532. Strategies for a Successful GivingTuesday Campaign (NMS Replay) - Celeste Flores, Amanda Liaw, and Megan Huffman

Meet Celeste, Amanda, and Megan. They shared their insights and strategies for GivingTuesday during the Nonprofit Marketing Summit, discussing how to create a movement from within, leverage marketing to support your mission's growth, and engage your community in this year's campaign🙌🏻 We believe that the most powerful movements start from within, and this holds true for GivingTuesday. Tune in to learn from their conversation and case studies on maximizing your impact during GivingTuesday🎁

💡Learn

• How to activate a Giving Tuesday campaign that’s fueled by believers
• Ways to cut through the noise on GivingTuesday or any giving day
• Tips for creating movement that resonates year-round, not just one day

Today’s Guests

• Celeste Flores, Director, US + Canada Hub, GivingTuesday
• Amanda Liaw, Communications & Marketing Manager, Spur Local
• Megan Huffman, Director of Community Outreach & SHARE Greater Lynchburg, Greater Lynchburg Community Foundation

Episode Highlights

• Origins of GivingTuesday and opportunities that exist today (2:15)
• How nonprofits can leverage GivingTuesday (5:40)
• Strategies to cut through the noise and increase engagement (11:10)
• GivingTuesday strategies (17:00)
• Capacity building, personalized messaging and leveraging relationships (26:50)
• Leveraging resources and storytelling (31:00) 
• Celeste’s One Good Thing: Take a breath, and just pick one or two things that you're going to do this year. (38:35)
• Megan’s One Good Thing: Lead with gratitude. (40:05)
• Amanda’s One Good Thing: Tend yourself like a garden. (40:25)

For more information + episode details visit: weareforgood.com/episode/532.

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Chapters

• 0:53 Leveraging Giving Tuesday for Nonprofits
• 6:37 Leveraging Giving Tuesday for Collective Impact
• 17:24 Building Community and Engagement Strategies
• 27:50 Strategic Tips for Nonprofit Engagement
• 40:55 Gratitude and Fundraising Strategy Insights

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:53

Hey, I'm John.

Speaker 2: 0:54

And I'm Becky.

Speaker 1: 0:55

And this is the we Are For Good podcast.

Speaker 2: 0:58

Nonprofits are faced with more challenges to accomplish their missions and the growing pressure to do more, raise more and be more for the causes that improve our world.

Speaker 1: 1:07

We're here to learn with you from some of the best in the industry, bringing the most innovative ideas, inspirational stories, all to create an impact uprising.

Speaker 2: 1:16

So welcome to the good community. We're nonprofit professionals, philanthropists, world changers and rabid fans who are striving to bring a little more goodness into the world.

Speaker 1: 1:26

So let's get started. Hey Becky, what's happening?

Speaker 2: 1:30

Oh, I'm so excited we're talking Giving Tuesday and we're doing it, not at the last minute. You guys were so glad you're still here.

Speaker 1: 1:38

There's still so much time, so I got to give a little bit of tone setting here. You know we believe the most powerful movements build from within, and that is absolutely true about Giving Tuesday. So we're excited to take a conversation below the surface, dig into some case studies about what it looks like to create a movement from within and leveraging marketing to grow your mission along the way. So this conversation is all about engaging your community and kind of getting our ducks in a row for this year's campaign.

Speaker 2: 2:03

Yeah, and we've brought you the playbook today Thanks to this powerhouse panel that was gathered at the nonprofit marketing summit, and it is just my joy to introduce you to these three incredible women. First is Celeste Flores. She's the director of Giving Tuesday's US and Canada Hub and also a we Are For Good podcast alum. We're also excited to have Amanda Liao here. She's the communications and marketing manager at Spur Local, which was formerly the catalog for philanthropy. And finally, we're so excited to welcome Megan Huffman. She's the director of community outreach and share Greater Lynchburg at the greater Lynchburg community foundation. Ladies, we are so excited that you're here. Let's get started.

Speaker 1: 2:43

So I mean, Celeste, we have like an expert in the house you, my friend about giving Tuesday, so I want to kind of give you the floor to kickstart this. There's probably people watching today that have run a giving Tuesday campaign or maybe they're feeling discouraged about how their past giving Tuesday campaigns have gone. Bring us in a little bit of the context how did this get started, what are y'all seeing and what's some of the opportunities for why people need to really tune in and lean into this convo today?

Speaker 3: 3:05

Well, first, thanks for having us and thank you for giving us the space to have this conversation. First, I know that everybody's probably entering in this conversation, coming into it from different perspectives of Giving Tuesday or just philanthropy in general, fundraising in general, and what we're talking about are things that can be done outside of Giving Tuesday. But we're talking about Giving Tuesday and this day's been around for 11 years and it's certainly outside of what was imagined from the creators of it. It started 11 years ago simply as a hashtag day to do good. Giving Tuesday After a few days of consumerism and the Tuesday after Thanksgiving it was to put focus on doing good for others. And now it's a global year round movement and it's really focused on building a world that is focused on our shared humanity and generosity at the center.

Speaker 3: 4:00

And whether it's a kind gesture, helping a neighbor, showing up for an issue, people we care about, or donating a good or financially to an organization, it's every act of generosity counts and everyone has something to give and everyone can receive generosity, and that is really at the core of what we're talking about.

Speaker 3: 4:21

And there's many ways that manifest, but the movement continues to grow because of local leaders and what we call our community leader network, and it's local hand raisers who are collaborating year round to inspire generosity in a way that works for our country, because Giving Tuesday is now 100 countries, yeah, and you know whether it's being celebrated in a way that works for a country, a city, a community with a common mission again to build a world where generosity is part of everyday life. And that is who's with us today is two of these community leaders who have wise wisdom, who run these successful community-wide campaigns. Their strategies are community-wide, but the way they approach and what they do can be taken at that individual organizational level. How do you build something that is successful to build community, to build belonging, to build support, and how do you make it applicable for Giving Tuesday, but not just Giving Tuesday? How do you leverage a shared giving moment? How do you gauge community, how do you speak, how do you communicate and how do you leverage a day for your organization?

Speaker 2: 5:39

I mean that is such good tone setting. We have this phrase that we say on the podcast all the time your gala is not just a gala, the direct mail is not just a direct mail, giving Tuesday is not just giving Tuesday, and so we're moving from like hashtag basic you know the things that we were all taught. We were trying to get our first Giving Tuesday up to how do we really use this leverage, which? You've done such a beautiful job and I want to compliment you and the team for democratizing philanthropy in a way that works for everybody and everybody feels like they can be involved. And so I want to like get a little context for the audience about the background of these two organizations. And, amanda, I want to start with you. We'd love for you to just kind of take the floor and share about Spur Local's mission. Tell us about what you all do and how you're leveraging Giving Tuesday at your organization. Can't wait.

Speaker 4: 6:30

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for having me. Also, celeste, and the Giving Tuesday team always super supportive. So thank you again. We are a small nonprofit based here in the the DC area.

Speaker 4: 6:40

Spur Local has been around for about 20 years. We used to be called the catalog for philanthropy. We were started initially to kind of connect people who live in this region with the small local non-profits that are around them that maybe don't have as much of a marketing budget to get visibility, things like that. And and since then we've grown. So we rebranded to Spur Local last year just as a way to kind of better reflect one how we're connecting local nonprofits with each other, to kind of strengthen our local nonprofit sector here in this region but also to connect residents with the nonprofits in their neighborhoods at a very like hyper local level. So we have a network of nearly 500 small community-based nonprofits in this region.

Speaker 4: 7:23

On the capacity building side, we provide them all with capacity building, free resources, opportunities to collaborate and meet each other. We train over 5,000 nonprofit professionals annually and then a lot of the communications work that I do is kind of also raising their visibility, connecting them with the folks who live around them who want to get involved and are just looking for ways to give back. We raise over $5 million for our nonprofit partners annually, and Giving Tuesday is a huge part of that. So we usually raise around over a million dollars annually for like 200, more than 200 of the nonprofit partners that participate in our Giving Tuesday campaign. It's called Give Local Together here in the DMV region.

Speaker 4: 8:05

Yeah, yeah, me too and we really like leverage it as a way for, I think, nonprofits to reach new audiences but also to re-engage and steward the existing audiences that they have. And that's something that we like to emphasize too is Giving Tuesday is always a great way to try and experiment with new ideas, especially before end of year. So that kind of spirit of collaboration, spirit of joy, I think, is something that we like to just uplift.

Speaker 1: 8:32

You were saying some of my favorite words and I love that y'all show up as such a force for community in your local area and the DMV area. And also, who's feeling refreshed right now that we're having this conversation? We're not like this is a last minute plan, but we can like really get ahead of this. And so, megan, I want to kick it to you Tell us a little bit about your organization, how y'all leverage Giving Tuesday as well.

Speaker 5: 8:53

Yeah. So the Greater Lynchburg Community Foundation is a 51-year-old organization that is entrenched in the community and they engaged with ShareGood USA, which is a national organization that has eight cities and growing across the country. Sharegreater Lynchburg is a platform that we've used as a tool to aggregate all of our local nonprofits in one place. So we have 174 local nonprofits on the platform right now and growing, and the idea is to serve as, at base, a directory or a really great Rolodex of what's going on. But when it's used in its most robust format, we have the opportunity to find volunteer, volunteer opportunities, ways to go to events, wish lists for each nonprofit, photos and all kinds of things. So the Share Greater Lynchburg platform is a tool of our Greater Lynchburg Community Foundation and I wanted to mention that because community foundations all over the country are looking for new and innovative ways to bring new donors into the pipeline and we believe that by engaging donors and volunteer, engaging community members in volunteerism and even getting your family involved and giving you know, pet food to the humane society that begins the process of talking about philanthropy with, with young children or families or individuals that will then grow into community foundation over time.

Speaker 5: 10:18

So we use the um. We we jumped on board with the giving Tuesday network very early on. We we launched October of 2020, right in the middle of the pandemic and um, the abundance mentality is exactly the way with which we lead Um. We want to focus on collective impact and we want to magnify, equip and connect our nonprofits in the community and to one another. So we use this day as really a season of give good. Our campaign is called Give Good, hashtag L-Y-H gives and it's all about collective impact and how we are raising the bar of giving together, and we've heard a lot of great feedback that by working together as a nonprofit community, it feels less competitive and less noisy.

Speaker 2: 11:10

I just think this noise. There's something to it and there's something about how do we stand out and the intentionality of it. And I got to give a shout out to Natalie Monroe, who is such an amazing practitioner in the chat and talking about this example of we're not even. We switched our model from being a solicitation to just being about gratitude and all of a sudden that changed the landscape. So, celeste, I really want to have you kind of set the scene a little bit. We want to challenge this audience to take a step back and ask the bigger question, and I think there's a lot of chatter around Giving Tuesday. Some people love it, some people hate it because of all the little to-dos that they need to do, but there's so much possibility and opportunity in this if we're asking a bigger question. So what is that question that we should be asking regarding our own Giving Tuesday campaigns? I'd love to hear your perspective.

Speaker 3: 12:01

Absolutely Like I said, everyone enters in this conversation in different ways. Some people have great success with Giving Tuesday. Some people have okay success or, you know, have been using it for years and might be, you know, hitting a wall, or have been using it for years and might be hitting a wall, or some haven't have heard different reasons not to do it, and you have to understand if it works for you. But you have to be asking yourself the right questions, and those questions are what, ultimately, is your goal for using the day and using it with intention and using it as a strategy that hangs with all your other strategies, not using it in isolation. And I think that a lot of people who get frustrated with any strategy or don't think a strategy is successful is if you didn't put the work behind it and make sure that it hangs with everything. And I think it's really easy to just say, oh, it didn't work when you just tacked it on because everyone else was doing it. When you throw out a couple of social posts with your link and say it's Giving Tuesday, give to us. That's not well thought out. That's not a strategy. This isn't a silver bullet. This is like everything else. It's also an opportunity to understand that the goal doesn't have to be financial either. This could accomplish something else in your organization that tethers and supports another strategy that you might have at another time of year.

Speaker 3: 13:36

And you know, the one of the biggest things that people say is there's so much noise. How do I cut through the noise of the day? Everybody's fighting for dollars and everybody is. You know, it's the Hunger Games and all of that. I mean you want to talk Hunger Games? Come see me. I've been in this space for over 20 years. But that statement alone is problematic. It means that our sector has a scarcity problem. It's a negative connotation always this one size pie that we're constantly fighting for bigger pieces. The cutting through the noise question is what do you mean by that? What does that look like for you, cutting through the noise? If you're saying cutting through the noise means, at the end of the day, everyone in the United States knows the name of your organization and supporting your organization, that is completely unrealistic. That will never happen unless you are a huge organization that has a huge budget. But if cutting through the noise means that you have 10 new volunteers or you have five new people coming to your gala, or you have two new board members or whatever it is that dictates tactics, that then dictate smart decisions on your resources. So to say, oh, it's too noisy, everybody gets these emails and all of that. Well, it's also because you're not putting the thought behind it, the intention what is your goal? And then also meeting people where they are. If you're not putting the thought behind it, the intention what is your goal? And then also meeting people where they are, if you're constantly sending barrages of asks for money, are you hitting them where they are?

Speaker 3: 15:28

Think about other ways that people can express generosity, and that is with Giving Tuesday specifically. We have a whole lot of data and we know that during Giving Tuesday, people give more than one act of generosity or do more than one act of generosity. Giving money is not the only way they can give and they do more than one act. So the idea that I'm only going to ask them for money because that's all I need from them is so short-sighted. The idea that I'm going to give them several ways and maybe they will do more than one act of generosity and create a relationship with us. Then I can get something bigger down the road and I'm creating a relationship.

Speaker 3: 16:06

It's to say that I only am going to ask them for what I need versus what they want is not real. It's just really a bad way of looking at it. So it's really thinking about intention of the day, how it hangs with everything else. What kind of things could you experiment with? Do you have to use the day for just fundraising, or add in a component that would attract somebody else and meeting people where they are and trying something new? But that's usually the those tactics are to combat when somebody says I'm frustrated, I don't want to use the day, it's competitive and it's not, you know, worth my time.

Speaker 2: 16:57

Yeah, thank you for talking about scarcity mindset, because even if we start thinking about the way that it used to be even you said it yourself it's 11 years old we didn't know what we didn't know 11 years ago about how to engage in the way that the sophistication of engagement has come out. It's much more than what someone can give financially. It's about getting their story. It's about getting their story, it's about getting their network, it's getting awareness, and every single one of those engagement signals is so important. So let's get into a little bit of the tactics, because we all want to talk about how do you market this, how do you engage this? And you've said many times this is a noisy world, so would love to talk just to the group about what is your advice on how to build this community and increase engagement across these audiences, and it could be multichannel. So how do you plan a campaign that's going to cut through the noise? And I think, amanda, I want to start with you.

Speaker 4: 17:52

Sure, yeah, and I think you know something that Celeste was saying earlier is something that I really like to build off of you know. So, in addition to kind of making sure that Giving Tuesday is one campaign in your larger strategy, so what are you looking to do this year? How can Giving Tuesday be something you're intentional about as your primary tactic for Giving Tuesday this year? How do you spend from now March all the way through November, just kind of building up and really seeing where you can tap that capacity in your audience to make that strategy successful? Along with that, I think Choosing, one thing that you really want to focus on is something that's helpful and that goes with your audience too, I think recognizing that the noise looks different for different people.

Speaker 4: 18:39

Right Like the media, landscapes are really fragmented these days. If you start with who in your audience you know, what can you understand about them? Where are they already gathering? Where do they find value in your organization already gathering? Where do they find value in your organization? The ones who they know in their networks are probably likely to also kind of parallel and tangentially be the profile of folks that you're trying to reach. And, along with that, are there people in your audience that you're overlooking, I think, especially as we're thinking about digital communications, digital marketing a lot of the focus that we try to seize on younger demographics, you know. But are there people in your audience who make more sense for you to focus on, depending on what you do? So, for example, if you're focused on, you know, services for the elderly, are there strategies that you can prioritize for an intergenerational audience? Are there networks of families that you can tap into to kind of spread the word? You know have in-person gatherings or activations to do that.

Speaker 4: 19:38

Um, if you're working with youth, we had, for instance, one of the non-profits that did giving tuesday with us last year our minds matter their campaign they really got youth to kind of drive the storytelling for their campaign and spread it out. You know we a lot of denmo as one of the donation channels through which you can give, and really it was like give a dollar. Right, it can be a dollar, it can be more than that, but most importantly, it's how you're engaging people and really having them be the ambassadors for your story. And then the last thing I'll say here, before kind of seating the floor, is just move offline. Are there ways that you can think about kind of cutting through this. You know this noise where people are already gathering so I know y'all mentioned like Megan has really really good swag. Actually, when I spoke with Megan it was what kind of inspired me to create our own like in-person material. So for the first time last year we made coasters. I'll put them up.

Speaker 4: 20:33

But they're like hashtag the qr code uh-huh yeah, and we just put them in like different bars, different coffee shops around the city, just as a way for folks to be like okay, I'm out and about, I'm here at this local coffee shop, um, what's going on? So I think, just like finding where people are gathering and seeing how you can kind of be part of that space will help. Okay.

Speaker 1: 20:55

That's just such a good tip in general you know building community like you don't have to always start from scratch, like you want to just go where people are and build with them.

Speaker 2: 21:04

And I want to add, like a pro tip, that you're, that you're inspiring out of me. It's like what you're doing here is you're not starting at step one, you're starting at step zero. And that's a different mindset shift, because we're really trying to warm people. Warm people up to Giving Tuesday, because you don't want to just get a shotgun email and it's like, and then you get tagged on social media. You don't want to be shocked that it's Giving Tuesday. You know that it's coming. But if you can gather your street team, your hype squad we call them rabid fans, your believers If you can warm them up early and make it a collective movement, then again to Celeste's point. It's not about us anymore, it's about the community, which is so wise. Does anybody else want to go? Add on to what Amanda said with her wisdom bombs there that she just dropped.

Speaker 5: 21:50

Yes, yes, I can, I can jump right off of that. We really, like I said, our platform has 174 nonprofit partners and we invite them to a kickoff party at early October I think it was October 4th and we walk them through the campaign, provide them with all of the materials and the swag that they need, and it really is a relief to know that somebody has your back and that the giving Tuesday um campaign has been taken care of for you. And so we give out these um, give good hats, I'll. I'll put one on um rally time.

Speaker 5: 22:23

And um, and these are, uh, these hashtag LH gives and these are um and these are an opportunity for the nonprofits to nominate Give Good Ambassadors. So it's an honor to get one of these hats. So we have several hundred of these floating around the community for holiday launch events, like when we light the Christmas tree. We have giving every Tuesday pop up, volunteer opportunities for high schoolers and our local colleges to get involved. We're putting the hats on billboards, in the newspaper, on television. It's just a very visible campaign and we we also have these great yard signs.

Speaker 5: 23:08

Ok talk about the yard sign we give out to all of our nonprofits to put at their locations around town. So we kind of begin that visibility in October to ride into Giving Tuesday.

Speaker 2: 23:21

It's literally like a billboard. It is a billboard walking around on your head or in your yard and it makes it so accessible to somebody who wouldn't already have that Love, that Celeste do you want to add anything?

Speaker 1: 23:32

And also the principle I see is like this underlying connection to people's identity. It's like you know, if you can find that people want to be associated with it, like that is such a great way to engage people at a deeper level, giving them clarity of activation. I'm just here for all these tips. Yeah, Celeste, hop in here.

Speaker 3: 23:47

I'm here for the yard signs. I love that Megan is still finding them three months after Giving Tuesday. She's still driving around town and they're still up. It's great and great ideas and I think it's I'm going to add on to what Amanda and what Megan has done is leveraging what's already at your fingertips is really what they both have done. Um is leveraging where they know people are and where the relationships that they have. Um, megan in particular, has um, a uh intern from a college program that helped with the campaign and building the campaign and that intern worked with the other college students that are in this program that they are in to help with the campaign and leveraging their ideas is.

Speaker 3: 24:47

You know, when we think of new ideas get overwhelmed and the only way to stay whelmed is to think about who else can help you in your circle and doing that asset mapping and thinking about like, what's the easiest next thing I can do to do these things right, because it is very easy. I know it. I've had three and a half staff members doing a community-wide campaign. I needed to support 700 nonprofits, I needed to raise $11 million and I needed to raise a lot of money for prizes and I had a board to answer to. I've been in those situations where I'm like all right, how do I, where are my immediate assets that I could do that next thing? And so I. You know, when we're talking about building community and increasing engagement across audiences, that sounds so taxing and that sounds so scary and that sounds so overwhelming and creating a new campaign, remember that they are there's.

Speaker 3: 25:50

Rome was not built in a day. There is year zero. There is year one, there's year two. There's year threeome was not built in a day. There is year zero. There is year one, there's year two, there's year three. What megan and what amanda are talking about, or evolution of a campaign, um, they, uh. And.

Speaker 3: 26:02

But creating community and creating engagement takes time. So you have to invest in the time. It is the long game and, um, the payoff is worth it. And. But if we don't spend the time on community and engagement, it's short sighted. Otherwise, you're not going to. You know, you're going to turn and burn every single year. So that's more of advice in engagement and building community and relationships. That's more of advice in engagement and and building community and relationships. And it's only because I have, I'm in, I've been in the, I'm in those shoes constantly and um, and just remembering that that that day is about testing and trying something new. And it's not fundraising Tuesday, it is giving Tuesday and it is an opportunity to increase your engagement. That could increase your bottom line, but it is increasing engagement and keeping it human, and so I don't think I answered the question. That's just what I wanted to say.

Speaker 1: 27:15

I feel like you're actually reading my mind of where we wanted to go, because I love with such experts here gathered to ask you what you think the secret sauce is to a successful giving campaign, and I'm seeing the chat I'm honoring what I see of like there's a lot of small nonprofits in the room that feel like the resource strap, their organizationally staff strap, what is like some core secret sauce principles that you're like this is what you should make it about.

Speaker 1: 27:41

And I want to kind of round Robin slash. You gave us some good ones, Amanda, you want to hop in there.

Speaker 4: 27:45

Yeah, and I appreciate you uplifting this question because actually we're a small nonprofit ourselves. Our network is specifically focused on nonprofits that have budgets between $100,000 to $4 million. A lot of the organizations we work with don't have dedicated development staff, don't have dedicated communication staff, and one of the things we consistently see is how do you build the capacity to do something like Giving Tuesday and to do it successfully and with intention? And I would say, for us, where we see the secret sauce is is, essentially, how can you go deep instead of necessarily broad? And I think this speaks also to what Celeste was saying about building over time and what I was saying earlier about really choosing, like one thing that you really want to be focusing on this year, whether that's partnerships, whether that's, you know, as Natalie was saying in the chat earlier, like expressing gratitude to the folks who are currently in your network that you feel are core to your audience. What is it about them that you're already connecting with? And then how can you build on that?

Speaker 4: 28:59

So, for instance, one of the frameworks that I've been trying to use is Priya Parker's the Art of Gathering, which I know is about gathering, but I think it's interesting to kind of adapt and apply that to a communication strategy.

Speaker 4: 29:10

So if you could think of your campaign as a party, for instance right, it's really starting with the intention of what you want to curate. So who's going to be in the room? What would really make them excited to show up? You know what would make them want to stay and then what would make them want to attend your next party or your next gathering. So if it's even something like, yes, you're expressing gratitude to say your most loyal supporters, people who have been coming to you long term, people who have been giving recurring gifts, things like that, could you send just really personalized emails and that doesn't cost anything. Could you send things that are not necessarily costing a lot of money, like postcards that are customized to them, letters that you write. I think there are definitely ways, once you start getting into this question of how deep can I go in engaging this audience, once I know them, to say there are ways that I can do this without necessarily having to spend a lot on my marketing budget.

Speaker 2: 30:08

Such good secret sauce and I actually before I kick it to Megan and Celeste I want to open this question up to the community. We've got hundreds of people here, hundreds of case studies Drop in the chat. If you have a secret sauce, I see people looking for examples and tools. So who wants to take it next? Megan, Celeste, I?

Speaker 5: 30:25

just I, just I wanted to say you can't really get much smaller than the operation that I'm. I'm a part-time employee and have a 10-hour week intern and that's it. And we have 147, 74 nonprofits on the platform, so we really leverage relationships and I would say media relationships as a whole. We only spent about $8,000 for the whole campaign, all the swag, everything, and that was underwritten by corporate sponsors, Just putting that in the chat you smarty pants.

Speaker 2: 31:00

That's exactly right.

Speaker 5: 31:02

Yeah, but we probably had about $30,000 in in-kind media opportunity. That's newspaper, radio, blogs, billboards, and I think if you can approach these partners well in advance and situate yourself as a thought leader in the nonprofit sector and you can say, hey, restaurant, I'm throwing a party. You know, I'll bring 150 nonprofits to this event or just situating yourself as the thought leader on Giving Tuesday is also a real help to the media contacts as well. So begin that process in the summer. You know, start sitting down with those media contacts soon and lay out the groundwork about what kind of eyeballs you're going to bring them.

Speaker 1: 31:48

Oh, that's so good. Celeste, do you want to hop in here?

Speaker 3: 31:53

Well, I feel like.

Speaker 2: 31:54

I said a lot of words already.

Speaker 3: 31:56

But it's one thing I did see of two small nonprofits, and this is thinking about mission over brand and partnering. So thinking about organizations that are in your sphere that you might want to partner with for something on Giving Tuesday, and maybe it's an organization that is a contemporary in your space. So I've seen, like an organization that provided a certain kind of goods, like a basic needs organization and a clothing shelf and a clothing closet or um, uh organization, like a uh, what is it? A community garden and another organization just held some sort of drive together and they just use their resources together. Like your intern and my intern, I are going to put this thing together, we're just going to send it into our two email lists and then maybe our volunteers will send it out and just double up on support and that's a way to get new eyeballs onto your respective organizations. That is another way to do something on Giving Tuesday and it's also an interesting story. So to Megan's point about media. Media on Giving Tuesday are these big days.

Speaker 3: 33:26

I did that in Austin. I was the community leader for the giving day. I'm sorry, giving Tuesday, but I also had a fundraising giving day in the springtime and they the media was always looking for stories that were different, not just we're fundraising for our organization or fundraising for a program, but when two organizations were coming together to do this like in-person event that was, you know, the two orgs coming together to do something together, it just like when there was a different kind of hook, that was when it was more interesting. I'm not saying doing something for the sake of just doing it, so you had media there, but what I'm saying is to leverage resources. Is there another organization You're like, hey, let's try and do something together for Giving Tuesday?

Speaker 3: 34:14

And one of the other examples was to what seems like competing community gardens in California I think it was Monterey area did a joint project. They worked in one community. They brought two groups of volunteers together. They worked together in one community garden in the morning, then together they did work to. They work together in one community garden in the morning, then they had a joint lunch together and then they went to the community garden in the afternoon and worked together, and so all their volunteers from each of the community gardens got to know the other community guards and shared a meal together and instead of it being competition, it was abundance and it was um a, and that's how they celebrated Giving Tuesday.

Speaker 2: 34:56

Oh, I love that.

Speaker 2: 34:57

I'm happy to blow her out on that because that is so powerful and I think part of the overwhelm that we're hearing on our podcast is people just feel like they have to do so much. They get overwhelmed by all the tasks. And I think reorienting your brain to know that it's not you alone and if you can expand that and really employ those rabid fans to help you get that message out, I think it's going to help you get into spaces that you could never otherwise get in, because they're bringing different networks, they're bringing different perspectives and that cognitive diversity is beautiful. Thank you for that example.

Speaker 2: 35:32

I want to move into personalization, because you all have talked about this and I see some incredible examples in the chat right now of using different mediums. I'm seeing video, I'm seeing phone calls, which actually I think are pretty great because those have become non-traditional it feels like a little bit in a time of digital. So I want to open this up to the group and just talk about the power of personalization. What are some of your best practices, maybe some of your tips for tailoring your campaign to engage those supporters at like a different level? How are you going to personalize at scale? Who's feeling passionate enough to take this one? It's not me.

Speaker 5: 36:15

I really like Celeste's point or I think Becky, you said it about the democratization of the resources. That's what Giving Tuesday is all about, and we try to follow in line with that mission to provide graphics and swag and things that can be personalized to whatever the nonprofit wants to use it for, so to fold it into their mission or what they're already doing. And so we provide a whole graphics package that the Giving Tuesday ambassadors these Give Good ambassadors can take a selfie of themselves in these hats and they can tell their story on social media. This is why I give good and the more human stories and the personalization we do. We do put some, we create some of that content, but we mostly rely on our network to create those stories and personalize them and say why do I drive for Meals on Wheels? Why am I a monthly donor to Miriam's house? You know what? Tell my story. And I think the more that we give the resources and hand off the tools, then they begin to make it their own.

Speaker 2: 37:20

So good, Amanda Celeste, you want to?

Speaker 1: 37:22

pick it up.

Speaker 4: 37:24

Yeah, I want to get in there to what Megan was saying earlier and also, celeste, what you were saying about. I think personalizing at scale and doing that with a capacity that makes sense for you really requires partnerships. And one partnerships that are not only mission aligned, but also two partnerships that are where people are already kind of gathering like where people are already paying attention. So you know, this is a big year, year for us also in terms of like thinking through how we want to sustain partnerships over the long term. That's always like a big and really important question.

Speaker 4: 37:59

But in the past we've partnered with small local businesses that we see a very clear alignment between small businesses and small nonprofits that are all doing really good local work.

Speaker 4: 38:08

So we hosted something like a gratitude call right where it's like people can go around to these businesses and it also raises awareness of Giving Tuesday in the community.

Speaker 4: 38:17

But you know, we're thinking through who are the workplaces where maybe you can bring like a pop-up giving circle experience. And then part of how we partner with small businesses too that we try to do year round is, you know how could we say, have wine tastings and then bring a nonprofit into the event to kind of have deep discussions about the work that they do. How might we be able to do this for different types of audiences that we want to be reaching and, seeing the things that they're already kind of interested in the places where they're already going, could we bring pop ups to apartment buildings and do even like a neighbor potluck and kind of have a nonprofit sharing their story there, things like that. So just like where people are already going to be at Also on Tuesday, I think, where people are going to be out on Tuesday, and then seeing how we can kind of work with the partner there to have something that makes sense, that builds community among the people who show up.

Speaker 1: 39:10

Oh my gosh. Okay, this conversation could keep going and you know, if you hang out with Becky and me, we have to ask our guests their one good thing. What's a piece of advice, maybe a sound piece of wisdom, something you want to share with the community gathered today? This chat's been explosive, so thank you for pouring in, Celeste. What's your one good thing you'd share with us as we kind of round out?

Speaker 3: 39:28

Oh, damn it. It came to me first. I was like so many things, okay. So we talked about a lot of stuff that could be overwhelming.

Speaker 3: 39:42

You're spending days listening to these panels of all the new ideas. You're taking all these notes of like, oh my gosh, I should be doing this, I should be doing that, I need to do this better, I need to do that better, and you're like focused on all of the things either you're doing wrong or the more things you should be doing, and I just like take a breath and just pick like one or two things that you're going to do this year, that's it, and then iterate and add on, but don't forget your why and don't forget that you are building community, the community, building the work you are doing, the joy you are offering, the relationships that you are building, the connections you are providing. This is the only way we are going to get through this world. Build the world that we want, get out of the big old mess that we humans have made, is just focusing on building connection, community and taking care of one another, and that is what we're doing. We're in the right space. Y'all Just take a.

Speaker 2: 40:49

That's it and joy is a vibe. And it's trending, so lean into that. Okay, megan, what about you?

Speaker 5: 40:58

I just like to lead with gratitude. I love a good handwritten thank you note, Just if you're going to do these partnerships. Thank the people who have given you $30,000 in in-kind media.

Speaker 1: 41:11

That's simple, short and that is poignant.

Speaker 2: 41:13

Yes, Amanda round us out, take us home.

Speaker 4: 41:17

I will say, just to add on to all of that, something that I've been learning also from, like, longtime organizers right, it's that it's important to be able to sustain yourself. I think, taking off kind of like the nonprofit hat a little bit, sometimes it gets also a little overwhelming, like when you're doing this and you're doing all the other things, you're paying attention to all the other things in your life. So, sustain yourself, tend yourself like a garden too. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 41:41

Okay, I'm loving the nature references here so many times. I think you guys have dropped such good wisdom and I think, John, do you want to go to a couple of Q and A's Cause we do have?

Speaker 1: 41:54

four extra minutes right now, so we're just going to go with what is being upvoted. So, elise, I'm going to read your question for the group. Do you have any suggestions for board leadership buy-in on seeing giving Tuesday as a day of gratitude and not just for garnering donations? I saw Natalie Monroe blowing up the chat with a beautiful gratitude first strategy. Any of y'all want to jump in on this? What do those conversations look like?

Speaker 3: 42:16

I can jump in, yes, that it's a day of gratitude, not fundraising, because gratitude is part of fundraising. Cultivation is key and we as a sector suck at it and I'm sorry because I am saying we as a sector, if we do not cultivate and thank and express gratitude in the right way, or often we are leaving money on the table that next, the easiest next gift is the one that is thank the best, and it is so important to thank our donors and it is so important to thank our volunteers. It is so it is important to thank the people who engage with us, our partners, and it is just, in general of the fundraising cycle, that next gift if it is, uh, just in in general of the fundraising cycle, that next gift if it is thanked well, it is the easiest next gift. And so, um, it's just um, and and people are are thrown off by it. We've, we hear it all the time. People will get a thank you instead of an ask on giving Tuesday and they're like okay and what else.

Speaker 3: 43:32

We were thanking you. We're just thanking you, thank you.

Speaker 2: 43:37

Brilliant. Anyone else want to pop in here on this question? I think I'll give one. I'm going to pop in here on this question, Elise.

Speaker 1: 43:45

I'm going to give you something really tactical.

Speaker 2: 43:48

If you want to create a culture of gratitude among your board, I would say do this little campaign with your board on Giving Tuesday. Have them go to LinkedIn, have them share their story of why they love your organization and then have them make a gift to the campaign and then challenge and tag five friends of theirs and their network to share their story and why they love their pet nonprofit and match their gift, and so that will be a trend. I mean that could be a transcendent sort of ripple effect where it could just keep going and going and, PS, you've lifted up your board. You found out their why, about why they love you. You have content. You have shareable. Make sure you have a hashtag. Make sure they tag you. So there's, you have shareable. Make sure you have a hashtag, Make sure they tag you. So there's just one little tactical thing. Okay Y'all, this was a fiery Giving Tuesday conversation.

Speaker 2: 44:39

I'm feeling jazzed. It is March. We have got months to prepare.

Speaker 1: 44:43

Never felt so prepared, seriously.

Speaker 2: 44:45

Please come find these ladies in LinkedIn, because they clearly know what they are doing. Ladies, thank you for your brilliance, wisdom and beanies.

Speaker 1: 44:56

Thanks so much for being here. Friends, and you probably hear it in our voices, but we love connecting you with the most innovative people to help you achieve more for your mission than ever before.

Speaker 2: 45:06

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Speaker 1: 45:18

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