3 Weeks Until #GivingTuesday! Is Your Organization Ready?
#GivingTuesday is less than three weeks away… is your organization ready to leverage this global day of giving? From fundraising to just plain old engagement and awareness, there are many ways organizations across the social good ecosystem can participate. Read on for tips and resources on how to make an impact and start the season of giving strong, even if you are just getting started now:
Use #GivingTuesday for lead generation
Leverage #GivingTuesday as a day to ask potential new supporters to engage with you in easy, low-pressure ways such as holiday email raffles or signing a pledge that aligns with your organization’s mission. Read more about these ideas and other ways to leverage #GivingTuesday to engage, retain and delight in the post “10 Ways Hospital Foundations Can Use Giving Tuesday to Enhance End-of-Year Giving.” And even though this was written with hospital foundations in mind, it includes tips that all organizations can use!
Incorporate the “Vowel Method”
Blackbaud University instructor Jenny Toledo created an easy and memorable strategy she has coined the “vowel method.” Read her post, “Turning a New #GivingTuesday Donor into a Lifetime Donor,” to learn how to implement the five elements of this strategy: Accessible, Educational, Impactful, Open and You.
Ask donors to support a specific project
Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary more than tripled year-over-year donations on #GivingTuesday by being very specific: they let supporters know they needed to raise money for new chairs for the nuns. While chairs don’t sound like a particularly exciting fundraising ask, they were tangible items that allowed supporters to have a clear sense of accomplishment and impact. Read more about their approach (and watch the humorous video they created for the campaign) in this post: “Creating a Giving Tuesday Strategy That’s ‘Just Right’.”
Identify matching donation opportunities
New Mexico State University (NMSU) credits their phenomenal #GivingTuesday success in large part to offering a matching gift incentive: every gift to a scholarship anywhere in the NMSU system was matched dollar for dollar. And think creatively when looking for matching funds – NMSU found theirs in a university license plate affinity program! Read more about NMSU’s strategy and success: “Making #GivingTuesday Count: New Mexico State University’s Story.”
Organize peer-to-peer fundraising
Secure friends of your organization (board members, volunteers, staff, community leaders, organization cheerleaders, family members if necessary) to build fundraising teams and reach out to their social circles. Learn more about this and four other #GivingTuesday strategies in this post by Vicki Morcos of the Dunham Fund: “5 Tips to Boost Support for Your Organization on #GivingTuesday.”
Create a #GivingTuesday stewardship plan
Having a stewardship plan is critical to retaining both new and existing donors. Lucky for you, Blackbaud’s resident expert and prolific sgENGAGE contributor Tanya Fitzgerald created a plan you can adapt for your organization in her post “Stewarding #GivingTuesday: Increase Your Retention Rate.”
And last but not least, use these great FREE resources!
- Download Blackbaud’s free, comprehensive #GivingTuesday toolkit that includes sample social media messaging, email templates and more!
- Watch any (or all!) of these nine free #GivingTuesday webinars that detail best practices and proven strategies.
- Read all the great #GivingTuesday posts on sgENGAGE, including many written by your peers.
- Listen to these sgENGAGE Podcast episodes featuring Blackbaud experts and social good professionals sharing tips and strategies for success.
