketing for an omnichannel approach. It allows you to keep in touch with your most supportive patrons and casual fans of your organization. As far as donations go, use SMS text message marketing to send out requests for donations. All you have to do is include a link to your donation portal or landing page so supporters can make donations quickly and easily.
Text message marketing for nonprofits isn’t just about securing donations.
You should also make sure you’re using it to stay in touch with your volunteers and remind them when they’ve signed up for an event. Text-to-give is a fundraising technique that allows donors to give to nonprofits with their cell phones. Supporters can text a keyword and donation amount to a nonprofit’s predetermined number to give to the annual fund or to a specific campaign.
Before Giving Tuesday
Save the date! Giving Tuesday is November 29! You can make a difference by donating to [organization name]. For more information on how we [mission], visit [link to campaign page].
During Giving Tuesday
Giving Tuesday is here! In the next 24 hours, we’re looking to raise [$X]. Can you help us? Reply “GIVING TUESDAY” to donate
We are so close to reaching our Giving Tuesday goal! With only 3 more hours to give, we are just [$X] away. Ready to show your support? Simply reply “GIVING TUESDAY” to donate.
After Giving Tuesday
We did it! Because of your contribution in just 24-HOURS, we raised [$X] in support of [mission]! Thank you for your support. We are so grateful!
Key Takeaway:
Giving Tuesday has the potential to be one of the biggest fundraising days of the entire year. To keep the stress at bay, follow this 7-step guide, download our project management workbook to keep you organized and on track, and be sure your technology supports your work.
Giveffect is here to support you this Giving Tuesday and beyond. Click here to schedule a demo.