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GivingTuesday is December 3, just a few weeks away. For many nonprofits, it’s one of the biggest giving-day campaigns for the year and often kicks off their year-end fundraising season.
While some fundraisers start planning for GivingTuesday as early as April, now is not too late if you haven’t started, say fundraisers and consultants who have done well raising money on that day. The Chronicle talked to these experts, who shared key tips on how your organization can maximize its chances of success on this big fundraising day.
Band together.
GivingTuesday may feel like a solitary undertaking, but talking to other nonprofits about what they’re doing can help, says Lisa Schillace, national director of #iGiveCatholic, a coalition of Catholic nonprofits that band together to encourage donations on GivingTuesday. Schillace runs meetings that facilitate idea sharing among the participating groups.
“I see our role as providing space for shared learning, shared inspiration — what we call #HolyPlagiarism,” she says. “If somebody is doing something great in Beloit, Kan., and I want to do it in Richmond, Va., I can. This is a unique opportunity to be able to collect the wisdom of our community and share information.”
Share Omaha gathers more than 600 nonprofits to participate in a GivingTuesday campaign. The initiative puts together logos and branding and serves as a clearinghouse for donors who want to give to Omaha-area charities on GivingTuesday. Donors can give to their favorite charity, but they’re also encouraged to donate to other charities in a cause, with options to give to as many as 10 nonprofits via the campaign site.
Organizations can also join forces on a smaller scale. In 2022, the Chronicle reported that the Coral Springs Museum of Art, in Florida, partnered with the nearby Sawgrass Nature Center and Wildlife Hospital for a joint Bob Ross-inspired painting event on GivingTuesday.
Start early, when possible.
Give your organization time to get together all the GivingTuesday marketing material. That includes social-media branding and logos, advertisements, and language for emails and direct-mail appeals.
Schillace brought together the Catholic charities that want to participate in this year’s event way back in April to share ideas. She thinks that was a bit too early — they’re going to push it to May next year. But considering options early is helpful, she says.
Still, if you haven’t started planning for GivingTuesday, there’s still time says Teresa Mardesen, executive director of Share Omaha. Don’t be overwhelmed, she says, by the idea of GivingTuesday being a huge opportunity you might miss out on. Instead, view it as something you can do incrementally, starting off with an achievable and modest goal.
You can say, “We want to have 20 new donors; that’s our goal,” she says. “It’s O.K. to start off small.”
Begin getting the word out anywhere from four to six weeks before GivingTuesday, says CJ Orr, CEO of the Orr group, a fundraising consulting firm.
“You’ll definitely want to send out some things on social and email campaigns saying, ‘Hey, this is going to happen. We hope you all participate,’” he says.
Have a specific goal in mind.
Fundraising for GivingTuesday works really well when the organization shares a goal with donors, Orr says. “We encourage folks to identify something tangible,” he says. “If you were to raise that $100,000, know where the funding would go or at least have broad strokes.”
Schillace says one parish that has participated in #iGiveCatholic’s GivingTuesday push for nine years has raised more than $900,000 during that time. The first year, she says, it was trying to raise $12,000 to plant trees around its new fence and parking lot. The goal was a struggle to make, but the achievement clicked with donors.
“The parents and the community members saw those trees all year long and said, ‘I was a part of that.’ It was a reminder every time they came, and they started asking, ‘What are we doing next year?’” Schillace says. “If you pick something that is very tangible that they can see, that matters to them, that’s when people will really step up and care and want to participate.”
Enlist your volunteers.
Having volunteers chip in and spread the word can boost participation. “What we’ve learned is that it’s a team sport,” Schillace says. “Don’t try to do it by yourself. Find out who can bring energy to that campaign and who can add support.”
In the weeks ahead of GivingTuesday, a committee of volunteers at the ASAE Research Foundation sends emails, calls people, and — in some cases — texts both their personal contacts and donors that the foundation provides, says Morgan Maravich, vice president of foundation relations. “We use the development committee to reach out and spread the word,” she says.
The foundation’s plan to start early, have united messaging, and lean into volunteer support — it asked every volunteer to also donate on GivingTuesday — led to more than double the number of donors. In 2022, 80 donors gave roughly $17,000; last year, those totals jumped to 188 donors who gave more than $31,000.
Remind donors they can give early.
GivingTuesday is the Tuesday following Thanksgiving, meaning that even though it moves each year, it always follows a time when people have been busy with family, friends, and sometimes, travel.
“Some people will say, ‘Well, I’m just so busy that day’ or ‘I’m at work; I can’t get online at work to do that. Can I give early?’” says Mardesen. Her answer is an unequivocal yes. “We do have a give-early campaign.” Share Omaha encourages people to log their GivingTuesday gift as soon as they can.
For smaller charities or those that aren’t as well known, asking early also helps avoid the crush of day-of ads on GivingTuesday. “We’re not the American Cancer Society,” says Maravich of the ASAE Research Foundation. “We would get lost in all of this.”
Encourage monthly giving.
“GivingTuesday is a huge day, but it’s also step one and a starting point for ongoing giving,” Mardesen says. “Use Giving Tuesday as step one to year-round giving and support.” She encourages organizations to add a checkbox to their online donation forms that asks people if they’d like to be monthly donors.
The ASAE Research Foundation ran a “12 by 12” campaign aimed at young professionals, who often don’t have a lot of disposable income to give. Under that plan, donors agreed to donate $12 each month for a year, Maravich says. “It gives credit to GivingTuesday, but also we would receive a donation from them for 12 months.”
Get creative.
It helps to auction off unique items on GivingTuesday, Schillace says. It should be something that is not hard for the organization to offer, but would be meaningful to supporters. She’s seen parishes auction off a parking space close to the church entrance, Catholic schools offer the first spot in the morning drop-off line, and other unique items to raise money on GivingTuesday.
“Reserving a pew of your choice at the mass of your choice at Christmas — that costs them nothing,” Schillace says. “But it’s very valuable to their community.”
She’s seen high-school students auction off services like a car wash or babysitting as part of GivingTuesday drives. Another imaginative, fun project: a livestream challenge.
“They did a social-media challenge between their pastor and the chaplain,” she says. “It was, Who can bring in the most number of donors in an hour? They called it a ‘power hour.’ The kids got involved, and they pushed it all over social media.”
Creative offerings can energize your community of supporters and make giving fun, Schillace says.
Consider a match.
A matching gift can help drive more people to donate because they know their gift will go further, Schillace says. She recommends reaching out to donors to see if they’re willing to put up the match.
“If they’re already going to give you $1,000 or $5,000 at the end of the year, call them up and ask, ‘Can I use this towards a match on GivingTuesday?’” Schillace says. “That gives them some really great ROI. Their gift can inspire others. The donors really respond to that opportunity to double their gift. Often they will give more than they initially planned to because they think their gift is going further.”
While a match can be motivator, there are risks, says Orr, the fundraising consultant. “We’ve seen it be successful and seen it not be successful.” He cautions organizations that securing a match does not guarantee anything.
It’s just the beginning.
While a nonprofit can ask donors to become monthly supporters on GivingTuesday, some people want to be courted before they make a commitment. Everyone the Chronicle spoke with said what happens after GivingTuesday is crucial.
“People who donate are six times more likely to volunteer for that nonprofit within a year after donating,” Mardesen says. “Keep in touch with them and follow up with a handwritten note — but then also steward them.”
Maravich says GivingTuesday is a time the ASAE Research Foundation gets a lot of new donors, and it gives her a chance to get them integrated into the stewardship pipeline. “We use GivingTuesday to then build upon their experience with the foundation.”
A GivingTuesday thank you video to supporters by Holy Angels, a North Carolina nonprofit that participated in #iGiveCatholic