31 Oct Get your #GivingTuesdayCA game on!
29 days. That’s all that’s left between now, and Tuesday December 2nd – #GivingTuesdayCA. Why should you, as a busy not-for-profit professional, care?
Well, for starters, anything that moves up the start of the giving season is a good thing in my books. Rather than waiting till the holiday season to “talk giving” with your wonderful donors, you can give them a date and a time to celebrate the “opening of giving season!”
Time-strapped and story-short? Do not despair! This is the best part about #GivingTuesdayCA. It is not meant to keep you up at night giving you ulcers, it is meant to underpin or enhance your EXISTING strategies that you have put in place for annual giving.
Here’s three not-for-profit profiles, and three engagement strategies to incorporate WITHOUT a ton of effort. Scroll down to the profile that best describes you, and read through the plan.
Hipster, Grassroots (100% volunteer-run organization)
Got a twitter account? Ok. Good. Who’s your most “famous” or most “socially persuasive” member of your inside community? Think board members, event attendees and etc. (It’s unlikely that you’re going to get Adam Levine from Maroon 5 to tweet on your behalf if he doesn’t even know your exist). Got an online donation page with CanadaHelps? Good (if you don’t, click here). ASK your twitter influencer to
1) make his/her donation online
2) tweet about it….at least 5 times WITH the link to your donation page.
Your job? To Retweet, and celebrate this wonderful donation that kicked off the giving season for your organization.
Community-based organization (staff of one)
Find your favorite “impact” story about your organization. Change the title to “Your donation on #GivingTuesdayCA means we can share more stories like this.” Rev up your social media engine and start populating (Facebook, twitter, your website). Make sure you have a compelling photo to go with your story, and be sure to include your donation link when you share. Looking for more bang for your buck? When’s your next e-newsletter going out? Can you incorporate and go multi-channel with this? You’re a rock star!
Established organization with a rich history (translation: you have staff)
Invite your communications person out for coffee. Ask them to spell out the next 29 days in the calendar. What’s scheduled? How can you piggy back on existing items and add a #GivingTuesdayCA flavour to them? Focus on ways you can celebrate donors, your success stories, and ways that donations make a difference in your organization. Repurpose, repackage, reuse! #GivingTuesday is an opportunity to engage local press too. Draft a press release to go out the week before outlining how you’re organization is preparing to “bring in the giving season.” Include quotes, stories in your press release. Ask your Executive Director to get his/her hair done. He/she is going to be on TV!
Go forth and celebrate #GivingTuesdayCA!
More info about #GivingTuesdayCA
Register as an official Giving Tuesday partner (it’s free!)
Other great blogs about Giving Tuesday
Vanessa Chase and the Storytelling nonprofit
#TweetChat on December 3rd hosted by Socially Good and lots of other good eggs.