EP 42: Giving Tuesday -- How to Make It Work for Your Organization

Positioning review: Reframed prescriptive statements into experiential/descriptive language. Removed direct "you should" directives and replaced with softened framing. See Original vs. Revised pairs below.

Original: "you've got to factor in what kind of touch points have I had throughout the year" --> Revised: kept as-is; natural conversational self-reflection, not prescriptive.

Original: "We should always remind people that we're grateful" --> Revised: kept as-is; "should" here is about gratitude practice, not a directive to the listener.

Original: "don't feel like giving Tuesday means I have to go out and ask for money" --> Revised: kept as-is; this is actually removing pressure/prescription, which aligns with positioning.

Intro: Welcome to the Elevate Your Event Podcast, where we talk about how to plan and execute an unforgettable event that will dazzle your guests and generate more income for your organization. From fundraising and securing trendy auction items to event production and logistics, get the best tips and advice from seasoned fundraising and event professionals who have been in your shoes.

Jeff Porter: Okay, welcome back to the Elevate Your Event Podcast, where we talk about all the various ways you can make your next fundraising event or, in this case, giving campaign better. We've got a special audience today. We have pulled Stephanie Mason from the technical booth onto the podcast floor to share all of her wisdom on Giving Tuesday.

Stephanie Mason: What can I say? I'm a sucker for Giving Tuesday. I'm definitely a sucker for Handbid.

Jeff Porter: She's totally in her comfort zone right now. We love to have her on. And then we've also been joined by Elise Druckenmiller, Handbid's client service guru. And Jeff Porter, CEO of Handbid. We are here to talk about Giving Tuesday -- by request from some of our viewers or listeners, depending on whether you're on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, or wherever.

Jeff Porter: Giving Tuesday, which we were actually joking about -- it is actually Tuesday, November 28th this year. So we're going to talk about what in the heck it is. The first thing we also need to figure out is why it's the Tuesday after Cyber Monday and Black Friday. But I'm a dude, so I don't leave the house on Friday. I watch football and buy everything online on Monday. That's just kind of how I think a lot of guys are wired, whereas my wife is the one walking out the door at 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving to go shop all night.

Stephanie Mason: That's right.

Jeff Porter: I would have to go through therapy if I did that. Okay, but we're here to talk about Giving Tuesday. Stephanie, give us a little bit of a definition, background on it. How did it go last year?

Stephanie Mason: All right. Fun facts about Giving Tuesday. It was created in 2012. And it's not just a U.S. thing, which I actually didn't know. It's a global movement for giving. If you go to their website, there's a whole map. They're in about 90 countries.

Jeff Porter: Elise is here to hold Stephanie accountable for accuracy, which is good. Which is my day-to-day relationship with Elise.

Stephanie Mason: So, I mean, do people actually give? Is it really a thing? It sounds like it. Last year in the U.S., 35 million adults participated, which was up 6% from the previous year. And they gave $3.1 billion.

Jeff Porter: But it doesn't always have to just be money. I think the whole purpose of Giving Tuesday is to promote generosity in the United States and around the world. It can be donating your time. It could be donating cash. It could be donating physical goods. So think about all those different ways you can participate.

Jeff Porter: As an organization, you might be thinking, do we participate in this or not? Any time you can use some sort of national movement as an opportunity to communicate with donors, it's worth doing. It's like Thanksgiving -- that's why this is a little strange. As a charity, we would always send out a thank-you around Thanksgiving. "We're grateful for you." And then five days later, we're going to do the same thing and ask for more money.

Jeff Porter: We're going to talk about that, but anytime you have the opportunity to thank your veterans, thank the country you live in, thank your donors, thank the constituents that you support as a charity -- all of those things. We should always remind people that we're grateful for the things they do for our organizations.

Elise Druckenmiller: Absolutely. We just did one on volunteers. Thank your volunteers too.

Jeff Porter: But in terms of Giving Tuesday, you have this opportunity to participate. They've got the logo. You can throw that out on your social media. And now the question is, am I going out and asking for money? In a lot of cases that could be true. But I don't want everybody listening to think that's what you have to do. Maybe you just ran your gala last week. It's going to be weird to then two weeks later say, "Hey, it's Giving Tuesday. You just gave me $10,000 two weeks ago. Will you give me more money?"

Jeff Porter: You can think about ways to use Giving Tuesday as just another excuse to do whatever. If you haven't run a fundraiser or done an ask in a while, it's a great opportunity to do one. Or if you don't have a year-end ask, this could be the catalyst.

Elise Druckenmiller: The other thing I really love about Giving Tuesday is bringing your organization beyond just your normal donors who are already participating. I like Giving Tuesday because of the momentum that's been built with it. The hashtag Giving Tuesday -- I see it everywhere around this time of year. It increases the visibility of your organization and what you do to people who maybe have not heard of you before.

Elise Druckenmiller: It can also expand your donor base. There are a lot of people that sometimes feel like, well, I don't want to go to the gala, I like this organization, but I can't give $5,000. But I could give a few hundred dollars or $100. Giving Tuesday makes it accessible for people to do that.

Jeff Porter: I think that makes sense. It's not an easy formula because you've got to factor in what kind of touch points you've had throughout the year, how recent those touch points have been, whether you feel like you're in a position to do this, and whether you're planning on participating in your state giving day -- which here in Colorado is the week after. So you've got to factor all those things in to determine what you really want to do on Giving Tuesday.

Jeff Porter: Or maybe you turn Giving Tuesday into something else. Say you're a Colorado charity and you want to use Giving Tuesday as the opening conversation around your Colorado Gives Day campaign on December 5th. That's another idea. Or maybe you just say, we're not going to do anything on Giving Tuesday -- we're just going to give back as an organization. We're going to do something amazing for our constituents, or for our volunteers, or our donors. Maybe you're buying coffee gift cards for your major donors and giving them out saying, "You've given to us, we're going to give back to you."

Elise Druckenmiller: I like that idea. I volunteer a lot, so I really like that idea.

Jeff Porter: Thank goodness you don't volunteer for me because I don't have a gift card to give you.

Jeff Porter: But let's talk about campaigns. In most cases, this isn't going to be a fundraising event. I know this is the Elevate Your Event Podcast, but we also talk about other ways to raise money. And one of those could be some sort of campaign. Let's talk about the different types of campaigns that are available that a lot of charities do, or some that we run on the Handbid platform that could apply here.

Jeff Porter: A couple of ways you could raise money. You can do a peer-to-peer fundraiser. We'll talk about what that is in a second. You could do a text-to-give campaign. This one is not my favorite, but organizations still do the pledge drive -- where they just pledge to give X by the end of the year. I don't love that, but some organizations do it.

Jeff Porter: Those are all different ways to solicit donations. In any of those cases, Giving Tuesday is the catalyst for the conversation, but it shouldn't be the message. The message is who you are and what you do.

Stephanie Mason: What I like about peer-to-peer fundraisers combined with Giving Tuesday, if that's your launch day, is that Giving Tuesday -- having been created in 2012 -- the younger generations are very familiar with it. I like that because then you can really get the youth and families involved. Creating a peer-to-peer can be fun for your family, get your kids involved, and they're telling their friends. It makes it fun.

Jeff Porter: I think so. I agree. It is a good way to get other people thinking about the spirit of giving and generosity.

Jeff Porter: All of those things could work. So let's talk about text to give, because that means a lot of different things. This might be a good opportunity to educate our listeners on what text to give really is and what it's not.

Jeff Porter: Text to give in the historical case was the "text $10 to Red Cross" -- text "Red Cross" to this number and we will donate $10 on your behalf. That's it. Those still exist, especially with natural disasters. Those campaigns go through something called the Mobile Giving Foundation in most cases.

Jeff Porter: What most people are doing these days with text to give is different. You'll work with a mobile bidding or online donation company -- Handbid is one of those. They're going to have what's called a short code, typically six digits. They'll allow you to have some sort of keyword response.

Jeff Porter: It's like donating on your website. Really no different. But you just have to understand that most systems work that way because that's the best way for them to work.

Jeff Porter: To recap, we walked through a lot of things. First, figure out where Giving Tuesday fits in your fundraising plan. Look at when you run your events, when you do your asks, how recent your last ask was. Don't feel like Giving Tuesday means you have to go out and ask for money. It could be time for you to give back.

Stephanie Mason: No, I think we got it all.

Jeff Porter: Well, thank you guys. We appreciate every single one of you. We wish you the best of luck on your next Giving Tuesday, your state giving day, or any other time that you might be running a fundraiser or doing an ask. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us. Until then, happy fundraising.