#GivingTuesday and the End of Year giving
#GivingTuesday and the End of Year giving season are upon us once again. Although it is never too early to start planning, it’s also never too late to get something out there on behalf of your organization and begin to capitalize on the “Giving Season”.
#GivingTuesday is an international day of giving, following Black Friday and Cyber Monday and really kicking off the End of Year Giving season. It is incredibly easy to participate in this collaborative, social and global “ask” (download the #GivingTuesday toolkit HERE); however, it is important to do a little advance work to make your organization stand out among the rest.s
Here are some practical tips around making your #GivingTuesday ask stand out from the crowd…
- Make It Personal: There is a lot of noise out there around #GivingTuesday - many nonprofits and great causes all vying for dollars in the same 24 hours. Your story needs to be personal. The truth is, your cause does not resonate with everyone, so making a generic or broad strokes pitch is a waste of time. Your time and effort are far more effective if they target those who already care about your cause and give those folks a really good reason to donate (maybe more than they usually would). Appeal to the emotional component of your mission faithful - the numbers and data should back up your statements, but this is a time to paint a picture of your need, your hero (the donor) and your what the world can look like if you are successful in your quest.
- Make It Specific: The clearer your messaging around not only WHY a donor should give but WHAT they are specifically giving to is always important but especially when your organization is working to differentiate itself from the others working to get donations on #GivingTuesday.
- Make It Creative: Think out of the box on this one! Instead of perks, create levels of giving, detailing what each donation level can purchase for your mission. Or offer perks, but let them be ephemeral or even silly offerings (think: good karma for a year, etc).
- Plan Ahead and Communicate Early, then OFTEN: Making a plan for #GivingTuesday is crucial, as it marks the kicking off point of the End of Year giving season (known to those not in the nonprofit world as the “holiday season”). Leading up to November 29, you will want to have created your online campaign presence, established a communication plan with formatted emails and scheduled social posts, and strategized with your board, staff and other organizational influencers around gaining donation traction early on or even just before #GivingTuesday.
- Recruit Your Tribe to Promote Your Campaign: SInce you’re making a plan and executing on it before November, go ahead and give your influencers a heads up! Use our Call List functionality to personally reach out to board members and ambassadors and others loyal to your cause and let them know that #GivingTuesday is coming and what that will look like for your organization as well as what your goal is. As #GivingTuesday is a social campaign, mobilize and empower your stakeholders to reach out to their networks and make your cause and your story heard. This is another opportunity to get creative - host a casual in-person event or a Google hangout or even a planning party. The more ways you can find to involve your organization’s network, the more your network will be inclined to reach out to their own networks.
Quick and Easy and Lots of Upside #GivingTuesday Campaigns Using BetterUnite
Sometimes a plan and a strategy and a full-blown campaign are not in the cards. Maybe you are alone in your development or organizational leadership or administrative role and/or there are just other priorities than #GivingTuesday. We get it. And we can help.
Create your #GivingTuesday presence in LESS THAN AN HOUR (that includes the time it may or may not take you to source your logo file, photographs and optional videos). Here’s how:
- Create or login to your BetterUnite account
- Start a Campaign
- Flesh out the details of your organization, add your logo, insert a compelling photograph and link to your bank account
- Tell your story and why you need money NOW - a sense of urgency and timeliness is helpful at this time of year. Define your need, empower your hero (the donor) and describe a world without the problem that your mission addresses
- Fill in Perks with the needs and costs associated with those needs for your organization (ie: $500 buys 50 children lunch at camp)
- Make the campaign LIVE and begin to share with your allies and influencers.
Have a few extra minutes?
- Create an email marketing piece to mail out (utilizing your email marketing tool which integrates directly with BetterUnite)
- Create a few fun perk initiatives (ie: $1,000 buys you good karma for 2018)
- Look through your Contacts (or those of whatever donor management system you are using) and identify donors who have not yet given this year. Create an email ask in your email marketing tool to reach out just to them
- Schedule your Facebook posts for Monday, November 27, and Tuesday, November 28
- Schedule a Thank You post for Wednesday, November 29 - tell your donors you love them
OR… let us do the heavy-lifting for (or with) you! Contact BetterUnite support to schedule a screenshare or phone call and get going on #GivingTuesday today!
You can also simply sign up to evaluate our free platform for donor management and online fundraising.
Sign Up Free