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Giving Tuesday Marketing Schedule & Checklist

fundraising nonprofit Nov 19, 2019

My last post examined four important ways your nonprofit can prepare and plan for Giving Tuesday. This post fast forwards in time to the actual day.It’s Giving Tuesday, do you know where your donors are? (Relax, this is only a test, you still have some time)

I do keep in mind that as you’re reading this, you may be a team of one that is doing the work of “the marketing department.” You may also be on a larger team, specifically involved with digital fundraising. Either way, you likely have a Giving Tuesday plan in place, but things can get thrown off quickly the day-of for a number of reasons. Most organizations will plan the marketing messages and marketing channels in advance, but not actually schedule what to do when this magical day arrives of generous do-gooders showering your organization with money to power your cause. Savvier organizations will schedule social media posts and emails in advance, which is great.

So let’s take some action. Pull up your calendars and block out time on Giving Tuesday. Literally, pull up your calendar in one window while you’re reading this post in another! By protecting your time and dedication to executing the plan, you increase not only the likelihood of increasing revenue on Giving Tuesday, but also creating real connections with your donors that have long-term impacts. The following is an example of a schedule with a checklist for Giving Tuesday. This comes from my Giving Tuesday planning worksheets, available here. You can either copy/paste this into a document or print this post if necessary. Below, I provided time frames, but you have your schedule in front of you now. Put in specific times for each of these items with a 10 minute reminder, and/or a check in the line provided:

8:00am-10:00am

· Meet with your team to discuss day’s plan_____

· Launch Facebook Ads_____

· Launch SEM ads_____

· Send Email #1_____

· Social media post #1_____

· Go Live on Facebook_____

10am-2pm

· Social media post #2_____

· Giving Tuesday updates and shout-outs via social media post_____

· Facebook Live update_____

2pm-6pm

· Social media post #3_____

· Giving Tuesday updates and shout-outs via social media post_____

· Facebook Live update_____

· Send Email #2_____

8pm-10pm (optional)

· Social media post #4_____

· Giving Tuesday updates and shout-outs via social media post_____

· Facebook Live update_____

· Send Email #3_____

While your digital media (search and social media ads) and email can all be automated, your social media posting and live video will be more of an “in-the-moment” style in response to how the day is unfolding. You’ll want to give real-time updates of your progress and even feature people in your organization providing updates via live streaming. It’s likely that a larger number of your donors that are active on social media will be on Facebook before Instagram or other platforms. That said, if you have to choose one platform in which to go live, make it Facebook. Otherwise, if you have the time and resources to go live on other social media channels, prioritize by the size of your followers in that community.

While this is an outline of how to structure your day on Giving Tuesday, there is a ton of work to prepare for this day. Make sure you download my 7 page Giving Tuesday planning worksheets to ensure you leave no stone unturned and no money left on the table. Good luck this year!

Your turn: Leave any tips that you’ve found helpful the day of Giving Tuesday that have helped your nonprofit be organized and efficient.

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