9 Tips to Stand Out This Giving Tuesday
3 min to read ✭ In today’s post, we share 9 tips that will help your nonprofit stand out on Giving Tuesday 2019.
Giving Tuesday (GT) is just around the corner and there are upwards of half a billion dollars to be raised in 2019. We will share 9 tips that will help your nonprofit stand out on this massive day of philanthropy.
1. Send a Save the Date
A customized note about why your organization is “the most important” will prove as a helpful reminder during this busy time of year. Try to acknowledge a donor’s past gift. Think about how to segment your save the date.
2. Video
Video, in any form, drives engagement. It doesn’t have to be overly polished, but try to make it creative. Only using imagery with a GT logo is not going to stand out. Whether you put your executive director on camera or you have a video you’re really proud of, this tactic will help you get noticed.
3. Facebook & Instagram Ads
We talk about this channel a lot because it works so effectively. Run ad creative in front of key segments of past donors, current donors, custom audiences, people that have previously visited your site, and even new interspace donors. GT is a great day to test ad creative for all potentially interested audiences. Increase your budget for Facebook and Instagram ads a few days prior to and on December 3rd to increase your conversion rates.
4. Start Impact Sharing Early
Share the impact of your organization before you launch your year-end campaign. This has been a very effective strategy for us. Share tangible numbers weeks before your official year-end launch date. Impact ads can convert and drive donations. Essentially, we’re trying to build engagement through Facebook and Instagram ads, which will set up an audience to target for year-end acquisition. Share your impact early through email and social media to prime the pump for year-end capitalization.
5. Do Something Special
What can you do to make your GT push stand out? Stay away from common messaging. For example, if you’ve secured a genuine match for GT, talk about that. Make people feel that their donation goes further. Or maybe you have a donor who is willing to donate $5 every time your social media post gets shared. Put a twist on your messaging method and have fun with it.
6. Explore Micro-Influencers
A micro-influencer is a person on social media with at least 2,500 followers. However, they don’t need to have millions of followers. As long as they have engaged followers and you can enroll their followers to care about your cause and promote your organization on GT, that’s a really effective way to stand out. Maybe you find someone with 5,000 followers who is hitting hashtags that are relevant to your cause. Direct Message (DM) them and start a conversation. People want to look good and promote good causes. For example, if you’re an ocean conservation organization and you’re able to get a surfer who has 100,000 followers to promote you, that can be extremely effective. Try it.
7. Mobile Messaging
Year-end offers the capability and resources to test this method successfully. Always try to market where peoples’ attention is at. Platforms like Facebook are going to get noisy for GT. However, open rates for mobile messaging are high and people are paying attention. Look at platforms like Hustle and specifically ask people to share your content.
8. Offline is Crucial
We have to put in a lot of work behind the scenes to drive online results, so don’t forget about your offline game. Reach out to your big donors and reach out to your board. Ensure that people are geared up, ready to go, and feeling empowered to share.
9. Stewardship
Everyone looks at GT through an acquisition lens, but it’s also a day to try new things and take your stewardship to the next level. That can be as simple as sending a quick thank you video via iPhone and uploading it to YouTube, or sending donors an unlisted video acknowledging how their donation benefits your organization. The organizations who practice this type of personalized stewardship have had felt tremendous feedback from donors, seen increases in donors that gave during the rest of the year-end campaign, and increased multiple-giving during year-end, and for higher amounts.
