With its humble beginnings in 2012, GivingTuesday has become a ‘global generosity movement’ that occurs on the Tuesday after the US Thanksgiving. Now in its 10th year, this annual day of giving celebrates the generosity of the season in 75 countries around the world.
An astonishing $2.47 billion was donated to U.S. nonprofit organizations by a reported 34.8 million people on GivingTuesday in 2020, according to Giving Tuesday, Inc., the nonprofit behind the movement and eponymous hashtag #GivingTuesday. The donation amount, described as a “massive swell of generosity”, reflected a 29% increase in donations compared to 2019.
With so many people mobilized around generosity and shared humanity on this day, a successful GivingTuesday campaign can be key to reaching your organization’s annual fundraising goals. Here are tips and best practices that you can use when creating and executing your GivingTuesday campaign.
Appeal to emotion and be mission focused
When promoting your campaign, don’t be afraid to appeal to your donors’ emotions. People are more likely to donate if they feel you need and respect their donation. Consider the following actions:
- Tell prospects what their donations support.
- Let them know the impact their donation has not only on you but also for them and others in the community.
- Stress the impact of being a donor and how end-of-year contributions help fulfill your organization’s mission.
- Tie your donation ask into the holidays and the charitable spirit.
The Hippodrome Theatre (Gainesville, Florida) shared an excellent video on GivingTuesday 2020 that both appealed to emotion and focused on their mission (source):
Promote your campaign on social media
Giving Tuesday is a very social and hashtag-friendly day of giving, so promoting your campaign on social media is important. But you’re competing with other GivingTuesday campaigns, so simply posting your links on Facebook, Twitter, etc., isn’t enough.
Also consider:
- Creating content (images, videos, etc.) ahead of time, specifically to promote your campaign. Images can boost sharing, which will boost your reach.
- Creating a hashtag to include in your posts (as well as tagging your posts with #GivingTuesday). Don’t go overboard: Too many hashtags will turn off your patrons.
- Monitoring your engagement, to thank and respond to donors. “Like” and retweet messages from donors, and answer questions they may have. It takes just a second to do this, but it will mean a lot to your patrons.
Encourage monthly giving
With GivingTuesday growing into a year-round movement, consider promoting monthly giving as the default option. Many AudienceView clients generate significant revenue by making it simple for their supporters to make smaller recurring monthly donations online – a fundraising option that is often praised for its convenience by Millennials and Generation Z.
Develop an influencer program
Your patrons want to help your organization reach its fundraising goals! Recruit your biggest supporters to help you spread the word about your GivingTuesday campaign (and others throughout the year). Elements of your influencer program can include:
- Resource guide that has training materials, talking points, videos and more.
- Social media tips to make it easy for your Influencers to spread the word to their networks.
- A toolkit with a variety of images that are properly sized for the most popular social media channels.
- Share free ways to support your organization so that those that those that aren’t in a position to donate can still participate.
Create a separate campaign
Make your GivingTuesday fundraising campaign separate from any other campaign. This allows you to:
- Specifically list the campaign’s goal.
- Promote as an exclusive, one-time special gift, not a regular donation.
- Clearly report on the campaign and promote how much you made.
- Easily segment your donors for next year’s push.
When creating your Giving Tuesday campaign, make sure to do the following:
- Upload a specific GivingTuesday image for the campaign.
- Set suggested amounts for the donation.
- Use the option to ask for donations to this campaign during checkout.
- Consider creating a special donation acknowledgement email for your GivingTuesday campaign, thanking donors and explaining what their gift means to you.
Be sure to create a specific branded page on your website for GivingTuesday (or any holiday campaign) linking to that campaign’s deep link.
When GivingTuesday is done, consider running a patron report to see all the donors who donated to this specific campaign and adding them to a category to label them as a Giving Tuesday donor.
We hope that these tips help you maximize your impact on #GivingTuesday!