Giving Tuesday: top tips for charities

Giving Tuesday Top Tips

No matter what time of year it is, it’s always a good time to think about your end of year fundraising appeal. One way that you can do this is by leveraging Giving Tuesday, the global giving movement that celebrates generosity in all its forms.

Today, we’re going to share our top tips for getting involved and how to make the most of Giving Tuesday in your promotional activities.

How to make the most of Giving Tuesday

Giving Tuesday is the perfect opportunity for charities like yours to:

  • Engage with current and new donors,
  • Launch or shine a spotlight on a fundraising campaign,
  • Raise awareness of your services,
  • Celebrate your fantastic donors and volunteers, or
  • Share stories from your beneficiaries demonstrating your impact.

We’re going to help your charity make the most of #GivingTuesday with these essential top tips. And remember, your Giving Tuesday activities don’t have to be limited to the day itself. You can start promoting it to your supporters right away to benefit from the build-up.

1. Don’t re-invent the wheel

Connect your Giving Tuesday activity to an existing campaign or one you’re about to launch.

This saves time (as you’re not creating a whole new fundraising ask), and your supporters will already know about your campaign, so they can get involved straight away.

In 2020, the charity Tiny Tickers used Giving Tuesday as a launch pad for their #HelpingHearts campaign with fantastic results.

2. Set a fundraising target

Having a goal gives your supporters something they can rally behind. Tiny Tickers had a £2000 target and really built momentum around meeting that target (and then smashing it) during the day and afterwards.

They had a ‘hug-o-meter’ on social media so everyone could see their progress. The charity went on to raise over £6,000!

3. Get your beneficiaries involved

Choose a few case studies to focus on and ask them to send you photos, videos and quotes to use in your Giving Tuesday promotion. Their stories will make your fundraising ask that more impactful and bring to life how someone’s donation could help.

4. Build buzz

In the run up to Giving Tuesday, you can start to get people interested and build buzz with a countdown. Most social media platforms offer interactive tools that can also help to engage followers. For example, you can add a countdown clock to Instagram Stories to let people know how long it is until Giving Tuesday.

Social media tools

On JustGiving, we recently added a countdown to our London Marathon 2022 emails. This combined with a sense of urgency in the copy, lead to a whopping 10% increase in our open rates and 36% of people that opened the email went on to receive a donation within 30 days.

Example of a JustGiving ‘countdown’ email sent to London marathon fundraisers

5. Have a plan for the big day

Have a specific plan for Giving Tuesday itself, which this year is Tuesday 29th November. Consider how you can best interact with your supporters on social media – thinking about posting videos, doing Q+As, and sharing progress updates on your fundraising target.

Tiny Tickers’ Head of Fundraising said after their 2018 campaign,

“We didn’t just schedule and hope. We lived and breathed it”.

Tiny Tickers

6. Say thank you

Giving Tuesday is an incredible stewardship moment to give thanks. Whenever you can, ensure you
are thanking your supporters for everything that they do. This could be a post or two on social media, a shout-out in your newsletter, or a hand-written note.

A thank you message from @jonmarnold & Zoe! ✨
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all your support so far today❤️🤗
To send a hug to a family who needs support after finding out their baby has a heart defect, donate here: https://t.co/82GeWD7rhJ#givingtuesday pic.twitter.com/7C6Uy7eafO

— Tiny Tickers Charity (@tinytickers) December 1, 2020

More free tips and resources for Giving Tuesday

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Sally Falvey has worked in online fundraising for over 10 years, and is the Head of Growth Marketing at JustGiving. She’s passionate about helping all charities use the latest technology to be more efficient and raise more money.