Did your past GivingTuesday strategies come up short? Or are you looking to join in on the biggest day in philanthropy for the first time? Either way, it’s important to have a plan to get long-term value from your GivingTuesday donors!
Fundraisers raise more money on GivingTuesday every year. Last year, nonprofits raised $3.1 billion, a 15 percent increase over the prior year!
Yet, some organizations are still hesitant. We understand the concerns around GivingTuesday, especially for smaller nonprofits. Yes, there is going to be a lot of noise. No, you’re not likely to secure a large, organization-changing gift.
The best strategies will focus on how your organization can get long-term value from a brief interaction with GivingTuesday donors.
Here are two ways you can do it:
1. Tie into your year-end appeal.
This year, GivingTuesday falls on November 28. So, there’s just over a month separating the two biggest fundraising days of the year!
You probably have a pretty robust strategy for your year-end appeal campaign. So, why not tie GivingTuesday in as part of your communications strategy?
A different kind of ask.
You might worry about sending two solicitations less than a month apart. But if you get creative, you can use GivingTuesday to get your current donors excited, engaged, and ready to help further your mission with a year-end gift.
In fact, 82 percent of organizations used GivingTuesday to try something new last year, according to Neon One.
So, instead of asking GivingTuesday donors for a monetary gift, ask them to share your online donation page with their social networks instead!
Make this as easy as possible for your donors. If you can, include a one-click social sharing button in your emails.
And if you do include a monetary ask, make sure donors know this initiative is separate from your end-of-year appeal!
READ MORE: Now is a great time to run an awareness campaign.
Use versioned appeals.
Make sure your outreach feels relevant for every one of your GivingTuesday donors.
Thank your donors who have already given and share what you’ve been able to accomplish with their support. Then, ask if they will supplement their usual gift with a GivingTuesday donation.
Your other segment will consist of your “at risk” donors who usually contribute to your annual fund but haven’t yet this year. Remind them it’s not too late and you’ve missed their usual donation. Then, show them how they can make a difference this GivingTuesday.
If you want to go further, you can come up with a version that uses GivingTuesday as a way to encourage lapsed donors to renew their gift.
Or reverse engineer this strategy and base versions of your end-of-year appeal on whether a donor gave on GivingTuesday!
READ MORE: How to segment your nonprofit’s audience.
2. Promote monthly giving.
Another great way to get long-term value from GivingTuesday is to make monthly giving the focus of your outreach.
As we know, small donations make up the majority of gifts on GivingTuesday. You will probably find many of your GivingTuesday donors give in the $5 to $25 range.
Luckily, that’s an ideal gift size for a new monthly donor! Here’s how you can turn $5 into $60 or $25 into $300.
Acquiring new monthly donors.
First, let’s focus on using GivingTuesday to secure new monthly donors. For this strategy to succeed, you must direct donors to your donation page rather than collect through a third-party platform.
Your options here will be more limited if you plan to collect donations through Facebook, for example.
So, your first option is to prompt donors to sign up for your monthly giving program before they make their initial donation. You can include a checkbox on your giving page users can select if they want to commit to a monthly gift.
You can include your annual fund campaign and any other special initiatives as part of this menu. But if your goal is to secure monthly donors, make sure you draw more attention to that option!
Or you can let donors make their initial gift before asking if they would like to commit to a monthly donation. This is a more passive approach that uses monthly giving to generate long-term value from GivingTuesday.
READ MORE: Let’s freshen up your online donation page.
What about current monthly donors?
You should segment these donors into a separate audience if you already have a monthly giving program. This will allow you to reach them with more relevant communications on GivingTuesday.
Let your monthly donors know how much you appreciate their continued commitment. Then, ask if they would be interested in supporting your GivingTuesday initiative.
You can ask current monthly donors if they want to add a 13th gift on top of their usual monthly commitment. It’s important to stress how valuable their support is and that any contribution they make today is supplementary to their regular commitment.
Or you can avoid asking altogether. Instead, focus on getting long-term value from these GivingTuesday donors by making the occasion all about them.
Rather than asking for another small gift, take the opportunity to thank monthly donors and build your relationship with them. Emphasize how much you appreciate their monthly support and that it takes much more than one day of giving for your organization to reach its goals without making an ask.
Another way to get long-term value from GivingTuesday is to use the strategies we mentioned earlier to tap into the social nature of the day. Rather than asking your monthly donors for another donation, you can ask them to share your online giving page with their social networks to help get their friends involved.
READ MORE: Can your nonprofit send better thank you’s?
The long haul.
So, as you prepare for the upcoming day of philanthropy, make sure you develop a plan to help your GivingTuesday donors make a bigger impact.
Whether you’ve been participating in GivingTuesday since the very beginning in 2012, or this is the first year you want to get involved, you need to think about more than raising as much as you can in one day!
As GivingTuesday continues to grow, it gets harder and harder for nonprofits to stand out with their message. So, it’s important to make the most out of any donations you secure by tying this day of giving into other aspects of your fundraising strategy.
So, if you’re looking for a way to get long-term value from GivingTuesday donors this year, try tying your campaign into your end-of-year push or using it to promote your monthly giving program!
