4 Must-Dos Following Your #GivingTuesday Campaign

You did it! You made it through your GivingTuesday campaign! You updated, you hashtagged, you raised money and support for your cause! That is so great! It isn’t actually over, though.

via GIPHY: I feel like I just did this to you. Sorry, Wile E. Fundraiser.

Before you can wrap up your GivingTuesday campaign, there are a few things you’ve got to do.

“Before you can wrap up your GivingTuesday campaign, there are a few things you’ve got to do.” tweet this

Download your #GivingTuesday planning guide

Here’s 4 Must-Dos Following #GivingTuesday:

1. Thank Everyone Immediately

Let’s just go ahead and start calling it #ThankYouWednesday. While it’s probably not news to you that you should thank your donors promptly, it’s particularly important to get those thank yous out fast after GivingTuesday, for a few reasons:

• You want to connect the recognition directly to GivingTuesday. The longer the wait, the more likely your donors will forget the details. Remember, GivingTuesday is an annual event, so you’re laying the groundwork for next year now.
• It’s the end of the year, and so it’s likely you will be making another ask fairly soon. No one likes getting asked for money before they’ve been thanked for the gift they already gave–it makes people feel unappreciated.
• Thank your peer-to-peer fundraisers, too! They went the extra mile for your organization, so let them know you value their work.

2. Connect GivingTuesday To Your Year-End Fundraising

GivingTuesday is the beginning of the holiday giving season, so it’s likely you’ve got more fundraising to do in the coming month. Whether you ran your GivingTuesday campaign as a single event, or as a launch pad to your year-end fundraising, you’ll need to connect the dots for your supporters.

If you ran your GivingTuesday campaign as a single event that doesn’t directly connect to your year-end fundraising, explain that to your donors. This makes your future asks make sense.

“On GivingTuesday, your support ensured that children in our city would have access to our programs. That means in December we can focus on another group of people who need our programs–homeless women.”

If you ran your GivingTuesday campaign as a launch pad for the rest of the year, connect the two campaigns for your donors. Update them on how their GivingTuesday donations fit into your larger year-end campaign. How close are you to your final goal because of their GivingTuesday gifts? What’s coming next?

3. Tell The Story Of The Impact GivingTuesday Will Have

People don’t give to nonprofits so we’ll have money, they give so we can make a difference. Showing the difference you’ll be able to make is a key part of wrapping up any fundraising campaign.

As soon as possible, put your GivingTuesday fundraising totals into concrete terms and share those with your supporters. “We raised $1,000 on GivingTuesday!” is about fundraising. “The $1,000 you gave on GivingTuesday means X number of bicycles will be provided for people in East Africa,” is about the impact the gifts will make.

4. Report And Make Notes

Now is the time to crunch your data, and compile it into one document, along with your notes and observations. This may be different than the report you make for your board or executive director–this one is for you. For Future You. Next Year You.

First, you’ll need your campaign data. CauseVox makes it easy to access your data with our administration tools–it’s simple to track donations and donors, and export data into a CSV. While donations will be your primary focus, don’t forget to take a look at the number of new donors, number of peer-to-peer fundraisers, and email click-throughs.

Next, make your notes. In the rush of this season, it’s tempting to wait on this, but it really is better if you do it right away. The next few weeks are going to be hectic, and by January you may not remember the little things you observed that you’ll want to keep or change for next year.

Make a special note of:

• Anything that worked really well, like offering a match, or sending an email at a particular time.
• Anything that went annoyingly or even drastically wrong
• Any great ideas you had that would have been really awesome to use, had you thought of them in October, instead of the middle of GivingTuesday.

Imagine the joy of Future You, when you pull out this report next September. You’re already ahead of the game for next year!

Now Go Take A Nap

After doing these four things, your GivingTuesday will be truly wrapped up, and you can move on to your year-end campaign. Now get some rest before December hits!

“After doing these four things, your GivingTuesday will be truly wrapped up.” tweet this

December is almost here.

via GIPHY

Sorry.

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