#GivingTuesday is growing year over year and this year was no exception. Nonprofits of all sizes, from start up to multinational organizations, take part in #GivingTuesday, and given that over one third of all giving is distributed over the holiday season, we spent some time reviewing the trends we noticed in successful appeals.
- Challenge matches were at higher rates (3 to 1, etc…) than ever before.
- More corporations were involved to help elevate a charitable partner. For example, Gilt promoted Feeding America (learn more here). Businesses also saw #GivingTuesday as an opportunity to highlight existing or launch new CSR initiatives. For example, eBay’s ongoing partnership with Kiva was featured over their new line, ShopBot, and for every item purchased on the platform on #GivingTuesday, eBay donated $5 to Kiva (learn more here).
- Simple but mission focused messaging.
- Minimal widespread use of video in #GivingTuesday communications.
- Some nonprofits ‘opened their doors’ early for #GivingTuesday, like many stores did with early Black Friday deals.
- Geographic or chapter based competitions were common for larger nonprofits where they would highlight the total raised compared to other areas/chapters. This was one way nonprofits tried to create excitement and urgency to their campaign. However, it requires a significant staff undertaking to execute, including the development staff to calculate gifts as they come in and the communications staff to create messaging and eblasts (and the subsequent story) reflecting the numbers.
- Lastly, many nonprofits this year communicated with their constituents over multiple channels, and multiple times throughout the day. Many sent updates on challenges, or teased their overall progress towards the #GivingTuesday goal. And many sent communications at a variety of times with the hopes to catch people at different times of the day when they may be feeling more inclined to give, or alternatively, so the nonprofit could test timing for next year’s campaign.
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