Get Ready for #GivingTuesday

Just a few short days before the start of Advent, is an increasingly popular and important day of giving. It’s called #GivingTuesday. It’s an inherently online phenomenon created in response to the consumer shopping dates of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This year, #GivingTuesday falls on Tuesday November 28^th, 2017. In 2015, over $116 million was raised online for non-profits around the world. Did your church take part in this? It’s not too late to kick off Advent and the season of giving with a promotion for your church on #GivingTuesday! Here are seven ideas you can leverage in your parish.

The first two are foundational. The remainder bring some creative and fun ideas on using #GivingTuesday to engage your parishioner community and grow your giving this November.

1. Understand #GivingTuesday

For background on #GivingTuesday, what it is, how to get involved, and read a few success stories, go to the #GivingTuesday website. They’ve come up with some great ideas for religious organizations. You can download their complete getting started toolkit here.

2. Refresh your Online Donation site

Your church accepts donations online, correct? Of course they do! In this day and age, they just have to. It’s how people are now used to conducting their finances, banking, and making purchases. They’re doing all these things online. Now is a good time to review your website. Can you easily find the donation button? Does it take you to your donation page or site? Is that page updated with current information?

3. The #Unselfie

Encourage your parishioners to take a post an #Unselfie. We’ve all heard about selfies and seen people walking around with their smartphone on a selfie stick. An #unselfie is a picture of you – the parishioner – showing how or why you are giving back and participating on #GivingTuesday. This can be posted to Facebook or any other social media site. It can make the parishioner feel good and further spreads the word to give to your church on #GivingTuesday.

4. Buy us a “drink”

You don’t have to ask for a lot. How many of your parishioners stop at Starbucks on the way to work or out for a drink after work? On #GivingTuesday ask your parishioners to match the price of their drink with a donation to their church. Sometimes asking for something small may yield something unexpected. Who knows how much they actually may end up donating?

5. Give $5, Share with 5

#GivingTuesday is so successful because of its use of social media. Just like crowds in a Black Friday door buster sale seems to encourage more consumer purchases, sharing your donation on Social Media seems to encourage others to give. Even if someone only donates $5, if they share that message, share that they donated $5 to your church with just 5 of their friends on Facebook, maybe you’ll get 5 more donations. Perhaps you’ll also get a new parishioner or a lapsed parishioner to come check out your church.

6. Set a goal, maybe even a challenge goal

Tell your community what you’re hoping to raise. Be creative and, as the hymnal goes, “be not afraid” to ask. Offer a challenge goal or prize at the end. If the church collectively raises the goal it sets, what would the parish win? I heard of a priest who offered to shave his head if they hit a fundraising goal or cook dinner for 5 of randomly selected donors.

7. Create a holiday wish list

Make the donations real and connect them to something concrete. Tell the potential donors what you’re going to do with the money. Is it going to Christmas gifts for the poor? To restock the food pantry? For Christmas decorations for the church? Make it meaningful to the donor. These are just some ideas to get you thinking. #GivingTuesday is becoming a very important day of giving for non-profits globally and your church should definitely be part of it.

If you’d like to mobilize your parish to donate to nonprofits, join LPi this #GivingTuesday. We’re offering a 100% corporate match to three Catholic organizations. Learn more in this blog.

The post Tech Tips for #Giving Tuesday appeared first on Liturgical Publications.