What do you wish you would have known?

We began our first Giving Day last year, when our in-person fundraiser was canceled due to covid. This year, we held our second Giving Day, and it has been so successful that we are making it a permanent thing.

What we wish we knew:

First, a Giving Day does not have to resemble an in-person event. You don't need to have an auction, pick-up packets, or live feeds. The first year, we did all of our feeds live, so that viewers could participate and ask questions. This second year, we planned ahead a little better and pre-recorded all our videos and asked people to submit their questions in advance. Our Giving Day netted more than twice the revenue of our in-person fundraiser, without any of the material overhead of auction items, catered meals, or the like.

Second, a Giving Day does not have the same staff or volunteer distribution of a regular event. Our Event Coordinator was accustomed to hands-on stuff like selecting venues, creating table displays, and distributing volunteer packets. But our Giving Day fell almost exclusively into the lap of our Communication director and Major Giving Director (me). Be creative in keeping your volunteers still actively engaged, as community Ambassadors, or the like.

Lastly, one sage piece of advice we received from a fellow nonprofit was to make sure you had your goal in hand before the public Giving Day event began. At least 2 months out, you should be soliciting major donors for advance pledges or matching gift opportunities, explaining to them that their lead gift will help raise awareness and enthusiasm on the day of. With this strategy, you never have to worry about an event flop: “Sorry guys, we didn't make our goal, but let's keep trying!” Instead, you can proudly acknowledge that you not only met but exceeded your goal, at the end of the Giving Day. Think of a Giving Day as a rallying point around which enthusiasm is built and channeled, rather than thinking that all activity must happen on the day itself.