Quick tips for a great Giving Day

Are you considering including a Giving Day as part of your fundraising portfolio this year? With careful planning and execution, Giving Days can be a great way to:

Raise a large amount of funds in a short period of time
Acquire new corporate, community, major gift and individual donors
Re-engage existing and lapsed donors
Increase fundraising engagement and participation across your organisation
Leverage digital channels to effectively grow engagement and convert into donations

Here are a few tips we’d like to share from our work on Giving Days.

Choose a date – a date that resonates with your supporters or links to your cause can lift your day to new levels of impact.
Set your target – after you hold a strategy and planning session, as well as a review of your donor data you can set an accurate target to rally your donors, volunteers and staff to raise.
Plan thoroughly – allow plenty of time to plan, negotiate and secure matched gifts from corporate partners, major donors or other funding sources.
Target widely – Giving Days offer a real opportunity to grow engagement/giving with existing donors, re-activate lapsed donors and acquire new ones.
Promote intensely – undertake a 2-4 week period of focused promotion and engagement through digital and traditional activation channels.
Create urgency and excitement – use features such as dynamic countdowns and totalisers on your Giving Day page to build momentum in the run-up to the event and on the day itself. Take care to release your matched funds tactically alongside real-time, organic gifts to build the tally incrementally.
Reflect carefully – review your activity post-event with everyone involved, and analyse the data you’ve gathered. You’ll then be able to apply any insights or learnings to your next Giving Day to help make it even more effective.

Supporting Chris O’Brien Lifehouse’s Giving Day

We helped Chris O’Brien Lifehouse with their Giving Day on 15 November 2023, specifically around digital acquisition through Meta and Google Ads and in two stages – lead generation in the run-up to the event, and then donation ads on the day itself. Overall, the campaign was highly successful and smashed its target of $4,500,000 – funds that will be used for a new Linear Accelerator (LINAC), a machine used to administer precise, high-dose radiation therapy, a crucial part of many cancer treatment plans.

Are you considering creating a Giving Day for your organisation, or do you need some support / advice for an existing proposition? We can help with your Giving Day:

Strategy and project management
Corporate and major donor outreach
Digital marketing and comms strategy
Web page design and build to support the activity
Ongoing donor journey planning

Get in touch today – we’d love to help make your next Giving Day your most successful yet!