5 Reasons to Host A Giving Day on GivingTuesday

At GiveGab, GivingTuesday is one of the most exciting and celebrated days of the year! It is a time when the desire to give is at an all-time high and the passion and drive of our Giving Day partners are unstoppable. 

GivingTuesday is known as the global generosity movement that inspires individuals to give back through volunteer work, philanthropy, and other acts of kindness. It was first formed in 2012 by 92nd Street Y to combat the consumerism of the holiday season and put the focus on doing good for others. It has since grown into the largest day for philanthropy and is celebrated on the Tuesday after U.S. Thanksgiving throughout the world. 

GivingTuesday 2021 initiatives on the GiveGab platform, including 83 Giving Day sites, equated to a record-breaking $31.3 million, with $25.1 million raised on GivingTuesday alone. Last year more people gave than ever before, with 54,754 donors making 107,749 gifts to 3,818 organizations, schools, and hospitals. Generosity also grew substantially in 2021, with the average online donation at $156.20 per gift, a 23% increase from 2020.  

With such an incredible amount of generosity created during this one moment in time, it is easy to see how much of an impact GivingTuesday can create for communities, schools, hospitals, and causes. GivingTuesday has become GiveGab’s most popular day among partners to host a Giving Day, and with good reason!  

Our Giving Day Partners consistently seek to take part in this internationally recognized day of giving to: 

• Leverage the momentum of social media
• Provide donors with a simple way to connect with causes
• Amplify efforts to raise funds, attract supporters, and share success
• Kick-off year-end fundraising efforts
• Learn from Giving Day peers doing the same

1. Leverage the momentum of social media 

Participating in GivingTuesday is all about elevating your organization’s mission to be seen within both your local community and the collective giving community. It is the one day of the year that donors are actively searching for ways to give back and support new causes. With a Giving Day, you can help amplify the voices of local nonprofits or campus initiatives to be heard by a larger audience and create opportunities for them to receive additional support.  

The primary avenues for donors to discover new causes and giving initiatives are through social media and brand recognition. GiveGab is here to help with both strategies! 

To stand out on GivingTuesday, your campaign needs to make a lasting impression. Hosting a Giving Day with GiveGab allows you to create branding with a purpose. Giving Day hosts work directly with our in-house graphic designers to perfectly capture and portray the heart of your mission. By investing in strong branding for your Giving Day, you will continue to increase the recognition and visibility of your cause year after year.

Explore More: Discover how the American Bird Conservancy took their GivingTuesday efforts beyond a single form and launched a comprehensive and branded Giving Day site in 2021, resulting in a 20% increase in dollars raised, and a 51% increase in donors from their previous campaign. 

When hosting your GivingTuesday Giving Day on GiveGab, you receive a customized logo, a beautifully branded site, and downloadable graphics and social shares for marketing your fundraising efforts. GiveGab also offers templated social media messages to make it as easy as possible to implement. When your community shares your custom Giving Day content on social media, it will be sure to spark donor support.  

And, when new and returning supporters see your Giving Day mentioned in a tweet or targeted ad, they will experience a smooth donation process – no matter what device they’re on – thanks to GiveGab’s modern technology. 

Why is this important? Mobile responsiveness is a must-have capability, considering the majority of donations are made through smartphones and tablets. Your Giving Day site will be mobile-friendly with GiveGab, which provides the best giving experience for your donors. Through GG Pay, you can also provide donors with flexible payment options such as mobile wallet, PayPal, and Venmo, ensuring they can give in ways that are most convenient to them.  

Plus, when you host a Giving Day with GiveGab, we highlight your efforts across our social media channels. That means more awareness of your initiative among our wide audience of philanthropic-minded individuals! 

Explore More: Take a deep dive into the many ways you can generate more awareness for your Giving Day with our Ultimate Giving Day Marketing Playbooks created for Civic & Nonprofit Leaders and Education Institutions. Discover how you can begin implementing Social Media, PR & Media Relations, Promotion & Advertising, Communications, and Community Engagement and Partnerships strategies for your upcoming Giving Day!  

2. Provide donors with a simple way to connect with causes 

Giving Days are an accessible and convenient way for donors to engage with the causes they care most about and allow participating organizations or groups to highlight their impact and communicate their most pressing needs. 

GiveGab offers features and tools to develop a compelling and unified story, further maximizing your potential for success. Our dedicated project managers work with you to ensure that your homepage gives supporters a strong understanding of your Giving Day mission. 

How does GiveGab help? GiveGab designers and project managers help you create a custom branded site with images, graphics, and copy that tells a unified story. Videos are encouraged on the homepage as they enhance your overall messaging. Your participants and fundraisers will also share their personal stories directly within their individual profiles. 

Additionally, our platform allows you to seamlessly add custom landing pages to your site to share any other important information with site visitors, such as video contests, local events, and in-depth descriptions of your causes. During The Cradle’s 2021 Giving Tuesday Giving Celebration, a custom page was created on the Giving Day site to highlight one of their families’ personal adoption journey and the impact that The Cradle’s services had on them.   

As we approach GivingTuesday 2022, online engagement has continued to grow in importance as we all develop meaningful ways to connect virtually. This is most commonly done through live stream content. To support these efforts, GiveGab has launched GG Live.

Our real-time virtual event dashboard takes your Giving Day events to the next level with live data, virtual interaction, and easy ways to give. This feature provides a space to better engage your donors by interviewing participants, showcasing stories of impact, and highlighting stats in real-time. 

Creating this space for donors to learn about the causes they are supporting makes them feel more connected to the Giving Day and will create a meaningful experience that can translate to repeat giving. 

3. Amplify efforts to raise funds, attract supporters, and share success 

One of the things that makes a GivingTuesday Giving Day on our platform so unique is that we offer built-in functionality to help you expand your fundraising initiatives in new and creative ways. 

The most notable GiveGab’s features that will strengthen your fundraising efforts are: 

• Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Fundraising: Expand your network and reach new donors by allowing supporters to fundraise on behalf of organizations participating in your Giving Day. Did you know P2P fundraisers typically bring in four new donors per campaign? 
• Sponsor Recognition: Proudly display and give instant recognition to your sponsors directly on your Giving Day homepage. 
• Matching capabilities: Matches incentivize donors to make a greater impact by multiplying the value of their gift. Through the GiveGab platform, gifts are automatically matched to applicable funds. 
• Prize Incentives: Create healthy competition by displaying your available prizes on a dedicated prize page! Giving Days on GiveGab have seen an increase in engagement among donors and participants prizes are on the line. 
• Leaderboards: Our leaderboards track your Giving Day’s top performers and displays them right on your homepage! This fun feature allows you to create friendly competition among your Giving Day participants, donor groups, or P2P fundraisers. 

4. Kick-off year-end fundraising efforts

The majority of charitable giving occurs during the last few weeks of the year. Use the excitement from GivingTuesday, along with what you learned from your campaign results, as a segway into your year-end fundraising efforts! 

While GiveGab sends your donors an automatic and immediate ‘thank you’ message which you can customize, we recommend following up after GivingTuesday with a more personalized message of gratitude. 

Your follow-up messaging between GivingTuesday and year-end should include your goals, how close you are to meeting them, and what exactly you are trying to accomplish with their support. 

We encourage our Giving Day Partners and their participants to leverage their data and results from their larger campaign to help inform their year-end strategies. Communicate the results of the Giving Day and inspire continued giving through personal messaging using your segmented donation report.  

By sharing the impact their previous gifts have helped you achieve, along with what future contributions would provide, you can help retain donors and strengthen your relationships. Being vocal after GivingTuesday and transparent about end-of-the-year goals and fundraising efforts will prime them for that future ask. 

Two fall campaigns can strengthen your year-end fundraising efforts if you run them strategically. GiveGab offers the tools and support to maximize success for both your GivingTuesday day and beyond! 

5. Learn from Giving Day peers doing the same 

While there is a lot of time and effort that comes with hosting a Giving Day, whether it be your first or fourth time, GiveGab is here to support you. Between our internal team of experienced Project Managers, and our network of highly successful Giving Day leaders, we provide our partners with the expertise and knowledge to help achieve their fundraising goals and expand their engagement strategies.  

GivingTuesday is the most popular date for a Giving Day on GiveGab, which means our Giving Day Leader’s Network is well versed in running highly-successfully fundraising events on this particular day. By joining GiveGab, you are accessing this network of resources and the knowledge of highly successful and experienced leaders. 

Above & Beyond Support – Our exclusive Giving Day Buddy program matches you with an experienced Giving Day leader within our network to provide you with guidance and mentorship as you begin planning for your first Giving Day. When you partner with GiveGab, you will also be invited to our Giving Day Leaders Facebook group, in which you are encouraged to connect with and crowdsource advice from over 200 members! 

Hear directly from our Giving Day partners on why they host a Giving Day on GivingTuesday: 

“Giving Tuesday is a global movement for grassroots fundraising which can leave donors overwhelmed with “asks.” While some may agree, this day of generosity engages hearts and minds with missions near and dear to them. With GiveGab’s help, the Schneck Foundation tapped into storytelling and public relations, deeply touching our communities, helping us surpass our inaugural GivingTuesday fundraising goals. All with tremendous GiveGab staff support throughout the three-month planning phase. No doubt, we’ll continue to participate in GivingTuesday and plan for continued success with the help of the GiveGab team.”– Stephanie Flinn, foundation executive director at Schneck Medical Center and host of Born in a Small Town

“GivingTuesday is a one-day global celebration of giving. While your Giving Day is really about giving locally, tying it into a global movement towards charitable giving, generosity and philanthropy can help your Giving Day gain some natural recognition and momentum. After the shopping frenzy of Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and so on, GivingTuesday is a great reminder that charitable giving is another important gift to one’s community during the holiday season, and positioning your Giving Day at that time can have a huge, positive impact.”– Kirk Windus, communications and fund development manager at Cattaraugus Region Community Foundation and host of Cattaraugus Gives

Mark your calendars: GivingTuesday will take place on November 29, 2022. Schedule a time to speak with someone from our engagement team to discuss how you can leverage the momentum of GivingTuesday with GiveGab.