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November 9, 2023 | GivingTuesday, Year End
Giving Tuesday Advice: Insights and Ideas for Your Upcoming Campaign
Most people are aware of Giving Tuesday as a movement, and many (53%) say it inspires them to be more giving, according to the Global Awareness survey. If your organization passes it up, you won’t just miss out on a day’s worth of donations – you could be missing out on a chance to inspire deeper involvement in your nonprofit year-round.
It’s never too late to start today, or to reimagine your Giving Tuesday strategy. So we’ve compiled lessons and advice from those who participate each year – the creators of the movement, themselves, and DonorPerfect users who have seen success.
Advice from the founders of Giving Tuesday
Let’s bear in mind that research from GivingTuesday.org shows that the most generous donors are typically engaged for 11-40 years before making their most substantial gift. It takes an average of nearly 12 years for a donor’s first gift to reach the level of a $25,000 contribution.
That said…
Cultivate relationships year-round to maximize year-end contributions
Research from the AFP Fundraising Effectiveness Project shows that, on average, donors who don’t participate in Giving Tuesday contribute $900 annually, and those who do participate give $1,124 annually. That’s a 25% increase!
Don’t miss out on opportunities to keep in touch with all donors, but especially those who participate on Giving Tuesday. Reach out with updates, make attempts to get to know them better, and have conversations to understand how they want to give. It’s worth it to build that extra momentum behind your year-end push for tax-deductible donations.
Develop a long-term strategy for younger supporters
While your younger supporters may feel less financially stable, they are still happy to engage in non-financial giving. In fact, they are more likely to contribute items, their time, or their voice. Since the journey to a significant contribution often spans many years, your younger supporters play a vital role in that process, and Giving Tuesday is a great time to start building these relationships.
Recognizing their willingness to give in various ways and nurturing these early relationships can be a cornerstone of your long-term giving strategy. Plus, it’s free for them to use the #GivingTuesday hashtag or set up a crowdfunding page to get eyes on your campaign.
Advice from nonprofit professionals who fundraise with DonorPerfect
We surveyed DonorPerfect users across a variety of roles and sectors, asking what advice they would give to fundraisers participating in Giving Tuesday, and the lessons they’ve learned from participating themselves.
Health Services / Executive Director:
- Best advice: Be prepared to pivot at any moment.
- Lessons learned: Be ready to handle rejections as much as wins.
- Celebrated wins: 25% of donors giving on Giving Tuesday.
Online fundraising tools like customizable donation forms keep you ready to make campaign updates on the fly – whether it’s your campaign story, photos, impact descriptions, ask amounts, or payment options. No need to have an “oops” moment on the day of.
The flexibility of DonorPerfect’s integrated fundraising features allows nonprofits in the health community to raise an average of 171% more funds in their first 3 years with us.
Youth Development / Database & HR Coordinator:
- Best advice: Be as prepared as possible with all available information, including giving history. Pull your most interesting Giving Tuesday data for a mass thank-you email to all who contributed.
- Lessons learned: Be flexible and adaptable; it’s a long day with so many variables.
- Celebrated wins: [Our Giving Tuesday campaigns] continue to grow year after year, with 2020 being particularly impactful despite the challenging world situation.
When all the dust settles, our board members and our CEO will use the video message feature in DonorPerfect, DP Video, and send out personalized thank yous. We’ve gotten great feedback on them!
– Alexis, Camp Ramah in the Poconos
Integrated fundraising solutions like DonorPerfect allow you to automatically sync all data across your online forms, volunteer sign-ups, direct mail donations, email lists, auctions, and events, so you can keep necessary information on hand – like parent/guardian details, waivers, and health concerns – for youth-based events or programs, and ready to adapt to any changes.
Create data standards that keep your data clean and your team on the same page.
Arts & Culture / Manager of Development:
- Best advice: Be direct in your messaging.
- Lessons learned: Even if donors don’t contribute on Giving Tuesday, it’s a valuable touchpoint for the end-of-year campaign.
Having email marketing tools that sync with your donor information allows you to create strategic email lists for direct, personalized touchpoints that are proven to resonate better with your supporters. You can even schedule your Giving Tuesday emails in advance to avoid scrambling at the end of the month. These features have allowed nonprofits in the arts and culture community to raise 88% more funds in their first year using DonorPerfect.
DonorPerfect plans come with Constant Contact’s best-in-class email marketing tools, which are proven to increase supporter reach with a 12% higher email open rate.
Animal Welfare / Director of Development:
- Best advice: Plan early and share your messaging multiple times across various platforms.
- Lessons learned: Create excitement and make Giving Tuesday a special moment.
- Celebrated wins: Combining online donations with a physical event at a brewery.
It’s quite simple to create excitement around your Giving Tuesday campaign in the weeks leading up – especially with plug-and-play templates (ours are linked below). Before Giving Tuesday, you can tell stories, reveal your campaign goals, tease your event, recruit crowdfunders, and inspire social media ambassadors.
On the day of, DonorPerfect research has shown that the highest volume of Giving Tuesday gifts are processed in the evening at 6:30, 11:00, and 11:59 pm. Try sending emails before these time periods so that when donors are free to check their email, the reminder to donate is there waiting for them.
Get email templates to create excitement around your Giving Tuesday campaign.
Human Services / Communications Manager:
- Best advice: Create a special donation page for your Giving Tuesday campaign and use QR codes to drive engagement.
- Lesson learned: We actually don’t remind people until a few days before; we found that our audience doesn’t respond particularly well if we remind them too far in advance since we have so many other communications going on.
- Celebrated wins: We have our formula down to a T after four years of doing it. We put a slider front and center on our website and do several social media posts throughout the day to remind people.
It’s quite simple to create excitement around your Giving Tuesday campaign in the weeks leading up – especially with plug-and-play templates (ours are linked below). Before Giving Tuesday, you can tell stories, reveal your campaign goals, tease your event, recruit crowdfunders, and inspire social media ambassadors.
On the day of, DonorPerfect research has shown that the highest volume of Giving Tuesday gifts are processed in the evening at 6:30, 11:00, and 11:59 pm. Try sending emails before these time periods so that when donors are free to check their email, the reminder to donate is there waiting for them.
Nonprofits in the human services community raise 32% more funds in their first year using DonorPerfect.
Learn why human services organizations trust DonorPerfect >>
Human Services / Executive Director:
- Best advice: Start early to reach a larger network.
- Lessons learned: Plan well in advance to run Giving Tuesday and End-of-Year campaigns back to back. Create email, social media, and graphic templates to encourage involvement beginning November 1st. Launch crowdfunding on Giving Tuesday to boost engagement. Have board members reach out to segmented lists.
- Celebrated wins: Increased traction as a new organization.
All roads led back to our donation page, including a landing page with pictures and stories that people could access before Giving Tuesday. We used our DonorPerfect segments with Constant Contact, which were pre-created, so email and newsletter lists were already loaded up and ready to go.
– Alyssa, kNot Today
Want to try running your Giving Tuesday and End-of-Year campaigns back to back? We have you completely covered with the Year-End Fundraising Bundle (available for download below). Your bundle includes three free guides: the Giving Tuesday Cheat Sheet, the Year-End Cheat Sheet, and AI for Nonprofits: A Comprehensive Guide to Enhancing Your Fundraising Communications.
Download your year-end fundraising bundle
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