by Firefly Partners • 10.26.2017
Giving Tuesday was an innovation when it started in 2012: A spending “holiday” to support important causes instead of retail stores? What a great idea! It caught on quickly and, before we knew it, Giving Tuesday became an essential part of most nonprofits’ campaign calendars.
However, just like your news feed is full of ads for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, your supporters are now inundated with requests for support on Giving Tuesday. That means your message is fighting for attention — and funds! — amid a high volume of messages from both nonprofits and retailers. How’s that for a challenge??
Luckily there are ways to craft your message that can help you stand out in the crowd, connect with your supporters, and meet your Giving Tuesday campaign goals. Giving Tuesday is November 28th this year, so it’s time to get moving. We polled Firefly’s team of experts to get this list of the top six ideas for Giving Tuesday campaigns:
- Tell a Story. Your supporters may remember your mission, but this is a great time of year to remind them of the real people (or animals, parks, etc.) that your organization supports. You’re trying to tug at heartstrings, so be sure to include details! The more you can emotionally connect your supporters to what you do, the more likely they’ll be to donate.
- Add a Bonus. This may be the time to add something extra to your regular donation appeal. Can your development team get a pledge for a donation match from a big corporation or major donor? Can people who give on Giving Tuesday receive a special premium? As long as your bonus idea still stays on brand for your nonprofit, this is the time to think out of the box. Exciting ideas can get attention!
- Add a Personal Fundraising Challenge. If you have an email list of passionate supporters, this is a great time of year to pass along the fundraising challenge to them. Create a DIY Peer-to-Peer fundraising campaign and ask your most active advocates to reach out to their family and friends for a Giving Tuesday gift. Bonus points if you use a holiday theme to match the season!
- Build a Giving Tuesday Email Campaign. Sometimes the best one-off requests aren’t one-off requests at all: they’re part of a multi-email campaign funnel. Think about how you could use a three- or four-email series spaced out over a few weeks before Giving Tuesday to remind people of the impact of your mission, the challenges you face, and the impact of their support — and then end with a request for a donation.
- Retarget Website Visitors with Social Media Ads. Plenty of people get to your donation page, but not all of them donate. Why not? That’s not always clear, but it also doesn’t mean they didn’t intend to donate. You can use retargeting to target specific ad messages to people who visited your donation page but didn’t follow through. Facebook has made it easier than ever to put a pixel on your pages and set up your retargeting ads in minutes. They’re gone…but you might be able to get them back!
- Ask for a Monthly Microdonation. When a donation ask is very small, it’s hard for your supporters to say no. Figure out the historical average Giving Tuesday donation, then divide that by 12 and ask your supporters to make a sustainer gift. If your average gift is $75, asking for a monthly gift of $6.25 (once a month) is absurdly hard for a donor to deny! You can plan an upsell appeal next year asking your micro-donors to give just a little more, or add a special one-time gift.
Creating a stand-out Giving Tuesday campaign takes some work, but with a little creativity, it can also be a massive success. Try one (or more!) of the techniques above to add an exciting element to your fundraising ask and watch your message make a major impact.
Need a little help putting together your Giving Tuesday campaign? We thought you’d never ask! Reach out to set up your free consultation today.
