Giving season is on the way. It may seem like an eternity until then as we bake in the heat of August, but it is not that far into the future. In fact, now is the time to start planning for the Giving Season.
There are two main areas to consider when preparing your company for the upcoming season and for Giving Tuesday on Dec. 3rd. Planning Your Campaign Strategy and Creating Your Marketing and Communications Campaign. These areas need to be developed now to ensure a successful season that results in increased donations, participation, and increased awareness of your organization.
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Planning Your Campaign Strategy
In order to have a successful season, it is essential that a specific strategy is developed first, before any tactics are initiated. When creating your strategy, there are two key items that are often overlooked, so I thought they deserve mention upfront:
- Clarify and Refine Your Mission Statement
Before you ask someone for money or support, you need to have a very clearly defined Mission Statement. We all know this, but it is still surprising how many members of non-profit marketing teams cannot clearly articulate the organization’s mission. If people can’t easily understand what the problem is and how your organization is solving it, then your mission statement might need a little work. Keeping these two questions in mind as you consider this year’s strategy helps you stay mission focused throughout the campaign and helps donors and supporters clearly understand why they should get involved.
- Set Realistic Campaign Goals
Now is the time to decide on what your goals are for 2019. This will include both financial and non-financial goals. The campaign goals should be realistic and based on results from previous campaigns. What worked, what didn’t, and why? Apply some critical thinking here and be a little tough on yourself. It’s not good enough to just throw up your hands and say “Last year the economy was down, so it makes sense that donations were down too.” Keep asking tough questions and you might find that you could have done some things better.
To help set your goals, make sure you consider the following:
- Do you want to increase donation amounts or participation levels? Or both?
- What is your donation strategy? Larger monetary donations from fewer sources? Or broader participation with smaller size donations?
- Segment donors by the RFM method (Recency, Frequency, and Monetary)
- Should you focus more on one segment? Why?
- Has anything changed in your organization, like personnel or budget, that would make it either more difficult or easier to meet or exceed last year’s numbers?
Creating Your Marketing and Communication Campaign
Next comes the marketing and communication campaign that gives you the best chance of reaching your target audience. While the organization’s main mission may be the same as last year, the marketing campaign should not be just the same old thing with new dates. Don’t just re-package the same material used previously.
Marketing plans can be simple outlines of activities, ideally with due dates and the names of those responsible for all the different aspects of every campaign tactics. Who’s designing the outreach materials? Who writes the appeal letter? Who updates the website and when should that be done? When does the first email newsletter blast go out? You can have a full blown 30 page marketing plan with tables, ROI, financials, etc, but in most cases, a simple spreadsheet with columns for campaign name, tactics, due date, responsible party and a notes/results section should work just fine.
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Here are a handful of other activities that might need to be considered. And there’s no time like the present.
- Create a theme that touches on people’s empathy.
- Develop a Marketing Calendar for communication activities.
- Don’t forget to make #GivingTuesday a significant milestone on your calendar or timeline.
- Create emails and newsletters that offer in-depth information and clear calls-to-action.
- Decide on use and frequency of newsletters, emails, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc.
- Ensure all branding and messaging is consistent across different platforms and channels. That means fonts, colors, logos, messages, graphics, campaign names, etc.
- Use photos, images, videos, and stories that connect emotionally with potential donors.
- Remember, people care about people. Even if you are an environmental organization, don’t forget to include the effect your efforts have on people.
- Update your website:
- Place call-to-action information on home page.
- Create micro-site or dedicated landing pages.
- Include donation button on home page.
- Make the donation path as easy as possible. The less clicks the better.
- And it goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway, make sure your web pages are responsive (mobile friendly) and secure. If you don’t have an SSL security certificate on your website (so your url reads https://yourdomain.org and not just http://yourdomain.org) get one immediately. Some browsers may not even show your site without one.
- Update your social media accounts:
- Create specific campaign hashtags.
- Create specific content for specific platforms (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook etc.).
- Consider social media ads, directed at followers, leading up to #GivingTuesday.
- Pin a post about your campaign to the top of your profile and keep it there for the season.
After Giving Tuesday, or whenever your year starts to wrap up, keep the momentum going! Let people know the results and tell them how they contributed to the campaign’s success. If possible, thank donors with personalized notes and cards that specifically reference their names, their donations, and even how they gave.
And don’t forget to develop a retention program. People who contributed need to be brought into the family. Get them on your email newsletter list. Send them information on future projects and initiatives. Let them know of updates that effect your cause. Inform them about volunteer opportunities. Keeping them involved throughout the year makes it easier to convert them into donors again next year!