Are you ready for some giving? #GivingTuesday brings together the collective power of partners – nonprofits, civic organizations, universities, companies, families and individuals to encourage and amplify small acts of kindness.
Recent research conducted by For Momentum shows that 53% of people surveyed who are aware of #GivingTuesday expect corporations to participate in some way. That number increases to 61% among 18-34 year-olds who are aware of #GivingTuesday. So, don’t sit on the sidelines. Now is the time to recruit partners and get your gameplan ready for the big day.
Not sure where to start? Here are some of the Top 10 plays that are sure to help bring home a win on November 28th.
Top 10 #GivingTuesday Plays
Include a Simple, Compelling Messaging Up Front
Create a snappy tagline explaining your mission and goal of the campaign. People tend to read only the first three words and last three words of a headline so keep your titles as short as possible (Kissmetrics). Below is a great example from Cleats for Kids:
Build It for Mobile
Nearly 80% of all social activity happens on a smartphone. Your ability to get people to share your campaign and make donations from a mobile device is critical to your success. Also, go beyond emails; text messages have a 98% open rate.
Create a Social Media Live Video Event
Creating a live video event on Facebook or Instagram can your #GivingTuesday donors a new and fun way to interact with your organization. Encourage supporters to post comments and questions throughout the event. St. Jude included a Facebook Live event during their 2016 #GivingTuesday campaign, which helped them increase social media engagement from 0.67% to 4.08%.
Create Emotion Via Video
Embed a video on your donation page that shows potential donors the anticipated impact of their gifts with an emotion-packed video. Don’t forget to add a quick explanation of how you plan to use their donations in 2017. Including video in your email can boost your click rates by as much as 300% (Wistia). Below Children’s Cancer Connection shows how simple it can be to elicit emotion through a short video:
Include a Giving Thermometer
Display and use a live fundraising thermometer to track real-time donations to create urgency around reaching your goal. Share campaign progress before, during, and after your day of giving to motivate ambassadors and inspire donors.
Peer to Peer Fundraising
One-third of all online donations are a result of peer-to-peer fundraising. Ask supporters to post about their donation on their social media sites, tag five of their friends, and ask them to match the gift.
Unselfies
Encourage social media followers on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to post an #UNselfie and replace their profile picture for the day. Provide a downloadable link to a donation page.
Perform Challenges When You Hit Goals
Grab people’s attention by performing challenges as you reach campaign milestones. Internally, take a video of your CEO doing something silly to rally employees. For potential donors, get local officials or celebrities involved. Set challenges when you meet 50 percent, 75 percent and then 100 percent of your fundraising goal. To help motivate donors, The Connection engaged a few of generous employees to complete a silly or embarrassing challenge if specific dollar levels were met:
Make Your Donation Ask Relatable to the Everyday
Compare a $5 donation equal to giving up a daily latte, lunch or happy hour drink. Ask your supporters to match the price of their drink with a donation to your cause. Another great example is to ask donors to purchase a brick or other visual element of a building campaign.
Use #GivingTuesday As a Kickoff to Your Holiday Campaign
Create a unique hashtag for your holiday campaign and use #GivingTuesday as the launch of your longer-term holiday drive. Boys & Girls Clubs of America executed this perfectly with their Give the Gift of a Great Future campaign:
Find More Strategies in our ForMomentum #GivingTuesday Resources:
#GivingTuesday Playbook
#GivingTuesday 2-Day Planner
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