This year’s #GivingTuesday will be on 3 December, and once again CAF is leading the UK campaign. Ben May, marketing manager for charities at CAF, writes about the importance of the day and encourages charity leaders to take part.
Giving Tuesday is an amazing campaign. It offers everyone the opportunity to celebrate selfless giving in its broadest definition. Giving Tuesday arrived in the UK in 2014. Since then the day has gone on to become one of the UK’s biggest days for charities, raising millions of pounds for good causes. And that’s all down to people like you who get involved.
So in an effort to sign more of you up as partners for the campaign, I wanted to share my reasons why your charity should take part.
It’s a global campaign that celebrates and encourages giving
Giving Tuesday takes place in over 60 countries, including the USA, Canada, Russia, Germany, Spain, Singapore, Australia and Brazil.
What started as a day in the USA in 2012 has quickly grown into a celebration of generosity and our shared capacity to give
Use it to hit your organisation’s wider goals
Think of #GivingTuesday as a tool to contribute to the organisation’s objectives beyond fundraising targets. Take the opportunity to engage supporters and staff and your community, promote your cause, celebrate your impact and thank your donors.
A great example comes from Tiny Tickers, a small charity that used #GivingTuesday last year as a platform to engage their supporters and reach new audiences.
A month before the day they launched an appeal called ‘Test for Tommy’ to fund a machine that detects heart defects in babies. The head of fundraising at the charity came up with the idea of using Giving Tuesday as the second leg of that appeal and to push it further.
One of the machines costs £750 so their goal on the day was to raise enough money to buy one. With a budget of £0, and using social media alongside their text donation and online donation platform, they smashed their target six-fold.
They raised £4500 in total which enabled them to buy six machines. And because of those six machines every year 9000 newborn babies will have a test that they wouldn’t have had previously.
The organisation put its success down to a few things:
- Linking their appeal to an established campaign.
- Having a tangible target on the day.
- Giving supporters multiple ways to donate.
- Using emotive case studies.
But most importantly the success came about because they lived and breathed the day. The whole team focused on engaging with supporters via their social media channels.
Tiny Tickers is just one example of the thousands of charities, of all sizes, that have benefited from the campaign. Charities such as Marie Curie, Muslim Youth Helpline, and Carers Link, whose stories you can read on the Giving Tuesday website.
It’s not just one day
Although the ‘big day’ is on 3 December, this year will see two other hashtags to be used in preparation for the date and to amplify the impact of the campaign. From 3 September to 5 November, #MyGivingStory will encourage people to share how and why they give, be that donating money, time, skills or goods. Our hope is that #MyGivingStory will foster a public conversation about generosity and inspire more people to give and to give in more ways.
Ask your donors, social media followers, supporters, trustees, staff, volunteers and wider community to share their giving story on their personal social media accounts, which you can then reshare on your organisation’s platforms, not only social media but also blog and newsletter.
From 5 November until 3 December, #GivingTuesdayPledge will take centre stage. As #GivingTuesday falls on a day when most people are in work or at school, there are lots of people out there who want to do something but just can’t. #GivingTuesdayPledge aims to remove that barrier as much as possible, allowing anyone to make a commitment to do something good, at a time that suits them, for their favourite charity or cause.
This is also a chance for charities to let supporters know what you would like them to do for you. We will have a Giving Tuesday Pledge page on the website where we can host specific asks so visitors can see exactly what areas you need help in and what you want them to do – they can then make their pledge to your organisation directly.
So add your cause to the campaign and help us make Giving Tuesday 2019 the biggest ever.
