Giving Tuesday Was a Hit—Now What?

\After much preparation and daylong campaigning, your Giving Tuesday efforts have paid off. You’ve experienced a bump in revenue, acquired some new donors, and spread awareness about your organization and its programs. Overall, it was an awesome day!

So…what happens now?

Giving Tuesday might be over, but you don’t want all of the excitement and momentum to die out as you move into your year-end fundraising efforts. So how do you wrap up your one-day campaign and keep supporters engaged until your next one? In this post, we go over how you can sustain donor engagement in the days following your Giving Tuesday campaign.

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1. Blog All About It

Your nonprofit blog is an excellent marketing tool, so use it now to share information about your campaign and its results. Writing a blog post also gives you a valuable piece of content you can send out through other communication channels, like your social networks or email campaigns.

Start your blog post (or blog series) by thanking supporters for their involvement in your Giving Tuesday initiative. One way to express your appreciation is to spotlight supporters’ social media activity around your campaign. Curate supporters’ social media posts using your campaign hashtag, and highlight them on your blog post. Check out tools like Tagboard that pull messages from different social media sites into a neat and beautiful gallery.

Tagboard

Your blog is also the perfect place to describe in depth the campaign’s impact on your mission. In addition to announcing the event’s results, explain how supporters’ gifts will help your organization make significant strides toward its cause. How does the campaign’s success factor into your organization’s programs and overall mission? How will the support you received on Giving Tuesday set you up for success in 2022?

Read Next: 29 Blog Post Ideas for Nonprofit Content Marketers

2. Cover Your Social Media Bases

Your entire Giving Tuesday was probably spent engaging supporters on social media, but now’s not the time to stop. Because your social networks powered a great chunk of your campaign’s engagement and reach, they are also some of the most important places to follow up.

Hopefully you’ve been diligent about thanking and responding to supporters’ posts, retweets, and comments during Giving Tuesday. After Giving Tuesday, blast your social profiles with another genuine thank-you message. Announce how much was raised and emphasize how your community’s support is powering your programs.

Here are a few types of visuals you can whip up:

• An infographic summing up the results and impact of the campaign
• Thank you photos from staff members
• A thank you video message message posted to your Instagram stories
• Photos of the those who will be impacted by your funds

For example, All Hands and Hearts – Smart Response share specifics in their thank you message to their community as a way to celebrate their campaign’s results.

3. Welcome New Donors

Chances are your Giving Tuesday campaign attracted its fair share of first-time donors to your organization. Because these donors might have given in the spirit of Giving Tuesday—and not necessarily because they are already passionate supporters of your cause—it’s extremely important to tailor a follow-up campaign specifically for them. This is a healthy practice no matter what time of year; you want to build initial rapport and trust with first-time donors that will encourage them to deepen their relationship with your nonprofit, and eventually turn them into regular supporters.

Read Next: How It Pays to Retain Giving Tuesday Donors

Keeping this in mind, launch a 2 to 3 part welcome email series for these donors. It might look something like this:

FIRST EMAIL – DAY AFTER

• Thank the donor for their gift
• Share the results of your Giving Tuesday campaign
• Link to a blog post that details the people or work their donation impacted
• Thank the donor again

SECOND EMAIL – (3-4 DAYS LATER)

• Share what your organization and its programs have been up to this year
• Offer more resources to help them learn about your cause and nonprofit (e.g. photos and videos from the field, blog posts, an impact report, etc.)
• Ask the donor to follow you on social media, or share an infographic or blog post with friends

THIRD EMAIL – (1 WEEK LATER)

• Ask the donor to opt into your monthly newsletter to keep up with your organization’s work

If you don’t have enough time to send all three emails before launching your next holiday campaign, collapse these into one or two emails to avoid annoying recipients. You can also use one of these emails as a kickoff to your holiday fundraising campaign. You want to make sure new donors are folded into your communications for your year-end efforts. Include: A huge thank you, information about your cause and programs, and an ask to share your organization with friends or family.

4. Follow Up With Regular Donors

While your email campaign for first-time donors focuses on educating them about your organization, your follow-up to regular donors (those who have donated more than once) should focus on appreciation and impact.

Send one or two emails to regular donors. Thank them for their Giving Tuesday donations, and then focus on what your organization has accomplished this past year. After receiving such valuable support from your community, you can even tease what your organization hopes to accomplish next year.

Focusing on your programs’ impact will help transition your communications over to your year-end campaign. During this engagement period, your goal is to validate your organization and its work, so you remain top of mind when donors start considering which nonprofit will receive their year-end, tax-deductible gift.

Read Next: How to Leverage Your Giving Tuesday Results in Year-End Messaging

While your organization may use Giving Tuesday to kick off your year-end fundraising, the importance of follow-up still applies to this one-day event. Thank supporters for their participation in your mini-campaign, and focus on donor engagement in the very short time before your year-end communications begin. These efforts will help you sustain momentum and amplify your next campaign launch.