5 Tips for Hosting a Successful Giving Day
Hosting a Giving Day can be stressful. It seems like everything is falling on you to complete on what seems like an impossible timeline – especially when you’re also trying to run the day-to-day operations of your organization!
I guarantee, though, as long as you follow these five tips, your Giving Day will come together without a hitch, and you’ll be as successful as you can be!
1. Lean on your Project Manager for Support
Having a Project Manager is kind of like having your own personal guardian angel watching over you as you work through this seemingly impossible task. They’ve done this plenty of times before and know just how to get everything done, and they’ll be with you every step of the way.
Whether you have questions, comments, or suggestions, he or she will be more than willing to hear you out, talk through the issue, and come up with a realistic proposal or timeline of when and how things will work.
2. Be Organized
You’ll be asked to provide a lot of copy, photos, brand guidelines, dates, color choices, sponsor ideas, and more – just to build the website. Keeping track of everything you’ve submitted or need to work on is imperative, and will definitely help you in the long run. Especially when your Project Manager is asking you for X, Y, and Z; you’ll know exactly what he or she is looking for!
3. Start Early
The bulk of the work is in the very beginning, so don’t be afraid to dive right in and get started! As you move along through the process, slowly chipping away at it bit by bit, the bulk of your work will be done even before the first nonprofit signs up to participate. Wouldn’t that feel pretty great? This also helps the tech team get the site up and running even sooner, which gets the gears turning faster on everything else, too.
4. Don’t Re-invent the Wheel
This ties back in with Leaning on your Project Manager. This is not their first day of giving, so they have examples and tried and true methods of how this works! When working on the site copy, or the resources for your nonprofits, or even FAQs or Terms of Service, I guarantee you there are so many resources out there that you might just need to switch out a few words here and there. Of course, you want to make this your own, so make sure it also feels like you!
5. Breathe!!
A Giving Day is supposed to be fun! It can seem a little daunting at first, but as long as you follow the above four tips on being successful, you’ll be able to breathe much easier – and your participating organizations will feel much more at ease, too.
