Planning for Giving Tuesday

Based on an Insights and Research Report by Qgiv and Bloomerang

Giving Tuesday is one of the biggest days of the year in the fundraising world, but it hasn’t always been that way. Giving Tuesday is a relatively new “holiday” that’s been on fundraisers’ radar for only 10 years. The first Giving Tuesday launched on the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving in 2012, founded by New York’s 92nd Street Y in partnership with the United Nations Foundation. The idea behind the event was to create a respite from the consumer frenzy of Black Friday and Cyber Monday by creating a day that focused on charitable giving.

Since then, Giving Tuesday has grown by leaps and bounds. While it’s hard to pin down the amount processed in 2012, Giving Tuesday 2013 officially processed $28 million. By the end of Giving Tuesday 2020, donors had given $808 million online to participating charities—an increase of 58 percent.

As Giving Tuesday grows more popular with donors and nonprofits alike, it’s tempting to pull together a quick campaign, launch it, and wait for the money to roll in. But it’s not that easy. Successful Giving Tuesday campaigns require planning, effort, and lots of attention. Giving Tuesday success shouldn’t only be measured in dollars raised. Nonprofits need a plan to keep and nurture relationships with the new donors they acquire and, more importantly, show their existing donors how important they are.

This Giving Tuesday guide is full of ideas about how to achieve those goals and some tips you can use to do so.

Promotional Schedule When Sending Emails

• Target your emails to make them more effective. Segment your email sends to address a few different groups of people: brand-new donors, loyal donors who have stayed engaged with you, highly-engaged volunteers and board members, and donors that supported you during your last Giving Tuesday campaign.
• Build excitement gradually. Sending daily emails is not the best way to get peoples’ attention. Instead, start two weeks out from the event and work from there.
• More frequent emails are acceptable on Giving Tuesday itself. It’s fine to send email updates—make sure each one has a point and something to offer your audience.
• Take time to craft your emails. Your donors will receive lots of Giving Tuesday emails. Spending time to perfect your subject lines, include great pictures, and tell powerful stories are all great ways to make your appeals stand out from the crowd.

When Creating Social Posts

• Be intentional about when you post Giving Tuesday reminders. People follow you on social media because they care about your mission, not because they’re eager to see your fundraising appeals. Make sure your Giving Tuesday posts enhance your regular posting instead of overtaking it.
• On the day of the event, focus on publicly thanking your donors (as long as they’re okay with recognition, of course). Instead of posting endless appeals, spotlight the people who gave and invite others to do the same. It makes your donors feel good, it inspires others to get involved, and it makes planning posts way easier on your social media manager.
• Back up your appeals with stories, videos, and great images. Your donors are being inundated with Giving Tuesday appeals on their own channels. Add elements to your posts that will make them stand out.

Understanding How to Find (and Keep) New Donors

One of the biggest complaints about Giving Tuesday is that nonprofits put a ton of time, money, and effort into recruiting new donors… but they don’t do so in a way that’s sustainable. Yes, the media blitz around Giving Tuesday can result in an influx of new supporters. But an influx of new donors isn’t very valuable if you can’t keep them.

The best way to recruit new donors and keep them coming back is to understand their journey from “random person on the Internet” to “first-time donor” to (hopefully) “loyal donor.” If you take time to optimize and enhance that journey, your Giving Tuesday campaign can be much more sustainable in the long run.

Here’s how to create a donor journey that will keep your Giving Tuesday donors engaged long after the media frenzy dies down:

• Connect potential donors to your mission. Emphasize your mission, not the day. Connecting donors to your mission, not to a giving event, sets the foundation for a future relationship.
• Show Everyone You Love Your Donors. Show donors you value the people who make the gift, not just the gift itself.
• Tell a Consistent Story. Create consistency and strengthen your appeal by sticking to one story.
• Make a Great Ask. Be specific. Choose a concrete amount to ask for (but do give donors the option of giving different amounts).
• Explain the impact. Don’t just tell donors they’ll make a difference. Tell them how.
• Optimize the Donation Process
• Make it easy to donate. Donors won’t give if they don’t know how to get to your form.
• Reduce decision-making. The more decisions donors have to make during the giving process, the less likely they are to give.
• Make Donors Feel Great about Giving. Thank them publicly. Only do this if the donor approves. This helps show future donors you care about your supporters.
• Build a great confirmation page. Add details like images, impact statements, and thank-you messaging to make donors feel amazing.
• Send a fantastic receipt. Make the most of your automated receipts by using them to give donors the warm-fuzzies.

Fundraising Methods

What fundraising methods should you use this Giving Tuesday? No two organizations raise money exactly the same way, but we have some ideas. Here are some of our favorite Giving Tuesday fundraising strategies, plus ideas about how to use them.

Build an online donation form. You probably already have an online donation form. But do you have an online donation form especially for Giving Tuesday? Consider creating a Giving Tuesday form that includes images, impact statements, and details from the story you plan to use in your appeals.

Having that theme on your donation form will reinforce donors’ decision to give, and it can also make it easier for you to attribute Giving Tuesday donations to the right campaign. Link to this donation form in your Giving Tuesday emails, social posts, and other appeals.

Qgiv tip: Did you know Qgiv forms include recurring upgrade prompts? You can add a small nudge directly on your form or enable a recurring upgrade modal that appears when someone submits a one-time donation. Want to know more?

Include recurring donation options. If donors really connect with the story you share in your Giving Tuesday campaign, they may want to offer ongoing support instead of a one-time gift. Recurring donors are a treasure; dollar for dollar, they usually donate more over time than their one-time counterparts, and they’re also much easier to retain. Be sure you offer the option to make a donation a recurring gift.

Qgiv tip: Did you know Qgiv’s donation forms include recurring upgrade prompts? You can add a small nudge directly on your form or enable a recurring upgrade ­modal ­that appears when someone submits a one-time donation.

Set up a text-to-donate keyword. Offering a way to donate via text is great for donors who learn about your campaign when they’re out and about. Set up a text-to-donate keyword that connects to your Giving Tuesday campaign. Then, include that keyword on emails, social posts, signs, brochures, or any other Giving Tuesday materials. We suggest using a keyword that’s unique to your Giving Tuesday campaign; that will make attributing donations to the right campaign much easier.

Qgiv tip: if you’re using Qgiv’s Mobile Suite, you don’t have to pay extra for a Giving Tuesday-specific keyword. Just navigate to the SMS/Text Messaging section of your dashboard and set up your keyword there.

Use social media to promote your campaign. Social media is a great tool to get the word out about your Giving Tuesday campaign. Use the hashtag #GivingTuesday in your posts to increase your posts’ organic reach and don’t forget to ask your supporters and volunteers to share your posts. You can use social media to provide periodic updates on your fundraising total, to thank your donors, highlight your mission and impact, as well as ask for donations. In your posts that ask for donations, include a direct link to your donation form so it’s easy for your followers to give to your campaign.

Qgiv tip: To encourage donors to share that they’ve given to your campaign, enable social sharing options on your donation form. Within Qgiv you can even add a pre-filled message to your social sharing settings so when supporters share your donation form, they’re also sharing an image and brief message you’ve crafted.

Send thoughtful outbound messages. Used sparingly, outbound text messages to past supporters (who have opted into receiving them) can be really effective fundraising tools. Send outbound messages to your lists directing them to a place they can learn more about your campaign. Text messages can quickly move from fun and informational to intrusive and annoying, so only send one or two.

Qgiv tip: if you’re using our Mobile Suite, you already have this tool. Click “Send Text Messages” under the SMS/Text area of your dashboard, then create your message or template. After that, simply choose the lists who should receive the message. You can schedule a send time or send it right away.

Explore peer-to-peer fundraising. In a peer-to-peer fundraiser, you recruit people to raise money on your behalf. This takes planning but, if you’ve got a base of highly-engaged supporters already, can be a powerful fundraising method on Giving Tuesday. Set up a Giving Tuesday-specific campaign, ask your supporters to create fundraising pages explaining why people should donate to your cause, and have them spread the word using their own stories, images, and insights. Most peer-to-peer campaigns last for weeks or months; if you don’t want to run a 24-hour event, try running a longer campaign that culminates on Giving Tuesday.

Qgiv tip: If you’re short on time, try cloning a peer-to-peer event you’ve used in the past and update images, text, and color schemes. Ask your staff, board members, and volunteers if they’d be willing to set up a fundraising page and share it with their networks. Another Qgiv tip: use Qgiv’s Facebook integration to make your fundraisers’ social posts even more powerful. The integration lets your fundraisers’ progress thermometers and Facebook’s fundraising tools work together, which will make your bookkeeping and reporting more effective after the fact.

Try crowdfunding a project. Using Giving Tuesday as a way to find like-minded donors is a good strategy. Using Giving Tuesday as an opportunity to find like-minded donors by funding a specific project, program, or goal is an even better one. Humans are hard-wired to reach goals, and setting a fundraising goal with a tangible impact will make your campaign more appealing. Asking donors to give money on Giving Tuesday is okay. Asking donors to help raise $5,000 is better. Asking donors to help raise $5,000 toward building a new playground is even better.

Qgiv tip: if you want to try a crowdfunding-style fundraiser this Giving Tuesday, go explore the “Goals” section of your control panel. You can easily set a goal and add a thermometer widget to your donation form. Donors love tracking your progress and seeing their donation reflected in the overall total.

Your fundraising progress is also a great piece of information to include in follow-up communications.

Run the Giving Tuesday Campaign of a Lifetime

Giving Tuesday is a valuable way to connect with new donors and lay the foundations for donor relationships that last for years. Being intentional about building a great donor experience and creating a good donor retention plan will help you turn a one-day giving event into a powerful way to connect with new donors. Promoting your campaign through email and social media, putting together an outstanding donation form, sincerely thanking your donors, and showing your supporters the impact they’ll make with their gift sets the stage for future communications—and future donations.

You’ll spend valuable time, energy, and effort putting together your Giving Tuesday campaign. We hope these examples, templates, and ideas will help you build a fantastic campaign that helps you raise more money this Giving Tuesday and long into the future.

Qgiv joined Bloomerang in 2024 to help create the sector’s first giving platform. Together they have more than 15 years’ experience supporting nonprofits with innovative technology and serve more than 23,000 small and medium-sized nonprofits in the US and Canada.