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Half Of NPOs Planned For GivingTuesday In 90 Days Or Less
Half Of NPOs Planned For GivingTuesday In 90 Days Or Less

Nearly six in 10 (59%) nonprofit leaders believe GivingTuesday is a “significant” part of their fundraising efforts. That figure includes some of the 45% who are actively fundraising today on GivingTuesday 2021 for the first time, according to Fundraising Best Practices for Giving Tuesday, a report from Tucson, Ariz.-based fundraising platform provider RallyUp. GivingTuesday is held annually on the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving.

First-time participants spike among smaller organizations and individuals, more than three-quarters (76%) of whom are new participants this year. Among those coordinating corporate social responsibility efforts, 60% are jumping in for the first time this year.

Despite the acknowledged impact of the day, some fundraisers don’t allow themselves a lot of run-up time before launching their GivingTuesday efforts. Just more than one-quarter (28%) started less than three months before the day, 17% beginning their preparations less than a month before and 5% starting less than a week prior to the big day.

GivingTuesday is all about the money for many organizations, although it is touted internationally as a day of generosity in cash, time and acts of kindness. Nearly 82% of respondents said they focused on the total amount of funds raised, while just under 46% gave significant merit to using the day to recruit new donors. Respondents reflected the donation-based focus when discussing best practices. More than 92% believe featuring a frequently updated progress bar with a preset goal – $35,000 toward a $50,000 target, with only four hours left! – as part of their efforts was a key GivingTuesday fundraising element.

Email is the dominant marketing medium for promoting GivingTuesday campaigns, with 76% of respondents listing it among the most effective online fundraising tools. Organic social media — posts generated or reposted by individual social media platform users – clocked in second at 67%.

Among social media platforms, Facebook led the pack as the most-effective platform, with 87% of respondents bowing to it. Instagram, another property under the Meta umbrella – the newly christened umbrella company for Facebook and its related entities – was listed as the second-most-effective platform, at 49%, and both platforms outpaced Twitter (19%) and LinkedIn (13%), with video-driven TikTok coming in at 5%.

The report authors speculate TikTok, a comparatively new entrant to the social media landscape, is far from demonstrating its full fundraising potential. Two-thirds of survey respondents (67%) said video success stories were the most effective way of demonstrating funds’ impact, followed by formal reports at 55%. Blog posts of nonprofit success stories were ranked highly by only 41%.

Regardless of channel or content, respondents stressed the importance of peer-to-peer assistance in fundraising. More than four in five (81%) said peer-to-peer fundraising was a significant contributor to their GivingTuesday efforts.

A copy of the full report is available here: https://rallyup.com/giving-tuesday-report/ The report was based off a survey conducted by RallyUp among CRM program providers, fundraisers and nonprofits. Six in 10 respondents represent small nonprofits.