Giving Tuesday isn’t only for Nonprofits. It’s a global day of giving. If you run a for-profit business, it’s a great opportunity for you to express your corporate social responsibility in a tangible way.
I had the opportunity to present on this subject for the 2021 Holiday ECommerce Summit held by our sibling brand, Nexcess. Nexcess offers highly performant hosting with top-notch technical support. I know because we host GiveWP there and we’ve experienced it.
The ECommerce Summit is a great series of talks on how you can increase your bottom line during the holidays as a for-profit eCommerce business. If that’s you, you should definitely check out the full list of speakers.
Whether you want to read, or listen, here’s my talk all about Giving Tuesday and Corporate Social Responsibility.
What is Giving Tuesday and Why Should your Business Care?
Giving Tuesday, in their own words, is:
A movement that unleashes the power of radical generosity around the world.
It was created in 2012 by the people at the 92nd Street Y. It started as a response to the consumerism around Black Friday but has since evolved into it’s own nonprofit organization all around celebrating one day of doing good in the world.
It happens every year on the Tuesday after Black Friday.
Nonprofit organizations all over the world participate by registering on the Giving Tuesday website. Then they run their own Giving Tuesday fundraising campaigns on their websites. Donors and organizations participate by donating online and also sharing their generosity with the hashtag #GivingTuesday.
At GiveWP, we’ve been active contributors to everything Giving Tuesday for several years. We’ve developed high-quality, free resources for nonprofit organizations to thrive in their Giving Tuesday campaigns. Check out all the resources at our Giving Tuesday Hub.
But why should you and your business care about Giving Tuesday? In one phrase: Corporate Social Responsibility.
I believe in our modern world, every business needs to consider how they reflect their corporate social responsibility, or CSR.
CSR matters more than ever for for-profit businesses. Customers choose brands that are socially responsible more and more. Employees are preferring to work for corporations that care about social and environmental welfare. And truthfully, in the face of all the need that exists in our world today, we need corporations to chip in to make a big impact.
3 Ways Participating in Giving Tuesday Helps Your Bottom-Line
Alright, before I share the ideas, I want to tell you the three ways participating in Giving Tuesday can help your bottom line.
They are:
- It can help your marketing reach new audiences.
- It can help improve your Employee Retention.
- It can increase brand loyalty among your customers which of course means, YES, more sales.
Reach New Audiences
So how does Giving Tuesday help your marketing reach new audiences? Well this one is a two-for-one: both a reason and a campaign idea at same time.
Here’s the idea: The best way to participate in Giving Tuesday as a for-profit business is to partner with a nonprofit or charity that is running a Giving Tuesday campaign.
In terms of marketing reach, any nonprofit that is participating in Giving Tuesday has a donor-base; an audience that loves them and supports them. By partnering with them financially and through marketing efforts you get your products and brands in front of this audience. Most likely, that audience by-and-large doesn’t have much overlap with your existing audience.
Keep in mind, Giving Tuesday is a global effort, there is potential here for your partnership to be shown very broadly.
Partnering is a great way to get your products or services in front of a larger audience and most likely a group of potential customers that previously hadn’t heard of you before. Additionally, depending on the nature of your partnership with them, your nonprofit organization could include your brand in emails, social media efforts, blog posts, at events and more.
Brand Loyalty and Sales
How does participating in Giving Tuesday increase brand loyalty?
We all are exposed to the latest science and studies that inform us of the growing challenges our world faces. From climate change to the pandemic, from third-world starvation to political refugees, there is no draught of urgent needs our environment and our people face.
Consumers see corporations as part of the solution. There is a growing consensus that businesses have a social responsibility to use their significant wealth and resources to directly benefit the world.
What this means is simply that price is no longer king. For example, market research by the company Clutch in 2019 says that only 44% of consumers say price is among the most important attributes of a company compared to 71% saying being environmentally-friendly is most important to their buying decisions. That same survey also showed consumers preferring companies who showed social responsibility and giving back to the local community as more important in their buying decisions than PRICE was.
We know that these trends are increasing with the younger generations as well. Younger consumers and your younger employees consider social responsibility vital for your business.
Giving Tuesday presents you with one strong opportunity to show that your social responsibility matters.
Employee Retention
Lastly, how does participating in Giving Tuesday benefit Employee Retention?
Another business trend in the market over recent years is recognizing that skilled employees are more likely to change jobs frequently. Losing employees is costly. It takes time and resources to recruit and hire and then train new staff. Your business is more profitable and stable when you can increase employee retention.
I already alluded to the fact that younger generations are motivated more to businesses that take their social responsibility seriously. This is reflected in market research and proven in many employee exit surveys.
Giving Tuesday is not only a chance to show your employees that you take your social responsibility seriously, but it’s also a big opportunity to get them involved in it as well. I’m getting ahead of myself, because this is another idea — but getting your employees involved in fundraising for a cause is a big part of WHY you should participate in Giving Tuesday.
How to Participate in Giving Tuesday as a For-Profit Company
OK, we’ve covered why your business should participate in Giving Tuesday. Now here’s a few of the how’s.
First and foremost I mentioned previously that you should partner with a nonprofit or charity that is planning a Giving Tuesday campaign. This takes time and coordination for sure, but it’s a big part of the success of your efforts.
Start early, like in the summer, and spend time seeking out organizations that have participated in the past. You can find them on the givingtuesday.org website. Naturally, it works best if you already have a contact at the organization. But reaching out to a local org or even surveying your employees for which nonprofit they would love to support are great ways to get started, too.
Once you have chosen and connected with your organization, make a clear plan for how each of you will support each others efforts. How will you drive donors to their website? Or how will your campaign result in a large donation to theirs? Also, make sure they have a plan for how they will promote your partnership. Will they email their constituents? Logo on the website? Social media mentions? Set the tone for strong but equal promotion for each other.
Social Media Engagement Campaign
Another fun idea is to do a social media engagement campaign. Essentially, tell your Twitter followers that you’re supporting San Diego Refugee Tutoring (for example) for Giving Tuesday this year. In one post say your business will donate $1 for every like, and $2 for every Retweet of your post. Depending on your budget and/or follower count, you might want to set a maximum.
Another way to use social media is to post to your followers saying “For everyone who donates to San Diego Refugee Tutoring and puts #mybusiness in their comment, we will match that donation dollar for dollar.” Matching campaigns really help amplify fundraising for nonprofits and can be a very simple collaboration effort.
Live Fundraiser Drives
If you and your nonprofit have a popular blog, or a strong YouTube presence, you can do a series of live fundraiser drives. This format also works really well for matching donation campaigns.
Essentially hold your live discussion about a topic you’re both passionate about, and encourage everyone watching to add a specific hashtag in their donation comments that your business will match dollar for dollar.
If possible, have someone nearby watching the donations come in who can report on what is being raised during the live broadcast.
Employee Peer-to-Peer Competition
My last idea is my favorite. Get your employees involved by having them sign-up for a Peer-to-Peer fundraising effort. The nonprofit can host the Peer-to-Peer fundraising pages that your employees sign up for. Or, you can add this to your own website and make the donation on behalf of your corporation in the end.
You can even have your different company departments be teams. How would your marketing team do against your customer service department!?
This is a great way to get many people involved and your business can promote your employees and gamify it by encouraging competition for who raises the most individually or as a team.
Make it Happen with GiveWP
The best part about all of these ideas is that they can all be easily and affordably accomplished with GiveWP. Here’s a quick list of some of the great tools and resources you can glean from to make this happen for you and your business this Giving Tuesday:
- Learn all about implementing Peer-to-Peer campaigns
- Get our Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Solution
- Learn more about Giving Tuesday
- Get our free Giving Tuesday workbook
If your business participates in Giving Tuesday this year, we’d love to hear about it. Comment below or reach out to us via social or our contact form. We love promoting what great things you are doing to democratize generosity with us.
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