6 Ideas For Your Giving Tuesday Campaign + Design Tips
If you run a nonprofit organization or charity, or handle their marketing, then you know how important Giving Tuesday is. For those who are new to the nonprofit world and fundraising activities, let us explain.
Giving Tuesday is the Tuesday after Thanksgiving in the USA.
This is a day that people come out to support nonprofits and help them in their causes similar to how people support small businesses on “Small Business Saturday” or shop online on Cyber Monday.
Giving Tuesday is not a typical shopping day like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. But the momentum from these events and the festive cheer around this time of year definitely give it a boost.
When you work with nonprofits, you know how challenging fundraising and community organizing can be. But with Giving Tuesday being at the forefront during the holiday season, it eases the burden of raising awareness on the nonprofit companies.
Since the spotlight is already on the industry, a well-planned promotional campaign can deliver brilliant results. Starting promotions early for Giving Tuesday also helps nonprofit organizations begin their End of Year campaigns from a solid foundation.
Contrary to the shopping events that take place just before it, Giving Tuesday requires a different and more nuanced approach to connect with donors. The focus here is not on discounts or products but on proving yourself worthy of someone’s attention and, eventually, their donations.
Before we explore the different promo ideas for your Giving Tuesday campaign from Kimp Graphics, let’s take a look at this day in a little more detail.
The Giving Tuesday Campaign and its Significance
After a weekend of shopping and indulging, Giving Tuesday connects people to causes they care about. Wikipedia describes it as a global generosity movement that enhances the power of communities for the greater good.
A movement that is in its 9th year is now a global phenomenon. The initiative began by Henry Trimms and United Nations Foundation but is truly a people’s movement today. It is live and active in over 75 countries, with umpteen organizations benefiting from this.
You may be thinking, sure many participate but does that translate into any significant impact? Well yes, it does. In the first year (2012), this movement collected $10 million in online fundraising and has crossed over $2.4 billion in 2020. This is a very significant jump, and exactly why every nonprofit should plan a Giving Tuesday Campaign.
Giving Tuesday Campaigns
When you run a nonprofit and fundraise every day, campaigns and storytelling are not alien concepts to you. We understand that you probably know your story better than anyone. But when you are participating in a global event like Giving Tuesday, the story and your data need something more to make them shine.
The marketing strategies that sell products and rake up millions in revenue for big brands can help you here too.
So what can you do to make your Giving Tuesday Campaign shine?
- Your Giving Tuesday Campaign must prioritize content and design equally. Good design can maximize the reach and impact of your content.
- For your design to have the best results and connect with the audience effectively, you must begin by sketching out your target audience or donor profile. Only when you know your audience inside and out can you converse with them effectively.
- Armed with the details above, tweak your brand’s visual identity such as logo, brand colors, fonts, the imagery used, and other elements. By tweak, we just mean consider adding an extra element or doing a bit of a refresh to resonate with your audience for the specific purpose of this campaign.
- Giving Tuesday is your opportunity to make the maximum impact. Now, you can either champion a single cause or choose a collection of issues to raise awareness on. Having these decided before launching your campaign will help you more easily get your content and designs ready.
- Last, even before the campaign goes live, update your offline and online marketing channels. Make sure your social media profiles and any physical storefront or presence you have reflects your campaign. This clearly signifies your involvement in the upcoming Giving Tuesday and sets the stage for your campaign.
With all these in mind, let’s move on to specific promo ideas.
6 Promo Ideas for your Giving Tuesday Campaign
It can feel a little awkward to approach fundraising and nonprofit causes from the lens of for-profit marketing. But marketing is ultimately just an effective method of communicating your ideas in a way that it reaches everyone you intend it to.
So in that vein, the Kimp Graphics and Kimp Video team have put together a list of promo ideas for your Giving Tuesday Campaign. These ideas span across marketing and communicating channels so that your message has a wide reach.
1) Buzz Generation
A large part of your success online and offline for your Giving Tuesday Campaign relies on people showing up to hear your message. Now, that will only happen when they know that you have an active campaign.
Buzz Generation is the oldest trick in the marketing book. But it works because it imprints the launch date in the audience’s minds and piques their curiosity. As a nonprofit working on a Giving Tuesday Campaign, you have many avenues to generate interest in your upcoming campaigns.
- You can start by sending out a newsletter to your donor list that teases what the upcoming campaign is about.
- Follow the announcement newsletter with teasers, trailers, and launch countdowns to keep the audience engaged on your social media, and with a follow up newsletter.
- Social media is a great tool for buzz generation. Platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat are especially great for posting content that lives for a short time, leaving people wanting more. Be sure to upload lots of Stories on these platforms.
Kimp Tip: For the buzz generation to be effective, ensure that you establish an omnichannel presence. Post regularly, keep your countdowns updated and engage the audience continuously. You can also leverage the power of visuals to keep the campaign top of mind. Video trailers, teasers, and gamified content that shares info about the campaign are some examples you can consider.
Need help with your designs? Talk to the Kimp team to find out how a Graphics + Video subscription can help you create a wide range of designs under a single subscription.
2) Add campaign details to your website
While you generate buzz on social media and keep your existing donors in the loop, it is important to also update this info on your website. Most people looking to take part in Giving Tuesday begin early and are most likely to search for organizations supporting various causes via a basic Google search.
To capture this audience base, the campaign details on your website are extremely important.
You have a lot of options here:
- Link your social media handles so that your website visitors can access the existing information. And you gain a follower for your social media profiles.
- Create a separate page for Giving Tuesday on your website and populate it with all the information on past campaigns, current campaigns, teasers, and any other updates.
- Dedicate a landing page for people looking for Giving Tuesday details so that you can collect their details and build your database.
All these options are valid, and it depends on what your aim is for your Giving Tuesday Campaign. If you are looking to build your database, begin with a landing page, and so on.
Irrespective of what route you choose, you must remember that this is your chance at acquiring a lifelong donor. So get creative and post campaign updates often.
Speaking of which, with all these updates your website must still be easy to peruse, reflect your brand’s identity and connect with the audience. Be sure to talk to your design team to find how you can add a few updates without making your website or landing page look cluttered.
3) Tell your stories in an impactful way
The buzz is in place, and the campaign is live. Now what? In a previous section, we discussed how there are literally over a million nonprofits in the USA alone. So if you want donors to choose to give to you this Giving Tuesday, then you have to stand out. And the biggest weapon in your hand to do that is by telling your stories in an impactful way.
So, how can you enhance the stories you have? We trust you have the content, so we are going to list a few ways of amping up the production value of these stories.
- First off, use pictures, and we mean high-quality images. Reading about a community that needs support and seeing the faces of those impacted by a challenge are two very different experiences. The proverb that a picture speaks a thousand words is true. And in this case especially, your images can share some very compelling stories.
- Use the Instagram carousel post format to build up the premise and truly create a story. Did you know activities like swiping and reading a long post on social media by your audience can improve your reach? So, incorporate images and videos to turn your stories into viral content. If you have a constraint in sourcing high-quality images, you can work with your design team to create custom illustrations and graphic designs that convey the message.
- Create short-form videos of less than 1-minute duration for even more forceful and impactful storytelling. You can post these on Instagram Reels, Facebook Watch, YouTube, your website, and so on. Videos have a higher shareable quality and keep the viewer engrossed in the story until the very end.
Need help creating your designs? Visualize your stories across all formats with unlimited design through a Kimp Graphics + Video subscription.
4) Use Content Marketing
There is a lot more you can do during a Giving Tuesday Campaign to amplify your storytelling. The more content you create, the higher your chances of convincing people to support your organization’s work.
Content marketing builds a bridge between your message and the audience. It makes the connection easier. Not to mention that the Giving Tuesday hashtag gets a billion impressions across social media platforms.
So, what can you create this Giving Tuesday to improve your reach and impact on the Internet? Again, you have many options:
- If you want to boost your SEO and drive traffic to your fundraising content, your first bet is to try blog posts and articles that speak highly of your brand and explain why potential donors should support your work.
- Share a recap of previous Giving Tuesday Campaigns and their impact on your website, social media, and in newsletters.
- Try educational content on social media to impress upon the donors the need for support, the problem being faced, the solutions, and how they can make an impact. Explainer videos and infographics are the best mediums for this.
When publishing across channels, you must repurpose content effectively, so you don’t miss any distribution channel. This also builds consistency in messaging, helping you build trust in the community.
Kimp Tip: The most important thing to remember while creating content for your Giving Tuesday Campaign is that you have hardly 5 seconds to create an impression on the reader. Ensure that your content’s design stops scrolling thumbs in their tracks and compels people to read your content.
5) Include Social Proof
You know how hard it is to trust someone over the Internet. Especially when someone claims to be working for the greater good. You cannot fault people over this because there have been too many instances of mishaps. But you can combat these misconceptions by actively putting out social proof for your audience to check out and build trust around.
As a standard practice, your Giving Tuesday landing page must link to the actual donor reviews and include details pertaining to your status as a nonprofit (e.g. registration number) to instill trust. This way your audience has ways to size you up.
On social media too, sharing social proof must be part of your content marketing calendar. This is even more important when the campaign is live, and you are trying your best to raise funds.
Being part of a community makes people feel good. When they see the other people associated with your cause, it will influence them more to take part in Giving Tuesday.
There are many innovative ways of sharing social proof on social media, including long-form videos, short-form videos, image quotes, and so on. Check our guide on this for more inspiration.
6) Keep the conversation going
A good Giving Tuesday Campaign is far-sighted. This means you understand the value of keeping your audience base engaged and informed, even after the campaign day is over.
We spoke of how you can use this event to build a foundation for your end-of-year campaigns. And we should add it can form a foundation, and relationships, which will support many more of your campaigns too. So keeping in touch is more important than ever.
With your stories and content marketing, you will hopefully build a relationship with every person who interacts with your brand. So irrespective of being a donor or not, you can impact them with an update and further conversation.
- Share the fundraising goal update once Giving Tuesday is over. You may have reached it or even surpassed it. Seeing that may inspire someone to donate if they have not already.
- Create a thank you email for all your subscribers for making the day successful. You can include links on how they can support you even after Giving Tuesday is over.
- Last but definitely the most impactful, you can show them the difference they made. Shoot a video or interview where the beneficiaries of the funds vouch for the impact the funds brought in. Even if it is a montage of photos where you use the funds, it can still be very effective.
Keeping the conversation going and maintaining a relationship can make your next Giving Tuesday even more impactful.
Stand out this Giving Tuesday with Designs from Kimp
Your cause deserves all the support in the world. So use this upcoming Giving Tuesday Campaign to make even more people aware of the powerful work you do. And hopefully drum up some additional support too.
Start with your stories – your why you do what you do – and get great designs created based off of them. Visuals can make your Giving Tuesday Campaign very impactful. And that impact can lead to many meaningful actions.
The Kimp Team is standing by and ready to help you out with unlimited design via our Kimp Graphics and Kimp Video subscriptions.
Sign up for the free trial now and see for yourself how great design can make your stories shine.