Be SMART With Your Fundraising Goals This GivingTuesday
GivingTuesday is one of the largest fundraising days in the world. In 2022 alone GivingTuesday raised $1 billion in online donations alone – that’s too big of a campaign and fundraising day for your nonprofit to ignore. But many nonprofits and foundations forget to tell the stories that help people relate to your organization, mission, and purpose.
So let’s work on your GivingTuesday goals. It’s never too early to get ready for fundraising but effective fundraising means effective marketing campaigns. So how can you be SMART about your GivingTuesday fundraising campaign this year? We have some tips.
Be S.M.A.R.T. about GivingTuesday in 2023.
GivingTuesday campaigns shouldn’t be another opportunity to just donate to the general fund. Effective marketing campaigns are S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Reasonable, Timely); it’s the same for fundraising campaigns.
You need to be specific with your campaign. Are you raising money for your whole organization? Boring. People will pass on donating. But if you’re raising money for SeaTurtle prosthetics, then you’ll want to tell the story of Allison. Allison was one of Sea Turtle, Inc.’s residents who recently passed away. She was the very first SeaTurtle who had a prosthetic flipper.
Increasing the production of prosthetic flippers is specific. It’s very specific. Like many nonprofits, SeaTurtle Inc., for example, has many different branches of its mission. That’s fine. GivingTuesday, however, is prime time for specific campaigns. It’s the Super Bowl for Nonprofits.
In the same way, your nonprofit that raises money for the arts may also have a campaign that teaches inner-city kids how to paint with oil paints. Since oil paints are kind of on the pricey side, you’re GivingTuesday campaign to focus on fundraising for the supplies to get started: oil paint, brushes canvases, etc.
Let’s use this as an example for the fictitious nonprofit to hone down on SMART goals for this year’s GivingTuesday.
Successful GivingTuesday Campaigns Are Specific
So your art foundation teaches inner-city kids classical painting with oil paints. You have found that your art class helps their minds focus while also increasing their confidence. Oil painting ties literature and history together because the professor is also teaching about the styles and periods. It also impacts science because they’re learning about why works of art 13th century still look as vibrant as they did initially. Moreover, two students, Eric and Sally have seen drastic improvements in their grades and their pieces are going to the State Fair this year. (Can you say art scholarship?)
So with the success you had in your pilot program of 30 students, the goal is to add three more eight-week courses with 30 students each. That is the specific goal. You need money for the art supplies for 90 more students at $100 each. In other words, the GivingTuesday goal is $9,000.
Make sure that your campaign doesn’t just say, “Donate to New Amsterdam’s Foundation of the Arts.” It will be ineffective because it’s generic. donate to that just because it’s so generic. People will donate to help students like Eric and Sally. They see the need because throughout the year – and reinforced in this campaign – you have been telling the story of your students.
Successful GivingTuesday Campaigns Are Measurable
What is your goal for GivingTuesday? Your goal has to be measurable. SMART goals are measurable so if you are trying to raise money so that 30 students can have an eight-week class four times a year instead of once a year, then specify that goal in measurable units. Dollars are measurable units. Be clear in your marketing communication: on GivingTuesday you’re raising $9,000.
You can do this by using a traditional thermometer or a progress bar. When donors see your fundraising landing page with the amount raised so far, they know they’re making an impact. That sense of urgency increases the likelihood of gaining more donations.
Successful GivingTuesday Campaigns Are Actionable
Nothing’s worse than a random Instagram photo from a nonprofit where they’re asking for donations, but there’s a black-and-white link in the caption of the photo. Why? Because Instagram doesn’t allow links in photo posts. You can share your photo in a story and use the link sticker to go to your fundraising campaign. However, you can’t do it on a post. Why is this bad? It’s bad because this campaign this post is not actionable.
You must ensure that your campaigns are actionable. What do you want? The people who are reading this email to do next? Is it easy for them to click on a link go to your donation page and donate? Are you accepting Apple Pay? Are you accepting CashApp? How about Zelle? What about ACH? Can people donate with their checking accounts?
You need to make sure GivingTuesday campaigns are actionable. This means testing. Test your forms on 3G. Test them on an Android device. Test them in different browsers. Make sure it’s easy to donate. If it’s not easy to donate, people will bounce.
Successful GivingTuesday Campaigns Are Reasonable
What’s a reasonable fundraising goal for GivingTuesday? Well for this inner-city art campaign, you know that you can only teach 30 kids the eight-week course at a time. So you only teach the class four times a year figure out how much it costs for the paint, canvases, and brushes for each child. Then multiply that by the number of students you’ll have over the course of the next year.
The teacher is an art student working on their Ph.D. so she’s working for free. Don’t convolute the campaign by adding additional funds needed (like the classroom rental). Keep it focused on the actual supplies needed for this inner-city project. How much money does Maria need for her art supplies? List this on the donation landing page. “It costs $100 for each student to participate in our painting with oils class. Can you send Marcus this year?” People will think that is a reasonable goal – going from one class to four.
An unreasonable goal would be to have art classes in every school district in New York City. You just started. Scale reasonably.
Successful GivingTuesday Campaigns Are Timely
But it’s nature, GivingTuesday is timely; so that’s one of your SMART goals checked off. It happens every year on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. It follows Cyber Monday and in 2023, GivingTuesday is Tuesday, November 28.
GivingTuesday should be an 8 to 12-hour campaign where money is raised specifically on that Tuesday. You could do 24 hours it just depends on your Infrastructure and the time zone of your donor organization. If you’re a worldwide cause, 24 hours works. If you’re just raising money in Cincinnati, 12 hours is appropriate.
GivingTuesday is too large to ignore in 2023. Don’t wait until November to start planning your GivingTuesday campaigns make sure that your forms landing pages and marketing copy are all synced up and ready to go. And make sure that you have the right data and the right audience to send those email campaigns out. But, that’s another blog post.
Expand Your Donor Base this GivingTuesday
We’d love to help your foundation or nonprofit expand its donor base with a SMART GivingTuesday Campaign. We’ve curated a data set of donors educated on social, wildlife, and even political causes and whose average donation is over $100. Those donors are just waiting to hear about your nonprofit.
With data-driven project requirements, Andrews Wharton is the proven direct-response solutions provider with a long-standing reputation for solving your toughest marketing challenges. Are you ready to get started?
Success. Delivered.
