Love it or hate it, #GivingTuesday has become a VERY BIG DEAL for nonprofits.
By every measure, this giving day has exploded into a new, influential holiday. According to the Case Foundation, which set out this year to measure the collective reach of Giving Tuesday, total online donations processed on Giving Tuesday more than doubled from 2014, to a staggering $116.7 million given by 698,961 online donors. (The majority of this data are collected from online donations made to U.S.-based nonprofits.)
Social media mentions jumped a whopping 86 percent, topped by 114 BILLION impressions on Twitter
This year I worked with 4 nonprofits to help them launch Giving Tuesday campaigns. Two of them were brand new to the holiday. All four saw phenomenal responses, rivaling fundraising totals typically raised on days like Dec. 31, which for most nonprofits is the single largest online giving day of the year.
What worked for these nonprofits?
- Having a plan in advance
- Morning and evening emails sends (the evening email is simply a lift note on top of the morning email)
- A special offer (a match, triple match or fixed dollar boost [an extra $25 for every donation])
- A goal (dollar, donor, or impact goal such as planting trees)
- Several social media posts spurring giving and updating progress against the goal
Results, case studies and analysis are still coming in. So, did you participate in Giving Tuesday? How did it go?
You can share your results and feedback with the Giving Tuesday campaign here (please drop a note here in the comment section first!).
