Giving Tuesday 2021 is just 60 days away, but don’t stress, if you haven’t started planning yet, you still have time.
When is Giving Tuesday 2021?
We know you’re Giving Tuesday experts at this point, but let’s go through a little refresher on how this global day of giving started, how it inspires generosity around the world, and when it’s occurring this year.
The concept of Giving Tuesday came about in 2012 on East 92nd Street in New York City at the Belfer Center for Innovation & Social Impact. The idea was simple: establish a day that encourages people around the world to do good. Since its inception, Giving Tuesday has become an independent nonprofit organization and a universal movement that has inspired millions of individuals to support, engage, and give to the missions that matter most to them.
Last year was a challenge for organizations all over the world, donors were faced with massive layoffs, and some organizations were forced to close their doors altogether. However, 2020 also marked one of the most successful Giving Tuesdays in its 9-year history. In the U.S. alone, individuals donated over $2 billion in one single day, in addition to providing a momentous amount of non-monetary support. This success introduced the organization’s idea of “radical generosity.” To learn more about Giving Tuesday’s strategic plan surrounding radical generosity, click here.
While most end-of-year giving events were held virtually in 2020, this year nonprofit organizations are facing the hybrid giving landscape (while following all CDC guidelines for safety and local regulations as far as in-person gatherings are concerned). While this may seem daunting, organizations can now utilize the virtual landscape that they’ve become so familiar with over the past 18 months, paired with the in-person fundraising that we all know and love this November 30.
Planning Your Giving Tuesday Campaign
The countdown has begun, we are just 60 days away from the big day! If you haven’t already started planning your campaign, now is the time to start.
To kick off your campaign planning, hold a brainstorming session with your team this week and look back at your past two Giving Tuesday campaigns, keeping the following questions in mind:
- What worked in person in 2019?
- What was successful in 2020 when you were fully virtual?
- Do you need to grow your subscriber list (and if so, how will you accomplish this)?
- Do you have the marketing automation and Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) database to support your email or direct mail giving campaigns?
Pulling the elements from both campaigns will enable your organization to achieve success in 2021. Next, your team will want to begin thinking about goals, how you’ll measure success, what story you want to tell this giving season, who your target audience is, and what will inspire them to give. Once you’ve laid the framework for your campaign, your team can begin allocating resources, setting a budget, identifying sponsors, and setting up a timeline for your campaign.
Preparing for Giving Tuesday
Preparing for your Giving Tuesday campaign will take up the bulk of the next two and a half months. This will involve setting up landing pages, scheduling day-of events, finalizing marketing assets, testing new automation and emails, and so much more. This is really the time to ramp up excitement for the event, and build momentum for not only Giving Tuesday but for end of year giving as a whole.
As you are planning your resources, consider if there are any potential partners you can team up with, sign up your staff and volunteers to donate time to the planning process, and make sure your CRM is ready for the campaign whether that is through automated email messages, social media monitoring and, perhaps most importantly, up-to-date donor and subscriber information.
Your CRM is where you house all the information about your donors, subscribers, volunteers, corporate partners – really anyone who interacts with your organization. By making sure your information is up-to-date, you’ll be able to better segment your database and create targeted constituent journeys with specially crafted messages specific to an audience type. This will help you increase engagement, and ultimately, funds raised.
Launching Your Campaign
All of your planning and prepping has led to this moment, launch day! Two to three weeks before Giving Tuesday, begin promoting your campaign on social media. Then, a week before the day, send an email directly to your donors explaining your goals for this Giving Tuesday, share your event schedule, and reveal any special guests who will join you on November 30.
After Giving Tuesday
As with any campaign, once Giving Tuesday has ended it is inevitable that you will gain a handful of new donors. You’ll want to make sure you are continuing to nurture those folks throughout the year and continue to develop your relationships.
We hope this blog gives you a few ideas on how to get the most from your Giving Tuesday campaigns. Are you doing anything creative for Giving Tuesday? We’d love to hear about it on Twitter (Follow @cloud4good).
