September 24, 2021
Right to the point, I want to give you a step-by-step guide for building and running your own GivingTuesday campaign. All ClickBid license holders have free access to GivingTuesday donation forms and tools to capture one-time and recurring donations (even corporate matching is available). This guide is meant to help you easily setup and run your campaign.
TL;DR, make a plan and stick with it. Diligence and repetition is key. Let’s dig into the three tools in your GivingTuesday toolbox that will help you get it done.
Add a Live Broadcast to your GivingTuesday campaign!!
Article Contents
Repetitive Emails
It will take multiple emails to get your message across. You personally know what you need and you believe 100% in your cause/goal. You will need to repeat that story many times before your donors see it as clearly and passionately as you do. Often, this type of communication is called a drip campaign; emails delivered on a delay and based on how a person interacts with previous emails. Services like Mailchimp and ConstantContact can help you build simple or robust drip campaigns.
Following is our email schedule/campaign that we feel results in the widest adoption of your message.
10 DAYS before GivingTuesday
Audience: Everyone in your database
Purpose: Announce your fundraiser. Specifically, tell us why you’re asking for funds. Ask for recipients to spread the word and share on social media.
Primary Call to Action: Give (big button)
5 DAYS before GivingTuesday
Audience: Everyone in your database
Purpose: A reminder that you’re doing a giving campaign on GivingTuesday. Ask for donors to consider a company match or recurring gift to help with year end. Remind people that they can Give now AND help spread the word.
Primary Call to Action: Give (big button)
4 DAYS before GivingTuesday
Audience: everyone who has NOT opened a previous email
Purpose: Give an update on how things are going toward the goal. How much further do you need to go? Every donation helps!
Primary Call to Action: Donors have the power to spread the word! Get social.
Audience: all donors in your database
Purpose: We’re counting on you to help us! We can’t do it without you spreading the word and helping raise the funds needed. Restate the goal and purpose of the funds.
Primary Call to Action: Give (big button)
CYBER MONDAY
(Day before)
GivingTuesday
MORNING
Audience: all donors in your database
Purpose: Today’s the Day. Give Now! Break down what each increment gives.
Primary Call to Action: The Give Button!
GivingTuesday AFTERNOON
Audience: donors who have NOT given yet (or clicked the donate button)
Purpose: Where are we with the goal? Tell donors that we can’t do it without them and the day is half over. Now’s the time to help us reach our goal!
Primary Call to Action: Give Button
GivingTuesday
EVENING
Audience: donors who have NOT given yet (or clicked the donate button)
Purpose: Just a few hours left! Help us get over the top! This money does XXXX. Help spread the word!
Primary Call to Action: Share Buttons
DAY AFTER GivingTuesday
Audience: all donors in your database
Purpose: THANK YOU! You stuck with us, supported us and got us where we needed to be. There’s still time! Consider a recurring donation to help us in the rest of 2021 and into 2022. We still need $NNNN to do this thing.
Primary Call to Action: Link to corporate Site to learn more about charity
Blog Article
Write a blog post that shares a personal story about your cause. This article can be referenced in your emails to reinforce your fundraising. To help craft the article, grab a piece of paper and state your goal in a single sentence. If the article is successful, what will people know?
Next, make a list of three reasons why you’re raising money this GivingTuesday. After that, write down a story that you experienced which gives an example why this fundraising is so important.
With those notes, write your article. One exercise I like to do in addition is complete the statement “Convince _________ that _________ because _________”. For example, I help a nonprofit provide private Uber style transportation for those with special needs. My statement might read: “Convince parents of children on the autism spectrum that their donation allows more users on our platform because the money pays for more capacity, awareness and support.” Use your notes and this statement as a guide to build a compelling article.
Giving Page
This is the engine that will drive your fundraising. This page will contain a secure donation form at a minimum. The page will act as a hub for the distribution of information regarding your GivingTuesday campaign. All your emails should have a big DONATE NOW button that points to this page.
We recommend that your page start with a banner and clear call to action. “Help us…, Give today…, Donate now….” should lead your header. Then, clearly provide a donate button to get the donations going.
In addition to the donation form, add a progress illustration that donors can come back to and see how the campaign is doing. This will drive traffic to your landing page and, with a link to your corporate page, traffic to your organization’s website.
Lastly, define what each denomination you provided goes for. This means you’ll need to be deliberate about your dollar amounts. It pays off because the description helps resonate with your donors and inspires more donations.
Summary/Resources
My hope is that this article provides concrete help to get you going. I would take a break, grab a coffee, and re-read this article to help it all sink in. GivingTuesday can help you start your year-end giving push. These steps will hopefully help you do it more efficiently and easily.
Below are some helpful links to online resources for your GivingTuesday campaigns:
GivingTuesday Logos and Graphics
GivingTuesday Key Messages & Information
