#GivingTuesday is arguably the most well-known giving day of the year in the United States, and it’s growing influence across the world has made it even more noteworthy. For many nonprofits and charities like yours, #GivingTuesday serves as a kickoff to the giving season, which spans from after Thanksgiving to the end of the calendar year.
The numbers prove just how powerful this day is for charitable organizations.
In 2017, over 2.5 million individual gifts were made in 150 countries, which raised an astounding 300 million online! And this upcoming #GivingTuesday, which just so happens to be the event’s 7th year, is gearing up to be even more successful and impactful than in years past.
Since the annual Global Day of Giving event began back in 2012, CauseVox has hosted hundreds of exciting online fundraising campaigns that cover the gamut from crowdfunding to peer-to-peer. What we’ve noticed is that the organizations that knock their fundraising goals out of the park follow giving day best practices to a T.
Community-driven fundraising is also directly linked to #GivingTuesday success. When an organization inspires, activates, and rallies donors to play a role in the campaign, the results speak for themselves.
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The five organizations highlighted below ran remarkable campaigns. In all, they raised over $330,000 (in 24 hours) and activated over 2,000 donors in the process. Here are some of the reasons these campaigns stood out from the rest.
Personal Fundraisers Are Essential
If you plan to run a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign on #GivingTuesday, you’re going to need personal fundraisers. These people serve as ambassadors for your cause by setting up their own fundraising websites, sharing compelling stories about your work with their friends and families, and asking others to give.
Personal fundraisers are basically the fuel behind peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns.
And in 2017, Jewish Voice for Peace used the power of personal fundraisers to drive their sensational day-long campaign. They recruited and prepared their crew of over 70 personal fundraisers before the campaign, and supported them throughout the day.
To ensure everyone was on the same page, Jewish Voice for Peace created a personal fundraiser toolkit that included information on:
- Giving Tuesday
- CauseVox
- Setting up a web page
- Story prompts
- Sharing the page with others
- Contacts at the organization and CauseVox support
This nonprofit understood that the best way to rally supporters is by providing them support and encouragement along the way. In just one day, Jewish Voice for Peace fundraisers raised $39,127!
Donation Tiers
It’s almost always a good idea to provide your donors with suggested giving amounts. Although some nonprofits believe this can backfire, with a donor giving less than they initially intended because it was “suggested,” this is rarely the case.
What’s so wonderful about using donation tiers for suggested giving amounts is that it allows your nonprofit to get creative.
The Painted Turtle’s donation tiers during their 2017 Giving Day campaign really stood out to us, mostly because they weren’t necessarily tied to a direct impact. Instead of saying that $100 equals one day at camp for a child with a serious medical condition, this organization used some of the benefits their clients’ experience as the donation tier labels.
With tier’s labeled with attributes like “Confidence,” “Independence,” and “Laughter,” it’s no wonder that they surpassed their goal by over $10,000!
Incentives Matter
Incentives come in many forms, and for giving days like #GivingTuesday, incentives help your campaign stand out.
But there’s definitely a right and wrong way to handle incentives. Some donors appreciate a t-shirt with your nonprofit’s logo front and center, but others may think it’s a waste of money. Your best bet is to find out what your donors want, and then give it to them.
In almost all cases, an intangible incentive such as a gift match is the way to go. For example, donors to World Bicycle Relief during their 2017 #GivingTuesday campaign were pleased to find out that each gift was match 1:1. This doubled the intended impact from 1,600 bikes to 3,200!
The Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre also used incentives to encourage donations in 2017. Each donor who gave $100 or over was automatically entered to win raffle prizes. This technique is superb if you want to bring in high-dollar donations and have access to in-kind donations from local companies.
Impact Drives Donations
Today’s donor is highly interested in understanding the impact of their monetary gift. So as you craft your #GivingTuesday campaign, equate a gift amount with a specific impact and communicate that to your donors.
What impact does is help to bring your campaign’s purpose away from the money and back to your mission. Yes, we know you need money to operate, but it’s simply not the way donors think about your campaign. They’d much rather donate a new bike to a family in need as opposed to $150. Of course, they’re the same thing in the eyes of World Bicycle Relief, but one makes donors feel more connected to their mission.
Speaking of World Bicycle Relief, they’re truly the masters of #GivingTuesday. Every year, they build on their successes and reach a broader audience of personal fundraisers and donors. Part of the reason is that they’re amazing storytellers, and all of their stories circle back to the impact of a donation.
They share how a single bike transforms lives throughout the world, and then they provide donation tiers tied directly to the impact.
Video Storytelling Inspires
There are many ways to share your nonprofit story on #GivingTuesday. We often see written stories and powerful images. Personal stories from clients and others connected with your cause are also common. But one of the best ways to inspire your online audience into action and differentiate your cause from the rest is through video storytelling.
Video is perfect because it provides visuals, while also telling your story. Viewers can see your impact firsthand and envision how they can be a part of that solution.
The Motherhood Collective used CauseVox to power their 2017 #GivingTuesday campaign, and they inspired their online audience to give through video storytelling. Their video highlights some of the mothers they work with, who describe the mission of the organization. It’s a simple video with beautiful, heartwarming visuals.
Another great example of video storytelling comes from The Painted Turtle, who used video to show donors a glimpse of a camper’s experience.
Before you know it, #GivingTuesday will be here, and one of the best ways to prepare is to look at the successes of other organizations who’ve done #GivingTuesday right!
We applaud The Painted Turtle, World Bicycle Relief, The Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre, The Motherhood Collective, and Jewish Voice for Peace for their giving day fundraising efforts, and we can’t wait to see what happens in 2018!
If you’re looking to power your #GivingTuesday campaign, try CauseVox.
CauseVox is a community-driven fundraising platform designed to help small fundraising teams at nonprofits simplify and grow their fundraising in today’s connected economy.
Unlike expensive and confusing fundraising tools, CauseVox is purposely simple while providing flexibility for your unique fundraising needs and personalization to your organization’s brand without the help of IT or web developer.
Thousands of organizations from small community-service charities and mid-sized operations to national organizations and global development nonprofits use CauseVox to grow their impact by inspiring, activating, and rallying people to advocate for their cause. Get started for free.
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