Giving Tuesday, which takes place each year after the well-known pre-holiday shopping days of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, is a global event that encourages consumers to give back after a weekend of personal consumption through fundraising, gift giving, and volunteering.
Since its beginnings in 2012, the event has come to represent the kick-off to the holiday giving season and a huge opportunity for charities and non-profits. Each year hundreds of millions of dollars are raised as part of the Giving Tuesday event and with a well-planned strategy, your organization can leverage this opportunity to build awareness, engage with your constituents, increase donations, and get set up for success going forward into the new year.
Your Giving Tuesday strategy is your roadmap to success where you set out and plan where you want to go and what you want to achieve by creating a list of specific, measurable goals.
You can set goals for anything you'd like and your list may include some of the following:
- Increasing the number of donors who support your organization
- Increasing the average donation amount
- Raising a specific amount of money
- Selling a specific number of event tickets
- Generating a specific amount of sponsorship revenue
- Getting a specific number of participant registrations for an event
- Reaching a specific number of new constituents
Once you've established your goals, its time to add action items to your strategy using the tools available on your raisin platform.
Email marketing tools
An integration with MailChimp allows you to collect contact information from donors on the raisin platform and send it directly to a MailChimp list. This allows you to send an email blast to previous donors, ticket purchasers, or participants letting them know about your current event and inviting them to share the link to their friends and family which can help with increasing the number of people visiting your event site and making donations.
Sending cards for added value
Card functionality on the donations module allows donors to send an e-card to a friend or family member when they make a donation. Not only does this add value for the donor, it brings your campaign to the attention of more people who may also become donors helping to reach new constituents and increase your donations.
Well-placed content and messaging to increase giving
Tools within the Donations Options functionality can help you increase your average donation and overall revenue by prompting donors to donate set amounts and suggesting a specific amount as the default. You also have options within the CMS website builder to create a compelling donations page by including additional information about your mission and impact.
Embrace "social" fundraising as an alternative
raisin's Peer-to-Peer module allows you to let your constituents sign up to fundraise on your behalf, and help to put out the word about your organization to a wider social network, telling friends and family about the campaign. Utilizing model of "social fundraising" can help increase your donations, raise more money, and reach new constituents in lead up to #GivingTuesday.
To spur participation, consider inviting board members, influencers, past fundraisers, and volunteers to create a page and get in on the giving spirit. Along with Participant Centre tools that encourage fundraisers to invite their friends and families to join them in fundraising, there are many ways to increase the number of participants registered for your social fundraising campaign.
Having a strategy with clear and specific goals is key to success and your raisin platform gives you the tools to put your strategy into action, helping you to do more, raise more, and help more. Need some inspiration?
