Giving Tuesday 2018 – Don’t Miss This Opportunity!

Giving Tuesday is exactly three weeks away and it’s not too late to participate. I have heard from many local nonprofits that they feel that there is too much noise on that day (emails, social media) and I agree… BUT people are online actively looking for ways to give back so make sure your agency is one of the many to choose from.

Some quick details about #GivingTuesday:

  • #GivingTuesday is a global movement – we’ve seen campaigns happen in almost every country in the world.
  • This year’s #GivingTuesday falls on Tuesday, November 27, 2018
  • Anyone, anywhere can get involved and give back in a way that’s meaningful to them. There’s no minimum or limit to how people can do good.
  • All types of organizations are welcome to participate. From schools to nonprofits to small businesses, corporations, and more, there’s plenty of case studies and examples for how your organization can get involved.
  • While #GivingTuesday is celebrated on November 27th, your campaign can be much longer than one day.

Here are 3 quick things your agency can do TODAY to launch your Giving Tuesday campaign.

  1. Register your agency to participate.
    Visit the www.givingtuesday.org website and click on organizations. It takes less than 30 seconds to register your agency. While you are there, download the organizational toolkits – they are full of easy templates and ideas for your agency to replicate.
  2. Set a goal.
    It can be a goal for the day (“Help us raise $1,000 today to provide a scholarship for a student”) or it can be part of your year end appeal (“Help us raise $25,000 by December 31 so we can feed 500 families in need”). Keep your supporters posted on your progress – with free graphic design tools for nonprofits like Canva it’s easy to create a visual graphic to send and post on social media.
  3. Involve your board and volunteers.
    One problem I hear from many agencies is that they just can’t get their board members to help with fundraising. While this issue is a much larger discussion, Giving Tuesday offers an easy way for them to get involved. Ask them to share your agency messages on social media, being sure to tag your agency so you can track the reach. Send them an email with cut and pastable posts. Ask them to share why they are involved with your agency. Show them how to set up a Facebook fundraisier for your agency on their personal page. 

Giving Tuesday is another tool in our fundraising toolkit – the more time you take now to plan, the better the outcome. Give it a try this year and then shift your strategy in 2019. You will never know if it will work for your agency if you don’t try. Let us know how your Giving Tuesday campaign goes and member agencies, tag us @cvnl Center for Volunteer & Nonprofit Leadership so we can spread the word about your work!


Story by:

Atashi Chakravarty