#GivingTuesday - Are You In? It's Not Too Late

First we had Black Friday for serious in the physical store shoppers.  Then came Cyber Monday for the new breed of online shoppers.  Up next is Shop Small Saturday to encourage shopping at small businesses.  But alas, something important was still missing.  After all,  post Thanksgiving and pre-Christmas there should be some giving – right?  And now we have  #GivingTuesday.  If you work in the nonprofit sector you may have heard of it but don’t know much about it.  Well that’s because it is pretty new.  Tuesday, December 3^rd will be only the second annual #GivingTuesday.  So what it is all about?

Mission Statement of #Giving Tuesday
#GivingTuesday™ is a campaign to create a national day of giving at the start of the annual holiday season. It celebrates and encourages charitable activities that support nonprofit organizations.

Simple and straightforward.  And a great idea.  Started by the United Nations Foundation and the 92d Street Y, #GivingTuesday establishes a specific day to focus on giving and much like Black Friday and Cyber Monday have become huge, #GivingTuesday is off to a great start.

Let’s just take a look at its inaugural year in 2012. There were more than 2,500 recognized #GivingTuesday™ partners from all 50 states. The collective efforts of partners, donors and advocates helped fuel a remarkable increase in charitable giving .  There are some clear measurements available to prove it.  Blackbaud processed over $10 million in online donations on 11/27/12 – a 53% increase when compared to the Tuesday after Thanksgiving the previous year.  DonorPerfect recorded a 46% increase in online donations and the average gift increased 25%. 

This year there are over 8300 partners registered to participate.  The #givingtuesday website is chockfull of information and ideas of how you can get involved.  And you can do a sort by state to see who’s involved in your state.  I was so happy to see so many NJ nonprofits – including those who’ve attended my social media workshops – listed as partners.

It is not surprising that another great resource I found for getting involved with #givingtuesday is at Beth Kanter’s blog: http://www.bethkanter.org/givingtueday-tips/

Here are some ideas of how you can become involved even at the last minute:

Update the home page of your website today with a #givingtuesday message and extra link to your donation page.  You can download an official logo for free at the #givingtuesday website.  If your friends decide to check out your website on Tuesday they will see that you are on board.

Post #givingtuesday messages on facebook and your other social media sites on Tuesday.

Set up a #givingtuesday special page on your website with lost of ideas on how people can participate.

Remind people to take advantage of corporate matching gifts.

It's a good time to highlights other ways people can help on your website - advocacy, food, clothing, volunteering.

There are lots of ideas and resources at the #givingtuesday website.  Many require that you have planning for this event.  Check out #GivingTuesday activities and start to plan your involvement for next year.