Giving Tuesday is Nov. 28, 2023, the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving, following Black Friday and Cyber Monday. If you are planning a last-minute Giving Tuesday campaign, don’t worry – it happens! You can still create a quick fundraising setup to ensure your nonprofit can make the most of this global day of giving.
Organizers say Giving Tuesday “is a global generosity movement unleashing the power of people and organizations to transform their communities and the world.” Billions of dollars have been raised on this day for hundreds of worldwide nonprofits.
To maximize your efforts’ impact, planning campaigns in advance is best. However, you can still create a last-minute Giving Tuesday campaign to help your organization generate funds and awareness. Here’s how you do it.
How to Plan a Last-Minute Giving Tuesday Campaign
If you plan a last-minute Giving Tuesday campaign, solid infrastructure is crucial to launching a quick fundraising setup.
GiveWP is a user-friendly and powerful donation plugin for WordPress. If your nonprofit is already using this tool, you are in luck! (If not, it’s never too late to request a demo and get started.)
The benefit of GiveWP is that it simplifies creating and embedding donation forms on websites. With customizable forms, you can create almost any fundraising campaign with robust reporting features to ensure you can connect with every donor.
GiveWP works with your existing WordPress design and theme, making it easy for you to get started and start managing online fundraising quickly. (It might be the perfect solution to your Giving Tuesday procrastination woes!)
Crafting an Effective Campaign Strategy
Even with last-minute planning, crafting an effective fundraising strategy is essential. This generally includes a three-part plan:
- Start by defining clear campaign goals that explain your fundraising target, the purpose of funds, and potential impact.
- Encourage storytelling to evoke emotional connections with potential donors.
- Suggest urgency-driven messaging to highlight the immediacy of Giving Tuesday.
Here’s a deeper look at creating strategic campaign goals, even on a short timeline.
Set a fundraising target so you can publicize a specific amount of money you want to raise on Giving Tuesday. This target should be well-researched and realistic, and it might be lower than if you planned your campaign with a longer marketing horizon.
An effective fundraising target considers your organization’s financial needs, the capacity of your donor base, and the resources required to achieve campaign goals.
Your strategy should clearly explain the campaign’s purpose and what funds will support it. The best Giving Tuesday campaigns have solid storytelling, are action-driven, and have a purpose.
While you can make the ask just because it is Giving Tuesday, having a dedicated plan to communicate to donors is a much better idea.
Finally, explaining the tangible and measurable impact of contributions is important. It is here where you will create a sense of urgency for donors. Think about framing it regarding one day’s impact on your mission. Use concrete examples and data to show how donations make a difference.
Leveraging GiveWP for Quick Campaign Setup
Put your campaign strategy into action quickly with GiveWP on your WordPress website. It’s a user-friendly and powerful donation plugin you can install and use almost immediately.
GiveWP simplifies creating and embedding donation forms on websites with smart and customizable options for almost every campaign type. It works with all major payment processors, and you can generate conversion-driven forms with a few clicks for any campaign type, from a standard contribution to recurring donations to peer-to-peer fundraising.
The Power of P2P
Peer-to-peer giving is a valuable and increasingly important strategy for Giving Tuesday because it can help expand your campaign reach and encourage social participation. If you don’t have much time to plan a campaign, a Giving Tuesday P2P campaign can put some of the marketing in the hands of your most significant and social contributors.
Here are just a few impacts of peer-to-peer campaigns for Giving Tuesday:
- Expand Your Reach: Peer-to-peer giving leverages an existing supporter base to reach new donors. When supporters become fundraisers, they tap into their networks to expand the pool of potential donors.
- Establish Greater Trust and Credibility: When someone vouches for your cause, it adds credibility and authenticity to your campaign among their network.
- Personalization: Peer-to-peer fundraising allows fundraisers to share personal stories about why your cause matters to them, which is an excellent form of storytelling for your nonprofit.
- Data Collection: Peer-to-peer campaigns help you gather insights into your most influential supporters, which messaging and strategies are most effective, and how your network is expanding.
- Community Building: Engaging your supporters as fundraisers fosters a sense of community and involvement and can strengthen the bond between your organization and cause.
- Social Media Buzz: Often launching on Facebook or Instagram, P2P Giving Tuesday campaigns are ideal on social media, thanks to the popularity of #GivingTuesday.
Why not tap into the strength of community, social proof, and advocacy through peer-to-peer fundraising for Giving Tuesday?
Integrating Social Sharing and Engagement
GiveWP donation forms can help you extend the reach of Giving Tuesday campaigns with the ability to embed social sharing buttons. This makes it easy for donors to alert their followers that they have participated in a #GivingTuesday campaign and encourage others to do the same.
There are two ways to add social share buttons to donation forms:
- Use the Simple Social Shout add-on to set custom prompts for donors to share. It’s a free add-on and only takes a handful of clicks to set up.
- Include built-in social sharing options on the thank you page if you use the Multi-Step donation form template.
While there are many ways to utilize social media in your campaigns, this one focuses on making it easier for folks to share they have given to your cause. It’s a strong form of social proof and takes little effort from your organization.
Promoting Your Last-Minute Campaign
Once you have a strategy for your last-minute campaign for Giving Tuesday set, it’s time to start promoting it. You’ll want to ensure your information appears in email messaging, social media, and other website banners and promotions.
Get the most bang for your buck with attention-grabbing headlines and visuals for promotional materials, and don’t forget to use #GivingTuesday to maximize social media virality.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is a highly effective channel for reaching existing supporters and potential donors with last-minute Giving Tuesday campaign updates and appeals. Take advantage of personalized messaging to build excitement.
- Send an email with a countdown to Giving Tuesday, highlighting the remaining hours or days until the event. Emphasize the urgency.
- Share compelling stories about the impact of donations and how they make a difference in your organization’s work.
- If you have matching funds, promote this in emails to encourage more significant donations.
- Segment your email list based on donor history to send targeted messages.
All of our email marketing add-ons (like ActiveCampaign, Constant Contact, etc.) integrate seamlessly with GiveWP, making it simple to connect and engage with your current and potential donors.
Social Media
Social media platforms are vital for engaging a broad audience and generating buzz around Giving Tuesday, especially for hashtag usage and P2P campaigns.
- Go live to provide real-time updates, share stories, and interact with your audience.
- Use infographics, videos, and images to convey your campaign’s message quickly.
- Encourage peer-to-peer fundraisers to share campaign pages and stories.
- Post thank-you messages and updates to express gratitude to donors and maintain momentum throughout the day.
Your organizations can also provide a social media toolkit, empowering your community and supporters to share on-brand messages and creative assets to boost awareness for your last-minute Giving Tuesday campaign.
Fundraising Website
Your organization’s website should include prominent visual elements that can be used to highlight Giving Tuesday and encourage action.
- Ensure a Giving Tuesday banner is prominently placed on your website’s homepage.
- Include a clear and concise call-to-action (“Donate Now”) to direct the next steps.
- Incorporate a countdown timer to remind visitors of the limited participation time.
Optimizing your website is a critical step to help your organization turn visitors into donors. A properly optimized fundraising website is easy to navigate, includes prominent calls to action, tells a story, and more. Not sure if your fundraising site is setting your organization up for success? No worries – GiveWP Plus, Pro, and Agency planholders are eligible for a 30-minute Fundraising Site Audit with our Customer Success team.
Evaluating Your Last-Minute Giving Tuesday Campaign
Finally, it would be best if you did some reporting and data analysis on your last-minute Giving Tuesday campaign to help set a baseline and learn and improve on future campaigns.
While there are many things to report on, pay the most attention to metrics closely related to campaign goals and outcomes. Did last-minute planning impact your Giving Tuesday campaign when compared to previous years?
Other things to think about include:
- Total amount raised
- Total number of donors engaged
- New versus repeat donors
- Email open and click rates
- Social media engagement
- Overall website traffic
- Campaign costs and return on spend versus funds raised
Fundraising data is essential for gauging how well your campaign is doing. It helps you understand how your fundraising goals and KPIs tell the story of your Giving Tuesday campaign’s performance.
Good KPIs provide solid evidence of progress toward your goals, and they do this by using data-backed metrics that you can measure and analyze. KPIs are crucial for measuring success and setting a performance baseline for your nonprofit. You can use this data internally to make decisions and share it with stakeholders to show what you’ve achieved.
To get the most out of your website’s data, use Google Analytics. It’s a free tracking tool, and with the add-on, you can easily collect data on donations made through your GiveWP-powered donation website.
Closing Thoughts
Giving Tuesday is an immense fundraising opportunity for nonprofits. With people in a generous mindset and the power of collective Giving Tuesday marketing, almost any organization can experience a boost in donations.
It’s not too late to get started. GiveWP can help. Learn more or request a demo.
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