Strategy for creating a successful Giving Tuesday Campaign

Giving Tuesday is a global generosity movement that encourages individuals to give back to their communities, organizations, and issues that they care about. The campaign marks the beginning of the holiday season and is popular on social media with a dedicated hashtag–#GivingTuesday. It’s celebrated through various activities including Thanksgiving luncheons, volunteering drives, and fundraisers. Read on to learn how to create a Giving Tuesday campaign with our 7-step guide.

When is Giving Tuesday?

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Giving Tuesday is celebrated annually on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving in the United States. While the date varies each year, it usually falls on the first Tuesday of December. In 2024, Giving Tuesday will be on December 3^rd.

In the coming 5 years, Giving Tuesday will be celebrated on the following days
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Please note that these dates are based on the usual pattern of celebrating Giving Tuesday on the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving. However, it's always best to check the official Giving Tuesday website for the exact dates and any updates or changes.

When did Giving Tuesday start?

Giving Tuesday began in response to the commercialization of the holiday season in 2012. The 92nd Street Y and the United Nations Foundation came up with the concept to encourage individuals to give back to their communities and support nonprofit organizations. The first Giving Tuesday was held on November 27, 2012, and has now developed into a global movement including organizations, corporations, and people from over 70 countries.

How to create a Giving Tuesday Campaign or Program?

How are these Giving Tuesday campaigns organized? If you want to organize your event but have no clue how to start with that, here are 7 tips to create a successful giving tuesday campaign.

1. Define Your Campaign

Giving Tuesday campaigns don’t have to be the same for everyone. Various factors, such as your needs, objectives, and even your team, constitute the idea of a campaign as a whole.

Knowing what you’re doing and where you want to head simplifies half the job for you. You can start with your to-do lists, roles and responsibilities for your team members, and other folds of decision-making.

Here are Giving Tuesday campaign ideas that might help you trace the cause for your event:

• Fundraising for nonprofits aligned to your causes‍

Organizations can hold fundraising events, including luncheons and dinners, for causes that align with organizational cause areas

• Volunteering day

Organize volunteering opportunities for employees and create a meaningful impact in the communities your organization operates in. 

• Social media challenges

Highlight the significance of Giving Tuesday through fun and interactive challenges that encourage audiences to give back.

• Matching donations

Offer to match your employee donations to boost employee participation in company Giving Tuesday events and double the impact.

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2. Be Clear about Your Goals

Goal setting is a fundamental part of any successful giving campaign. Use the SMART framework to ensure you set achievable goals that lead to better campaign outcomes. Your goals need to be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound within this framework. Here are some measurable goals you can use to track your campaign progress:

• Number of volunteers, volunteering hours‍

If you’re organizing volunteering activities to celebrate Giving Tuesday, the best way to measure engagement with your giving program is to track the number of volunteers who signed up and showed up for the activity. You can also track the number of volunteering hours contributed to this cause.

• Funds raised‍

If you’re matching employee donations, track the amount raised against employee donations. For fundraisers, it’s important to set a fundraising goal that’s realistic based on previous campaigns, and track progress towards this goal

• Employee participation and engagement

It’s also critical to track the proportion of employees the organization mobilized towards this campaign to understand areas of improvement for future events.

• Overall reach

This is the number of people within and outside the organization who saw the campaign. This can be measured by tracking website visitors, social media engagement, campaign email opens, and any other channel that was used to promote the campaign.

• Impact

Perhaps the most important metric, measure the impact of your organization’s campaign by tracking the number of beneficiaries, causes supported, and the nonprofits you partnered with to create impact. Share this impact with the organization and your audience to motivate and embed a culture of giving in the workplace and our communities.  

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3. Divide the Work

Delegation of duties is crucial for your campaign's success. By assigning specific tasks and establishing clear goals, everyone can focus on achieving greater impact. 

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Defining the duties of your team members will help you determine whether you need more staff and volunteers. It will also give your team the window to prepare for the campaign.‍

4. Create a Buzz

Nothing gets you a better reach than your curious social media followers. 

Here is what you can do to launch curiosity and excitement among the donors:

• Launch the campaign on your Linkedin, Instagram, and Facebook handles
• Use relevant hashtags with every campaign post
• Post the behind-the-scenes snippets of your Giving Tuesday preparation
• Work your posts around the theme
• Send colorful templates and taglines via emails
• Change your social media covers to emphasize the campaign

Above all, don’t forget to drop that #GivingTuesday hashtag with every post.

5. Be Open to Communication on Multiple Channels

Today, you can find an array of platforms to engage and interact with your audience. Since communication is the key, determine when and how you will communicate with your social community.

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Here are a few tips on how to extract the best use out of a communication strategy for Giving Tuesday campaigns:

• Be mindful of hashtags: Do not stuff too many hashtags in your posts. Keep them between the range of 2 to 5 per post. Make sure they are relevant and easy to discover.

• Use videos: Tell a story, share snapshots of your campaign errands, and communicate the message through videos.

• Compose content that triggers a thought among your audience: From every word to the design and appearance of your posts, try to make your content easy to understand yet catchy and make sure it aligns with the theme and your target audience.

• Include campaign links in your posts: Mention the link to your campaign page at the end of the caption. Make sure the link you put is relevant to the post. For example, use the link to the donation page if your post talks about donations.

• Go live: The option to host live meetings on social media is a great way to communicate with your supporters in real time. You can take it as an opportunity to respond to their queries and talk more about your campaign.

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6. Streamline and Track Donations

You will find several excited donors rushing to your website on the final day. Many will be new, and you don’t want them to suffer inconvenience while navigating the donation form or your website. So, making your donation form easily accessible and functional is essential. 

Before the day approaches, test your donation page and make sure everything is where it should be. Check your form field to field and confirm the functionality of every option on the page. You can also use a donation management tool to keep everything in order and organize your resources and data.

In addition to that, set benchmarks for attracting new supporters and donors daily. As we mentioned above, your goals should be attainable and measurable. So, define the number of new sign-ups you plan to have in a day.

You can also opt to share your day-to-day achievements with your supporters. It will hook more prospects into giving their hand to your campaign. On top of that, it will keep everyone up-to-date with the number of responses you’re getting - and it’s a pretty strong point to make.

7. Tell Your Story of Impact, Say Thank You

One of the most notable features of successful Giving Tuesday campaigns is that they end on a note of gratitude. You can turn into a storyteller for a day and connect with your audience to share that burst of success.

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Make this Giving Tuesday truly impactful by mobilizing your employees for good. Goodera is helping 400+ global businesses power social impact by executing tailored employee volunteering events across 100+ countries in 20+ languages. We source nonprofits, manage logistics, drive registrations with marketing collaterals, set up the stage, and host events. Choose a cause that aligns with your company purpose whether that’s sustainability, gender equality, hunger action, or more—we have volunteering activities in 50+ cause areas—and create impact wherever your teams come together, in-person, virtually, or outdoors.  

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