Episode 5: Giving Days from the Executive's View

Now that the non-profit space has been doing Giving Days for a while now, there are PLENTY of blogs, courses, videos, and free advice of tactics to increase awareness and donations to our organizations. But, what roles do the founder, executive director, and board of directors play in a Giving Day?

💡 - How should leaders steer the ship during our year end campaigns?

Listen in to learn:

✅  - The Year End Giving Checklist

✅  - The Perfect December Calendar

✅  - Roles of Leadership in Fundraising

✅  - Simple Principles and Tactics for Giving Days

#GivingDay #GivingTuesday #EndofYear #Endofyeargiving

Transcript

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welcome to the this is his story podcast the executive director and pastor guide to sewing and reaping online givers leaders at christian organizations and churches wear many hats and let's face it they don't all fit perfectly while focusing on mission staff vendors fundraising and goals there's the matter of digital strategies technology and trends move at breakneck speeds in managing your christian organization's online efforts can seem like a full-time job todd turner has been in your shoes he spent his life helping faith-based organizations build solid ethical online fundraising strategies that work listen in and subscribe to grow your knowledge increase your ability to lead your digital efforts and be encouraged as you navigate your organization in the digital world of ministry and fundraising welcome to episode 5 giving days from the executive's view well you know now that the nonprofit space has been doing giving days for a while giving tuesday right there are plenty of blogs courses videos free advice of all the tactics that you can use to increase awareness to your organization and increase your donations but what roles does leadership does the founder of your non-profit executive director or even board of directors like what what role do they play in a giving day and what can they do don't see a lot of that information out there on the internet when there's only talking to marketing directors and webmasters as people offer advice give a counsel of what to do to make noise for your organization but you know how should leaders steer the ship during your year-end campaigns all right well so listen then today we're going to talk a little bit about the urine giving checklist the perfect december calendar rolls of leadership and giving day fundraising and some simple principles and even a little bit of tactics for giving days all right let's get started so you know the end of year really doesn't begin in november and december but this is when i'm putting this podcast out because if you're listening you're either behind the eight ball at this 11th hour or you're double checking your work i'm putting it out because this is when people listen and try to learn a little bit and so i'm encouraging you next year to take your knowledge and start somewhere in september that's when most of my clients get started i do not like waiting to the last minute i like being way way out ahead with giving day plans but you know the year goes by so fast for all of us it just feels like our urine fundraising strategies are always around the corner and so just listen to this to prime the pop when you think about giving days for you and your organization and the leadership of your organization okay well if you listen to me much you know i give way more principles than tactic like everybody can give tactics out there but if you don't have the principles to filter those tactics through you just end up with a lot of will spinning and frustration because the needle never really moves of your digital fundraising when you just trying out plays here and there it just doesn't work right so let's let's stay high level for a minute first of all make your giving day part of your end-of-year strategy never ever ever plan a giving day don't pay a consultant or vendor to just do giving day for you giving day should always be taken out of the vacuum and put into a larger strategy of december end of year you're going to most likely bring in more money for december than you do in one day if you're not you got a bigger problem because you should be so what i want you to do is create a whole plan where the giving tuesday is just a sub part of that plan so related to that i want you to get in a room to do your end of year planning and i want you to bring in sort of everybody the kitchen sink of the team bring in the development team marketing your web team anybody that's involved in the whole messaging for your organization and talk about december come up with the theme your campaign think about what other campaigns are going on don't just leave end of year much less giving tuesday to the technical and marketing teams alone giant advice there you need to think really really high level before you zero into giving tuesday in that working meeting i want you to get into the weeds after you figure the big picture out and i want you to think about specific drop dates times are you gonna send things out on the weekend in the mornings you know what email what social media posts like get down into the weeds of it because it will not be successful unless you have details just the idea of well we'll send out a couple of social media posts hopefully we'll raise money for giving tuesday no no no you really need to know the emails the subject lines and sometimes you can't pull that off unless you've got a really great fast creative team who might be able to do that all at once i've worked with organizations that we don't leave the room until we know the theme the layout the segmentation of the emails that go out in the morning in the evening what social media who's doing what what the retweets or the pushing of the board of directors or their executive director we know what everybody's going to do before we walk out of that meeting which sort of ties into another point we'll get here here and that is development team and board members what can they do to help well the answer is linkedin social media making noise for the organization that you represent or want to help during giving tuesday is huge one of the problems is i'm going to use linkedin for example you just can't go from zero to a hundred on linkedin and expect your post to do any good like if you're not already making noise on some of the social media and then all of a sudden you scream on giving tuesday the algorithm's not gonna treat you very well so that's another suggestion to drip a little bit more content consistently i would say your owner your founder your executive director everyone should be making a little bit of noise that way they can make more noise on the special days that would be beneficial to have more than just the organization's social media accounts making noise right the other thing is not everybody is technically savvy so i would say very nice to send out a email to the board of directors or anyone else that's a big supporter of your organization and say here's what's going on on giving tuesday i'd love you to like this i'd love you to share this if you do here's a picture you can put with it here's exact wording you can use just lay it at their feet and give them what they need to be successful without having put a lot of effort because once again you don't know what's going to be on their wall that day when they get to facebook and will they even see what you posted so just help them out of you know at 7 am we're going to post this it would be nice between 7 and 10 that you could reshare that here's what you could do to help us push it on social media if you wouldn't mind saying this or adding this link just make it easy on them and on every giving tuesday and any end of year push your board of directors high level executive vice presidents anybody who's large or has a high profile role should be championing any kind of campaign you have online it widens the net of exposure but it also puts proof in the pudding that these people really love the organization they're promoting it they're putting their money and their mouth where their heart is and it says a lot and so when your board directors don't say anything on social media it's really sort of concerning it doesn't show synergy and energy that people like to be a part of when they donate on giving tuesday also always always always tie in your giving tuesday to the end of the year i talk about this a lot more in my master class but briefly always let them be related i like giving cheesy to prime the pump for the end of your strategy so whatever topic in the campaign is i find something that is related and it's sort of the first domino to fall that knocks over a bigger domino for end of year so i don't want the giving choose the ask to be so different than the one they're gonna hear literally just weeks later it just doesn't make sense and sometimes if they give the one you can come back to them and say oh you did that well now look who else you can do you only get two gifts out of anybody that gives on giving tuesday because they really appreciate whatever made them give on giving tuesday that's the same propensity that they'd probably give to the end of the year and now you can double the gifts by just tweaking a little bit more of what you're gonna ask for and i'm just gonna throw it in as well always always always do a great job at first time givers to your organization with a welcome flow but instead of being focused on the amount of money brought in for giving tuesday how about just being glad at the new names and the ability to have long-term value with a new donor don't forget to thank them for their gift and pull them in very nicely because normally you can get another gift by the end of the year as well if you do a good job with your thank you to the new people as well so listen giving tuesday it's not easy not to do it well but it is fun you know there's nothing special about giving tuesday if you put as much effort in to giving any other day than you are on giving tuesday you'd probably do just as well that's not 100 true because giving choosy does have momentum but i would say i see a lot of organizations go really out of their way on giving tuesday i'm like if you just put that much effort into your interviewer or may 28th like it doesn't really matter but when you're firing on all cylinders like a lot of people do on giving tuesday that's what makes you successful all year round and lastly before i leave you just can't go from quiet to full blast on giving tuesday if people aren't used to hearing from you if you don't make consistent communications with them on social media and your email and your website if you just don't do a good job communicating you're just gonna be screaming into the grand canyon on giving tuesday because people can tell that you're just going out of your way to get a dollar from them and it's really not authentic and it's gonna come across like that so good luck this year i hope you replay this next year maybe you mark it down to remind yourself next next september to get in a room and start thinking high level about your giving tuesday and end of year strategies thank you for listening to today's episode of this is his story podcast overwhelmed at all the technical terms trends options cost invoice signings for your organization's digital strategies join other leaders of christian organizations as we join hands in our closed facebook group go to creativedigitalguide.com facebook to register and apply for access i'm only allowing executives of christian organizations in no vendors no high pressure sales no gimmicks into this closed facebook group sign up today and be encouraged and informed as you lead your christian organization looking for a free resource to help your organization move the needle on new names and donors watch the five simple shifts to gain dedicated donors with your digital strategies webinar go to creativedigitalguy.com to register for this on-demand resource built exclusively for executive directors creativedigitalguy.com for more information of gaining donors and telling stories that convert to new names and donations find your god size mission