What are Giving Days?
A Giving Day is a dedicated day (usually 24 hours) that brings together fundraising, supporter engagement, social networks, and awareness to create a targeted multichannel campaign. One of the things that makes giving days unique is their time sensitive nature which helps create a sense of urgency so supporters will be moved to action. Some examples are: Worldwide Day of Giving, and Giving Tuesday, which is the most popular.
Giving Tuesday
Giving Tuesday, which will be held on Tuesday, November 29th this year, was created in 2012 as a simple idea of a day that encourages people to do good for a cause. The concept has developed into an international movement that motivates millions of people to give, work together, and celebrate generosity. There is no cost to participate in Giving Tuesday and the www.givingtuesday.org website has resources that are available for free to download including email templates, social media ideas, and graphics.
All the funds raised on Giving Tuesday are directed by each participating nonprofit organization and processed by the giving platform of their choice. All money raised on Giving Tuesday goes immediately to the nonprofit or community organization that solicited the funds.
Ideas to Participate in Giving Tuesday
It's up to you how you want to take part in Giving Tuesday. Here are some ideas for your organization.
- Fundraise for your organization or another organization.
- Look for opportunities to collaborate with others.
- Encourage new volunteers to join your cause.
- Host a food drive in your community.
- Think of an immediate need for your community and raise funds to meet those needs.
How to Get Started
The first step in an online giving campaign is to start with a plan. Decide what it is that you're fundraising for: Maybe you want to raise 5,000 dollars to build a food pantry for students or raise $10,000 for a scholarship fund. Use this goal to set up the framework for your Giving Tuesday campaign.
Next set an activity timeline. Planning will keep your team aligned and your campaign organized for maximum impact. Make sure everyone knows dates and what to expect. Have a kick-off date to track activities and to motivate your team and supporters.
Best practices for your campaign
Set a fundraising goal- Setting an achievable monetary goal will give your supporters something to work towards. Make sure not to set the goal too high so that your donors feel good when they reach the goal.
Use peer-to-peer fundraising software- Using technology to give your supporters the tools they need to succeed with the campaign will make the process easier and more effective. Your website, marketing, and donation processing should be reviewed and optimized for your campaign. Check out the StratusLIVE Ignite Online Giving Platform.
Tell a heartfelt compelling story- The next step is to create your message. This is your opportunity to tell a story that creates an impact. Make sure to use emotion and images that trigger action. What or who has been impacted by your cause? Once you’ve done this, make sure you present a consistent message to your audience. Your ultimate goal is to get them engaged in your mission.
Encourage competition- Offering a prize or incentive can help spark competition to raise money. The prize or incentive could be a gift card or a physical prize (perhaps something someone has donated).
Give public recognition– Use a leaderboard to track progress and consider having an official award at the end of the campaign for the biggest fundraising participant and acknowledge them on your social media sites.
Match donations– A matching campaign is one where a donor (which can be an individual, company, or group) has pledged to give a financial contribution to the charity to “match” all donations from other supporters within a certain timeframe, up to their pledged amount. Using matching gifts in fundraising can significantly increase your donations.
Use multiple platforms for engagement
Social media-There’s a lot of potential for marketing and leveraging the power of relationships when you’re using social media for fundraising. The first thing you need to do is to decide which social media platforms best serve your organization-which platforms does your target audience use? Then make sure you're using those same platforms.
Email-Give your fundraisers the tools they need to successfully fundraise by creating email templates about your organization. They can then easily send out information about the campaign to their networks telling them why and how to donate.
Make the donation process easy
If the donation process is too long on your page, people will leave without donating. You want to make it easy for your donors to give. Consider investing in an online giving platform that will manage your constituents’ data, process their payments, and send automated messaging thanking them for their donations.
Once you’ve got new donors and collected their data, your organization can analyze that information to use it for donor retention and increase fundraising growth. Using Donor retention efforts helps to engage your new donors so that they continue to give to the organization each year.
When you use good fundraising software it makes it easy to put together an event page, support your participants as they raise money for your cause and analyze the information from the campaign when it’s finished. StratusLIVE Ignite, our online giving platform, is a robust tool that enables nonprofits to connect digitally with donors through multiple giving modes including website campaigns, workplace CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility), peer-to-peer, team-based, and DIY (do it yourself) fundraising.
Find out more about how our technology can help your nonprofit
It’s no doubt that nonprofit organizations are relying on technology now more than ever and virtual campaigns and events will continue long into the future. Want to find out more about peer-to-peer fundraising software? Contact StratusLIVE and we’ll show you what our technology can do for your organization!
StratusLIVE is an industry leader of Software for Social Good. Empowering organizations to drive change and increase impact through its Nonprofit CRM and Online Giving Platforms. StratusLIVE 365 and StratusLIVE Ignite seamlessly integrate throughout the entire philanthropic organization, enabling greater visibility into donor insights. With a wide array of product features from enterprise-class relationship management, business intelligence, and analytical marketing to virtual giving, volunteering, Peer-to-Peer campaigns, and more, nonprofits engage more effectively with donors across a wide range of fundraising and development strategies.
