Launch Your Year-End Campaign on #GivingTuesday in 5 Days
Hands down, #GivingTuesday is the biggest day of giving of the year. With $45.7 million dollars raised for charities worldwide [1], it’s a no-brainer to run a #GivingTuesday campaign right? Well… yes! However, why stop at #GivingTuesday? Last year, 31% of annual gifts happened in the month of December. Not to mention, 12% of annual giving happened in the last 3 days of the year. [2]
I just explained why you should run a year-end campaign that launches on #GivingTuesday. Though with less than a week left, I’m sure you’re wondering; how can I launch a campaign in just 5 days? I’ve put together a 5 day plan to ensure that your year-end campaign is ready to launch on #GivingTuesday.
5 Days Before: Send a Thanksgiving Email to Your Supporters
Date: Thursday, November 26 – Thanksgiving Day
Estimated time: 1-2 hours
Thanksgiving is the perfect opportunity to email your supporters and remind them of why you’re grateful for them on this special day. It’s also a great time to mention that you’ll be kicking off your year end campaign on #GivingTuesday and that you will be counting on them for their continued support.
4 Days Before: Nail Down the Details and Create your Campaign
Date: Friday, November 27
Estimated time: 3-4 hours
While everyone else is battling those checkout lines on Black Friday, you need to finalize some important details for your campaign so that you can start creating it on GiveGab. You need to ask yourself these important questions: What projects at your organization need funding and how can you tie that to a theme? How much do you want to raise? What will you title your campaign? What story are you trying to tell?
Once you have nailed down the details, creating your campaign on GiveGab will go much smoother!
When creating your campaign, make sure your campaign start date is set to launch on #GivingTuesday (December 1) and runs until the end of the month (December 31). We’re waiving our platform fee on #GivingTuesday which is all the more reason to drive more traffic to your campaign that day!
I’ve compiled a few guides, blog articles and other helpful resources that can help you create your campaign.
Related Support & Blog Articles:
What story are you telling your supporters?
How Finding Nemo can help you Craft your Campaign Story
Creating your Campaign on GiveGab
Customizing your Campaign
Free stock photography sites:
Fancy Crave
Unsplash
3 Days Before: Recruit 5-10 All-Star Fundraising Champions
Date: Saturday, November 28
Estimated time: 2-3 hours
Harnessing the power of peer-to-peer fundraising can really give your campaign the boost it needs. Since we have little time to train new fundraisers it’s important to identify and reach out top 5-10 All-Star fundraisers who wholeheartedly support your organization and have fundraised for you before. The good news is, you already have 1 All-Star fundraiser, YOU!
Once you have some All-Stars lined up – sign them up or have them sign up to create their fundraising page from your main campaign.
Related Support & Blog Articles:
Identifying Fundraising Champions
How to Recruit a Fundraising Champion
How to Become a Fundraising Champion
2 Days Before: Find a Last-Minute Sponsor to Match Donations
Date: Sunday, November 29
Estimated time: 1-2 hours
New sponsorship requests should typically be made months in advance. Therefore, we don’t recommend reaching out to new sponsors a few days before your campaign launch!
However, if you have an existing relationship with corporate sponsors or donors, reach out to them and see if they would be interested in a donation match campaign. It could be as simple as them matching all donations made between 2-3pm on #GivingTuesday.
Creating a sense of urgency and engagement through a donation match campaign helps your donors feel like they’re making a bigger impact.
1 Day Before: Prep Messaging and Visuals
Date: Monday, November 30
Estimated time: 1-3 hours
Today you should be preparing yourself and your fundraising champions with sample email messaging and social media graphics.
If you want to create your own graphics/videos:
Here are 36 unique tools for creating images
Record and upload a video in 30 minutes or less
OR if you don’t have time to prep graphics and messaging, GiveGab offers a complete toolkit for this very reason! Including graphics, sample tweets and Facebook posts.
#GivingTuesday Resources:
Sample Social Media Posts
Sample Email Messaging
Downloadable Social Media Graphics
GivingTuesday.org also offers a great tools for success as well
Lastly, you’ll want to prep an email to your supporters for tomorrow. You want to tell them about your campaign and why their support is needed. Give them the link to your #GivingTuesday campaign and be clear about ways they can support you. Whether it’s becoming an online ambassador by sharing your campaign with their networks or making a monetary donation, every little bit counts.
Tomorrow is the big day so remember to:
1. Make sure your campaign is live, by toggle your campaign status from draft to live
2. Send a reminder email to your champions
3. Use a social media tool like buffer to schedule your posts for tomorrow (even though posts are scheduled you should still monitor your social media accounts closely).
4. Don’t just send 1 email to your supporters. You should be updating them when you hit certain milestones and how much prize match money is left!
