Giving Tuesday: What Your Nonprofit Needs To Do in November

If you are following along with our year-end campaign suggested timeline, you may know that November is the time to fully launch your 2021 Giving Tuesday campaign by leading with gratitude. Here are our top suggestions for what your nonprofit should be focusing on in November based on what we have learned from managing 200+ year-end campaigns. 

Pre-Wire Your Audience With Ads for Impact

Giving Tuesday serves as the main launch point for your full year-end campaign. Early November is the time to have a soft launch of your campaign by pre-wiring your audience for what they will soon see. 

1. Use impact reports for Facebook ads lead generation campaign: You can use ads for impact to show new and warm donor audiences what impact they and other supporters are making towards the cause. Offer an annual report with an ad stating something like, “thank you for all of your support this year. This is what you have directly helped us accomplish in the last 10 months.”
2. Use impact reports for an email campaign: You can use your impact report across all channels. Showcase the impact and give gratitude for that impact directly to supporters via email. 
3. Lead with gratitude: Set yourself apart from other nonprofits who will be only asking for donations. Donors want to know that they’re actually making a difference and their money isn’t going out into thin air. Show them the value of the gift they are contributing. 

Grow Your Remarketing Audiences

Because of the iOS tracking changes, you will want to make sure you are remarketing as much as possible and growing your audiences in the Facebook ads platform. Just because someone does not give on Giving Tuesday does not mean they will not give the rest of the year. Here are some ways to grow your remarketing audience:

1. If you’re running reach campaigns, post engagement campaigns, traffic campaigns, or YouTube and display ads, try utilizing impactful videos.  
2. Use remarketing to say “thank you” to your supporters. This video does not have to be a high-budget video. This could be a simple video shot on an iPhone and uploaded to Youtube. Your supporters are there for a reason so they will love to see any effort you have done to genuinely say thank you. 
3. Increase website traffic: Use the Google Ad Grant to increase awareness
4. Use different language for old donors and new potential donors: You will want to use different messaging when sending ads or emails to people who have donated in the past vs. people who signed up to receive an impact report. 

Build Brand Awareness and Strengthen Relationships

You’re not quite asking for people to donate at the beginning of November. Before doing so, you have almost a whole month to build stronger relationships. Here are some things you can do before the big day:

1. Create a Facebook Event: Some of our partners last year saw this work well for them. Get people excited about your mission and engage with them by having a virtual launch party with a big video your nonprofit is rolling out. This can push them to consider giving on the day of the event.
2. Run conversion campaigns: Push visitors to your donation page or use peer-to-peer fundraising. Have more frequent onsite conversion designs with pop-ups, welcome mats, and exit-intent pop-ups. 
3. Youtube & Display ads: Shift content to be oriented towards donation focuses once we get closer to Giving Tuesday. Focus your ad spend on remarketing to those individuals and directing that traffic to your donation landing page.
4. Search advertising: Emphasize branded keywords. Regardless of where people find themselves on your site, a pop-up should remind them of your Giving Tuesday initiatives. If they are searching for you, you want to pop up first on their search. 

Maria Sadusky