So a lot of you know about Giving Tuesday. It’s a global movement that normally happens the first week of December as a way to help the community get involved with volunteering and donating to local charities. Well, in a few weeks on May 5, 2020 there is another Giving Tuesday event happening as an emergency response to the needs caused by Covid-19.
The Giving Tuesday website describes this action as a day to "rally people around the world to tap into the power of human connection and strengthen communities at the grassroots level”. So what does that mean for your organization, and how can you start getting involved today? Here a some ways you can get involved in the event and promote your organization.
Build a Campaign
If you haven’t already started a Giving Tuesday campaign, plan out how you are going to use your digital channels to let your supporters know about the giving event happening in a few weeks. Get posting this week, and reach out to your donors asking for their support on the day of the event.
I would recommend dedicating at least 2 posts a week leading up to Giving Tuesday reminding your followers where and how they can support you during this time. This can be a post with a direct ask or a graphic with the event date on it. Find what content is most natural for your organization and post it.
Make Appropriate Content
Since the event itself is in response to Covid-19 share with your followers how your nonprofit has been directly affected by the pandemic or how you're responding to it. Maybe even invite your clients or volunteers to share their personal stories of how the situation has affected their lives. Whether it be positive or negative, by sharing these experiences you allow your audience to truly understand how their support will help you.
What is different about this particular situation is that we are all experiencing this together at the same time, so we are able to emphasize with that. You can also have posts outlining the resources you are in desperate need of during this time, or ways people can safely volunteer for your organization. We recently had John from Hopeful Inc on the podcast and he gave some terrific content ideas on this topic that you can listen to below:
Think of How You can Support Front Line Workers
If your organization isn’t already a part of the essential services team, think of ways you can show support for those who are. This can be done in a few different ways, here are a few ideas:
- An in-kind donation of gloves, masks, hand sanitizer or other helpful items/services to grocery stores, hospitals or other organizations
- Write thank-you cards or send digital messages of thanks to support workers. You can also use a hashtag to encourage your followers to do the same
- Partner with another organization to share their Giving Tuesday goals and/or progress
If there are any organizations you can partner with to help share and promote each other's goals do that as well! They don’t have to be a part of the front line workers, but this is an issue that is affecting us all in similar ways so why not work with each other to reach our goals?
Set a Goal and Show Your Progress
Similar to other campaigns, you want to set a goal that fits your organizations needs. Maybe you need help funding a digital program, or are in need of certain good for your food bank. Set a realistic, attainable goal and share it with your followers. This can be as simple as a Facebook Fundraiser while sharing your milestones weekly leading up to May 5th.
You can also create a landing page with a fundraising thermometer to get your donors excited about reaching your goal. Donor Engine is currently offering free tech and digital help to nonprofits during this time, so if you are interested in creating a donation page reach out to our team and we would be happy to help!
Some Tips
- Feature #GivingTuesday on your website to let people know you’re participating in the event. You can also post their logo which is available for download on their website
- 2 days before send out an email reminder asking donors for their support and to spread the word! Also, don’t be afraid to post 2-3 times on your social channels during this time using the #GivingTuesday
- The day of, post a reminder of your goal and directly ask for donations. Don’t forget to also send out an email doing the same!
- As with any fundraising campaign, don’t forget to follow up with a thank-you after the event is done and share your progress
Happy fundraising and stay safe out there!
