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Faith Leaders 7min read

#GivingTuesday 11/29: Ignite Your Church Giving Now

Tuesday, November 29, 2016 is the annual, global day of giving known as Giving Tuesday. You might have seen it on Facebook and Twitter with the hashtag #GivingTuesday.

Giving Tuesday occurs every year on the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving. The charitable community has come together to create a widespread giving trend to offset the extreme spending of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

According to GivingTuesday.org, last year:

Over $116 million was donated in one day across all fundraising sectors

Faith-based organizations represented 21% of all contributions, the highest of any sector

The average donation was $107

Faith-based organizations averaged $280 per donation

Here are some immediate, simple things your church or organization can do to engage donations on the biggest giving day of the year.

Use Your Givelify App

How can you incorporate Giving Tuesday into your fundraising plan? If your organization is signed up for the Givelify mobile giving app, you can take advantage of our envelope feature. Here’s how:

  1. Create a #GivingTuesday envelope in the app
  2. Dedicate donations to the campaign to a certain cause in your community
  3. Use social media to ask your followers (and anyone else who searches the #GivingTuesday hashtag) to download Givelify, select the envelope, and donate

It’s really that simple! Don’t be afraid to promote your organization’s charitable causes. If you want to increase giving in your community, the extra Giving Tuesday publicity will help get the job done.

Create a #GivingTuesday Envelope

If you wish, you can create a giving envelope dedicated to #GivingTuesday and encourage your members to give to that campaign. To create a custom campaign, log in to your organization’s Givelify account on a computer and follow these steps:

  1. Click on Settings at the top right of your screen
  2. Click Offerings
  3. Click the New Campaign or New Offering button at the top right of your screen
  4. Fill out the form with the name of your campaign and a description
    1. If you want your campaign to only run for a certain period of time, enter your desired date range
    2. If you want to set a fundraising goal, click to turn the button to the on position and type the amount in the box provided
  5. Select Create
Create a #GivingTuesday Envelope

Click to enlarge

Customize Your Mobile Giving App Cover Photo

Now that you have created a special fundraising envelope, you have to ensure that donors will use it. By customizing your mobile giving app cover photo, you can alert donors to the campaign so they know to select the envelope when making a donation. Adding a #GivingTuesday-specific cover photo will remind your donors about the special importance of this day of giving.

To add an image to your profile:

  1. Click Settings at the top right of your screen
  2. Hover your mouse over the phone image until text boxes appear
  3. Click Change Your Cover Photo
  4. Select the image you would like to upload and click Open

You can download free images directly from GivingTuesday.org that you can use for your cover photo.

Customize Your Mobile Giving App Cover Photo

Click to enlarge

Use Social Giving

On social media, the trend gets bigger every year. In 2013, $10.1 million was processed on Giving Tuesday. The following year, that number increased to $19.2 million (npEngage).

This is not a passing internet fad, like planking or the Harlem Shake. According to Artez Interactive, Giving Tuesday is a very real way to increase donations:

On Giving Tuesday 2013, Facebook referred 29.4% of American traffic to donation pages

Tweets containing #GivingTuesday sent 700% more visitors to donation pages in Canada than on an average day

Your church or nonprofit can still capitalize on the buzz. Holding a food drive? Raising money for needy members of your community? Tweet about it! Share it on Facebook! Tag your relevant social media updates with #GivingTuesday to reach a much larger audience. Getting your fundraisers in front of more eyes can positively impact church and nonprofit giving.

Add a “Donate” Button To Your Facebook Page

If you think social media is only used by teens and young adults, you will be surprised to learn that 45% of Internet users over 65 and 31% of all U.S. senior citizens use Facebook. Members and donors from every age group will check their Facebook accounts to stay up-to-date with friends, relatives, and other causes and groups they care about.

You can add a Donate button to your organization’s Facebook profile. That way people can donate to your church or nonprofit through Givelify right from your Facebook page on their laptop, desktop, smartphone or tablet.

Your Facebook page’s category must be set to “Non-Profit Organization” in order to add the Donate call-to-action button. To change your category, click on About and hover over the Category line. Then click Edit and select Companies & Organizations from the first drop-down box, and Non-Profit Organization from the second. Click Save Changes.

Once you have made sure your account settings are correct, follow these steps to add Givelify to a call-to-action on your Facebook page:

  1. Log in to your organization’s Givelify dashboard.
  2. Click Settings.
  3. Click Social Giving.
  4. Click Copy to copy your custom code to your clipboard.
  5. Go to your organization’s Facebook page and click Add a Button, which appears just beneath your cover photo.
  6. Choose Donate from the drop-down box and paste your Givelify code in the Website field.
  7. Click Create.

Your donors will now be able to use the Givelify church giving app straight from your Facebook profile.

Social Giving

Make the Ask On Social

Having Givelify on your profile is important, but many of your followers do not regularly make it a point to visit your Facebook page. Instead, they interact with your page by seeing your posts show up in their News Feeds. To ensure that you are able to get the message of Givelify across to these followers, you will need to make posts containing links to give using Givelify.

Write a post encouraging your members to use Givelify, and then paste your social giving link after the text. Your organization’s Givelify profile will automatically appear in the preview. When your followers click the link, they will be taken directly to a form that will allow them to give.

If you want to keep one post front-and-center, use Facebook’s pinning feature to keep it at the very top of your page. Pinned posts tend to be seen by more people, and it will not get lost in your feed when you make future posts.

More Resources

Official #GivingTuesday Toolkits
Fundraising experts have created several toolkits and other resources to help you plan and execute your #GivingTuesday campaign. They include social media, sample press releases, sample outreach emails, and website tips.

Webinars and Reports From Blackbaud
As a founding partner of #GivingTuesday, the global movement dedicated to giving back, Blackbaud offers resources to help organizations join the movement that celebrates the willingness of others to give.

Free #GivingTuesday Campaign Planner from Salsa Labs
Use this #GivingTuesday Campaign Planner from Salsa Labs as a resource for your #GivingTuesday strategy and to help coincide with your end-of-year fundraising plan. With a little preparation, #GivingTuesday can be the just the boost your year-end fundraising campaign needs to win the hearts and minds (and hopefully the wallets) of those already in the giving spirit.

About the Author

Matt is dedicated to making the world a better place. He works passionately to help charitable causes use mobile technology to raise the funds they need. In addition to his role at Givelify, he volunteers with the Southside Animal Shelter and Kentuckiana Pug Rescue.

Matt Chandler