Happy Giving Tuesday.

Here is why your #GivingTuesday campaign is not working

(and how your non-profit can make Giving Tuesday work for you next year!)

Giving Tuesday is a great idea in theory.
After a long weekend of relentless self-indulgence, over-eating, and over-spending, why not cap it off with a day of generosity? This idea began in 2012 and has flourished into a work-wide phenomenon. In 2020, $2.5 billion dollars was raised for charities globally, a little over $800 million in online giving alone. A lot of non-profit organizations benefit from this boost in giving. So why not throw in your metaphorical hat and see what happens. Nothing to lose, right?

I’ve seen many small non-profits trying for their cut of this growing $2.5 billion dollar Giving Tuesday pie, only to be disappointed by the small bit they receive. In the end, there is an Oliver Twist-esque, “Please Sir, can I have some more” quality to the whole thing. Many small non-profits stop trying altogether, or embrace Oliver Twist and continue imploring for food scraps and loose change.

So, while Giving Tuesday can be a tool in your fundraising arsenal (and it should be!), understand that most organizations shouldn’t expect a massive ROI.

Here’s why:

1. So much online noise.
   Thousands of organizations run Giving Tuesday campaigns. In the online space, this includes organization who have huge, active, mailing lists and millions of followers. Your organization is competing for market share with massive non-profit organizations. General donations are going to the what people know. If they don’t know you, there’s no money coming your way.
2. People only give to causes that interest them. Giving Tuesday doesn’t change that.
   If I want to give to organizations working to prevent human trafficking, I’m not interested in giving to an organization developing micro-finance with the poorest of the poor. There’s a connection. Both organizations do great work — and the development director of the micro-finance org waxes eloquent about the connections between global poverty and human trafficking (and there is a HUGE connection). But if I’m an anti-human trafficking donor, I’m going to give to anti-human trafficking specific organizations. Giving Tuesday doesn’t change that.
3. Giving Tuesday will not bring major gifts.
   The target of most Giving Tuesday campaigns is the onetime gift. For organizations who can grab a chunk of the Giving Tuesday market share, this is a nice, year-end shot in the arm. But these are onetime acts of generosity that don't reproduce without a comprehensive strategy. I don’t know of any non-profit who can exist sustainably on a quantity of small, onetime gifts. Sustainability means deep, long-standing donor relationships that result in large gifts and consistent giving. Social media posts will never make that happen.
4. Giving Tuesday is often a lazy strategy implemented by lazy fundraisers.
   Experienced fund raisers know this. Campaigns rarely work well. But campaigns (like events) generate a flurry of work, anticipation, hope, and camaraderie. The team pulls together and creates a clever, well-designed Giving Tuesday campaign. There’s value in that from a teamwork, moral perspective. But the results are usually less than hoped for. Fundraising professionals know this. Fundraising novices put way too much hope in an organized campaign, thinking it might be an easy way to get measurable results. It’s not. A Giving Tuesday campaign without a foundation will not produce results.

How do you orchestrate a successful Giving Tuesday?

The best way for your organization to leverage a Giving Tuesday campaign is to begin working on next year tomorrow.

Put the down the shotgun.
Stop trying to reach everyone with everything you do. Target a specific kind or donor with a specific project. A giving campaign, like Giving Tuesday, doesn’t work with a generic shotgun approach. Get very specific with your target and cater your Giving Tuesday campaign accordingly.

Example: I’ve worked with an organization who runs a fresh water initiative in Kenya using a specialized filter with sustainability for rural villages. They also do about 15 other things in their region, all of which are significant projects. However, for Giving Tuesday, they should only feature one project (fresh water) and should target certain donors (corporate donors or major givers) with a specific goal ($25k to start a new initiative in a new region).

Scattershot campaigns on social media rarely work. Get specific.

Collaborate. Don’t compete.
When I was actively raising major gifts and developing organizational partnerships for a global non-profit, I had the wrong mindset. I viewed other organizations and their development team as competitors for the same dollars I was going for. I was dead wrong.

People give to what they’re interested in. And that’s it.

Fundraising professionals from various organizations would double what they raise if spent more time together. I know people who want to give to what you’re doing. You know people who want to give to projects in my organization. We just have to find each other! Having a coffee with a development director in a “competing” organization is possibly the most profitable lead-generating activity you can do. Professional fund-raising networking events should be way more common than what they are. Unless your organization is doing the same thing for the same target as another organization, you’re rarely competing for the same donor market share. Fundraisers everywhere — learn to collaborate all year round!

Run a campaign that is a culmination and not a commencement.
I’ve worked with several organizations who use events like Giving Tuesday to find new donors and to get the fundraising ball rolling. This is a mistake. Your non-profit organization has three parts, all of which must be strong and healthy.

• Program — what you do to change the world.
• Administration — how you lead and manage your work.
• Fundraising — telling your story in such a compelling way that people want to change the world with you.

Many assume that if they could just have a strong fundraising arm, they could make this thing work. You can’t just work out your right arm, and expect your right arm to carry the health for the rest of your body. A healthy non-profit must have a healthy, functioning, transformational program. They also must have great leadership and strong management. It’s impossible for a non-profit to carry itself on fundraising alone. A long-term, healthy organization who is doing transformational work stands a much better change of a great ROI on Giving Tuesday. Start getting the rest of your organization healthy tomorrow — and maybe next year’s campaign will get better results.

Giving Tuesday is rarely a panacea for your fundraising. Increasing organizational health and ongoing communication with the right donors is the foundation for campaigns like Giving Tuesday to work.

Do you want your Giving Tuesday to gain traction next year? I can help. Connect with me about joining a Growability® Collaborative or getting Growability® coaching or consultation.