You must be prepared with the right tools and tactics to boost donations and increase outreach during your Giving Tuesday fundraising campaign. This article will help you get started on the right track with several effective tips, proven Giving Tuesday ideas, and inspiring examples. Read on!
Giving Tuesday is set to take place on December 3, 2024.
But are you stuck on Giving Tuesday ideas that will help boost your fundraising on this day? Maybe you’re even a little bit confused as to what exactly Giving Tuesday is and how your nonprofit can benefit from it.
Giving Tuesday is a global day of giving powered by social media, collaboration, and campaigning. #GivingTuesday was created back in 2012 by the team at the Belfer Center for Innovation & Social Impact at the 92nd Street Y – a cultural center in New York City – and has become a global philanthropic movement.
Giving Tuesday is celebrated on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving (in the U.S.) and the widely recognized shopping events Black Friday and Cyber Monday. GivingTuesday 2023 saw fundraising income plateau, donors in the United States gave $3.1 billion last year, which represented only a .06% increase over 2022.
This year, you’re going to need a revised strategy, one that speaks to the shift we’re seeing in donor giving habits and looks at Giving Tuesday not as a once-off appeal opportunity, but as part of a cohesive year-end fundraising strategy.
#GivingTuesday has always, and continues to be a great way to offset the hyper-consumerism of the holiday season. This makes it a great time to engage your donors, reach new supporters, and share your cause and your mission. It’s your chance to offer donors an opportunity to step away from buying and focus on giving after all, nothing conveys the spirit of the “holiday season” more than giving back.
Are you still on the fence about whether or not GIving Tuesday is right for your nonprofit? It’s a big commitment after all and will require a significant amount of planning and resources to get a successful campaign off the ground. You and your team will need to commit fully from at least September to December to prepare.
We think it’s a great day to launch your giving season campaigns, but you’ll need to consider a few things to determine if it’s a good fit for your nonprofit:
Being a globally recognized day of charitable giving, Giving Tuesday allows your organization to capitalize on the generosity of others while leveraging the collective awareness of the day to amplify your appeals and increase donations. It also:
Hundreds of organizations across the globe utilize Donorbox’s powerful tools to raise funds during Giving Tuesday. Here’s an example of a successful 2023 campaign created on Donorbox by Catsbury Park to raise funds on Giving Tuesday 2023. Take inspiration from this and many other organizations that leveraged this global day of giving.
Create a Giving Tuesday Campaign on Donorbox!
Giving Tuesday ideas aside, the fundraising process will really depend on your nonprofit’s size, the resources you have at your disposal, and the priority your organization gives the campaign. Even so, there are three key steps your nonprofit can follow to ensure success on this #GivingTuesday.
But before we dive in, this video is a great springboard filled with practical Giving Tuesday ideas, tips, tricks, and tools to help you prioritize your year-end campaign the smart way!
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When is the right time to start planning your Giving Tuesday ideas and campaign? As early as possible!
Pro tip: When planning your Giving Tuesday ideas, don’t bank on them as your primary source of funding. The best thing for nonprofits is to establish a dependable source of income through recurring donations. Donorbox Recurring Donations makes it simple for you – and convenient for donors! You can easily add up to five different recurring donation intervals to your Giving Tuesday donation form. After giving, donors receive login details to access their own accounts and manage their recurring plans, where they can upgrade, pause, resume, and cancel!
Try Donorbox Recurring Donations
Preparation should take up the bulk of your time before you even start with fundraising activities and outreach.
Donorbox has created hundreds of resources including blogs, guides, sample appeal letters and emails, podcast episodes, eBooks, checklists, and much more to help nonprofits. Check out our Nonprofit Blog, Donorbox Library, The Nonprofit Podcast, and Donorbox Webinars to source crucial preparation materials for this Giving Tuesday.
Ideally, you’d do a soft launch first (with the board, staff, volunteers, and long-term donors) so you can collect early feedback and create social proof by asking for early donations. When you officially launch your campaign, inform your supporters of your goal, the impact of their donations, any matching gift campaigns, important sponsors, and special incentives.
This is the basic process your nonprofit can follow to run a Giving Tuesday fundraising campaign. If you’re interested in more specific Giving Tuesday ideas, continue reading.
Perhaps one of the most important items to check off the Giving Tuesday to-do list is your online fundraising page. It’s an essential tool for successful fundraising, and with such a huge part of Giving Tuesday happening on social media, you need an online destination to capture those vital donations.
We recommend creating a dedicated #GivingTuesday fundraising or donation page. Your page must be responsive, fast to load, well-designed, and clear in its messaging. If your donation page is disorganized, difficult to navigate, overwhelming, or confusing, it defeats its primary purpose: increasing donations.
Your donors should be able to find your donation link within a couple of seconds of your website loading. Give your link prime real estate on your website by placing a button in the top navigation on your website’s header. Consider giving it an eye-catching color that demands attention.
It’s important to remember that not every website visitor arrives at your site with the intention to donate. You’ll have to do some work to persuade them. A great way to do this is to include a brief, but compelling “why” helps do just that. Tell a story, highlight your cause and the program’s donations will support. If your donation page feels like a payment processing form, you’re going to lose potential supporters.
Nailing your donation is critical for any campaign’s success but especially for Giving Tuesday. Make sure you’ve spent enough time getting it right before moving on to any other campaign elements. If you’re looking for some great Giving Tuesday ideas for your donation page, this example from Joya Scholars’ 2022 Giving Tuesday page is a great place to start:
Create a Giving Tuesday Fundraising Page
Pro tip: Test your donation page by making a small donation, maybe $5. Try it on a desktop and mobile device to ensure the process is as seamless as you’ve designed it to be. If you have trouble reading the text or clicking a link, your donors will too. Take note of any potential improvements and make the necessary adjustments.
With relatively short-lived campaigns like this one, it’s important to show real-time progress to your donors. You can do this by displaying a fundraising thermometer on your donation/fundraising page.
Your fundraisers will be more motivated to support with a visible tracker highlighting progress. Plus, your donors can see the impact their donations are making in real time (especially since the thermometer’s progress bar automatically rises as donations flood in).
Fundraising thermometers work because the goal and the progress are so visible. Additionally, seeing the thermometer rise because of a donation being made provides a sense of immediate gratification. They’re also a great way to build social proof. Check this great example out from The Alex House Project. This Giving Tuesday campaign utilizes crowdfunding and was created on Donorbox.
Donorbox Crowdfunding - Learn More!
Peer-to-peer fundraising has incredible potential as a Giving Tuesday idea. Often underutilized, your organization’s best resource is typically your current base of donors and supporters.
These donors and supporters can help spread the word that you’re participating in #GivingTuesday. Encourage them to create campaigns of their own, and share them with their networks, and on their social media accounts. They are also the most likely to donate on the big day.
Donorbox Peer-to-Peer makes this process super easy!
You can enable peer-to-peer on any fundraising or crowdfunding campaign and invite supporters to fundraise or allow anyone to sign up right from your campaign. From there, they can customize their own fundraising pages to raise funds for your organization.
Here’s an example where a supporter created a fundraising page to raise money for Behind the Book’s Giving Tuesday campaign.
Sign Up for Donorbox Peer-to-Peer
Remember to give your fundraisers a specific goal – this will help motivate them. And don’t leave them on their own – they’re doing this for your cause after all! Keep the lines of communication open, send them fundraising tips – or, if you have the resources – train them.
Ideally, you should equip your fundraisers with:
You can also share this guide to show them how to use Donorbox Peer-to-Peer. Having as many resources as possible makes it much easier for your fundraisers to reach out to their friends and family with confidence!
Anchoring is the tendency to accept and rely on the first piece of information received before making a decision. Typically, this effect is used in pricing to help encourage consumers to spend more money overall by showing significant discounts on items. The anchor price, then, is the cost of the item before the discount – so consumers feel like they’re getting a deal!
However, the anchor effect can also be used in fundraising. In a recent study published by Cambridge University Press, researchers found that, when people are given a higher anchor donation to start with, they are willing to donate more than in a situation where they’re given a low anchor donation – or no anchor at all.
This is why you should ask for a specific amount from an individual based on that individual’s history of giving and capacity when making direct fundraising asks.
Specify a suggested amount on your donation form and follow it up in your supporting content.
Donorbox Donation Forms allow you to highlight several suggested ask amounts and add impact information to your form. Here’s an example to inspire you while you work on customizing your own Giving Tuesday donation form for 2024.
Giving Tuesday is designed to be a collaborative effort, making it the perfect opportunity for deepening connections with other organizations and businesses. It’s a chance to raise money for your cause, connect with prospective and current donors, and partner with businesses, other nonprofits, and movements in your community.
Collaboration will help increase your reach and boost your brand awareness. With that, comes more donations, more individuals pledging to volunteer, and more people aware of your nonprofit. The potential is enormous!
Whether you partner with one or two organizations (businesses or nonprofits) or join a large-scale movement – partnerships matter. Whatever you choose to do, ensure that you:
Pro tip: Matching gift campaigns are a crucial part of an efficient fundraising strategy. Donorbox integrates with Double the Donation to enable you to add a donation-matching widget to your donation form. This widget helps donors find out if their employers would match their donations. After the donation is completed, Donorbox sends donors the necessary details to complete the process at their end. It’s the most hassle-free way to double (or even triple) your Giving Tuesday donations!
Donors are, more than ever, focused on impact. In your Giving Tuesday campaign, make sure the donors know where their money will go. How is it going to make a difference? Be as specific as possible.
Look at these two sample fundraising appeals:
“Please donate $10 to help prevent violence against women in Africa.”
“Your donation of $10 will equip one health care worker to respond to domestic or sexual violence calls in Kenya for one day. Empowerment counseling interventions help prevent or reduce violence against women.”
Although both appeals ask for the same amount of money to create the same result, the second one has a much clearer pull to it. The second one clearly states a plan of action with a resulting outcome – the impact is visible.
To place focus on your impact in your external communications, it’s important to channel your inner Simon Sinek and ‘figure out your why’ first. Your organizational ‘why’ needs to be clear for you and the entire team before you can communicate it to anyone else. You’re not simply asking for donations because it’s Giving Tuesday (hopefully). If not, then why are you fundraising?
Pro tip: Leading up to Giving Tuesday, your donors will likely be trying to sort through a deluge of fundraising emails – many of which will look alike. Try to get creative with your subject line and remember to stay donor-centric in your communications.
Giving Tuesday is a big global movement! While it’s completely possible to achieve your Giving Tuesday fundraising goals, this time of the year is very busy.
People are bombarded by fundraising appeals and many organizations are vying for their attention. In that kind of noise, it’s important to stand out and find a way to win over donors’ hearts.
One of the best ways to do that is through storytelling.
As humans, we’re hardwired to remember stories and find them compelling. Stories also allow for emotional connection. To tap into the power of storytelling:
Videos are a really popular way to share stories of impact, making them a powerful Giving Tuesday idea and a great tool for fundraising and growing your reach in 2024. In fact, 51% of people are more likely to share videos with their network than any other type of content.
Video can portray characters and situations in a way that text will never be able to and are much more dynamic than still images. See this example from Embrace It’s Giving Tuesday campaign on Donorbox.
Try Donorbox this Giving Tuesday!
Nonprofits sometimes resort to negative messaging to evoke feelings of guilt. However, research shows negative messaging doesn’t lead to donations. This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t talk about tough topics; many nonprofits exist to deal with very negative circumstances. It’s a matter of framing your story positively. How are you making a positive impact on a bad situation?
You may want to include more for a full communications plan, but, for Giving Tuesday, two to three key messages will suffice. Think about your “why”, not your “what”!
People relate to people. Having relatable characters is essential because they bring the issues your work addresses down to a personal level. It can be hard for the everyday person to relate to big social issues like poverty or hunger.
Pro tip: If you’re struggling to decide which of your stories to share and what will move your audience to act – ask them. Ask your donors (perhaps in a survey) why they got involved with your organization in the first place and what motivated them to give. Ask your long-term supporters why they stayed and what aspects of their involvement have been the most rewarding. Equipped with that information, you can better customize your stories and communications.
This Giving Tuesday idea is a must. Giving Tuesday is very much driven by social media shares and mentions. Most of the fundraising is done online, and the movement depends on heavy online campaigning and peer-to-peer fundraising.
Look at this example from SNAP and how they used Facebook to share their story and their donation form.
Here are some things you can do to stay on top of your social media game:
Pro tip: Social media campaigns are essential to your Giving Tuesday success. But don’t forget about email! Email is an incredibly effective fundraising tool. If you’re stuck for Giving Tuesday ideas that help drive early support to your campaign, an email drip campaign (an email series) is a great way to engage your supporters. Make sure to segment your donor base, craft engaging subject lines, and always include a link to your donation page! Donorbox Donor Management lets you easily segment your donors to help create personalized communication pieces.
Now, this might not seem like a Giving Tuesday idea, but #GivingTuesday is the perfect time to launch or promote your recurring or monthly giving program.
When a donor sets up a recurring donation, they choose to give a predetermined amount of money regularly. Many people like to give monthly, bi-monthly, or yearly, but they can give as frequently as they’d like.
Great monthly giving programs have a much higher return on investment compared to one-time giving programs. The average recurring donor will give 42% more in one year than those who give one-time gifts. Monthly donors also have a greater lifetime revenue per donor.
Finally, 52% of Millennials are more likely to give monthly vs. a large one-time donation. They prefer the ability to show their support without a huge financial commitment by donating more regularly toward a cause they care about, but for a smaller amount at a time that won’t have as much of an impact on their wallets.
A monthly giving program is the most effective and effortless way to retain the Giving Tuesday donor support beyond the 24-hour social media buzz. Check out how this Giving Tuesday campaign encouraged supporters to sign up for recurring giving with monthly as well as other donation interval options. This campaign and the customized recurring donation form are built on Donorbox.
Pro tip: Raising funds is important and encouraged on Giving Tuesday. However, Giving Tuesday is called ‘Giving Tuesday’ and not ‘Fundraising Tuesday’ for a reason. Make sure you offer other opportunities for your supporters to get involved with your cause (e.g. volunteering or becoming an ambassador for one of your programs).
After #GivingTuesday, it can be easy to forget about acknowledging your donors. However, this step is essential for maintaining a good reputation and great relationships with your supporters. After Giving Tuesday:
Don’t reach out to your donors asking for another gift too soon. This might be off-putting. However, this doesn’t mean radio silence for a month. Stay in touch with your donors by sharing stories of impact and how their donations are being put to use. You should also respect the donors’ desires about how frequently they want to be contacted.
Pro tip 1: Don’t make another ask in your thank-you letter. There will be plenty of time for that later, but the purpose of that message is to celebrate what the supporter has already done.
Pro tip 2: Don’t forget about your team! They worked hard, probably working long hours for the campaign to be a success. Celebrate your achievements with a cake and a team get-together.
Giving Tuesday is an amazing opportunity for nonprofits around the world to raise much-needed funds for their worthwhile causes.
It is also a great time to connect with your donors, create partnerships, boost your finances, and try new fundraising ideas without having to commit to them for a full year! Organize a physical event, find a corporate partner to match the donations, or create a cartoon – whatever it is that will get your creative juices flowing!
Don’t forget to check out our Giving Tuesday Toolkit for more great Giving Tuesday ideas and planning help. We have included downloadable resources, branding materials, logos, and much more.
Also, check out Donorbox for a powerful online donation system that will ensure you receive and manage your Giving Tuesday donations! Our products and features will help boost giving to your campaigns and enable you to engage and retain more donors. Sign up today to start fundraising!
Raviraj heads the sales and marketing team at Donorbox. His growth-hacking abilities have helped Donorbox boost fundraising efforts for thousands of nonprofit organizations.
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