Today is #GivingTuesday. The group that founded the day describes it as this:
GivingTuesday was created in 2012 as a simple idea: a day that encourages people to do good.
But today I’m wondering if the juice is worth the squeeze.
Cheap plug: I’m involved with a number of organizations that are participating in #GivingTuesday that would love your donation:
But all day long I have seen emails, Tweets, Instagrams, Facebook Posts, TikTok videos and more of organizations that are asking for your support on this #GivingTuesday.
It doesn’t matter how many organizations you donate to, how many you follow, or how much money you give. You can’t support every worthy organization that is participating in the day.
A lot of groups have invested a lot of time, a lot of talent, and in some cases a bit of treasure into promoting their #GivingTuesday efforts. But I wonder how much the return on investment is.
For the organizations I’m involved with, it’s easy; we do everything in house at no cost. Whatever cost is generally funded by the Board Members of the participants themselves, outside of organizational funds. But there are some organizations that raise millions of dollars who have overhead, fulltime employees, and more. How much time have they spent on #GivingTuesday marketing plans? Is it ultimately worth it? Is the ROI better or worse than their other organizational giving campaigns?
I have absolutely no data to back it up. But it seems like organizations would be better served focusing elsewhere. And some fundraising experts agree:
This year, every other non-profit, large and small, is going to be sending messages that day. How sure are you that your e-mail or social media campaign is going to be able to cut through the clutter?
Sure, you may raise some extra money that day by sending out an e-mail, but that’s not the measure of success. The real measure of success is, if you sent out the same fundraising e-mail at a different time (say, the week after #GivingTuesday), would you raise more or less than if you sent it out on the big day?
It’s an interesting read.
Anyway, as somebody who is involved in non-profits, media and marketing, it’s just something to think about.
I agree. Organizations should be trying to develop monthly donors.