Giving Tuesday is December 3, 2019, the day after Cyber Monday. On Giving Tuesday, people are encouraged to donate to their favorite causes. Giving Tuesday has grown a lot the past few years and many organizations are now running specific Giving Tuesday fundraising campaigns. Here are ten great ideas for you to adopt this Giving Tuesday.
1. Match
Donation matches are among the most powerful donation motivation tools available in the fundraiser’s toolbox. A generous donor (or group of donors) offers to host a fundraising match campaign where he/she offers to match any gifts given that meet a certain criteria (like any gifts given on Giving Tuesday up to $100,000). Many nonprofits find this generous donor from their board of directors or among their major donors.
You can close the matching gift by emphasizing how the donation is leveraged through the match. Start by finding a major donor who is willing to commit to a donation match.
2. Ask a Friend Campaign
Build a campaign where you appeal to your donors to ask friends to donate. If possible, track the donations to show the donors what type of impact they’re making through asking friends to join them.
3. Donor Segmentation
Segment your donors by the area of past giving and send specific campaigns related to what they’ve give to before. For example, if your organization supports education, look back and see which donors gave to new schools, school supplies, school fees, etc. and send appeals based on their past giving.
4. Use a Premium
A premium is an excellent motivator for Giving Tuesday. Selecting a premium that promote your organization helps with your brand recognition. For example, create a Christmas ornament or calendar. Each year, as the recipient places the Christmas ornament on the tree or each month as she flips through the wall calendar, your organization will be present in the life of the donor.
5. Host a Local Event
Host a local event for Giving Tuesday to raise funds. A dinner, a concert, or an author’s book signing, whatever the local event, it’s an opportunity to connect with donors around your specific cause. For Giving Tuesday, it’s an opportunity for people to get out for an evening in the dead time between Thanksgiving and when many Christmas activities kick off.
6. Focus on a Specific Project
Focus your Giving Tuesday on funding a specific project. For example, if you need a new kitchen at your children’s home and it will cost $20,000, ask your donors to fund it for Giving Tuesday.
7. The Friend Match
Ask your donors to give a small amount, such as $5 or $10, and encourage the donor to ask five friends to join them for a Giving Tuesday match. A peer to peer giving campaign such as this one is powerful as each person is donating a small amount, but together, they’re giving a large amount. If you have a system that can track it, offer a small premium (such as a Christmas ornament or coffee mug) to those that can get all five people to give.
You can message it like this:
You have a passion for helping homeless in Seattle. This Giving Tuesday, will you join us by enlisting a close friend or family member to join you in ending homelessness? Ask a friend to join you in giving to the Hope for the Homeless campaign on Tuesday and help us provide shelter for over 300 families this holiday season.
The power of peer to peer fundraising is a tremendous asset to leverage on Giving Tuesday.
8. Challenge Your Board of Directors
Challenge your board of directors to step up for Giving Tuesday. Create a competition among board members to raise the most funds for the organization. Have them tap into their network of friends to raise the most funds possible on Giving Tuesday.
9. Beneficiary Art Auction
Have your beneficiaries create art for an online art auction. This can be especially powerful if your beneficiaries are children. There are two options here, first, auction off the art created by the beneficiaries. Alternatively, take the art the children or beneficiaries create and have a local artist reimagine the piece into a larger piece of art. Auction off the original art and the new one created by your artist partner.
10. Ask for Non-Cash Gifts
Many participants in Giving Tuesday will have purchased Christmas gifts on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Knowing the new items they’re bringing into the home will motivate the donor to want to get rid of excess stuff. For Giving Tuesday, you could launch a campaign for donors to give non-cash gifts. Non-cash gifts include any kind of asset in the house, or something not in the house such as a stock gift or a used car.
Don’t have a way to accept non-cash gifts? Check out iDonate.com.
Giving Tuesday can be a tremendous opportunity for your nonprofit organization. Developing the right campaign idea can be the difference between success and failure.
