#GivingTuesday is finally here! Not only is #GivingTuesday important for fundraising, but it’s also important for the collection of rich data. While you and your team have put a lot of work into #GivingTuesday, it is important to note that the real work begins the day after!
With the right plan, this data can really set yourself up for continued success after #GivingTuesday. If you’re wondering where to start, let’s explore the steps you can take to put your plan into action!
Step 1: Understand your #GivingTuesday Donors
#GivingTuesday has generated a lot of momentum towards your year-end fundraising goals and it is crucial to keep the momentum going. The data you have collected on this day can set you up for successful year-end fundraising as well as a fundraising plan for next year. This is especially true when combined with the right technology. Once you have promptly sent out thank you notes and receipts to #GivingTuesday donors, it is important to understand and know who has contributed to your campaign.
Find out what makes them tick and understand them in a holistic way that goes beyond wealth to include their interests, lifestyle, passions, and affinities.
Step 2: Personalize Every Touch
Understanding your donors enables you to speak to them in a way that resonates. Every touch can ensure that their lifetime value (LTV) goes up and that retention gets strengthened.
Personalization goes beyond using their first name in emails. Your tone, language, subject matter, and images can be customized to increase personalization. Screening your #GivingTuesday donors gives you rich information about them. A solution like WE Analyze can then be used to find patterns within a set of donors and create effective segments that improve personalization.
Step 3: Create your own Branded “Giving” Day
Now, there are many new holidays or giving days- Christmas in July is now a thing! Similarly, you can find a theme that resonates with your donors’ interests and use these insights to create a compelling event.
While you may not have the scale and publicity of #GivingTuesday, you can still benefit from standing out with your own messaging at a time of the year when things are quieter. Moreover, branding this day can generate credibility for your organization in the long run.
Step 4: Learn What Makes your #GivingTuesday Donors Different
#GivingTuesday is a great gateway to attract new donors to your cause. The global and viral nature of this day garners the attention of a wider range of people. You have an opportunity to really study these prospects and understand what makes them different from those who give major gifts or give to your annual fund.
Use wealth and lifestyle data for predictive modeling and prospecting to support your year-round fundraising efforts. Predictive prospecting can help you identify more donors like these who you may have missed through your regular communications through the year.
Step 5: Move Beyond Annual Screening
When it comes to fundraising, you’re really competing for wallet share more than anything else. Restricting yourself to annual screenings, or worse, working with data that is a few years old, can be counterproductive.
Real estate and stock market values change constantly resulting in net worth changes. Life stage changes can occur changing the demands on a donor’s wallet. Regular screenings can give you up to date information and strengthen your communication.
In fact, you can access data in real time through API. This relevant and actionable data can easily integrate with your existing DMS which means that you can receive a current wealth and giving propensity score as soon as someone engages with your platform. Outreach can be quick and cultivation can begin immediately following their interaction with your platform.
Step 6: Build Stickiness Using Insight on Affinity Groups
As we noted earlier, you can leverage your #GivingTuesday data to create segments of like-minded donors. These groups can receive messages and event invitations tailored to their interests and affinities. Same goes for social media. You can create subgroups for each segment to ensure that the group only receives relevant information from your organization.
A customized message is more likely to resonate and less likely to be as disruptive.
With these steps, you can make effective use of #GivingTuesday data to keep the momentum going for your ongoing fundraising efforts. Once you’ve gathered this data, screening and segmenting allow you to really understand your donors. Understanding them enables you to communicate personalized messages that engage them in ways that are more accessible and relatable. Personalization can be supported by a branded “giving” day and other events that increase stickiness or continued support.
Contact us to learn more about screening, predictive prospecting and integrating real-time data into your existing Donor Management Systems.
