6 Ways To Sustain Donor Engagement After Giving Tuesday

KindfulDecember 01, 2015

Today is #GivingTuesday! What happens tomorrow? header image

When Giving Tuesday finally arrives, we get pretty excited, and we hope you do too! After hours of prepping and planning, it can be exhilarating to finally see your fundraising campaign come together.

But once Giving Tuesday is over, what happens the next day? Take time to celebrate the success of all your Giving Tuesday efforts, but don’t waste that hard-earned momentum! Although Giving Tuesday may come to an end, your mission doesn’t.

Check out six ways to sustain donor engagement following your Giving Tuesday campaign:

1. Send Your Thank You Notes Early

You say “please” to your donors so often… it’s time to say “thank you!” Gratitude goes a long way when you ask something of your donors and they deliver. Respond to individual tweets that used the Giving Tuesday hashtag in support of your organization. Take a photo or video of your staff saying “thank you” to all who made the choice to support you on the international day of giving back.

2. Share Your Giving Tuesday Campaign Results

Whether or not you met your goal, your Giving Tuesday campaign made an impact. And social media is key to showing your supporters that they made a difference. Whether you’re on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any other social media platform, consider showing your results, rather than just telling about them. Any type of visual post will lead to better engagement than one without – so bring on the photos, graphs, fundraising thermometers and charts. You can even create an infographic (it can be simple!) showing how online donations on Giving Tuesday contributed to your organization’s growth.

3. Share Impact Stories

Take your campaign results and tell the story of those who will be positively affected by Giving Tuesday funds. Use photos and first-person narrative to remind your advocates of who their gifts are directly impacting. For example, a compelling blog post will help supporters dive deeper into the mission and vision of your organization and increase their donor engagement. You could even go a step further and create a whole blog series around the impact of Giving Tuesday!

4. Highlight Your Supporters

If your organization used a crowdfunding campaign, find out who your top fundraisers were on Giving Tuesday. Then, spotlight these donors and spread the word on social media!

5. Welcome New Donors

Use your nonprofit CRM to pull a report to determine who gave their first gift on Giving Tuesday and follow up with first-time donors within 24 hours!

New donors – especially those who gave through a crowdfunding campaign – may not know much about your organization, so they deserve a follow-up specifically tailored to them.

6. Follow-Up With Existing Donors

Make sure your recurring donors know that Giving Tuesday is just the start of your year-end fundraising campaign and give donors tangible ways they can help you reach your goals in December.

Encourage them to tell their friends and family about you – online and in-person. And help them share why they give and why your cause is important to them. Consider sending an email like this to your donors after Giving Tuesday with a few easy ways to stay engaged through the end of 2015:

example giving tuesday thank you email

Giving Tuesday is a pivotal day in the life of your organization… but it’s not the only day! Make sure you capitalize on the momentum from this global day of giving to kickstart your year-end fundraising campaign and begin cultivating donors who will stay invested in your work for years to come. Because once this day is over, you’ve still got 364 others. And believe it or not, donor cultivation beyond Giving Tuesday is as easy as it is important.

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Filed Under:   Giving Tuesday