#GivingTuesday Social Media Strategy for Nonprofits

In response to COVID-19, #GivingTuesday launched #GivingTuesdayNow in May. If you have any hesitations about people’s generosity during this time, check out these stats.

#GivingTuesdayNow generated more than $503M online donations with 3 billion impressions from 145 different countries. That’s in one day. 

(You can check out the full impact report here.)

Having an impactful and successful #GivingTuesday on December 1st will be based on a few things:

1. What’s your content and communications strategy?

Start creating your campaign today – not the day before #GivingTuesday. Begin with your goals – short on staff/money/time to make a large campaign? That’s totally fine, make your goals attainable and ones that make sense for your nonprofit.

Once you’ve got that, start timelining what needs to happen to make your  #GivingTuesday a success. #GivingTuesday hits in the middle of a lot of EOY Giving Campaigns – so be mindful of how you are communicating the event, what segment of your audience you are speaking to and, how it fits in with your overarching campaign.

P.S. #GivingTuesday provides this awesome outline to help guide you through the entire process.

2. Will you collaborate and partner with like-minded organizations to expand your reach?

If you haven’t tried landing a digital sponsorship, this is your time. Businesses are looking to align with purpose-driven causes and they want to shout it from the rooftops!

How can you bring value to their business but also bring awareness to your mission? Facebook Lives are a great example. Can a local business sponsor your subscription to StreamYard? Their logo would appear during the live up top and you could mention them during the live. Plus during the live, is there another nonprofit/board member/expert in your field that you could interview?

Add value everywhere you can – promote the live on your social streams a few days before and leading up to it. Have your guest cross-post the event. If you have a budget for it, boost the live after it’s done. 

3. How will you use Facebook’s Fundraising suite of tools?

Make sure you are registered with Facebook as a verified 501c3 so that you have access to the Donate Button, Facebook Fundraisers, Instagram’s Donate Button & Instagram’s Donate Stories Sticker. Facebook has a great guide if you need any help setting your organization up.

These tools are so, so crucial for a successful #GivingTuesday. Make sure to have your Facebook Fundraiser set up before Dec. 1 so that you can promote it, share it with staff/board members, link directly to it, invite your audience to it, etc. 

4. Do you have a social media advertising plan in place?

How you communicate your #GivingTuesday campaign and how it integrates with your EOY campaign is key. Most people have heard about #GivingTuesday, but also, a lot have no clue what it is. Do your donors know what it is? Have your development officers talked about it during their meetings with donors? Do they have anything to text or email digitally? Leading up to the day, make sure to educate your donors and potential donors on what it is, why it is important, when it is, how to give, and how to get involved. Your social campaign needs to answer these questions so there is no confusion and people can easily donate.