The nonprofit podcast powered by donorbox. It's
that time of year again, when nonprofits around the world gear up for the global generosity
movement of giving Tuesday. Today, we're talking all about giving Tuesday planning and how to make
it a little easier for you. Among all that you've got going on this time of year. Welcome to the
nonprofit podcast. I'm Kara fundraising coach at Donorbox. We're here each week with practical
actions you can use today to take your nonprofit to the next lev
el tomorrow. Today, I'm excited to
be joined by Lindsay Baker Bauer, our marketing content writer here at Donorbox. Lindsay is not
only a skilled writer but also an educator and a seasoned nonprofit professional. Lindsay has been
preparing for giving Tuesday for a few months now. She's been writing blogs, gathering some
good examples and creating some really helpful resources all in time to make things a little
easier for nonprofit leaders, founders and fundraisers. Lindsay recently prepare
d a great
article called Your Ultimate Guide to Giving Tuesday and I knew she'd be just the right person
to talk to, to learn more about how to get ready for this global day of giving Lindsay. It's an
absolute pleasure to have you here. Welcome. Thank you for having me. This is such an important time
for nonprofits and I think that can make it an especially stressful time. So I love that we get
to provide resources and tools to help nonprofits make the most of what is really the kickoff to
the giving season. Yeah, it is the kickoff to the giving season and we have some helpful tips
to lighten the lift a little bit. But before we jump into that, let's quickly recap. What Giving
Tuesday is for our listeners, would you share a little bit more about how it got started? Of
course. So giving Tuesday was founded back in 2012 as a global day of giving and the goal of the day
is really to inspire generosity and philanthropy ahead of a hectic holiday season. So it falls
on the Tuesday
after Thanksgiving in the US, which this year is November 28th, 2023. It's a
crucial day for nonprofits to raise funds but also raise awareness and make some strong connections
with some new supporters. A lot of people are looking to support organizations on that day and
they're waiting right for giving Tuesday. And I know a lot of organizations look at giving Tuesday
from a couple of different perspectives. So some are really enthusiastic about creating a big
campaign around giving Tuesda
y and others could really take it or leave it? Is it really such a
big deal? Yeah, I can totally see that, giving Tuesday campaigns very widely. It's tricky because
not every nonprofit experiences the same level of engagement or financial support on this day,
for sure. , the level of success often hinges on factors, like how much work they want to put into
it, how well they promote their campaign. And then two, you know, how active their supporter base is.
Some supporters know, their favori
te organizations have a big giving Tuesday campaign and they'll
wait to give on that day. So the involvement of their supporters is almost as big of a factor as
their campaign strategy. You know, giving Tuesday might not guarantee massive results for every
nonprofit. It, but it has become a meaningful day for philanthropy and it's an opportunity to
connect with your donors in a way that really inspires urgency. I often encourage organizations
I work with to kick off their year end fundraisi
ng campaign on giving Tuesday and then take that
fundraising momentum into the end of the year, right through December 30 first. Definitely.
Yeah, that's the beauty of creating a really solid giving Tuesday campaign as even if you don't
quite meet your fundraising goal on that one day, you can build on that momentum to keep donations
rolling in throughout the end of the year. Yeah. I've seen a lot of organizations just kind of
post something on giving Tuesday and they're really missing out
on the generosity that comes
especially those last few days of the year. So I like that approach of using it as a kickoff as a
milestone in your year end fundraising planning. So thank you Lindsay. Thanks for kind of giving
the background of why giving Tuesday is a big deal. And I know you have some must dos queued
up for us about giving Tuesday. Yeah. So with any major task, I think it's really important to
break it down into more digestible parts. And the strategy really helps nonprofits
tackle something
big without getting that sort of burnout that can come at the end of the year. Ok. Let's get started
with our first essential must do. What's the first thing you recommend our listeners do? Well, the
first essential step is going to be to review your data from last year if you ran a Giving Tuesday
campaign before this data is really gold as you're planning your campaign this year. Look at your
overall donations, donations by source and the total number of donors. Why is tha
t important?
Well, this kind of helps you set realistic goals for this year. So your goals, it's all about
being ambitious but still attainable. And here's the good news. If you use a donor box for
your campaign last year, it's really easy to pull this data. We have some reporting templates so you
can make your reports, pull that data in a really easy, quick way. Yeah, sometimes digging into
your donor data can eat up a lot of your campaign planning time. So it's really great to streamline
your processes with a reporting template. And then that data helps you figure out which platforms to
focus on too as far as where your revenue came in last year and where your donors might feel more
inclined to give than others. So what's the next step in this planning stage? Then after data?
Yeah, the next step is stocking your toolbox with everything you need to help make your campaign run
smoothly. So these are usually online tools that will streamline your work flow and make donor
expe
rience really flawless. So as a minimum, you should plan on having a donation
platform, something like donor box, a design tool like can email marketing solution,
like mailchimp and a social media scheduling app, something like Hot Sweep. And these are just
examples, but each of these tools offers great functionality for a nonprofit launching their
Giving Tuesday campaign. I love that toolbox analogy. It's a really an easy way to remember
all that you need. Ok, let's move on to our third me
ss to Lindsay. What do you have next for us?
What's the third thing we need to make sure we tackle with giving Tuesday planning. So to me,
this is the really fun part of a giving Tuesday campaign. It's time to craft a campaign that will
compel your donors to give or share your page or sign up to volunteer. You want to build assets
that encourage this kind of engagement. So what in your opinion are some of these key elements or
asset that makes people want to move? Well, first you want to co
llect materials that demonstrate
the impact of your mission. So you gather really captivating images of your mission and action and
do that early on. So you can secure permissions and get some feedback from your team to see what
works best if pictures are worth 1000 words and they can translate into thousands of dollars of
donations. For sure. Exactly. Yeah. And so once you have your pictures in place next, you want
to tell a story and we talk about storytelling all the time. But we do so b
ecause it really
is the key to connecting with your audience's emotions and demonstrating the impact of your
mission. And don't forget about videos, you know, since giving Tuesday campaigns really thrive
on social media, you have to think about what's popular on social media and right now with tiktok
and Instagram reels, it's short form videos. So they're a great way to share your mission's value.
And you know, most of us have phones with built in cameras that are really powerful. So you do
n't
need to be a professional to capture high quality video. And if you need to inspiration of great
fundraising videos, we share some examples on the blog too. Yeah. And those more informal videos
are really resonating with donors more than the polished and produced version. So that is really
great. And that blog that you mentioned, let's be sure to link that into today's show notes too so
our listeners can take a look at that as well. OK. So we've got our data. Hopefully, we've used that
to set a goal for our giving Tuesday campaign. And then we put our tool blocks together, we put all
our tools together and we've worked on our copy. We've used some techniques to enhance it, like
good visual images, maybe telling some compelling stories and using some simple video and those can
make a big difference. So now let's talk about your giving Tuesday landing page. This is where
it all comes together, right? So you can motivate your donors and then where do you send them to
actual
ly show their support? That is the landing page, your Giving Tuesday landing page. It's where
your campaign lives and it's where donors will, you know, land, they're ready to give love it.
So it should be a kind of one stop shop for your entire campaign. You'll include all your messaging
those fundraising videos and of course, an easy attractive way for people to donate without
having to navigate to another page. So it's all about that convenience for your donors and
creating that excellent
donor experience. I know Jenna talked about this a little last week. But
lots of organizations use donor box crowdfunding pages as they're giving Tuesday landing pages.
You can share compelling text and video, inspire some solid social proof with a donor
wall. Show off your goal with a goal thermometer and your supporters can easily share your page
on social media. We have built in social media, share buttons that make it really easy for them.
Crowdfunding pages just really worked so hard
during these campaigns and they really offer all
the features you need. They do. Yeah. And I've seen some really good ones or some really good
examples out there to use for some inspiration. So now that we've set the stage for giving Tuesday,
let's talk about the big day itself. What thoughts do you have that could help organizations have
a really great day of giving on giving Tuesday. So preparation really is key, especially when
it comes to social media posts and your emails so you can bu
ild your social posts ahead of time
using your post scheduling app and that's going to save you a lot of time and stress on the day of.
And so that that was like Hootsuite you mentioned earlier. So that's your post scheduling app,
right? Yes. Yeah, something like Hootsuite later. there are a lot out there and some offer discounts
for nonprofits. So definitely look into that, but they're great because not only can you schedule
your post ahead of time, you can build one post for multiple plat
forms. So they really will
save you some time. Yeah, that is helpful. Yeah, that leaves you more time to accomplish those
important in the moment tasks, things like donor phone calls and you don't have to worry about
your communications going out on time. There are also a ton of really excellent email marketing
platforms that also offer nonprofit discounts. I know mail chimp does active campaign is another
example of a email marketing platform. So almost all email platforms provide the capa
bility to go
ahead and load your copy and branding elements ahead of time so that you can schedule your
emails in advance. This means you're writing, you're designing and you're segmenting your email
list ahead of time starting as early as possible. And then you can schedule a date for those
emails to go out. So take the time, you know, to really find the email platform that works for
your organization. A ton offer free trial periods. Do you want to test them out for sure? You know
that sc
heduling gives a little peace of mind when you think through a busy day, like giving Tuesday.
But I really like it too when I see something exciting happen in real time, like a large
donation came through or maybe a challenge from one donor to another group of donors or something
information that is shared right on the spot, those midday progress goals. I think it's really
a good idea to keep your supporters updated on your progress throughout the day. But those things
need to be a little s
pontaneous. You can't really plan those out and schedule them. Right. Right.
Yeah, absolutely. you can mix it up a little bit. You can pre write the core copy and then plug in
your progress to goal. So you're not starting from scratch in the middle of the day, but you preserve
some of that, spontaneity because I can really go far in getting your donors excited and interested.
Oh, and when it comes to emails, especially on the day of giving Tuesday, you know, keep them
short and sweet. Your
list will be getting a lot of outreach that day. So don't bog them down with
too much content. Yeah, that is a good point. They will be tired as well and just really, I noticed
last year in my inbox, almost every subject line of every email I received had the words giving
Tuesday in it. So I don't know if maybe you want to stand out a little bit and just shake up your
subject line. Copy a little bit too on giving Tuesday. Thank you for walking me through. These
must do for giving Tuesday pl
anning, Lindsay. You really did put a lot of work into this. Thank you.
Thanks. Yeah, I just want nonprofits to know that this time of year it's going to be hectic, but
it doesn't have to be stressful. We put together a page on our website listing all of our Giving
Tuesday resources. So I would encourage anyone that's gearing up for the big day to check that
out and use those resources to help you plan. I had a look at the donorbox giving Tuesday site
and it is so helpful to anyone planning
a giving Tuesday campaign. There are a lot of good
resources and you can get that crowdfunding page up and ready to go so quickly, you know,
preparation and the right tools really do make all the difference. And so if you want some extra
support to help guide you through giving Tuesday, be sure to check out today's show note to that
landing page Lindsay mentioned and a good blog resource for you. You can get all you need to
make your own giving Tuesday crowdfunding page plus some bonus res
ources that will really come
in handy. And as we wrap up this week's episode, we want to sincerely thank you. Thank you
for spending a little of your time during this busy season with the nonprofit podcast. I
hope you've left with the confidence to take a small step today that will make a big difference
tomorrow. Be sure to click the download button on your podcast player, then leave the nonprofit
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be,
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