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How to host a successful Giving Tuesday campaign

Giving Tuesday presents an opportunity to mobilize your team around a popular worldwide observance and support an impact area that’s important to your company values.

Here’s a primer on Giving Tuesday, along with ideas to run a successful Giving Tuesday campaign.

What is Giving Tuesday?

Giving Tuesday was founded in 2012 as a global generosity movement designed to mobilize individuals and corporations to make an impact. Giving Tuesday campaigns can range from volunteering opportunities to donating money to support community initiatives.

For corporations, Giving Tuesday is an ideal time to activate employees around a core social impact experience, and publicly share these initiatives.

Giving Tuesday is particularly important for nonprofits, as it’s a day when they can raise a majority of funds from a wide variety of donors: In the U.S., donors gave $3.1 billion to organizations on Giving Tuesday 2022.

When is Giving Tuesday 2023?

Giving Tuesday 2023 falls on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. In 2023, Giving Tuesday is November 28, 2023.

In order to prepare for effective Giving Tuesday campaigns, companies may start to plan employee experiences several months before the important date. September or early October is a good time to plan a corporate Giving Tuesday campaign.

What are Giving Tuesday campaign examples?

Giving Tuesday campaign examples can take many forms, from a simple social media post to encourage people to support a specific nonprofit to a week-long volunteering event that everyone in your organization can participate in.

Giving Tuesday campaigns for corporations frequently go beyond a donation: They also include a social impact activity such as writing letters, building kits, participating in a workshop, and collaborating with colleagues in a fun team-building experience.

To effectively get the most out of your Giving Tuesday campaign, pair a corporate donation with an employee engagement experience designed to get your whole team excited about the nonprofit your organization is supporting.

Here’s how to plan a successful Giving Tuesday campaign that engages your employees and supports an important community mission.

1. Define your Giving Tuesday impact area

Chances are, your company already has impact areas that align with your corporate values. Giving Tuesday is a perfect time to reinforce the ways in which your organization will support your community.

Use your impact areas to focus your Giving Tuesday campaign. For example, if your corporate values include sustainable business practices, choose to support an environmental nonprofit. If your values involve building a positive company culture, you may want to partner with a DEIB-focused organization.

2. Plan Giving Tuesday social impact experiences

For your employees, social impact experiences will be the most memorable part of your Giving Tuesday campaign. Regardless of whether your employees work remotely, hybrid, or in-person, with a social impact provider such as Visit.org, your employees can participate in fun, engaging, and meaningful experiences to honor Giving Tuesday while connecting with their peers.

Volunteering experiences are highly popular for corporate Giving Tuesday campaigns, such as building winter kits for a nonprofit that supports people experiencing homelessness. But also explore activities that can nourish your employees: Giving Tuesday marks the start of the holiday season, and while the holidays can be “the most wonderful time of the year” for some folks, for others it may be stressful. Consider hosting social impact experiences that help your employees manage end-of-year anxiety. With Visit.org, such wellness experiences are hosted by and benefit nonprofit partners.

3. Promote your Giving Tuesday campaign to employees

Once you have your impact area defined and your Giving Tuesday social impact experience selected, it’s time to invite your employees to participate in your organization’s Giving Tuesday activity.

In addition to sending them the necessary information they need, such as registration links and event details, also include information about your nonprofit partner.

It’s particularly important to highlight the impact your employees will make in their community by participating in the events. When employees know how their volunteer efforts make a tangible difference, they’ll be more likely to participate in Giving Tuesday social impact experience.

4. Host your event!

Host your employee social impact event in the days before or on Giving Tuesday to honor the observance with your team. At the beginning of the event, try inviting an executive from your company to say a few words to underscore the importance of supporting the community where your company operates.

During the event, be sure to take a lot of photos. If your event is in-person, consider hiring a professional photographer to capture high-quality images that you can share on social media and include in your end-of-year impact report.

If your event is an online experience, make time to pause after the activity to take a few screenshots of your employees volunteering. Visit.org’s Certified Event Hosts can help you capture the perfect photo.

5. Measure your impact

Measure the impact of your Giving Tuesday campaign by tracking social impact key performance indicators (KPIs). Understanding your event metrics can help you gauge the success of your experience and help you improve your observance campaign strategies going forward.

Main KPIs to track for Giving Tuesday include:

Number of employee participants
Total employee participation hours
Total dollars donated to your nonprofit partner
Employee satisfaction

Visit.org’s automatic, real-time reporting and customizable post-event surveys can help track your event in real time.

6. Amplify your campaign

Soon after your Giving Tuesday campaign concludes, share details about the event with employees, stakeholders, and customers to amplify your community impact and mission of your nonprofit partner. You can share the experience via:

Social media
Internal company newsletters
External newsletters
A press release
Blog posts
Quarterly impact reports
Slack or email

Be sure to include a link to your nonprofit partner’s donation website to encourage members of your community to support their mission, too.

Learn how Visit.org is helping Fortune 500 companies observe Giving Tuesday. Schedule a demo today.