It's never too early to start planning for Giving Tuesday. This year, Giving Tuesday is December 1, 2015. Does your nonprofit have a digital communications plan in place yet?

Giving Tuesday is great for many reasons, it’s a national platform, it’s a day to be creative, and it’s also a great opportunity to advance your organization's digital and social media agenda.

Here are ten tips to help you with your planning:

1.     Analyze

Before creating your 2015 campaign, be sure to do a thorough analysis of your 2014 activities.  What worked?  What feedback did you get?  I bet you said that you needed more lead time and wouldn’t leave it so late next year…..

2.     Research

As well as looking at your own stats, be sure to read up on best practices for online fundraising and social media for 2015.  Is your e-mail list CASL compliant?  What are best practices for Facebook advertising today versus this time last year?  Check out the great case studies on www.givingtuesday.ca for examples and inspiration for your campaign, and look at what other organizations in your sector are doing too.  

 3.     Plan

The basis of any plan should be a goal that is tied directly to your organization’s strategic plan.  Depending on your organization, capacity, and level of involvement with Giving Tuesday, your goals will vary. For example:

• Run our first ever Giving Tuesday campaign and monitor results
• Move 5% of our direct mail donors to give online
• Increase online giving by 20% in December 2015 from 2014

Once you have set one to three realistic goals there are many different things to think about in terms of planning, some of which we will cover in more detail in other tips.

A comprehensive plan should include the following sections:

• Goals
• Target Audience
• Key Messages / Call To Action
• Platforms - Web, E-mail, Social Media, PR, Traditional Media, Event etc
• Timeline for messages and activities
• Budget
• Tools and technology needed - Dedicated landing/donations pages, sign up forms, social media tracking tools etc
• Partners/Sponsors
• Influencers
• Supporter journey and stewardship
• Measurement

 4.     Budget

Budgeting isn’t just about how much you can scrape together for some Facebook ads a week before giving Tuesday.  If  you have done your homework and made a plan, you’ll have a good idea of what you need.  Consider:

• Staff time to create and execute the campaign;
• Any technology costs associated with creating new pages on your website or donation pages;
• Creation of any visual assets for the campaign if you need graphic design support;
• Social media monitoring tools you may wish to purchase to measure the campaign outside of what you normally use;
• Very important: Paid social media budget to target current or new supporters during Giving Tuesday;
• Any costs for physical marketing; and,  
• Any event costs if you are hosting an event or get together on the day.

 5.              Allies & Influencers

Getting an already engaged group of people behind your campaign before it launches is critical.  You need your inner circle to support this campaign and be vocal about their support. After all, if your closest friends won't support you, why would anyone else?  Giving Tuesday should not just be about new donors.  

 It’s critical you get buy in and support from people willing to share and make asks on the organization's behalf, ahead of time.

 6.              Assets

Your campaign should not just be extra tweets you send on the day. It needs to be an integrated fundraising and marketing campaign with a story behind it. As you know, good fundraising is good storytelling!

Who are your heroes? Your donors? The people you provide services to? Your staff? What angle will you take to encourage more donations specifically on Giving Tuesday. You need to be clear on the why today? before you start creating any assets.

 7.              “What’s In It For Me?”

We aren’t here to tell you how to fundraise, you’re already an expert!  What we can tell you is that Giving Tuesday is a day like no other. It was born on social media and is essentially built on the principles of crowdfunding.  Crowdfunding principals involve an ask that is very tangible in its nature:

• Build one classroom
• Feed 100 hungry children
• Fund one more researcher for ABC cause

and a goal that is achievable by a number of small donations/donors.

8.              Real Time

Be sure to have at least one staff member dedicated to social media on Giving Tuesday.  Be ready to join the conversation in a friendly, fun way. Your cause may be serious, but celebrating philanthropy and giving should be a positive experience. Talk to people, make friends, share stories, thank people for their support the moment they show it.  Support the movement, use the hashtag #GivingTuesdayCA.

 9.              Integrated

Giving Tuesday is not a social media activity alone (yes it started on social media, but times have evolved).  Social media is a vehicle to share messages with a wide audience using the platform of Giving Tuesday, but it should not be where you rely on success.

How does Giving Tuesday fit into your overall calendar of fundraising?  Think about how your supporters might feel if you message them on Giving Tuesday then again one week later about your end of year campaign.  If you only use social media you are missing the opportunity to talk to many of your existing supporters, too.

10.           Stewardship

Giving Tuesday does not exist in a vacuum outside of normal fundraising rules and best practice!  In fact, give a donor a poor experience who comes to you through social media, and the chances are higher they will also tell people via social media about their poor experience. 

Social media stewardship depends on the existing relationship you have with the donor too.  Use some creativity as well as some common sense to decide if a donor would like public recognition or not.  

This is a LOT of information in a small space, we get that! So to help you out, we have written a more detailed e-book, offered for free, to help you with your planning.  You can get it by visiting www.sociallygood.ca/givingtuesday

 Clare McDowall (that’s me!) is the owner of Socially Good, a digital communications and marketing firm based in Toronto, with a track record in working with nonprofits to improve their digital strategies.  When Clare is not working on communications and marketing strategies, you’ll find her on the dance floor competing as a West Coast Swing dancer around North America. You can connect with Clare on Twitter at @Socially_Good.