2 Weeks Until Giving Tuesday! Is Your Organization Ready?

It’s hard to believe that Giving Tuesday is just two weeks away! Hopefully you’ve downloaded Blackbaud’s comprehensive Giving Tuesday toolkit, have been learning from our Giving Tuesday webinars, and have planned out your activities, but even if the day has snuck up on you there is still time to 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.

Six Strategies You Can Implement Right Now for Giving Tuesday Success

1. Use Giving Tuesday to identify potential new donors

Leverage Giving Tuesday 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!

2. Gather your impact stories

Make sure your email and social media communications include concrete examples of how your organization is making an impact. Learn how to go beyond just numbers to tell a more compelling story of how you are helping in this post from Blackbaud fundraising expert Mel Ranour, “Countdown to Giving Tuesday: 3 Tips for GivingTuesday Success.“

3. Ask donors to support a specific project

Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary more than tripled year-over-year donations on Giving Tuesday a few years ago 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’.”

4. Identify matching donation opportunities

There’s still time to identify donors who might be willing to have a donation used as a matching gift to generate more excitement and engagement. But don’t stop at thinking about matching gifts with donors – think creatively like New Mexico State University (NMSU) did when they found theirs in a university license plate affinity program! Read more about NMSU’s strategy and success: “Making Giving Tuesday Count: New Mexico State University’s Story.”

5. Organize peer-to-peer fundraising

More than ever, people are looking for ways to engage more deeply with the causes they care about and go beyond just making a single donation. Secure friends of your organization (board members, volunteers, staff, community leaders, past donors) to raise money on your behalf through their social networks. There’s still time to sign up for JustGiving from Blackbaud to empower your advocates to easily raise funds for your organization on Giving Tuesday – learn more about how you can launch a campaign for free.

6. Create a Giving Tuesday stewardship plan

Having a stewardship plan is critical to retaining both new and existing donors, and for making sure that Giving Tuesday has a lasting impact beyond just one day. Learn how to create an effective donor-centric plan that keeps repeat donors involved and turn first-time givers into sustained donors in the upcoming webinar “Stewarding Beyond Giving Tuesday.”

And last but not least, use these great FREE Giving Tuesday resources!

• Download Blackbaud’s free, comprehensive Giving Tuesday toolkit that includes sample social media messaging, email templates and more!
• Watch any (or all!) of these six free Giving Tuesday webinars that detail best practices and proven strategies. And be sure to sign up for the upcoming webinar on how to steward donors beyond Giving Tuesday!
• Read all the great Giving Tuesday blog posts on sgENGAGE, including many written by your peers.
• Listen to these nine sgENGAGE Podcast episodes featuring Blackbaud experts and social good professionals sharing tips and strategies for Giving Tuesday success.

*This article has been updated since its original publication in 2019.