Giving Tuesday is a day we talk about every year, but why?
Well, for starters, $2.7 billion was raised in the United States on Giving Tuesday last year. And good news, this was a 9% increase from 2020. So the power of a single day of giving is something to really get behind, and a great time to show up, celebrate your cause, and encourage generosity and doing good.
For anyone that has not heard of this phenomenon, a quick Google search will bring up more resources and how-to guides than you will know what to do with. Simply put, Giving Tuesday is the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. It serves as a finale to a long weekend full of consumer spending between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Giving Tuesday is a day where we focus on giving back, whether that be dollars, time or goods, to help nonprofits all around the world.
While there are many resources out there that give you lots of great tips on how to prepare for Giving Tuesday, I must say I was a bit disappointed to find that many of them do not focus on Social Fundraising as an important source of income. So, in this blog, I’ll be sharing with you the reasons why Facebook Fundraising can help you raise even more money on Giving Tuesday, and advice for how to get started.
I think we are all on the same page, but just to level set, Facebook is a top fundraising platform for two key reasons:
Reason 1: Not only do most of us spend way too much time on Facebook, but this is where we are connected to the people who care about us whether that be friends, family members, neighbors, etc.
Reason 2: Facebook not only offers incredible fundraising tools but also an in-platform ad solution that helps keep acquisition costs low when we look for new fundraisers.
Okay – you get it – when it comes to fundraising, Facebook cannot be overlooked when planning your Giving Tuesday campaigns. So, without further ado, here are my top tips to make sure you maximize your 2022 Giving Tuesday efforts with the added power of social fundraising.
Host a page fundraiser.
You can create a very simple fundraiser from your organization’s Facebook page to encourage supporters to give to your cause on Giving Tuesday. One of my favorite examples from a GivePanel customer is Parkinson’s Foundation.
Most organizations will also have some type of match to increase the urgency around donating on Giving Tuesday. Don’t worry if you are late to the game on this. A match is not always required to be successful and a simple 1:1 match will have as much impact as a 3:1 match.
Remember that video is the new king on social media – use this to your advantage by going live to share impact and ask for donations. In years past, my favorite organizations have gone live from hospitals, CEO offices, and on the street with volunteers. You don’t have to be a Hollywood producer to make this impactful – your main focus should be connecting the audience with your mission. And don’t forget to boost this content using Facebook Ads to showcase your mission and get as many eyeballs on your fundraiser as possible.
Have a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign alongside your ‘donate’ CTAs.
Remember that people give to people, and during a day that will be flooded with Giving Tuesday content and asks, your fundraisers will help break through the clutter and reach donors you would never be able to find. You will want to keep any fundraising campaign simple – that is, simple for you to implement with your bandwidth, and simple for people to understand exactly what to do.
Because Giving Tuesday is a one-day campaign, I recommend having a bit of fun and stepping outside of your comfort zone with your fundraising CTA. At GivePanel, we think the best way to empower fundraisers for a 24-hour period is by daring them to do something. It can be silly or crazy, but offer a specific challenge and ask people to fundraise. Ideas could include a head shave, leg wax, or polar plunge. Make sure to check out my 2021 Giving Tuesday Blog to learn more about the crazy fundraising dares I have personally used to raise money in a 24-hour period.
Use a custom fundraiser link to track your fundraising success and create a special supporter journey.
GivePanel’s Custom Facebook Fundraisers (previously known as 1 Click Fundraisers) allow you to generate a unique link for an event or campaign. You can send this to your supporters to create a fundraiser that has specific settings for your event such as a cover image, fundraiser title, fundraising goal, and end date.
This will not only help you track your specific Giving Tuesday fundraising success but also provide a customized fundraising page for your fundraisers. Remember, a lot of constituents will be viewing and interacting with fundraising content on their mobile devices on Giving Tuesday and this set of tools will make it easier for them to get started and have success.
Utilize the data you already have.
Hopefully you have been collecting data throughout the year on Facebook by thanking your birthday and organic fundraisers and generating leads with registrations from your Facebook Challenges. Constituents that have fundraised for you already this year are perfect to ask to take action to support your Giving Tuesday efforts. Taking action can include volunteering, signing a petition, setting up a fundraiser or donating items.
I recommend reaching out to these amazing constituents three to four weeks ahead of Giving Tuesday. Start building excitement and connect them back to your mission first and then, in a later communication, ask them to join in by creating another fundraiser.
A pro tip is to use language like “because of you ________” when talking about the impact Giving Tuesday will make. An example I have used is “because of you, children in our community will get free breakfast and lunch on school days.” If nothing else, make sure you look at your campaign through the eyes of your fundraisers because they are the heroes in this story. Why should they fundraise? What is in it for them?
Make sure to thank all Giving Tuesday Facebook fundraisers.
At GivePanel we see an increase of up to 23% in fundraising simply by thanking your fundraisers. So when we say it pays to thank, y’all we really mean it. Here are our best practices for thanking your fundraisers on Facebook:
- Make sure these messages are personal, meaningful, and short.
- Messages should be written like you would talk to a friend or family member and signed by one person at the organization.
- Be consistent when it comes to saying thank you to your fundraisers. GivePanel recommends thanking fundraisers every day.
- Make a plan for how to thank fundraisers – when you will do it, the messages that will be sent, who will own the process internally, etc.
- The best ways to post thank you messages to fundraisers are:
- Day 1 – thank you message #1 posted as a comment on the fundraiser created by post
- Day 5 – thank you message #2 posted as a post in the fundraiser
- Take your time when posting: make sure to read about your fundraiser before you post. This will help make your messaging more personal.
- 50 is the magic number: if you post more than about 50 messages per hour, Facebook’s spam setting may be triggered and you could be temporarily frozen out of your account.
On top of stewarding these amazing hand raisers, make sure you are also capturing their data for further cultivation. Check out our best practices on how to do just this, as well as our case study with American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
Use Giving Tuesday as a “jumping off point” for your end of year appeals.
Giving Tuesday is an amazing day of generosity, and I encourage you to use it as a catalyst for your end of year fundraising as well. According to Neon One, nearly ⅓ of annual giving occurs in December, so why not use Giving Tuesday as a platform to set your organization up for success this year-end giving season.
Ask people to become monthly donors on Facebook by highlighting the impact they can make and recognizing them personally. How do you do this? By moving them beyond Facebook. Make sure to capture constituent data and utilize email and text to stay connected with your fundraisers through the end of the year. Most experts emphasize the importance of getting a second gift from a donor within 60 days which will result in much higher donor retention.
Want more tips from the top? Find out more about how Roswell Park Alliance Foundation is using Facebook to maximize their year-end fundraising.
Raise more on Facebook with GivePanel
Want to learn more about how to make a bigger splash with Giving Tuesday or how to increase your Facebook Fundraising revenue? Book a demo or contact us to dive in further.
