Giving Tuesday is when we mobilize all that frenetic energy of Black Friday and put it to charitable use. As well as being hugely positive, this festival of giving has proved greatly effective to boot!
Since it all kicked off in 2012, online donations have increased by an estimated 470% on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, and there are now 30,000 Giving Tuesday partners across 68 countries.
What’s more, the word is continuing to spread; the #givingtuesday hashtag now has over 750,000 mentions, and the cause has garnered 32.7 million impressions on Twitter.
[Tweet “#GivingTuesday has over 750,000 mentions garnering 32.7 million impressions on #Twitter”]So how can you ensure that you make the most of Giving Tuesday? Take a look at our three top tips.
Utilize Tools Already Available
There’s no sense in going it alone, especially when Giving Tuesday and fellow non-profits provide a wealth of tools and support. Giving Tuesday’s site allows you to download graphics, banners and all manner of other promotional material to show your support, generate interest, and most importantly get your consitutents to act.
There’s a huge range of ideas and hints on how to optimize your Giving Tuesday efforts, as well as information on how teachers can bring this vital and charitable day to the classroom as part of Generation Give through Giving Tuesday’s site.
Here are a few of our fav #GivingTuesday resouces:
Start Creating Touch Points Early
To turn casual visitors into supporters, your supporters must be engaged. To do this, you need to vary your traditional ask approach. Publishing pointed blogs to reach out to supporters is a great way to promote Giving Tuesday and raise the prominence of your efforts, but it’s necessary to mix up the style of your posts from informational to the fun. Most important is to have a strong call to action included with each post.
Including videos, infographics, photo galleries and other media in your blog posts is the most effectiv way to win #GivingTuesday. Bring your team together to brainstorm your approach and decide on the best way to ramp up and deliver the information, and then put your strategy into action.
Not sure where to start? We have several free resources and worksheets available to help! Download Free resources
Knowing when your touch points are publishing is important, but even more important is to know how to communicate with your supporters. Do they live on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn? Knowing this will save your team time and maximize the dollars given on Tuesday.
Empower Your Supporters
In addition to gathering your supporters, the most efficient way to make a difference on Giving Tuesday is to directly recruit brand advocates as fundraisers. As part of your campaign, provide information to visitors that explains how they can get involved and what they can do to help.
Offer this support via your website and your promotional material, outline how visitors can also be a force for positive change, and support them in their fundraising efforts. This is how Giving Tuesday has grown exponentially in only three years, and it is through this kind of work that it will continue to grow in the future!
Need more ideas on how to support your supporters? Check our this blog: Become a digital advocate in 4 steps
The best of luck with your campaign! The countdown to Giving Tuesday 2015 begins.
REFERENCES:
http://www.givingtuesday.org/tools/
