During Giving Days, there are a lot of opportunities to receive bonus funds or prizes, and it’s only a matter of having a plan and putting it into place.

Use these tips to increase your chances!

1. Choose 1-2 Prizes in Advance

Focusing your efforts around the 1-2 prizes you want to win rather than all of them will help you laser in on your strategy. You also won’t be scrambling to win prizes all day, and can focus on something even more important: your donors!

2. Understand the Rules

Look for things like “Only online donations count towards prize eligibility”, or “Only donations made between 12PM and 6PM are eligible”, and even trickier “Only public social media posts will be considered”.

You don’t want to encourage the wrong type of participation (although, any and all participation is great!). If something isn’t clear – ask!

3. Strategize

Once you understand the rules, it’s time to strategize. Send out a message on social media and email as soon as you decide which prize(s) you want to win to let your supporters know what you can do with the extra donations, and how they can help you win.

Depending on the prize you want to win, you may want to call major donors (for any Most Raised prizes), or send out an email blast to everyone on your donor list (for any Most Donors prizes).  

4. Prize Time

As soon as the doors open for the prize you want, send out an announcement message saying the contest has begun! Depending on how long the prize window is, send 2-3 more messages during that time period.

Give updates on your ranking, thank donors in real-time on social media, and encourage donors to spread the word.

5. Celebrate!

If you won, make sure you thank your donors for their extra participation that helped you win that special prize. And if you didn’t win, you should still thank your donors for putting in the effort to try to help you win!

Whether you win or lose, a little competition can encourage more donations for every nonprofit involved, and helps get that adrenaline pumping again!

Sample Messages

Send this email to all your supporters:

Subject: How you can multiply your impact on [DATE] during [Day of Giving]

[Salutation],

We have amazing news: the [Day of Giving] team just announced the prizes that are up for grabs on [DATE]! This is a great opportunity to multiply the impact of your gift on our organization.

We’d love to win [PRIZE] to do [X] at [ORGANIZATION NAME], but there is some stiff competition out there so this is what we need you do to:

[Describe exactly what the donor needs to do to help you win the prize].

[Explain eligibility requirements: Only donations made online and during the 24-hour period are eligible, so make sure you donate here on [DATE]]: [Day of Giving Profile Link]

We’re so excited!

Send this social media post out on Facebook:

We have amazing news: the [Day of Giving Hashtag] team just announced the prizes that are up for grabs on [DATE]! This is a great opportunity to multiply the impact of your gift on our organization.

We’d love to win [PRIZE] to do [X] at [ORGANIZATION NAME], but there is some stiff competition out there so this is what we need you do to:

[Describe what the donor needs to do to help you win the prize].

[Explain eligibility requirements: Only donations made online and during the 24-hour period are eligible, so make sure you donate here on [DATE]]: [Day of Giving Profile Link]

We’re so excited!

Send this social media post out on Twitter:

Prizes for [HASHTAG] just announced! We’re gunning for [PRIZE]. Donate on [DATE] at [Day of Giving Profile Link] and multiply your impact!