Just 5 weeks remain until one of the biggest fundraising days of the year: Giving Tuesday 2018.
Often stylized as #GivingTuesday on social media, the day encourages people to take a break from holiday shopping and set aside the Tuesday after Thanksgiving to support favorite causes instead.
Giving Tuesday is widely seen as the kickoff to year-end giving season, so it's hard to believe the holiday has only been around since 2012! The growth each year has been astounding, and 2017 brought in a whopping 63% more than 2016.
Do you have plans for your #GivingTuesday campaign in place?
In today's infographic, we share must-read stats on last year's #GivingTuesday results, forecasts for this year, plus 3 quick tips to spread the word.
A whopping $274 million was donated in Giving Tuesday campaigns last year, up 2,000% from the day's inception in 2012. There's not a whole lot of industries that can boast that level of growth.
We took a closer look at the data and put together 3 quick tips to get or increase your share of the pie.
Tip 1: Use actionable buzzwords in your social media copy.
DataKind's 2017 Giving Tuesday study reveals the words most commonly used to raise #GivingTuesday awareness on social media, including:
- RT
- GivingTuesday
- Donate
- Today
- Giving / Give
- Amp
- Please
- Support
You might consider incorporating some of these action-packed, urgent words into your tweets, Facebook posts and Instagram captions. More importantly, use language that feels authentic to your organization and inspires supporters to take action.
Tip 2: Optimize your Giving Tuesday website for mobile devices.
The NonProfit Times reported a 28% increase in online donations in 2017 compared to 2016, and the number of people donating online is only going to increase. Technology fundraising firm Blackbaud noted 26 percent of online donations were made on a mobile device.
How does your Giving Tuesday landing page look on phones and tablets?
Studies show mobile users are 34% more likely to donate when they visit a “responsive” website—one that automatically resizes the content to fit the size of a mobile user’s screen—than a clunky standard website not customized for mobile viewing.
Tip 3: Have a welcome plan in place.
63% of Giving Tuesday donors give only to the cause on that day! This might mean they are brand new to your cause, heard about it from a friend, saw it shared on Facebook, found it via Google search or a news article they read online.
Depending on the nature of your nonprofit, you can open this up and offer more ways to get involved.
Hands-on volunteer opportunities, for example, are popular during the holiday season. Whether sorting a food pantry, doing administrative work, interacting with patients or helping beautify the office, volunteer engagement benefits not only your organization in the short term, but leaves a much longer lasting impression than a financial transaction.
