This article was originally published in my Digital Tip-A-Month Newsletter. Sign up to get more tips like this in your inbox once a month.
You’re probably deep in the weeds of your end-of-year fundraising right now, as I am with my clients. I’ve been thinking a lot about what tip I could share with you this month to help you get more out of Giving Tuesday. What one thing could most nonprofits do, without too much extra time or stress, to raise more money?
I thought about a number of useful tactics and tricks, but I kept coming back to this:
Whatever you’re planning already for Giving Tuesday, send ONE EXTRA EMAIL
I know how obvious that may seem. But you should do it, for the same reason that email is probably where you’ve focused your Giving Tuesday plans: it works. Email is still the most lucrative way for most organizations to raise money online, and sending one additional email is likely to net you more revenue than any other single tactic (like matching gifts, public fundraising goals, or remarketing, which I hope you’re already considering) that gives you marginal gains. And the days around Giving Tuesday are the best time to email more.
Over the past few years, Giving Tuesday has ballooned from a nice idea, to a must-do component of most EOY campaigns, to a major event in its own right. I see many organizations now treating Giving Tuesday as its own campaign, related to but distinct from the rest of EOY. For some organizations, Giving Tuesday “season” now begins on Black Friday and continues for nearly a week.
If you’re worried about sending too many emails to your list, rest assured that many other organizations are sending lots of emails before, during, and after the big day. Normally I’d suggest caution in pushing too many asks out to your list in a short period, but Giving Tuesday, like December 31st, is one of those days when you can get away with sending extra emails, and most supporters will forgive you.
So that’s my advice to you: unless you’ve already done everything you can to max out your Giving Tuesday email calendar, ask your supporters one more time. Add an email the night before, or an extra one on the day, or even a “last chance” follow-up the day after.
Giving Tuesday only comes once a year, so don’t miss out on the opportunity to raise more.