Did your past Giving Tuesday 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 Giving Tuesday donors!
Fundraisers raise more money on Giving Tuesday every year. Last year, nonprofits raised $2.47 billion, a 29 percent increase over the prior year!
Yet, some organizations are still hesitant. We understand the concerns around Giving Tuesday, 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.
But we find nonprofits that struggle with their strategy dwell on these challenges, instead of finding a way to overcome them. The best strategies will focus on how your organization can get long-term value out of a brief interaction with Giving Tuesday donors.
Here are two ways you can do it:
1. Tie into your year-end appeal.
This year, Giving Tuesday falls on November 30. 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 Giving Tuesday 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 Giving Tuesday to get your current donors excited, engaged, and ready to help further your mission with a year-end gift.
#GivingTuesday is a social media phenomenon. Last year, donors gave $135 million to the causes they care about through Facebook.
So instead of asking Giving Tuesday donors for a monetary gift, ask them to share your online donation page with their social networks instead!
Let them know you need their help to reach more people who share your goals, so you can all make a bigger impact together.
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: Finding supporters who fit your ideal donor profile.
Use versioned appeals.
Make sure your outreach feels relevant for every one of your Giving Tuesday donors. A simple way to do this is segmenting your donors based on if they’ve already contributed to your annual fund this year.
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 Giving Tuesday 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 that it’s not too late and you’ve missed their usual donation. Then, show them how they can make a difference this Giving Tuesday.
Or reverse engineer this strategy and base versions of your end-of-year appeal on whether a donor gave on Giving Tuesday!
2. Promote monthly giving.
As we know, small donations make up the majority of gifts on Giving Tuesday. You will probably find the majority of Giving Tuesday 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 how you can use Giving Tuesday to secure new monthly donors. For this strategy to be successful, you will need to direct donors to your own donation page, rather than collect through a third-party platform.
Your options here will be 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.
Another approach is including a drop-down menu that enables donors to select which initiative they would like to donate to. 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 be interested in committing to a monthly donation. This is a more passive approach that uses monthly giving to generate long-term value from Giving Tuesday.
READ MORE: Building monthly giving into your fundraising strategy.
What about current monthly donors?
If you already have a monthly giving program, you should segment these donors into a separate audience. This will allow you to reach them with more relevant communications on Giving Tuesday.
Let your monthly donors know how much you appreciate their continued commitment, then ask if they would be interested in supporting your Giving Tuesday initiative.
You can ask current monthly donors if they would be interested in adding a 13th gift on top of their usual monthly commitment. It’s important to stress how valuable their support is and that any gift they make today is supplementary to their usual commitment.
Or you can avoid an ask altogether. Instead, focus on getting long-term value from these Giving Tuesday 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 Giving Tuesday 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: How better thank you’s can elevate your fundraising.
The long haul.
So, as you prepare for the upcoming day of philanthropy, make sure you develop a plan to get long-term value from Giving Tuesday donors.
Whether you’ve been participating in Giving Tuesday since the very beginning in 2012, or this is the first year you want to get involved, you need to think about more than the number of funds you can raise in one day!
As Giving Tuesday 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 can 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 Giving Tuesday donors this year, try tying your campaign into your end-of-year push, or using it to promote your monthly giving program!
