Is Giving Tuesday or Give To The Max Day Worth It? 3 Alternatives to Invite More Generosity
Oct 22, 2022
Investing in things that make a lasting positive difference often requires us to go against the grain.
In the Bible, Noah spent 100 years building the ark while the rest of the known world laughed at him. I can’t imagine how hard it was to go against the grain and prepare for a flood when there had never been any rain. But he persevered and now Noah is listed in the “hall of faith” (Hebrews 11:7).
This hard, uncomfortable work has value.
Giving Days are popular ways to attract new donors and kick off end-of-year giving. However, after years of work in the development world I believe that your organization can raise more money by investing in strategic fundraising goals instead of Giving Tuesday or Give to the Max Day. A choice like this will require you to go against the grain — that’s a big deal.
To support you in making the best decision for your organization this article will present Giving Tuesday performance data, three alternative strategic fundraising goals, and evidence on how these alternatives could benefit your organization.
Why Do Organizations Participate In Giving Tuesday and Give to the Max Day?
Before we change something we’ve always done, it’s a good idea to consider why we started the routine in the first place.
If your organization has participated in Give to the Max Day or Giving Tuesday for any length of time it’s important to know why you started, what benefits you were pursuing, and how your choice has actually served you.
Reasons people participate in giving days include:
- It’s a popular thing to do. 35 million adults participated in Giving Tuesday 2021 — that’s a LOT of people. 6,457 schools and nonprofit organizations partnered with Minnesota’s Give to the Max Day in 2021.
- There is major social media hype around Giving Tuesday so lots of people are already mentally-prepared to give.
- The opportunity to attract new donors. 63% of donors only give on Giving Tuesday which means someone who doesn’t usually give, could connect with and invest in your organization.
- Participate in a global movement. 80 countries from around the world participated in Giving Tuesday 2021.
- Kick off end-of-year giving strong. In 2021, $2.7 billion was donated on Giving Tuesday. 34.5 million was raised on Minnesota’s Give to the Max Day in 2021.
Once you’ve identified why your organization participates in a Giving Day the next step is to weigh the results. Has your choice of Giving Day actually served your organization’s bottom-line? Is there a different fundraising focus that could generate more generosity for your important work?
Giving Tuesday Data Nonprofit Leaders Need to Know
Have you ever been on a vacation where you hustled your whole family to the beach — I mean the whole shabang, food, chairs, games, tents, drinks — only to have it thunder 15 minutes after you got set up?
So much work for so little reward!
If organizations aren’t careful, participating in Giving Tuesday or Give-to-the-Max Day can end up like a beach trip cut short by thunder. Themed end-of-the-year giving days require a ton of time and energy.
While participating in Giving Tuesday may seem value-ful here are three reasons an organization may want to invest their time and energy into different fundraising initiatives:
Attracting New Donors vs. Retaining Donors
Have you ever finished reading an article and realized the only thing you remember was the title or one random fact?
It’s so frustrating, because you have to re-read the whole thing to get the information you already invested time trying to get, but didn’t!
Unfortunately, this is how most organizations function when it comes to donor relationships on days like Giving Tuesday and Give to the Max Day. Development teams invest a ton of time, energy, and resources into amping up these giving opportunities and attracting new donors, only to repeat the whole process the following year, because none of the new donors gave repeat gifts.
Recent data reveals that only 10% of first-time donors are retained after Giving Tuesday. In other words, for every ten new donors you acquire on Giving Tuesday, only one will give again. This is significant for two reasons:
- According to CCS Fundraising, 48% of donors take five years to make a major gift. And as development professionals we know that major gifts are the financial life-line for nonprofits. These are the gifts you need for your important work to continue.
- It costs 5 to 10 times more to acquire a new donor than to invest in an ongoing relationship with a current donor. By investing in a relationship with a current donor, you’re saving money for the organization, while cultivating a relationship that could lead to a major gift.
Keep in mind that average donor retention hovers around 20% which isn’t great, but Giving Tuesday retention cuts even that in half. You may attract new donors on Giving Tuesday or Give to the Max Day, but will you retain them? And if you don’t retain them, can your organization sustain the yearly investment Giving Tuesday requires?
This leads to another question: What might be possible for your organization if you intentionally invest in the donor relationships you already have?
Increasing Gift Size vs. Inviting New Gifts
One summer my daughter went through three pairs of flip flops at $20 each because they kept breaking. The following summer we bought her a better pair of flip flops for $40. She’s still wearing the same $40 pair!
Which was a better investment? The more expensive pair.
Investing in things that last matters to our personal budget as well as our organizational budget. For example, the average Giving Tuesday gift is $154. 85% of donors on Giving Tuesday give less than $500 and 63% of donors ONLY give on Giving Tuesday. In other words, gifts made on Giving Tuesday are small and short lived. Like the $20 flip flops we had to keep replacing, you're going to have to attract new Giving Tuesday donors yearly if not quarterly to sustain your organization’s important work.
On the flip side, retaining a donor often results in at least four beneficial things:
- Gifts increase, both in size and in frequency.
- Donors tell others about you, and may help you acquire new donors at a far lower cost.
- Your donors’ subsequent gift covers your investment in acquiring them.
- Your donors’ growing loyalty likely leads to the largest of all gifts - the legacy gift.
Considering the facts, what would you say is the best investment of your precious time and resources?
If Giving Tuesday no longer seems like a beneficial investment for your organization, keep reading. Throughout the rest of this article we’re going to break down three alternatives your organization could implement for a better ROI than Giving Tuesday or Give to the Max Day.
3 Initiatives Better Than Giving Tuesday or Give To The Max Day
“You don’t eliminate a bad habit, you replace it,” says James Clear, author of Atomic Habits.
While participating in Giving Tuesday or Give to the Max Day isn’t necessarily a bad habit it might be hard to take it out of your yearly schedule unless you replace it with something better, especially if you use these days to kick off your end-of-the-year giving.
Here are three higher ROI replacements for Giving Tuesday or Give to the Max Day:
- Initiating a Thanks-To-The-Max month
- Stewarding your legacy givers
- Establishing a New Donor Retention Program
Let’s break them down!
Thanks-To-The-Max Month
Have you ever seen a movie in theaters because of a trailer you randomly saw? I know I have.
In fact, 65 percent of moviegoers said that watching movie trailers influenced the movie they planned to see. Movie trailers create awareness of what to expect, based on increased awareness people make decisions.
Creating awareness is important. This is something that Giving Tuesday does really well. They create awareness around the importance of generosity, volunteering, and nonprofit work. But your organization can create awareness around your important work and the donors who make it possible through Thanks-To-The-Max Month. My colleague, Nick, developed and pioneered Thanks-To-The-Max at Minnehaha Academy where it was very successful.
There are three specific elements that make Thanks-To-The-Max Month so effective:
Community and Organizational Engagement
This is where you help your entire organization — from fellow team members to direct recipients — understand the impact donors make and thank them. Hosting activities and events that allow individuals to engage and connect with the important role donors play in the life of your organization is usually the best way to do this.
It’s easy for non-development team members and even beneficiaries sometimes to be disconnected from the value of donors. However, when you commit time and space to celebrate the impact made by all members of your organization you close this gap for recipients, donors, and non-development team members.
Development Team Expresses Gratitude
This is where your development team takes an active role in expressing gratitude to the rest of the staff. Effective fundraisers are masters at helping donors see and feel the impact of their generosity, but the best fundraisers are those who also steward the efforts of their colleagues as well. This element of Thanks-To-The-Max is important in helping fundraisers celebrate the work of their colleagues in ways that help them (and your donors) feel important.
Donor Conversation Days
This is where your development team splits a list of all the donors and calls each one and engages those who pick up in a meaningful gratitude-filled conversation. Scripts should be crafted to start the conversation with sincere gratitude followed with a discovery question to deepen the donor relationship.
A discovery question could be something like this, “You’ve been so loyal all these years. What has inspired such loyal support.” Now you’re thanking your donors and cultivating a relationship with them for another ask at a later time. This experience takes the donor to a new level of gratitude. In fact, it’s not uncommon for people to make gifts after these calls — or increase their end of the year gift.
Nick also mentioned that making these calls in the fall helped Minnehaha Academy have a clear understanding of a donor’s preparation level for making a significant year end gift invitation.
In summary, people who feel appreciated give more.
Did Thanks-To-The-Max Out Perform Give To The Max?
We couldn’t resist asking Nick the question that was probably on the forefront of your mind, too: Did Thanks-To-The-Max out perform Give to the Max? Here is what he said:
Without question! Not only did we see marked growth in retention but we saw significant growth in end of year giving, too. (Retention grew across the board but growth in retention of first-time donors is particularly valuable here.)
We had toyed with the idea of moving Thanks-To-The-Max to a part of our year that wasn't so congested by the myriad of things that happen in the first third of the school year but being a loud voice of gratitude amidst the fray of calls/emails for gifts always felt too important to try something different.
In our third year of Thanks-To-The-Max execution, read rates of emails, consumption of social media content and answered phone calls skyrocketed. The lesson? When gratitude is cultural, your constituency looks forward to hearing from you!
In conclusion, helping your entire organization cultivate and express gratitude toward donors is a precious and profound tool in fundraising.
Stewarding Your Legacy Givers
If you clean your kitchen once does it stay clean?
No, most of us have to clean our kitchen weekly if not daily to keep them clean. It doesn’t stay clean on its own. Our kitchen requires regular energy to maintain. Donor relationships and bequest gifts take regular energy to maintain, as well.
Making yearly face-to-face visits with anyone who has told you that you are in their will is essential for the financial health and longevity of nonprofits. Many organizations thank bequest donors assuming their gift is finalized. However, most bequest gifts are revocable. There’s always a chance that a donor could change their mind about you.
Unless an organization stays connected to the donors making this generous gift the odds of the gift disappearing are real. This is significant because the average bequest is 200x the size of an annual gift. That being the case, keeping these donors may be the largest impact we make and losing them could be the largest mistake we ever make!
Retaining your existing legacy giving donors will retain significantly more money than the money you could ever raise on a Giving Tuesday.
Establish A New Donor Retention Program
Have you ever walked into a church where there was a warm and energetic greeting team?
After visiting multiple churches a friend of mine finally chose a home church because the greeting team learned her name as she walked in and said goodbye to her by name when she left. The welcome my friend received determined the church she stayed at. Welcoming someone new with attention and warmth makes the new person feel valued.
This is very similar to a donor's relationship with the organization they support. When an organization does a good job at welcoming and thanking a new donor for their support the nonprofit makes the donor feel valued. When donors feel valued the likelihood that they will make consecutive gifts increases dramatically.
Statistically, for every five first-time donors only one will give again — that’s a typical donor retention rate of approximately 20%. However, when donors are thoughtfully thanked, donor retention is increased by 39% — which means three out of five first-time donors will give again! In other words, creating and implementing a strategic and heartfelt new donor experience significantly increases donor retention.
Giving Tuesday is notorious for attracting new donors that never convert to long term donors. If you want to do Giving Tuesday or Give to the Max Day, take a year to establish a retention program so that in following years during Giving Tuesday you can actually develop ongoing support for all the effort.
What’s Next?
Contemplating a fundraising plan that doesn’t include Giving Tuesday or Give to the Max Day can make most people feel like they’re swimming upstream.
But like salmon that swim upstream to lay their eggs in fresh water and leave a legacy that will outlast them, choosing and implementing a strategic fundraising focus could allow your organization’s important work to continue for decades.
Going against the grain and swimming upstream is uncomfortable work, but the rewards are often long lasting.
If you’re ready to create and implement a legacy giving program or improve your new donor retention, but aren’t sure where to start, check out our coaching programs. Walking alongside nonprofits to think through and orchestrate the best kind of return and generosity for their important work is our specialty. We would be honored to support you in your important work!
And, as always, you’re welcome to book a call with us HERE!
Co-authored by Brenda Moore, CFRE and Sisi Roose.