GivingTuesday fundraising essentials: Four best practices

Maintaining momentum with year-round fundraising is essential to reaching sustainability as a nonprofit. There are some days throughout the year when giving is heightened – GivingTuesday is one such time. The day is dedicated to profound generosity and is an opportunity for people to give back to their communities in various ways, including their time, talent, donated items or monetary gifts.

In 2023, 34 million supporters participated in GivingTuesday and donated over $3 billion, making this an opportunity nonprofits absolutely consider. Explore ways your organization can leverage this global day of giving to increase donations and help boost revenue for your mission this year.

1. Optimize your donation page

Imagine it’s GivingTuesday, and you decide to donate to your local community center. Their donation page is difficult to locate, and once you finally find it, it’s confusing. The donation form is filled with questions asking for unnecessary information. However, you decide to patiently fill it out regardless. At the end of the form, you hit another snag—your payment type is not accepted.

At that point, you’d probably give up and close their page.

You don’t want potential donors going through that experience with your nonprofit. The most impactful adjustment you can make to increase donations for GivingTuesday is to optimize your donation page.

OneCause, a fundriaising software built especially for nonprofits, recommends keeping the following in mind:

• Technical considerations: Integrate your donation page with your fundraising software to streamline the giving experience and easily feature it on your website.
• Inspiring design: Create a visually engaging donation page with a compelling story, a strong call to action, and high-impact visuals that reflect your nonprofit’s brand.
• Trustworthy content: Be transparent with donors about your mission and how donations will impact you. Offer PCI-compliant payment to assure donors their information will be protected.
• Accessibility: Aside from making your donation page quick to find, it should be meaningful and usable. Include alternative text for visuals, incorporate high color contrast, and otherwise adhere to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
• Flexibility: Offer donors one-time and recurring donation options and accept various payments that can be made in memory, honor, celebration, or tribute to someone.

With a well-designed and organized donation page, your nonprofit’s supporters will have an easier time making a gift to support your mission, resulting in more donations and less frustration. A seamless giving experience will help your GivingTuesday campaign resonate with donors and stand out among other participating nonprofits.

2. Plan a compelling campaign

To boost supporter and donor engagement in your GivingTuesday efforts, plan a compelling, cohesive campaign that will capture your audience’s interest. Here are a few tips to help you get started:

• Craft your core message: Share how your fundraising goal will help move your mission forward.
• Choose a campaign theme: Decide what the focus of your fundraiser will be to help you stay consistent across all promotional materials.
• Plan a day-of event: Strategize what your GivingTuesday event will look like to build excitement among donors leading up to it.
• Incorporate storytelling: Take the opportunity to highlight your mission and the power of donations to your organization, and weave in stories of the impact you’ve made previously or want to make now.
• Invest in fundraising software: Streamline the giving process to make it simple for your donors and improve your future campaigns with data reports for you to analyze with a comprehensive fundraising software.

While planning a whole campaign and updating your fundraising technology may seem like a significant investment, the immense generosity of GivingTuesday makes it all worth it. After all, flexible software can be used beyond a single day of giving, meaning a seamless experience for donors all year long.

3. Promote GivingTuesday to supporters

Maximize the visibility of your nonprofit’s GivingTuesday campaign by marketing it to your supporters and their networks ahead of time. Here are some tips on popular marketing channels you can use:

• Direct mail: Include a printed QR code on physical mail that leads to your online donation page, so supporters can easily access it to make a gift.
• Website: Link a “Donate Now” button at the top of your organization’s page to distinguish where to give. Add other CTAs on relevant pages to drive more traffic to your donation page.
• Email: Create an eye-catching subject line to increase the likelihood of supporters opening your message and exploring your GivingTuesday activities.
• SMS messaging: Schedule texts ahead of time to maximize resources on a fast-paced day like GivingTuesday. Make sure they’re under the 160-character limit.
• Social media: Utilize a hashtag to centralize your campaign and spread awareness to a broader audience. Encourage your supporters to share your social media posts with their network, as well.
• Banner ads: Consider applying for the Google Ad Grant to receive $10,000 in free monthly advertising credits.

To reach and connect with as many donors as possible, take a multichannel marketing approach. Choose the three channels your supporters most prefer and send promotional messages through those.

4. Show appreciation for donors

Keep the momentum going even after GivingTuesday is over and take the opportunity to strengthen new and existing donor relationships. Ensure your donors feel that they’ve made a difference by showing your utmost gratitude. Here are a few donor appreciation tips for GivingTuesday:

• Thank your donors: Handwriting a heartfelt message can communicate just how important your supporters are to your mission, making them feel good about supporting your nonprofit.
• Share fundraising results: Communicate how much of an impact donors had on your organization during GivingTuesday. Discuss how much money you raised and how many donors made contributions.
• Connect to your impact: Showcase how GivingTuesday gifts have helped your cause, whether that be through photos or video. Include quantitative and qualitative information, such as statistics about your impact and stories from your beneficiaries.

Additionally, use this opportunity to spark interest in your nonprofit’s other year-end giving activities. While 50% of nonprofits receive most of their annual donations in the last three months of the year, 30% of all annual giving happens in December.

With proper stewardship, you’ll strengthen relationships with GivingTuesday donors and even encourage them to make an additional gift in the last few days of the year. With creative year-end campaigns and flexible fundraising software, you can better attract long-term donors.