How to Run a Successful #GivingTuesday Campaign for Mid-level Donors

#GivingTuesday is just around the corner so today on #WiserWithWisely we want to share the Top 6 things you can do today for a successful #GivingTuesday campaign for your mid-level donors. 

Giving Tuesday is a global day of giving, an opportunity for people around the world to join a movement of generosity. This year, #GivingTuesday is November 30, 2021. Giving Tuesday is an opportunity for your nonprofit to raise money… a lot of money! In 2020 it’s estimated that nearly $2.5 billion was raised in the United States on Giving Tuesday. 

Let’s jump right in – 

Curate a Special Offer for Mid-level Donors

When you include your mid-level donors in your #GivingTuesday campaign, the hope is that this campaign represents an opportunity for them to make a “bonus” gift in addition to other donations they gave this year. A special offer helps create a sense of urgency and exclusivity that makes mid-level donors more likely to give an additional gift. 

Here are a few ways you can curate an exclusive Giving Tuesday offer:

• A matching gift offer only available to mid-level donors
• A specific goal, for example a food bank could say the goal is for their mid-level donors to feed 150 families on Giving Tuesday 
• Ask mid-level donors to come together and fund one of your programs for the year or buy a new piece of equipment

Host a Special Event

You can get mid-level donors excited about your #GivingTuesday campaign by hosting an online special event like a livestream broadcast or webinar. This is an opportunity for your mid-level donors to hear exclusive information about your nonprofit and your Giving Tuesday campaign. 

Make sure you integrate impact stories and messaging, information about your mission and programs. If you have a special Giving Tuesday offer make sure you focus on impact that is related! You can further engage your mid-level donors in this live online event by opening the floor for a Q+A with your CEO or other senior staff members. 

Ask for an “Above and Beyond” Gift

Your fundraising team can use this global movement of generosity to encourage mid-level donors to make an above average donation. How can you know how much more to ask for? Use donor information from your fundraising portfolio to pick an ask level that is slightly higher than a donor’s usual giving level. 

If you’re going to use this tactic for Giving Tuesday, it’s really important to have a special offer or strong impact messaging to show mid-level donors why this above and beyond gift is needed and the difference it will make. 

Use Your Fundraising Portfolio to Prioritize Donor Outreach 

Depending on how many mid-level donors you have and how large your team is you may not be able to personally reach out to all of your mid-level donors at Giving Tuesday. You can use mass market tactics like direct mail and email to reach out to most of your mid-level donors, but you should pick a handful of your most valuable to reach out to personally. 

You can prioritize your mid-level donor outreach using your fundraising portfolio. If you are using Wisely, you can easily organize your Giving Tuesday prospects and create a communications plan for them, like a mini-moves management strategy just for Giving Tuesday complete with check-lists to manage tasks and deadlines. 

Integrate Multiple Channels

Multiple touch points are key for a #GivingTuesday campaign. Make sure you log all interactions in your CRM and your fundraising portfolio and mark donor outreach steps as complete on your communications plan for the campaign. 

Direct Mail

Giving Tuesday may have started as an online movement, but there’s no reason that you can’t promote it offline as well, especially to mid-level donors. Plan to send out a direct mail package with your Giving Tuesday offer that will land in mailboxes just before the big day so donor’s have time to review and respond. 

Add personal touches like handwritten margin notes to those donors that you want to connect with personally, and consider following up the mail package with a phone call or a request for a meeting. 

Email 

You can also use online communications like email to reach out to your mid-level donors for Giving Tuesday. If you’re going to use an email campaign to reach your mid-level donors, make sure you carry through those special personal touches to elevate the experience for mid-level. 

Here’s how to create a special email experience for mid-level donors:

• Highly personalized, make sure their name and their membership to your mid-level giving program is mentioned 
• Use a donor’s relationship manager as the signatory 
• Include any branding for your mid-level program like a logo in your email template
• Make the email look real by using plain text and avoiding a lot of images and buttons

Social Media Ads

You’ll want to reach a specific group of donor’s with this Giving Tuesday campaign so you can’t just share this campaign widely on your Facebook page, that will ruin the exclusivity you’re trying to create. With social media ads you can still use Facebook to promote your campaign and reach your target donors. 

You can get social media ads running for your Giving Tuesday campaign in just a few steps: 

• Step 1: Develop an attention grabbing Facebook ad, decide on your budget and your schedule
• Step 2: Upload your mid-level donors to Facebook as a custom audience 
• Step 3: Launch your ads! 

Using Facebook ads will help keep your campaign top of mind for you mid-level donors. Make sure you have a donation page set up for your campaign so donors can give straight from the ads! 

Use Impact Stories

Giving Tuesday is a big global movement, so that means it’s also a really competitive day for nonprofits. The more you make your #GivingTuesday campaign and mission stand out for donors on Giving Tuesday the better success you’ll see.

Focusing on your mission and your unique programming will help you stand out because no other nonprofit is doing the exact work that you’re doing. And the best way to convey your mission and the impact of donations to donors is to use stories that create an emotional connection. 

Giving Tuesday is an opportunity for people to give back to the causes they care about, ultimately a great Giving Tuesday campaign will remind your donors why they support your nonprofit and continue to cultivate that relationship. 

Click on the link below to watch Wisely in Action!