We at Click & Pledge understand the significance of Giving Tuesday and year-end giving to nonprofits. We have created this blog to help everyone take full advantage of this upcoming opportunity!
Now let’s discuss three ways to maximize your Giving Tuesday and year-end giving campaigns. First, we will discuss the importance of having a plan, then discuss storytelling to encourage donations, and lastly, talk about some tools to boost donations and expand your reach.
1. Have a Plan
Plans are so essential for making things come to life and achieving more.
Whenever I create a plan before the gym or make dinner, I tend to be much more efficient with my time. The same goes for fundraising campaigns. With a plan of action, your team will be able to save time and get more accomplished.
When creating a plan for your Giving Tuesday or year-end campaign, there are a few things to remember.
First, every plan needs a goal or intention. Without a goal or intention, your plan will lead you somewhere but probably not where you should go. So, before you even get into the details, sit down with your team and develop an ambitious but realistic goal.
Next, it’s time to assign roles. Assigning roles allows for a smoother workflow and gives each team member clarity on how to help you achieve your goal. Start by making a list of all the people willing to help and writing their strengths next to each of their names. This will help you quickly identify where they fit best when assigning roles. Once they confirm they are comfortable with the task assigned, you can move forward. With all the hands on deck, your team will be empowered to make your campaign a success.
2. The Power of Storytelling
Nonprofits that can create and share stories have a powerful advantage over other organizations. That is because stories interact with emotions and, in return, create longer-lasting memories in our brains.
Here is a fun exercise to test this.
Take a sheet of paper and have a coworker, family member, or friend write down a list of 10 random words or objects. Now grab your phone and be ready to start a timer for 30 seconds.
Use these 30 seconds to memorize as many words as you can. After 30 seconds, cover your list and write down all the words you remember.
Note how many you remembered during this exercise. For me, I remembered 5, not too bad.
Now let’s do it again with a new list of words, but this time tell a story in your head using your ten words. Even if the story is wacky and barely makes any sense.
Again, give yourself 30 seconds, and then write down the words you remembered.
This time I got 9 out of 10.
Chances are you remembered more the second time because our minds react well to stories.
Stories are engaging and help us grasp more information in a short period.
So, keep this in mind for your Giving Tuesday and year-end campaigns. If you want your donors to remember something specific or your organization, share it in a story.
3. Leverage Your Tools
We have discussed the two essential concepts, planning and storytelling. Now, I will dive into some tools you can use to bring your campaign to life.
Remember that you know your audience best, so it is essential to decide which tools you use strategically. Pick an approach that will reach the most people while also allowing you to stand out.
- Social Media
The first one is social media. I bet the majority of you have social media. Whether it is your organization’s account or your account, both can be used to promote your campaign and share story’s for Giving Tuesday or year-end giving.
The first thing to remember when using social media is that content is king. All this means is that your campaign should prioritize content to be effective.
So, it is super important to have your posts planned out and ready to go well before your campaign end date. This will help you create quality content and be strategic instead of rushing around the day of Giving Tuesday or your year-end campaign.
Next – I want you to consider relationships that your organization can leverage. Is there an influential member of your community willing to share a post with their audience on social media or create a call-to-action that you can share? Even something as simple as having all your team members share and like your posts can go a long way during a campaign, as it will help you expand your reach.
Lastly – stand out. Many organizations will be asking for donations on this day, so you are competing with them for donations and attention. So be creative, share captivating images, and make your stories heartfelt.
- Click & Pledge Tools
Now let’s talk about some tools everyone has in their Click & Pledge account to empower fundraising, as well as some good practices to keep in mind.
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- SMSgiving
The first tool we always recommend organizations utilize is SMSgiving. With SMSgiving, your organization can create text-to-donate campaigns and a custom call-to-action.
Simply put, donors can give to your organization by texting your number with a word you set. You can customize the word to match your campaign and customize the look of your form. This is what makes it the perfect tool for unique campaigns and initiatives.
It is important to note that this tool is powered through an integration with Twilio that includes minimal nonprofit pricing for texts and your phone number.
Check out our guide here on how to set up SMSgiving up.
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- Shoutout for Donor Outreach
After a successful campaign, it is vital to capitalize on your donations by sending thanks to your donors. With our donor outreach tool, Shoutout, you can send these thank you messages quickly with ease directly from your phone.
A thank you can be recorded through video or audio and sent directly to your donors in real-time. Make this part of your routine, and you will surely see it pay off.
Donors that feel appreciated are much more likely to give to your organization again, and what better way to make them feel appreciated than sending them a personal message.
Get started with Shoutout here!
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- Campaign & Forms
A good practice to consider when planning for a new fundraising campaign, is creating a new campaign and donation form within CONNECT. There are two reasons for this.
First off, you will now be empowered within our reporting tools to separate your campaign’s data from all your other fundraising data. This allows you to track success more quickly and compare this data to past or future campaigns. A huge plus!
Secondly, by creating a new campaign in CONNECT, you can create a new form design without messing with your primary donation forms.
If you don’t have the time to design a new form, you can import one of our Giving Tuesday form templates.
Best of luck this year on your Giving Tuesday and year-end campaigns! If there is anything else we can do, please reach out to (support@clickandpledge.com)
