Everything You Need for a Successful Nonprofit Giving Day

1. Event management solutions

First things first! Event management is much more than tracking registrations and attendance, and there are many solutions to consider! What you need for your Giving Day will depend on the scope or nature of your event (usually determined by the host, your team’s capacity, or the fundraising resources available to you).

For example, if your campaign includes face-to-face initiatives, you may need a solution that allows for things like meal options, table arrangements, and name tags.
If your Giving Day will take place online, you can create excitement through several creative avenues, like virtual giving challenges and social media storytelling. Also, a “hybrid” of face-to-face and digital fundraising is a great way to engage diverse donor groups!

Suggestions for virtual and hybrid events:

• A virtual auction with enticing items could significantly increase attendance. Consider asking local businesses to donate items – it improves their visibility, too!
• A mobile app allows you to accept donations while you network. Even better, an integrated donation processor automatically enters that data into your system.
• Event elements like seating charts, goal meters, and the ability to interact with other guests can improve attendee satisfaction and drive personal connections.

 In general, you may need advanced reporting features to track RSVP lists, pledges, expenses, fair market value, and more. These figures help you maximize your budget and determine next year’s improvements

2. Custom donation forms

Does your donation page allow robust customization, or will you use other avenues to tell your story? Leveraging your donation page as a hub for your Giving Day can save time and effort on additional communications. 

For example, with a fundraising system like DonorPerfect, you can quickly populate a new donation form with specific Giving Day content (like goals, beneficiaries, photos, logos, and more) or update your existing one. You can also use form customization features to collect the exact data you need.

Consider adding custom form fields to collect more data:

• Textbox for preferred nicknames or phone numbers
• Drop-down menu for preferred solicitation/communication method
• Yes/no for permission to send fundraising text messages

Also, consider leveraging crowdfunding forms to broaden your network of influence! Whether your Giving Day is face-to-face, virtual, or hybrid, try to provide a way for participants to interact with each other. This is an excellent way to leverage the power of “social proof” – the tendency for people to act similarly to those they are influenced by.

For example, Givecloud is a form solution that integrates with nonprofit CRMs, allowing donors to create their own giving portals, see how others are participating, and even chat amongst themselves.

3. Custom reports and dashboards

Avoid having your hard work go to waste! Custom reporting features, like report builders and real-time dashboards, allow you to maximize limited resources and monitor performance indicators to improve the success of future campaigns. Likewise, you can use available data from past campaigns to inform your Giving Day decisions.

Metrics to watch:

• Giving by hour or group
• New donor conversion rate
• Average gift amount
• Donor retention by status

Reports to run:

• Giving Day solicitation analysis
• Gifts by location (if Giving Day is cause-oriented)
• Sum of Giving Day volunteer hours

DonorPerfect’s Custom Report Builder can create custom calculations, sort and group data, apply filter criteria, add or remove fields, and share your results via email – instantly or scheduled

4. Generative AI for fundraisers

Inspiring participants with regular communication throughout your Giving Day campaign is important for igniting the spirit of generosity and fostering a sense of community.

However, there isn’t always time to write appeals or social media updates from scratch! And there’s no reason why your old content can’t inspire your new campaign. Maybe something you’ve already written can be reimagined for your Giving Day – something generative AI can do in a few seconds. Try Claude.AI or ChatGPT for free!
If you need to create new content, it’s always best to use nonprofit tools developed by industry experts. For example, DonorPerfect has a free Fundraiser Bot that allows you to enter a few details to create instant campaign content.

5. Email marketing automation and templates

Do you have templates or automation tools to save time while spreading the word about your Giving Day? How about a way to track the effectiveness of your engagements? Or a way to schedule goal updates throughout the day? A comprehensive email marketing solution does it all, making it a game-changer for Giving Days.
The value of an email marketing platform significantly increases when you integrate it with your nonprofit CRM to sync your donor records. You can immediately pull personalization details like salutations, nicknames, gift amounts, and more into your targeted emails. A robust platform like Constant Contact offers limitless potential to nonprofits with hundreds of templates, segmented lists, scheduled outreach, and a real-time engagement dashboard.

Types of engagement to monitor:

• Email receipt status (opened, bounced, opted out, etc.)
• Email click-through rates (who opened your email links)
• Contact records, noting responses to campaigns

Regardless of the outcome, engagement is the starting point of trust, so knowing how many opens and clicks you’re getting is a great way to gauge relationship potential.

Nonprofits that use DonorPerfect with Constant Contact see 19% higher open rates and 180% higher click-through rates than nonprofits using Constant Contact alone. Each DonorPerfect system comes with a Constant Contact account and 30+ pre-written fundraising templates including crowdfunding and new donor welcomes.

6. Contact and relationship management

Timely, relevant engagements build trust. For example, you wouldn’t send a generic “Dear Friend” solicitation to a donor who hasn’t given in years. Personal connections are what inspire people to contribute their time, money, or influence, so – to increase generous acts toward your mission – show them that you know them. To help you achieve this, let’s discuss the difference between contact and relationship management.

Both are important for building relationships, but in different ways:

• Contact management features help you track and organize contributor data (like nicknames, affiliations, preferences, etc.), and record interactions (like letters, emails, calls, and meetings). You can set up alerts, schedule outreach, and assign tasks.
• Relationship management features automate repetitive tasks and provide engagement insights to analyze performance. For example, your CRM can automatically send receipts, acknowledgments, and thank-yous with the correct donor data, then tell you which engagements resulted in a contribution.

Together, these features ensure your Giving Day campaign includes timely, relevant touch-points for new, lapsed, loyal, and prospective donors, and that each is targeted, personalized, and scheduled appropriately.

7. Mobile fundraising solutions

Experts at GivingTuesday predict that an additional 7% of donors would have responded generously to solicitation if they had been asked recently. Mobile fundraising solutions allow for timely conversations that inspire giving, like participation opportunities, goal updates, and impact statements. They can even be used to provide event directions or instructions!

Suggestions to incorporate mobile solutions:

• Mobile donations – If you’re interacting with Giving Day participants on the ground, you don’t have to wait until you get back to your computer to solicit or record a gift. Mobile apps that integrate with your CRM can collect and organize data for you.
• Text-to-give (SMS) – If you collect phone numbers for Giving Day registrants (and they opt into receiving text messages), you can share your goal progress throughout the day to drive donations.
• QR codes – Have print resources like flyers, business cards, postcards, or programs? Put a QR code on them! Participants can scan the code on their mobile phones to instantly access your donation page.

DonorPerfect has a free QR Code Generator! Feel free to give it a whirl!

8. Donor engagement models

Industry experts suggest that recent giving declines could be caused by a lack of diverse fundraising, meaning many supporters are overlooked due to the size of their monetary contributions, even though they are eager to help.

To drive participation on your Giving Day, make a point to value all forms of engagement. Challenge yourself to think of your constituency not as small vs. major donors (or one-time vs. recurring donors) but as a continuum of generosity and relationships.

Consider using donor engagement models to prioritize diversity:

• Funnel – Narrow your pool of participants to those ready to engage.
• Pyramid – Build participation upward from engagement to donation.
• Loop – Keep participants informed of opportunities, regardless of status.
• Network – Leverage your supporters’ influence to expand your reach.

For more modern engagement strategies, check out Donor Engagement Models for the Digital Age, available for free download!

9. Donor personas

We’ve covered how to target and personalize your Giving Day solicitations using email marketing solutions and automation features in your CRM, but how can you create diverse donor segments in the first place?
Simply segmenting your audience by giving status can leave out opportunities for personal connection. Donor personas (fictional people representing your ideal donor groups) are a fundraising strategy that accounts for your participants’ motivations and behaviors, allowing for more meaningful conversations.

Steps to develop your nonprofit’s donor personas:

• Identify your most valuable segments
• Enrich your data with demographics
• Solicit feedback to validate your data
• Develop fictional representations of ideal donors
• Match each persona with a relevant goal
• Create engagements appealing to each persona
• Track the success of your new approach

Let’s try it together! Your Data-Driven Donor Persona Checklist was written to help you through each of these steps. Download your free copy >>

10. Prospect research

About 40% of donors who participate in an awareness day for your cause are new donors. You can prepare your team for new donor conversations by researching their interests, donation history, and wealth data. Using this strategy, prospect research tools help you start your relationships strong. They also help you uncover brand new connections!

Consider researching your prospects:

• Detailed wealth information
• Giving capacity
• Giving history
• Nonprofit affiliations

And your major prospects: Identify high-impact donors who are willing and able to give! Partnering with them on your Giving Day can help you connect with like-minded people in their networks. If your Giving Day focuses on your community, you can even find partners by geographic location!

Embrace Giving Days and see what your organization can achieve in just 24 hours! These campaigns create excitement, encourage quick action, increase awareness, and drive community engagement. So, try something new and watch your support grow!