If you’ve been waiting to get started on your #GivingTuesday campaign, we’ve got some bad news: #GivingTuesday is nigh. Early donations start on Tuesday, November 13th. But there’s also some good news … it’s not too late to plan and execute an awesome #GivingTuesday campaign!

In our most recent webinar, we broke #GivingTuesday campaign planning into six easy steps. So, if you’ve been procrastinating or have simply been too busy to think about #GivingTuesday until now, this is the webinar for you.

Too busy to even watch the webinar? No problem, we’ve got your back. Here’s a quick rundown of the six steps to planning your #GivingTuesday campaign last-minute.

Step #1: REGISTER!

No, seriously. If you haven’t already registered for #GivingTuesday, stop reading this blog right now, click on this button 👇, and register.

Register Now

If you’re already an admin for your nonprofit on Mightycause, this registration form is literally two questions. That’s it. Filling it out is probably the easiest thing you’ll do this week. If you’re not an admin, there is one extra step — you just have to find your nonprofit so we know which organization to register for the event.

Registration could not be easier this year. And the benefits are huge: you’ll become eligible to win more than $10,000 in prizes we’re giving out on November 27th, you’ll get free fundraising for your nonprofit through #GivingTuesday (which starts on Tuesday, November 13th, when early donations open), and gain exclusive free access to our Premium fundraising tools.

We mean it. Stop reading. Go register.

Step #2: Prepare Your Mightycause Profile

Once you’re registered, the next thing to take care of is customizing, updating and optimizing your Mightycause profile. There are a bunch of quick, easy wins that will help you fundraise effectively on #GivingTuesday. And we’ve even put together a checklist to help you make sure you’ve taken advantage of every tool on your Mightycause and optimized everywhere possible.

   Download the Checklist

Customize Your Donor Experience

Even if you’re a seasoned Mightycause user, we recommend taking a look at your Donor Experience settings. This is a new tool that we released over the summer, located in the Donations section of your Mightycause Manager. It gives you an unprecedented level of control over the checkout process, allowing you to collect the data you need from donors, add Dedications & Designations to the checkout process, and ensure that donors have a quick and convenient checkout.

Opt into Data Collection

What data does your nonprofit need from donors? By default, Mightycause will collect email addresses. But if you need a mailing address or phone number, or even want to know where they work, you can opt into it in your Donor Experience tool.

screenshot of donor data collection tool

Utilize Suggested Donation Amounts

People love making in-kind donations to charity. It gives them a totally different experience than just donating money — they get to feel like they’re donating a real, tangible item that can help someone in need. That’s why canned food drives are still so popular, despite the fact that most food banks can take the 99¢ someone spends on a can of green beans and turn that into so much more food for the individuals they serve. People like donating things. And your nonprofit can use that fact to drive donations by utilizing Suggested Donation Amounts and impact descriptions.

screenshot of suggested donation amounts tool on mightycause

By default, your Mightycause page will suggest donations in $25, $50, $75 and $100. But you can customize these amounts to tie back to your nonprofit’s work and #GivingTuesday campaign. And by utilizing the impact descriptions, you can tie these amounts to real-world items or services that amount provides for the demographic your nonprofit serves. For instance, if you run an animal rescue, and neutering one dog costs $75, that’s a great suggested donation amount and impact description. The donor who gives $75 will walk away from the experience not just feeling like they donated money, but like they helped provide necessary veterinary care for a dog in need.

Dig into the numbers at your nonprofit as needed, but this is a great way to reinforce the messaging in your #GivingTuesday campaign … and a quick, easy win when you’re trying to prepare your campaign last-minute.

Add a Thank You Page

Acknowledging your donors promptly and sincerely is important. When donors don’t receive a quick thank you from a nonprofit, they are less likely to come back to make another donation. But you can ensure your donors receive an immediate thank you when they complete their donations on Mightycause by building your Thank You page.

Located in the Donor Experience tool, under Post-Checkout, a Thank You page allows you to add a custom message, add hyperlinks, images, videos, and more, as well as a custom CTA button to direct them to wherever you’d like to go after they complete their donations. (Back to your Mightycause page? Your Facebook page? Your website or blog? The choice is yours!)

Add a Goal and Progress Bar

This is a new feature for nonprofit profiles on Mightycause! If you want to use your nonprofit profile to fundraise on #GivingTuesday, you can now add a goal and progress bar to your page to track your fundraising efforts on November 27th.

screenshot of goal & progress bar on mightycause page

So, when you’re prepping a #GivingTuesday campaign with little time to spare, simply determine your fundraising goal with your team and add it to your existing nonprofit profile on Mightycause. It’s located in your Page Settings, under Profile on your Mightycause Manager.

Step #3: Use Mightycause’s Resources

It can be overwhelming to think about starting your campaign with less than a week until donations open for #GivingTuesday. What’s your social media plan? How often are you going to email your supporters? What about matching grants? Do I even have any ideas for a campaign?! But don’t worry — we’ve got everything you need in our Nonprofit Toolkit.

View Nonprofit Resources

If you need to look at a case study to get ideas for your #GivingTuesday campaign, we’ve got several! If you need a social media guide, or email templates, they’re right there!

And if you missed any of our trainings, you can check out our past webinars. We dove deep into social media, matching grants, #GivingTuesday basics and even shared creative campaign ideas. If you’re short-staffed or stressed for time, try delegating watching webinars to your staff or volunteers.

View Past Trainings

Step #4: Start Scheduling Content

Once you’re registered, have your Mightycause profile optimized, and have all the background information you need to launch a successful campaign, all that’s left to do is just begin.

Start scheduling drafting emails, start scheduling social media post, and start putting together the pieces you’ll need to promote your campaign. If you need help, use our guides to email and social media for #GivingTuesday to get started and brush up on your marketing strategy!

View Social Media Guide

Get Email Templates

Step #5: Get Your Day-Of Plan Together

#GivingTuesday should be a fun and positive day of online giving.

Assign Day-Of Roles

When you’re working last-minute to get your #GivingTuesday campaign off the ground, divide and conquer is the best strategy. And you’ll need people to own parts of your campaign on the big day.

You’re going to need someone to manage your social media and be available to engage with supporters online, someone who can quickly respond to donor questions, and someone to monitor your overall campaign and donations. By deputizing staff members or volunteers to manage specific aspects of your #GivingTuesday campaign, you’ll ensure that nothing slips through the cracks!

Meet With Your Team

Before you break for the Thanksgiving holiday, schedule a meeting with your team. Make sure everyone understands your goals and your plan to achieve them. It’s also a great opportunity to brainstorm ideas to build excitement for your #GivingTuesday campaign, and go over the logistics of managing your campaign on November 27th.

Step #6: Create a Follow-Up Plan

#GivingTuesday is a day where you can pick up new donors, expand your nonprofit’s reach and get people excited about the work you do. But it’s all for naught if you don’t follow up! So, as part of the #GivingTuesday planning process, be sure to include next steps to keep your supporters engaged.

Build Pathways, Start Stewarding

Completing a donation and receiving a receipt should not be the end of the line for your #GivingTuesday donors, but the beginning of a long relationship with your nonprofit. Once you’ve got their support, how are you going to keep it?

Welcome New Donors

If you pick up any new donors on #GivingTuesday, your job is to keep them engaged. Some easy way to do that are sending them a welcome series of emails so they can learn more about your work, getting them to follow you on social media, inviting them to events, and involving them in more aspects of your nonprofit.

If you opted into collecting mailing addresses from donors, mail them a welcome packet. If you opted into collecting phone numbers, have a development coordinator or volunteer give them a call to thank them for their support and start getting to know them. Think about where you want these new supporters to go once you’ve secured that critical first donation.

Go Beyond Your Mightycause Tools

Mightycause offers a lot of tools that help you automate donor acknowledgement. But here’s the thing: those tools are great for getting donors a quick thank-you, but they cannot take the place of a sincere and personal thank you.

Think through how you’ll thank your #GivingTuesday donors. Personal thank-yous are always best! Consider mailing out thank you cards signed by your staff, calling donors to express your gratitude, or even hosting an event or happy hour for donors to celebrate your success. Stewarding is all about relationship-building, and including a solid plan to cultivate those relationships with donors is a must in your #GivingTuesday plan.

Close the Loop

In order to donating to your #GivingTuesday campaign to be a gratifying experience for donors, you must close the loop. That means reporting back to your donors about your fundraising success and plans for the money you raised.

Be creative, and don’t be afraid to close the loop on multiple channels. You can send an email to donors, post on social media (videos are a nice touch), write a post on your blog, and so on.

Start Planting Seeds for End-of-Year

#GivingTuesday is a big fundraising day by itself, but really, it’s the kickoff for the busiest time of the year for nonprofit fundraising. So when you’re following up, make sure to plant some seeds about end-of-year giving. Even if you don’t have your campaign fully planned yet (or, like #GivingTuesday, will start thinking about it as soon as you have the time…), you can start teasing it.

Using language that references the “season of giving” or frames #GivingTuesday as part as “the most critical time of year for our nonprofit.” When you lay the groundwork now, you’ll be able to transition much more easily into your end-of-year campaign.

But Back to Step #1…

Are you registered yet?!

 

Want to learn more?

Request a demo and learn more about Mightycause.

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