Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, cultural organizations of all kinds have faced disruptions to their operations, fundraising, and budgets. As a result, occasions like Giving Tuesday are important opportunities to engage constituents, raise awareness, and generate support for your organization. How do you make the most of Giving Tuesday? How do you develop effective campaigns to reach your audience and donors? How does this fit into your end-of-year strategy?
Join Dan Sullivan (Head of Growth & Partnerships @ Cuseum), Michelle Klein (Assistant Director of Development @ Museum of Latin American Art), Erin Scheckenbach (Director of Fellowship & Member Relations @ Mütter Museum) & Danielle McCausland (Development Manager @ Potawatomi Zoo) as they discuss best practices around Giving Tuesday in 2020. This webinar will explore campaign ideas, messaging, internal collaboration, and more in order to ensure a successful Giving Tuesday for your organization.
Watch the full recording here.
Read the highlights below.
Collaborate With Your Peers and Foster Partnerships
Due to COVID-19, cultural organizations of all kinds have faced significant disruptions to their development opportunities and budgets. As a result, Giving Tuesday is even more important than it historically has been. Giving Tuesday is fast approaching on December 1, 2020, so now is the time to start planning! One of the best ways to get started is to learn from past successes and collaborate with your peers to generate effective campaigns.
For example, in 2016, Danielle from Potawatomi Zoo partnered with a group of zoos to make Giving Tuesday unique to their industry. They collaborated and called it “Giving Zoo Day”, emphasizing the importance of giving back to the community. For marketing purposes, they got the word out early and made a logo, but they all supported one another in developing best practices.
“That’s been the most exciting part about working on Giving Tuesday for me - the opportunity to expand it, switch it up, and put a unique spin on it each year. And that idea of the collaboration with other similar organizations - I’ll be so interested to see how that continues to develop in the coming years.”
– Danielle McCausland
Partnerships can also be established with other local organizations! Michelle at the Museum of Latin American Art partnered with a local coffee shop, so that everyone that gave Tuesday last year received a free cup of coffee. They are looking into expanding more community partnerships in the upcoming years.
Erin at Mutter Museum has also established relationships with a variety of eateries, restaurants, coffee places, and she’s hoping to do similar collaborations as Danielle and Michelle.
Giving Tuesday is an exciting opportunity to connect with peer organizations and community businesses to incentivize donating and maximize your reach.
Focus on Your Messaging
2020 has been an enormously challenging year for cultural organizations. As a result, all of the panelists agreed that one of the best ways to approach Giving Tuesday is to communicate the importance of support to your members and donors.
Michelle at the Museum of Latin American Art emphasized that this year, she’s honing her messaging and being more transparent in needing help from her community.
“I think the messaging is what shifted more so than anything. It’s far more important for us to communicate to our members and our donors how integral they are to our success and that we really are doing this together.”
– Michelle Klein
Erin agreed with this strategy. Like Michelle, she is focusing on communicating the necessity of members’ support.
This year, transparency and clear communication with your base of constituents is more important than ever before. Giving Tuesday is an opportunity to demonstrate to your donors what a valuable impact they can have on your organization - make the most of this occasion!
Utilize Various Platforms and Channels
Amidst the rapid turn to digital modes of communication, there are a variety of platforms to reach your audience. Erin frequently utilizes email, but targets differentiated segments. Her organization also has over 160,000 followers on Instagram, so she is focusing on promoting giving through their Instagram stories and posts.
“When we post photos, the important thing is we provide a lot of context. People come to our Instagram to learn about different health issues, different diseases, and learn about the progress that we’ve made. It’s an informative place and I think that is what sets us apart.”
– Erin Scheckenbach
She has also utilized Facebook Live to promote previous Giving Tuesday initiatives, and is looking into engaging the Top Fans feature for the Facebook site.
Michelle noted that it is important not to underestimate the potential of social media for Giving Tuesday. She achieved half their donations through Facebook, and half through email. She found that using a big “donate” call-to-action button and making the process as simple as possible to the donation page was helpful in driving support.
Another strategy is to examine what is effective with your organization through A/B testing. For example, your organization can try out different “call to action” buttons like “Learn More” or “Donate”. Erin has also tried A/B testing with email subject lines, to determine the most effective messaging.
By testing different platforms and channels, as well as honing your messaging, your organization can determine the most effectives ways to reach audiences!
Start Small and Set Reasonable Goals
If this is your first Giving Tuesday, it’s important to set reasonable goals! To start, Danielle suggested taking Giving Tuesday as an opportunity to learn more about your members and donors.
“Be sure to focus on your metrics and celebrate all of your small victories. Just remember if you’re just getting started, you may not rake in a boatload of cash, but you are going to meet some amazing new donors. You’re going to build up your database. You are going to reach audiences that you haven’t yet reached, and then you’re just going to keep building on that.”
– Danielle McCausland
Erin agreed with Danielle, noting that metrics are a great way to measure your success and plan for the following year. If you are starting from scratch, set realistic goals that all of your staff members can collaborate on. For example, in 2018, she first started and raised $1,500 and the next year, they received a matching gift from their board of trustees and raised over $10,000.
That being said, your goals also do not have to be entirely financial.
“It can be a lot about who your followers are and getting new audiences and doing some different kinds of measurements and getting your name and institution out there right now. I think starting small, but just starting is the most important thing.”
– Erin Scheckenbach
Small achievements, like connecting with new donors, are all part of the process. By starting small, next year you’ll be able to go even further!
Promote Memberships in Conjunction with Giving Tuesdays
In addition to promoting donations on Giving Tuesday, encouraging folks to become members or upgrade their membership can be another effective strategy.
For example, some members may be hesitant to give more on Giving Tuesday, so Michelle advised organizations to encourage their members to upgrade their membership level. They may be more comfortable giving when you highlight the additional benefits that they can receive. Highlighting membership gifts at this time of year can also encourage members to buy membership gifts for family or friends.
“You can communicate with your members and make sure that they know the added value. Depending on the size of your organization or what your program levels allow, perhaps you can develop some kind of incentive that would go as a benefit towards just a donor. Maybe your annual donors receive an invitation to something special that even though your members get lots of benefits, they might not get invited to this.”
– Danielle McCausland
By adding exclusive benefits that differentiate your membership levels, you can motivate members and donors to upgrade their membership or make an additional gift.
With less than a month left until Giving Tuesday, now is the time to look into marketing campaigns through platforms, collaborations with other organizations, or transparent messaging to your members and community. It can also be a great time to promote your memberships and encourage members to renew or stay engaged with the organization. If you haven’t participated in past Giving Tuesdays, this is the time to start by setting measurable goals that you can expand on in upcoming years!
Further Reading: