What if there was an international day celebrating giving?

Oh wait … there is. If you are based in Europe, you might not know it as well as if you are based in North America, but, if you are online, regardless of where you are located, you are likely to be very familiar with Black Friday and Cyber Monday, right?

Even though these two days happen after a U.S. holiday (Thanksgiving), courtesy of the digital world we live in, they are now global days … particularly if you shop online! As it approaches those two days, you will get a number of emails and online ads reminding you of all the discounts you “don’t want to miss out on”. I don’t know about you, but I have serious FOMO, so this totally works on me.

There are some really interesting strategies from different online retailers around this shopping prime time. For example, some retailers have started offering “pre-Black Friday” deals. Cyber Monday now extends to Cyber Week for some retailers.

Can you tell I shop online quite a bit …?

On the back of all of this consumption, another day was born: a day of giving – commonly known as #GivingTuesday. The idea is that this Tuesday after Thanksgiving (3 December this year) becomes a global day of celebrating generosity.

Being an American-based company, Nexus has worked with our European Clients, including in Ireland, to take part and capitalise on the #GivingTuesday power to help harness more donations in an already prime time for fundraising, Christmas and End of Year.

In 2012, its first year, it was reported that #GivingTuesday helped raise $10.1 million. Last year it reported $380 million!

And you know what also started happening? Companies and philanthropists around the world started matching the amount raised! In 2019, for example, Facebook and PayPal matched $7 million in donations to United States nonprofits — up to $20,000 per donor and $250,000 per nonprofit.

If you are saying in your head “Well, it’s a U.S. thing and your company is in the U.S. — that wouldn’t work here,” I beg to disagree. And just to prove it, I’m going to share something I read from Civil Society: “Corinna May, digital fundraiser at Sightsavers, […] said its 2018 [Giving Tuesday] campaign used match funding from major donors which was extended after the initial amount was exhausted 11am on the day.” Yup! It works in Europe too — both #GivingTuesday AND matching gifts on #GivingTuesday.

You don’t only have the opportunity to use #GivingTuesday to help raise your profile by taking part in this global movement, but you can also go to some of your existing corporate or individual donors to ask them to match what you raise during those 24 hours of 3 December. I feel like there are a lot of winning opportunities here for you and your nonprofit to raise money this year during the months of November and December.

Do you have a major donor on your file that has the capacity to give, for example, €5,000? Is your relationship with them really strong? Go speak with them, explain what #GivingTuesday is about, and ask them to match (up to €5,000, of course) the amount you raise on #GivingTuesday.

Don’t have one major donor? What about a few mid-level donors that can give together up to €2,000 or €5,000? You can create a consortium of anonymous donors that agree to match all gifts up to the agreed amount during those 24 hours.

The opportunities are immense, but maybe you are wondering why you should do this for #GivingTuesday rather than your Christmas Appeal. Well, first of all, why not do both? Second, getting in on this now will put you at the forefront of an ever-growing donation event. Year over year, #GivingTuesday is growing, and you do not want to play catch up when your competitor raises more money than you during this event.

Obviously, planning is key. Just like the online retailers, you want to stand out from the crowd with something different — creatively or just in the way that you package the ask. Matching gifts are just one of the ways you could stand out from the crowd and capitalise on this global day.

There are, of course, other similar ideas to do so year-round. Want to hear about them? Get in touch with us today.