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Fundraising Tuesday: Did Your Giving Tuesday Email Work?

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Last Tuesday, I didn’t see any email from nonprofits.

Email overwhelmOkay, just kidding. Last Tuesday, I was driving home from Thanksgiving. When I arrived at home and checked my inbox, I had dozens of email messages from nonprofits of every size, shape, and description.

Because it was Giving Tuesday.

Giving Tuesday email that worked

Giving Tuesday

In case you haven’t heard, Giving Tuesday was created when two organizations, the 92nd Street Y and the United Nations Foundation, came together in 2012, about a month before that year’s Thanksgiving. They reasoned that if there was a “Black Friday” for buying retail, and a “Cyber Monday” for buying online, why not a day set aside for the joy of giving?

Since then, a lot more organizations have flooded donor’s inboxes with email on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. But more is not always better. Which email messages actually get opened and read, and which bring in donations?

The email campaigns I saw that seemed most likely to succeed:

  1. Started before Tuesday. On Thanksgiving, or all the month of November, they told donors how much their donations mattered. And on the holiday weekend, they reminded donors that Giving Tuesday was coming.
  2. Drew me in with the subject line.
  3. Offered a reason to give. A matching grant (“Your gift doubled this mornng,” said WNYC Radio). A success story from a client. A heartwarming quote from a fellow donor about how it feels to support you. Any of those (plus colorful photos!) will increase the chance of that email turning into an actual donation.

What doesn’t work, any day of the year

Counting on the fact that it's Giving Tuesday to spur donations is like opening a bank account and expecting people to start making deposits. Click To Tweet

Let’s face it, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving isn’t going to be the donors’ last chance to give, is it? You’re going to send them the ideal appeal letter in the mail. You’re going to remind them to give by phone, by social media, and even by more email.

The urgency just isn’t there because someone declared it’s Giving Tuesday.

last chance

So, the emails that are unlikely to raise much money:

  1. Had the subject line, “It’s Giving Tuesday!”
  2. Asked for a gift for a vague reason, like “support our work for the public interest.”
  3. Made it all about the organization: “Are you with us for #GivingTuesday?”
  4. Worst of all, asked vaguely AND made it all about the organization, not the cause or the donor: “We’re facing unprecedented challenges.”

If your email could possibly leave the donor saying, “So what?”, then please rewrite your email! (You’ll have plenty more days in December to reach the donor’s hearts.)

Fundraising Tuesday: Raise Money Better than Wikipedia Does

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Wikipedia logoYou’re just a little nonprofit working on homelessness, or hunger, the environment, or the arts, queer inclusion or anti-racism, in your own community.

Wikipedia is read by 1.4 billion people worldwide.

Can you really do a better job at fundraising than Wikipedia? Absolutely. Click To Tweet

Understanding Social Proof

Which statement is more likely to attract donations?

  • Very few people give, so we desperately need your help.
  • Lots of people give, and you will be in good company when you do.

It’s the second statement.

Surprised? Then take a moment to learn about social proof.

Social proof means that when you show me that many people believe something, it makes me more likely to believe it. When you show me that a good number of people are doing something, I am more likely to do it too.

That’s why people trying to end binge drinking have stopped saying “Binge drinking is a terribly big problem and we have to do something about it.” Saying that only normalizes the behavior. It drives drinkers in the wrong direction!

Instead, showing that only a really small percentage of people who drink alcohol get wasted is a much more effective way of preventing binge drinking. (It works with other forms of addiction, too.)

How Wikipedia Drove Donors in the Wrong Direction

Canadian fundraising expert Mike Duerksen pointed out on Twitter:

3 times @Wikipedia used negative social proof in one ad, likely harming #fundraising & suppressing response.

1. Only a tiny portion of readers give

2. Most people will ignore this message

3. If everyone reading donated

Image

Image

I can almost see Mike shaking his head. He laments that Wikipedia “frames giving as not normal and of little value.” And why would any of us want donors to think that?

 

Using Positive Social Proof to Raise Funds

Here’s how you can make social proof work for you, instead.

  • Share stories from other donors about how giving to your nonprofit makes them feel.
  • Share stories from people who benefited last year “because you gave.”
  • Use endorsements from well-known and well-liked people.
  • If you’re going to use numbers, use really big and meaningful numbers!
  • Use photos of real people who resemble your target audience.

So the audience should be able to say, “Yes, those people are like me and they are using that product or service. Therefore, I’m the type of person who would use it.” –Bernard Ross, The Power of Social Proof

TY Thursday: The Ideal Thank-You Letter, 2019

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I’m republishing one of the most popular posts ever on this blog. Read to the bottom for the 2019 update!

I have seen the ideal appeal letter.  I haven’t yet seen the ideal thank-you letter.  But it went out today.  Did you send it?

Thanks in many languages

If you wrote the ideal thank-you letter, you:

Most important: it’s the ideal thank-you letter because it went out today. 

The sooner you acknowledge my gift, the more likely I am to remember it, and give again. Within 24 hours of your receiving my check is ideal.  Within a week is acceptable.  But no matter how long it’s been, don’t put it off any longer.  Send that letter today.

2019 update:

Nearly every nonprofit sends an automatic acknowledgment for online gifts. That’s a step in the right direction–but a) if your message sounds more like a tax receipt than a thank-you, you may lose the donor right there, and b) auto-thanking is not enough. There are so many other ways to say thank you!

toasting

Raise a glass to…your donor

Aside from sending the ideal thank-you letter, you could thank your donors online, make and send a thank-you video, send a card or a gift, write a poem, make a toast, or remember the donor when they are going through a hard time and do something to help.

See my Thank-You Thursday posts for more ideas! (Type TYThursday into the Search box at the bottom of this page.)

 

 

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