Giving Tuesday Made Easy

Giving Tuesday is coming! It's your biggest opportunity of the year for raising money through online donations! With all the hype around Giving Tuesday, we know it is easy to become overwhelmed. So how can an organization without a large team of fundraisers even start? The answer is simple. No, really, simplicity is the answer!

Learn how to make #GivingTuesday simple!

Below, I outline a simple yet very effective Giving Tuesday (#GivingTuesday) plan that can be implemented by one person in a short amount of time. I'll also provide a quick video to walk you through what I do using Continue To Give's online giving and donor management tools to make these steps easy. First, let's look at some of the goals, then how to implement the goals.

Below are the steps I am taking to help raise more money for the widows we support in Tanzania.

Goal #1 - Get People Excited!

1. Write a short blog post with some pictures of your best moments from this year. (I use Google Blogger and you can see my post here: View Blog)
2. Post this blog post on your social media channels thanking everyone for making it possible. (You can repost the same blog a couple times before #GivingTuesday). Also, post small exciting posts on social media with a picture and a comment about the impact you're having and how people's lives are made better through the work you do.
3. Be sure to reply to any comment on your social media posts, as this will cause the post to show up in more people's feeds.
4. Text everyone on your list the link to the blog post thanking them for helping to impact others.
5. Email everyone on your list the link to the blog post thanking them for being part of helping others.
6. Do not cause donor fatigue by asking people to donate yet. Wait till the end for the ask.

Goal #2 - Make sure it is easy for people to give to you.

So what does this mean, anyway? Let me explain. You want to take people directly to a giving form when you ask them to give. While features like Text Giving, App Giving, QR-Code Giving and others are great, and provided to you for free with Continue To Give, this might not be the time to use them.

To accomplish this goal, you want a simple link going to a simple giving form. You also want to make sure your website and facebook page have simple links leading to simple giving forms. Website builders such as SiteTackle and ShephardsLand can help you make your website ready. This way when people are ready to give, they can do so easily and quickly. Here is our donation link so you can see how simple you want to keep things. View Donation Form

Goal #3 - Go for the ask

At the end of the day, you'll have to go for the ask. Look, your cause is worth supporting, do not be afraid to ask others to join the cause through both financial support as well as by sharing your cause with others through peer-to-peer fundraising. Go for the ask on #GivingTuesday. Make sure your ask is not filled with too much distracting information and links leading to other website pages. Keep it simple , and make sure all links lead directly to your online donation form.

1. Send all your supporters a short email asking them to donate. A link to your donation form should be in the email.
2. Send all your supporters a short text message asking them to donate. Remember to put the donation link as the first item in the text message so the link does not get broken by a multi-text separation.
3. Post your donation link on your social media channels with an ask to both donate and share. Remember to comment back to any comment you get on these posts. .

Goal #4 - Give a big thanks to everyone

A few days after the big event, follow the same three steps in Goal #3, but this time simply thanking everyone. Even if they did not donate, you never know how else they helped. This part is key to making people feel great about being part of your cause and helping ensure they continue to be a part of your cause. Again you don't need to overthink this. Just a very simple thank you message will suffice.

Now that you know how important it is to get people excited, make giving easy, go for the ask, and thank everyone, I'll show you how to do all this in the video below. Yes it is possible, and I'll show you how!