In our last post, we established that when it comes to GivingTuesday, there’s really no downside to putting as much effort and energy as possible into your yearly campaign. But if you’re a small nonprofit, you may not have the budget for the flashy campaign and content some of the bigger orgs will be trotting out. Fortunately, there are quite a few options for GivingTuesday fundraising that won’t break the bank.
If you’re set up for peer-to-peer fundraising, one of the most important things you can do is make it easy for your existing donors to promote their individual P2P campaigns in the days leading up to GivingTuesday and to start fundraising right away on the day itself. Provide any slogans and content you’ve created for the event, and let them know how important their role is on one of the biggest giving days of the year not only in bringing in needed funds but in connecting you with new donors among their friends and colleagues.
Engaging content in the form of images, videos, and stories, can be expensive to generate in-house, but with a little planning and community engagement, you can motivate donors to create compelling content for your GivingTuesday campaign. One fun and relatively low-key method is to hold an online competition.
Put out a call for baby pics, pet pics, or funny videos. Have donors include your GivingTuesday slogan, dress up to the theme, or just send you their most adorable photos to engage their fellow GivingTuesday donors and help you make a splash. Post photos on your website and ask for a minimal donation per “vote” for photos, with the one raising the most becoming the “winner.” Use all your social media channels to promote your contest, with a custom hashtag for the best results. Feature the winner on all social media and prominently on your website, and offer any other perks you can, including those available via corporate partnerships (e.g., gift cards).
In the nonprofit fundraising world, it’s important to connect with donors on a personal level, and GivingTuesday challenges are a fun way to let them see members of your organization engaging and team building in response to hitting fundraising goals. Set up a schedule of goals and a list of actions members of your team will perform on video when each goal is met. Mustache/beard/head-shaving, pepper-eating, trust-falling (and catching!), obstacle courses, dance-offs, air-guitar (or band!) battles—be creative and get everyone on board and you’ll increase team cohesion while you raise dollars. If you can, crank it up a few notches by including a local celebrity or public figure in your biggest challenge goals.
Right now is a great time to reach out to your biggest donors and any large corporations in your local or operational area and ask them to match donations to your organization for GivingTuesday. A matching partner benefits from the publicity your campaign generates via email and social media in the weeks and days leading up to GivingTuesday as well as all day long on the day of, and donations to your organization are multiplied, ensuring you have the resources to meet your goals.
Don't have a matching partner? Implement a solution like Double The Donation on your online donation forms to make sure you capture corporate matching gifts. Sign up for a demo of our software today to see how we've integrated matching gifts functionality directly into our online fundraising pages.
Reach out to your most loyal and social-media-savvy donors to serve as GivingTuesday ambassadors for your organization. Ask them to help you promote your 2019 GivingTuesday campaign starting as soon as you announce it, and give them easy access to any slogans and content you’ve created for the occasion. Consider coming up with a fun theme-related name for your team of ambassadors and use it in communications and social media posts.
Small donations add up, and often all it takes is a reminder that the price of a small luxury for us can make a big difference in the lives of the people your organization works to serve. An ask like “buy us a coffee” can spark a donation from someone who may not have a lot to give, but who is willing to make a small sacrifice to help create a better world.
You can employ as many of these tips as you want to help boost your GivingTuesday fundraising while spending as little as possible. No matter what combination of tactics you decide on, the most important thing is to engage your current donors in your efforts both in terms of getting their attention and securing their help getting the word out to potential new donors. It doesn’t take a lot of money to run a successful GivingTuesday fundraiser, but it does take a good deal of planning (starting now!), a solid implementation, and a focused, continuous effort all day long on the day in question. And Arreva is always here to help.