If you’re able to, begin planning your Giving Tuesday campaign as early as January. This will give you plenty of time and allow you to take small actions throughout the year to design a truly creative campaign. Even if you can’t plan your Giving Tuesday all year, you can still have a very successful campaign! We have put together this comprehensive checklist of easy things to implement that will help save you tons of time and make the planning part easy.
To start, focus on the follow-through from your previous Giving Tuesday campaign. In this phase of your planning, you’ll want to kick off an internal meeting for your team to hold a campaign retrospective, brainstorm new ideas, and decide the elements you’ll be using to achieve a successful campaign. The suggested timeframe for early planners to begin is from January to April.
Begin your hunt for sponsors and identify a pipeline of sponsors for cold outreach. Identify warm leads based on connections from staff, board, or volunteers, and create a full menu of sponsorship opportunities.
Look back at last year’s campaign and ask the brave question: what worked and what didn’t work? Once You’ve asked this question, prepare for a follow up meeting. Invite team members and/or key stakeholders to your meeting, such as:
In your meeting, be sure to get everyone’s feedback on the following:
Remember in your meeting to go down further into the team level and discuss thing like successes and challenges for each group, success metrics in each area, how to achieve similar successful results in this year’s campaign, and how to avoid similar struggles in this year’s campaign
To properly follow up from last year’s Campaign, your members and stakeholders need to develop and nurture relationships with your past and present Giving Tuesday supporters. Focus on things like:
For all donor and supporter groups, thank them for their support, share the results of your campaign via email, personal note, social media, etc., and show them the impact of their donations by showcasing specific stories of how their donations helped. If willing, interview recipients of the help received from donor support.
For new donors, make sure you introduce them to your nonprofit and your mission, explain your goals from Giving Tuesday and how you were successful, and show them different ways they can get involved throughout the year.
Shift your focus from last year to the upcoming Giving Tuesday. Determine your new goal, or recommit to last year’s goal. Set your campaign budget, and prepare a “master” document where everything related to your Giving Tuesday is kept. Remember to ask teams to brainstorm and prepare pitches for the upcoming campaign
When you kick off your creative brainstorm, email the team the “master” document one week before your meeting and ask them to read it and become familiar with the campaign direction.
Finally, it’s time to hold the meeting. For this year’s Giving Tuesday campaign, consider these questions:
After considering these questions, pick and choose what you want to carry forward based on your new goals and outlook and discuss new ideas if you’re going in a different direction. Take time to evaluate how you can double down on efforts that worked last year if you’re going in the same direction, and discuss new ideas if you’re going in a different direction.
In the next phase of your Giving Tuesday planning, you and your team will begin executing your new campaign direction, create your fundraising page, and begin outlining your communications. The suggested timeframe for early planners to begin is from May through August.
Define what the story will be on your new campaign page. Mission? Past Beneficiaries? Determine your campaign name, branding elements, and colors you will use. Collect design assets for the page (images, testimonials, videos, etc). This all will play a huge role in your communication strategy.
Identify the platforms you will use during your campaign, whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Twitter, or others. Decide when you will begin promoting your campaign on those platforms, how many posts you will create, and when you will post them. Be sure to identify if you will need any design assets for the platforms
Some best practice to follow for email strategies are as follows:
To build your fundraising page, you must first create a new campaign (or duplicate last
year’s campaign) and prepare your content for the page.
Have on hand the campaign name, fundraising goal, and featured media like videos, images, your logo, text for buttons, and text for the page’s “About” section. It is of the utmost importance that you remember to test everything, from links, to emails, to social posts. Your team is now ready for the launch of your campaign!
During the final phase of planning, you will soft and hard launch your campaign, draft all social media copy, have your Giving Tuesday, and then transition your campaign to year-end. The suggested timeframe for early planners to begin is from September – October.
Start by determining who you will soft launch to. This could include:
Send your soft launch group a notification about your upcoming campaign. Include a few specific tasks, such as asking them to consider donating early, sharing with their close networks, and putting your official campaign launch date on their calendar.
It’s now time to revisit your social media strategy. Tailor content copy for specific social media platforms so it engages your supporters into year-end and beyond. Schedule certain posts in advance, like early morning kickoff, inspiration posts, and beneficiary stories. Furthermore, determine if you need any graphics for social media posts
Designate a common area for in-the-moment strategy on Giving Tuesday. Assemble your team and inform them you will all be in the room for the entirety of Giving Tuesday. Also, consider campaign logistics:
Make any last-minute adjustments needed for your campaign with regard to the campaign’s copy, design assets, email automation, or featured media.
Further considerations are you can “flip” your Giving Tuesday campaign to a year-end campaign that incorporates a new hero image, make replacements for Giving Tuesday specific media, and make adjustments to copy on campaign page and donation form.
Follow this outline for your hard launch:
Once it’s all over, it’s time to celebrate your Giving Tuesday success. Yes, that means a party where you and your team have some champagne, eat a cake, and high-five one another! During your party, let them know exactly what all their hard work made possible.
The last item on this master checklist for giving Tuesday is to communicate back to your supporters. Do not forget to thank donors for their gifts, share financial results of Giving Tuesday, and share the impact of your results. Don’t be afraid to make a hard ask to recommit for your year-end campaign.
Once the thanking of supporters has concluded, officially flip your campaign to year-end!
