How to stand out in the crowd on giving days: Spirit of Giving Webinar Q&A

We hosted a webinar, The Spirit of Giving, to discuss optimizing giving days to your advantage because standing out the crowd means more success for your organization. GiveSmart’s Marketing Campaign Manager Madison Kautman and Customer Marketing Manager Susannah Crawford leveraged their combined 20+ years in the nonprofit fundraising space to weigh in on further questions: 

You can watch the full webinar here, and see the answers to Q+A below: 

We struggle with the idea of using GiveSmart for Giving Tuesday as opposed to Facebook for it as our donors would have to register with GiveSmart, which is another step for them. Am I correct on this, or is there a workaround without creating an account?  

For a donation-only campaign (like Giving Tuesday), there is no need for a donor to create an account on the site to donate. An additional benefit of using GiveSmart is that everything can be shared on a one-stop experience: share your message, showcase donation impact statements and present your donation levels all on one page.  Through the use of our Donate Now section, supporters can choose between a single or recurring donation.  They will be asked to provide their credit card info, billing info, and an email address – but again, no registering like they have to do for an event campaign like an auction.   

How do we set it up so for a prospective donor to text to a number to give? 

Once your GiveSmart campaign has a keyword set up and has been flipped to “live”, it is pretty simple for you and your supporters.  Anyone who wants to donate can text-to-donate by (1) texting in your keyword to 76278, (2) entering in his/her/their name and any additional information that your admin requires, and (3) texting ‘Give AMOUNT’ (EX: ‘Give 100’ to donate $100).   

What are the benefits of utilizing a campaign via GiveSmart versus an email via Constant Contact to our Donors with a link directly to our website? 

By utilizing a GiveSmart campaign, you are providing a one-stop, secure experience for the user to make his/her/their one-time or recurring donation.  This allows you and your staff to have one location (the Org Hub) to track all of your fundraising revenue, donors, and data across all campaigns. This makes end-of-year revenue calculations or year-over-year comparisons fast and easy.   

Are there examples other than the panels (which is a GREAT idea) that are campaigns that focus more on engagement with donors and not outwardly asking for money? 

Why yes! We have the BEST and most creative nonprofit partners.  

• Dopest Dad Voting Competition, Edwardsville Children’s Museum 
• PTO Dough Raising Night, Norwalk Catholic Highschool 
• Dive-thru Pet Holiday Photos, Austin Pets Alive!  
• & SO many more!

My team is thinking of starting our [Giving Tuesday] campaign on November 1. Is this a good idea? Should I start accepting donations for that campaign so soon? 

Absolutely! Giving Tuesday may be a designated Global Day of Giving, but what you do for your Giving Tuesday fundraiser is completely up to you! Offering more than a 24-hour period for your donors allows for more opportunities for them to donate (like a voting competition, auction, raffle, and more). Make sure to also plan a specific promotion on Giving Tuesday like a text message or video to highlight your longer campaign.   

What are good ways to get new donors? As someone who is currently working on increasing their nonprofit’s online follower count – what strategies would you recommend for Giving Tuesday for nonprofits who have a smaller social media/online presence? 

• Expand your reach! Assess which platforms you’re using and if you have the time and ability to expand into more platforms. Every platform is diverse in users, so making yourself available in all spaces will naturally draw new eyes.  
• Encourage sharing and engagement! If you’re running a fundraiser, ask your followers to share your posts or interact with them. Activity will boost your organic reach, and sharing will get your post out to new audiences. 

• Take advantage of peer-to-peer fundraising such as GiveSmart’s Champions feature. Offering a Champion fundraiser gives your supporters a chance to advocate for you. This can bring lots of creative ideas for outreach and is a great opportunity to expand your reach and gain new donors.  
• Partner with local companies and organizations. Partnerships can expand your reach exponentially. If an organization agrees to partner, you can include them in ads within your GiveSmart campaign, and they return the favor by sharing your posts on social media in support of your mission.  

How many social posts do you suggest on the day of [Giving Tuesday] itself? 

• There’s no concrete answer for how many social posts is the perfect number. How many posts can vary on WHAT you are sharing. If you vary your posts between updates, donor thank you’s, impact statements, and other topics – you can easily engage your donors in different ways the day of and post more often. Utilize multiple platforms, and utilize what features are available to you, like live sessions and highlights or stories. You can diversify what you’re posting, where, and when! 

• Remember to start engaging your donors BEFORE your event or fundraiser starts. Build excitement and anticipation! You’re giving them the heads up that they can and should donate, sharing mission updates, and more – instead of just showing up to ask for support without any advance notice.  
• In 2020, we closely tracked social media engagement on Giving Tuesday. Facebook was the site with the most traffic that directed donors to a GiveSmart fundraising campaign, with Instagram Stories coming in a close second. In addition, donors were most active between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. as well as 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. Target your posts based on your follower counts, engagement levels, and activity.  

• Keep in mind that some platforms have a limit on how many posts you can publish in 24 hours. You don’t want to run into an issue with your account being blocked due to overactivity or suspected hacking. You can schedule posts in advance, too.  

My organization is in New York State.  We had wanted to do a raffle and discovered that there are gaming laws and licenses required here.  Do you happen to have info on what is allowed on GiveSmart in terms of organizations’ locations? In particular, I’m wondering if we could do virtual bingo. 

Please check with your state gaming commission and connect with other nonprofits in your area to see what they have been able to work out.  

We participate in GiveMN Give to the Max Day, which is close to Giving Tuesday.  What are the advantages or disadvantages or drawbacks of doing both? For Colorado nonprofits, we also have Colorado Gives Day that happens one week after Giving Tuesday. Do you have any recommendations on how to participate in both days but not over ask from your constituents in a short amount of time. 

• Absolutely! This is very common. Giving Tuesday doesn’t always align with every nonprofit’s plan, and that’s ok. A great way to avoid the over-asking problem could be to diversify your fundraising opportunities for those days. Make your fundraisers completely different. You could make one a voting competition, and the other a text-to-donate campaign. Another idea could be to distinguish how the money raised on those days will be used. You could promote that the money raised on one day would go to a certain part of your mission, and the money raised on the other day goes to something else entirely (but still within your mission, of course). These could be great opportunities to fulfill your wish lists, raise money for a facility update, or something equivalent based on your nonprofit’s needs. 

How does a donation match work with monthly giving? Is the yearly value of the monthly gift matched or just one month’s value matched? 

• The answer to this question depends on the wishes of your matching donor or sponsor. If recurring giving is a feature set you turn on for your fundraising campaign, it’s a good idea to have a conversation with your matching donor/sponsor. Establish how they would like to honor those recurring donations. If your matching goal is reached for that fundraiser, you may not get the following monthly donations matched. However, if your match goal is not reached, you could ask for them to honor the recurring donations’ value, or ask if they will match every month until the match amount is reached. It’s all about transparency and communication!