November 25, 2020 | Categories #GivingTuesday, Featured, Fundraising Strategies, Monthly Giving

Your Nonprofit’s Post-Giving Tuesday Checklist: 7 Simple To-Dos to Retain and Engage Donors Beyond the Big Day

Giving Tuesday is a celebration of generosity, and for nonprofits, it can be a big revenue generator. While a lot of focused attention goes into promoting the campaign, it is just as crucial to create a strategy to execute after Giving Tuesday. Consider this one day part of your donor journey and continue to cultivate donor relationships with those who support you on Giving Tuesday. Let’s look at some important tasks you’ll want to complete after Giving Tuesday has come and gone.

Clean Up After the Holiday

Just like any event you host, after the party is over the decorations have to come down. After Giving Tuesday, make sure you:

• Clean up your website, social media pages, email signatures, and anywhere else you may have promoted your Giving Tuesday campaign
• Switch out graphics to reflect your year-end fundraising push or change them back to your standard text and images.
• Deactivate your Giving Tuesday donation form and direct donors to a different donation form.

This quick clean up will ensure your donors know that even though Giving Tuesday is over, there are still opportunities to give and get involved.

Thank Your Donors (and Fast!)

The faster you get your thank you to your donor, the more likely they are to give again. In fact, donors who are thanked within 24 hours of giving have a 60% retention rate. That’s a significant increase over the average donor retention rate hovering around 40%.

Why are thank yous even more important on Giving Tuesday? Nonprofits typically receive a very large influx of first-time donors on this day, so get set to kick off your donor journey in a special way with lots of new supporters.

But how will you manage all those thank yous in a flash?

DonorPerfect makes it easy to thank your donors quickly. You can email your donor right from their gift record, or merge gift data into a thank-you letter. If you have many gifts to process, use DonorPerfect’s Receipting module to get hundreds or even thousands of emails and letters out the door fast.

4 Elements of an Awesome Thank You

1. Timeliness (Send within 24-48 hours.)
2. Personalization: Include your donor’s name, details of their gift, and the solicitation they gave to.
3. Let your donor know the impact of their gift.
4. Keep it donor-focused. Thank them for the difference they have made possible.

Welcome Your New Donors

Have a plan of action in place to motivate new donors to invest in your mission and give again.

Inspire a first-time donor to become a life-long supporter with these 3 simple actions:

1. Consider a new donor email Welcome Series. Constant Contact makes it easy to create an email campaign that automatically enrolls news donors and engages them using a timeline that you designate.
   Pro Tip: Take a look at DonorPerfect’s Welcome Wednesday Template Kit for Mad-Libs style templates you can use for your organization.
2. Invite donors to get involved after Giving Tuesday. If you have a volunteer program, send them information and a link to enroll. Any upcoming virtual or socially-distanced events? Send them an invitation to attend. Welcome them into your community and encourage them to get involved.
3. Ask donors to follow you on social media. Share impact stories about the community you serve so they see the difference their support makes and get to know your organization and your team better.

For more tips on what to say and when to say it, check out our blog post Retain More Donors – Post Giving Tuesday Email Timeline.

Capitalize on Reactivated Donors

Perhaps Giving Tuesday has brought back donors who haven’t given to you in some time. This is the perfect opportunity to reach out to these donors with a targeted appeal, asking them to join your monthly giving program. You can run a report like DonorPerfect’s Comprehensive Donor Revenue Analysis to find reactivated donors. Automatic monthly giving makes donating easier for both you and your donor.

Celebrate Your Success

Your donors care about your cause and want to celebrate your successes with you. Generate the Solicitation Analysis report to determine how many funds you raised through your Giving Tuesday campaign and inform those who supported you:

• If you reached or exceeded your goal, post about it on social media
• Update your website with a note about the success of your campaign
• Let your community know how these funds will serve your mission

Evaluate Your Campaign

While celebrating the success of your campaign with your supporters is important, it’s also important to measure your results and take an honest look at what worked and what didn’t. Compare this year’s Giving Tuesday revenue with what you raised in prior years. After you’ve determined any gains or losses from previous campaigns, take some time to identify what accounted for any changes so you can turn these findings into next year’s success.

Reach out to your staff and volunteers, as well as board members, long-time donors, and major donors to see what they thought about your campaign. Send out a quick online survey to these groups collecting feedback on just a few questions asking what they found engaging or lacking about your Giving Tuesday push.

Sample Questions

1. Did we provide enough updates throughout the day on Giving Tuesday?
2. Was our email campaign timeline on point? Did we send out our first announcement too early? Too late? Right on time?
3. Did you see any Giving Tuesday campaigns you found particularly compelling? What about the campaign did you like?

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You

Don’t be afraid to say thank you again. A few weeks after the close of your Giving Tuesday campaign, send out a second thank you to all those who supported you. This thank you can report on the results of your campaign and outline how you plan to spend the funds.

Remember, Giving Tuesday is just one day of giving, but with the right strategy in place it can lead to a loyal donor base and sustaining revenue. For more resources on Giving Tuesday, check out DonorPerfect’s Giving Tuesday Hub. We’ve gathered templates, campaign planning, email strategies and more all in one place so you can have your best Giving Tuesday yet.

Have any tips on Giving Tuesday for your fellow fundraisers? Share them in the comments below.