In the midst of planning for your fall fundraiser, finally settling back into your post-summer routine, and starting to craft your year-end appeal, Giving Tuesday is typically forgotten until it’s almost too late to plan.
As a result, you'll probably throw together something last minute and hope for the best. Then promise yourself that next year you’ll plan more. (We know this because we've been there.) To help you keep your word to yourself on planning ahead this year, here are 4 tips to simply your strategy that will take off the stress and help you accomplish your goals.
Utilize Social Media
Giving Tuesday can sneak up on you, so give yourself a break and this year try it as a social media only campaign. Create a hashtag specific to what you are raising money for that day. Then, block off your calendar on Tuesday, November 29 so you can monitor all social feeds during the day, while you work on other things at your desk. The more active you are in thanking and retweeting donors, the more activity you’ll create around your cause.
Set one clear goal.
Set yourself up for success by choosing one realistic goal. You have 1 day to raise money, so you need your donors to feel a sense of both urgency and attainability. They know it’s not likely that you’ll crowd fund $20,000 in one day, so don’t use that as a goal. You want them to believe they can help you reach whatever you set. Instead of something monetary, focus on the outcome. For example, if your organization shelters the homeless, a sample goal/tweet would be: “On Giving Tuesday, help us raise $1,000 to provide shelter and hot meals for up to 50 people in our community. #GivingTuesday”.
Create urgency.
Remember, you just have one day, so you don’t have time for your donors to wait. Throughout the day, continuously tweet how much you’ve raised and how much more you need to hit your goal. In between goals about the dollar amount, remind them WHY this goal is so important. Going on our homeless shelter example, a sample tweet would say, “As it’s getting colder out, we want to serve as many people as possible. We provide hot meals and warm beds for homeless members of our community and today, you can, too. #GivingTuesday”.
Prep your board in advance.
Explain to your board what your strategy is, then ask them to get in on the action. Prep them in advance with pre-written tweets and Facebook posts. You want this to be as easy as possible for them. Give them their own set times to post. Board member #1 could tweet on his way to work at 8am, while Board member #3 might tweet at lunchtime. Yet another could do so after work. This strategy ensures that you have social media activity all day long and it will look organic to potential donors. Make sure each of their tweets are unique to them as well. TIP: Want to make SURE they don’t forget? Send each board member a calendar notice for the time you want them to make the social media post, with the post already written out. For example: 8am: “Walking to work this morning thankful for the warm bed I slept in last night and remembering those who don’t have that luxury. That’s why I serve on X nonprofit and am donating to help them reach their $1,000 goal today. Will you give, too? #GivingTuesday”.
Giving Tuesday is most effective when your goals are clear and attainable. Set yourself up for success by planning in advance and getting the buy-in from your board to participate. Remember, the community wants to help, but quite honestly after Black Friday and Cyber Monday, their funds will be limited. They’ll appreciate being asked to give small amounts and knowing exactly what that money is going towards. Now, go forth and Give!
