GivingTuesday ideas: 5 tips for a successful #GivingDay

Make the most of the popular day of giving with these GivingTuesday ideas that can boost your fundraising campaign.

GivingTuesday has changed how we donate. What started as a community centre’s response to holiday season consumerism has blossomed into a game-changing year-end fundraising event.

GivingTuesday’s mission of creating a world based on radical generosity inspires recurring and new donors alike to give to their favourite causes. Each year, more and more people share amazing nonprofits on social media, why they’re donating, and encourage their friends, family, and followers to do the same.

After back-to-back record breaking years, the upcoming GivingTuesday is set to be the biggest yet — and that’s saying something, because in 2022 GivingTuesday raised $3.1 billion USD in the U.S. alone!

At Raisely, we’ve been talking about GivingTuesday a lot. We’ve shared the news of us becoming the Country Lead of GivingTuesday Australia, as well as how to incorporate GivingTuesday into your year end fundraising strategy.

And there’s so much more to talk about!

Whatever your GivingTuesday 2024  ideas are, here are five tips and tricks to kick your GivingTuesday fundraising campaign up a notch.

1. Send a calendar invite for your GivingTuesday campaign

It sounds so simple, but it’s so important! These days, if there isn’t a notification for something, people will forget about it. We’ve all done it. There’s no shame in it. We’re all busy.

GivingTuesday is always the Tuesday after Black Friday and the day after Cyber Monday. Take a second to mark it on your calendar, then contact your community members to ensure it’s on theirs.

Generating a calendar invite is super easy. If you use Google Calendar, you can use the instructions here to select the event you want to share, publish it, and copy the URL for whoever needs it.

When you do, make sure you tailor your messages based on who you’re communicating with. You might ask local businesses to contribute a matching gift or participate in gift programs, which you wouldn’t ask of many of your individual donors. Also, your donation amount suggestions for corporate sponsors should be higher than what you’d ask of younger donors with smaller pockets.

2. Incorporate peer fundraising into your GivingTuesday ideas

GivingTuesday provides you with a great opportunity to leverage your social media channels, and the channels of your supporters.

Peer fundraising campaigns can go viral when you have a good cause and a great story. The hashtag #GivingTuesday gets billions of impressions each year. If your fundraising idea involves an engaging, easy-to-do activity, it can garner a lot of attention.

Kat Murphy, the director of digital strategy for GivingTuesday, says, “Peer-to-peer is probably one of your best tools in your toolbox … People give to people, and not to organisations. That social proof that your organisation is getting by somebody giving to you and then announcing that on their Facebook page is worth more to you than gold, honestly.“

Figure out who your biggest fans are and turn them into influencers by asking them if they’d consider running a fundraiser on your behalf. However, don’t wait until three days before GivingTuesday. Give them as much notice as you can — months if possible.

Then, make it easy and fun for them to participate. Things like games, trivia, and walk-a-thons are often successful. If you can turn it into a challenge and provide incentives for the winners, even better!

And don’t forget to give your influencers the tools they need to succeed, like:

• Brand messaging
• Social media post templates
• Shareable online fundraising pages
• Option to create a Facebook Fundraiser page
• Links to online donation forms
• Links to the main donation page and fundraising thermometer

If you want to achieve fundraising success with a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign, work with Raisely. In 2023, nonprofits using Raisely experienced an average activation rate of 78%!

3. Give yourself and your supporters ample lead time

Successful GivingTuesday campaigns start long before the big day. Planning a charitable giving program takes months. You have to decide on an event type and purpose, organise your team, select your target audience, and find sponsors, suppliers, and an event venue … and that’s before you market your event.

When you finally start marketing your event, remember the Marketing Rule of 7. This rule states your target audience needs to hear things at least seven times before taking action. It’s not an exact science, but it’s been around since the 1930s.

In the digital age, it’s much easier to reach someone seven times. You can do that through social media alone in a single day! However, not all “touches” are created equal. Your messaging should be meaningful, on-brand, and targeted. The better your messaging, the more likely your fundraising efforts will yield excellent results!

4. Don’t forget the follow-up

This is probably the most important GivingTuesday tip of all.

If you thought your GivingTuesday fundraising strategies all ended at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday morning, think again! You can have the coolest and most successful GivingTuesday idea ever, but if you fail to follow up with your donors and supporters, you’re missing a huge opportunity.

GivingTuesday comes with some serious donor acquisition and retention potential. Nonprofits often find that many of their GivingTuesday donations come from new donors. This makes sense, especially if you ran a great peer-to-peer campaign and used the hashtag #GivingTuesday well.

Don’t let these new donors slip through your fingers. Have thank-you and follow-up emails drafted and ready to go. Thank them for donating, share the event’s success, and inform your donors how their gifts will make an impact. Play towards their generosity by inviting them to make recurring donations, and make it super easy to do so. Not everyone will bite, but some probably will, and the rest will remember your nonprofit organisation.

5. Create your own Giving Day

There’s no rule that states GivingTuesday fundraising ideas must be implemented on GivingTuesday. If you don’t have enough time to launch your idea for a crowdfunding campaign or Facebook fundraiser on the day of, or GivingTuesday just isn’t for you, find a day that is.

The Australian Conservation Foundation created their own Giving Day last February to “Save Our Big Backyard.” Land-clearing was destroying the habitat, so they didn’t want to wait another nine months for GivingTuesday. They raised $518,511 AUD during their Giving Day, exceeding their $500,000 goal.

Even if your cause isn’t in immediate danger, you don’t have to wait until the official GivingTuesday comes around to raise funds.

Bonus GivingTuesday tip: Matching gifts

Do you know what’s better than receiving a donation? Getting the donation doubled!

No matter what your GivingTuesday idea is, you should incorporate donor matching. You only have 24 hours to work with, so make the most of your timeframe! Knowing that their gift will be doubled will compel donors to give and give more! For maximum appeal, show how their donations will make an impact.

With Raisely’s matched giving calculator, you can show donors the total amount of their gift when matched and increase conversion rates.

Ask sponsors and corporations if they’d like to offer matched giving during your GivingTuesday campaign. It’s great press for them, and a little something extra you can share with your followers ahead of the campaign.

Plan your next GivingTuesday campaign with Raisely

Raisely can improve the functionality of your fundraising efforts, launch your campaign now with our free GivingTuesday template. A quick, high-converting template designed for GivingTuesday campaigns, with optional peer-to-peer functionality to boost your reach.