Giving Tuesday

Giving Tuesday New Fashioned Fundraising Strategies

It’s the most wonderful time of the year… for you to fill your fundraising coffers! Giving Tuesday + EOY campaigns bring in the lion’s share of annual donations.

Last year’s GT was RECORD-BREAKING. Let’s make your org a part of happy history!

Consider the following, when constructing your Giving Tuesday campaign.

GT + EOY Campaigns By The Numbers

According to our friends at DoubletheDonation, 30% of ALL ANNUAL GIVING happens in December, with 10% rolling in the last three days of the year. Read that again. And remember, before December comes Giving Tuesday. Last year, GT campaigns SMASHED previous records: In 2022, in 24 hours, donors in the U.S. gave $3.1 BILLION dollars. That’s a 15% increase over 2021.

Make an URGENT Ask

Use psychology when targeting your prospective Giving Tuesday donors, by creating a sense of urgency. Here are some effective examples:

*You only have a few hours left to give!

*Can you make a donation before midnight?

*We’re SO CLOSE to meeting our goal – YOU can be the hero who gets us across the finish line!

Your message is now MARKED URGENT. Time to drive it home with some creative and eye-catching graphics. For instance, if your org is dedicated to feeding the hungry, consider a graphic plate that fills up little by little as donations come in. You might also consider designing a giving thermometer. Those were VERY effective during virtual fundraising campaigns and still are with hybrid events. The visual cue also encourages folks to donate to your Giving Tuesday campaign. Remember, giving begets giving! So don’t just be strategic with your words. Think visually as well.

Fun + Games

Have some fun this Giving Tuesday! Play games. Encourage competition. “The first person to donate receives a gift.” You can do that every hour on your social media channels! Would your board members be willing to enter into a friendly competition against each other? See who can procure the most Giving Tuesday donations. Who can solicit the highest number of individual donors? Who raised the most money overall? If you have board members or folks on your executive team who are willing to play, you can have a ton of fun with some friendly competition. To the victors go the bragging rights!

Personalize It

Dig into your data from last November to find out who gave big. Email them your gratitude, then go into detail about what you did with the money. Our data shows this is one of the single most effective ways to obtain recurring donations.

Optimize your donation page

Lean into Technology

Here’s what to include:

Your WHY
The IMPACT the donation will have
Your particular BRAND. Remember, there’s a ton of competition for donations on Giving Tuesday!
KISS (Keep it simple, stupid)
AUTOFILL (It’s astonishing how many people fail to complete a donation, if they have to enter their information repeatedly)
DIVERSIFY – Take credit cards, but also take PayPal, ApplePay, Venmo, etc.

Use Your Existing Registration Software

It’s imperative that you make it easy for your donors to give. A quick way to accomplish this is by utilizing your existing giving software to streamline your online campaign. Your donors are already familiar with it, since you’ve (presumably) used it for previous giving campaigns. Robust software programs have another benefit; you and your org can use the information gleaned from the backend to refine your offerings and see if they’re working the way you want them to.

You can also use software to create a special Giving Tuesday campaign page.

Giving Tuesday Campaign Page

Maybe you already did this last year – set up a page SPECIFICALLY for Giving Tuesday. If you didn’t, consider it! It’s a great way to set your GT campaign apart from all of your other annual giving campaigns. And with more than three BILLION dollars raised last year on Giving Tuesday alone, doesn’t it deserve its own page?! Make sure you include heart-string-tugging stories, a text-to-donate feature, and a peer-to-peer element.

Text-to-Give + Text-to-Donate

A quick recap on the difference: Text-to-Give is carrier-based, meaning it goes through your phone plan. Donations take some time to come in; therefore, it’s less desirable for Giving Tuesday campaigns. Text-to-Donate, however, leads your donors to a secure giving page that you set up using a keyword, a shortcode number and a link to your donation page. That’s all it takes to set it up! Text-to-Donate is perfect for Giving Tuesday because it’s so easy to set up and donations come in instantly.

Peer-to-Peer

Peer-to-peer fundraising is a multi-tiered approach to fundraising, where individuals create their own personal fundraising pages, and it’s ALWAYS in style! It’s also growing as fast as lightning: A recent study found nonprofits utilizing P2P fundraising increased their collective revenue by nearly 19% in 2022. Unsurprisingly, it’s particularly popular among Gen Z and Millenials. Giving Tuesday is an online giving campaign, so you can be sure that there will be a whole lot of charitable eyes all over the internet on November 28th, 2023. That’s a good thing, but it also means there’s a lot of competition for those billions of dollars. Your P2P campaign has to stand out from the rest!

P2P campaigns can – and often do – lead to recurring monthly donations. If you haven’t set a monthly giving plan up yet, what better time to do so than Giving Tuesday?! They offer your org a reliable source of revenue and they offer your donors the gift of convenience. Win win!

Employer Matching Programs

Does your employer match the charitable donations you make? Many do. Some will even match donations from former employees who are retired, OR donations from employee’s spouses. If you’re unsure, it’s the perfect time to ask! Every dollar counts.

Current Events

There’s no way to sugarcoat it. There is so much misery in the world today. Heartbreaking headlines dominate, both domestically AND internationally. We hear about atrocities every single day, causing many of us to feel helpless, even hopeless. Create your own heartwarming headlines to serve as an antidote. You were able to do something amazing with the money you raised last Giving Tuesday, right? Now’s the time to share this good news. GIVING FEELS GOOD. Now more than ever, it’s essential to be the change we wish to see in the world. Keep this messaging in mind with all of your Giving Tuesday communications.

Storytelling

Storytelling is always important, but in a year where AI has exploded, it takes on new meaning. So be sure to use stories to HUMANIZE what you do! AI can do a lot of remarkable things, but it will never touch sentient humans when it comes to heart-to-heart CONNECTIONS and meaningful RELATIONSHIPS.

We hope you feel a little more ready for Giving Tuesday now, because there’s not much rest between GT and your ever-important End of the Year Campaign! As always, reach out anytime. We have lots of fresh fundraising ideas. And love to share!