Your Giving Days ain’t failing… your strategy is

Y’all treating a 24-hour campaign like it don’t require 365 days of work.
 No plan. No storytelling. No activated network.

Then shocked when donations don’t show up.

🎙️ Episode 5 breaks down:
 ✔️ Why most Giving Days flop
 ✔️ What successful nonprofits actually do
 ✔️ How to turn hype into real money

👉 Tap in. Fix your strategy. Stay in the Black.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

We all have these kind of people, right? The kind of people we love. Some of them are family. Some of them might be children that we didn't have. They go zero dog dirty. They go quiet for a long time for whatever reason. And then one day they call you because there is a need that has presented itself on their end. And their expectation is that you shall fulfill it. This is what we're talking about today on Philanthropy and the Black people. We're talking about giving days. How you ain't talked to me in a year, and all of a sudden you need me as an emergency. Let's go. This is Philanthropy in the Black. I'm your whole sell itself. I'm gonna go on philanthropy in the black to help nonprofit, stay in the black. Not only financially, but socially and more than we do that by conversation, real world knowledge and absolute research. So we're gonna get into giving days, what they are, what they are not, and you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna be high in the right here. You know, our relationship, you and I, you know, if you're listening, you feel it. If you're watching, you see it. You we we hear. My disdain for giving days runs deep because how I how can I describe how I felt when they would roll around? I got I got something. Here's how I would feel when it was my responsibility at a WAC organization to do giving days. Just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in. Big facts. So big facts. Listen. You know, my experience has been such where I've had the blessing of working for some great organizations and some not great, not so great organizations. And no fault of their own, right? Things happen. But giving days in most instances when it were when we were at certain organizations, it was like a silver bullet or assumed to be a silver bullet to fix things, and it is never that. So, what I'm gonna get into you right quick is giving days. And if you don't know what a giving day is, let me tell you it's 80 emails in two weeks from one organization. It's a countdown clock on their uh website. It's an email that's so urgent, it's all caps with exclamation, it's going only three hours left. That's what it looks like. But here's what it really is. Giving days are marketed as 24 hour sprints, right? Like 24 hours to give. But the ones that win, the organizations that get it, they treat the give day like a 364-day strategy. Drop a bomb for that. Giving days are usually time-bound fundraising campaigns. 24 hours normally, digitally, online giving mainly. Like just go to our website, hit this link. It is built to drive urgency, excitement, and participation. That's what it is. But here's what some of us don't always understand. Oh my goodness, this this is heavy. Can you feel can you feel the tension in my in my neck? Let me bring out the swear jar. Here you go. I mean, I know you can't see it online, but I mean you can't hear it. But you if you see what I have here, it's the purple and gold bag. If you know, you know, it's the swear jar because this might get heavy. Get the kids out of the room. Here we go. Giving days were never just about money, never just about money. They were really tools for engagement, awareness, pipeline building, and uh building a culture of philanthropy. You know, in my research, you know, giving days were designed to expand a donor base, right? You got 12 donors, you want 20. Giving days are a good way to do it. That's an example, illustration, if you will. You want to build community connection. Giving days are a good way to do that. You want to create excitement around giving, giving days can do that. But if you are measuring giving days by the dollars raised, you have lost already. And let me be clear: if you're measuring it by dollars raised solely, you are losing. Giving days popped up, I don't know, they didn't just pop up, but they've been around, I don't know, the 2010s, maybe somewhere 2011, 2012, when you know, technology emails, you know, before social media really got heavy, you know, giving days popped up. And and one of the national movements was Giving Tuesday, which I believe happens in November, right? But over the last decade or so, community foundation-led giving days have grown. And and community foundations are things in your those foundations in your neighborhood with your cities or your town's name on, and then they do good in the community. They they issue, they they issue um grants, they take care of donor advice funds, so on and so forth. But in 2009, it was probably a handful of these types of giving days from community-led foundations. In 2020, it was like 78. And now from the research, it says it hovers around 70%, 70 plus annually, right? So it's not just a trend anymore. Yeah, I thought it was a trend. We're doing a giving day. Wrong. It is really part of the ecosystem of philanthropy. It is now here to stay because it does work. And I'm going to get into how I think it works, and in situations it doesn't work. You know, there are different types. There's national and then there's local. So your national giving days like Giving Tuesday, you have massive visibility, you have heavy competition. Everyone is fighting for uh McKenzie uh Scott or maybe Gail Benson, right? But in your community, your community local giving days, they're hosted by community foundations. They're more localized, they're more localized, uh, more localized donor base is is usually participating, right? And you have stronger storytelling opportunities because I live here, I see you, and you're telling me a story about my community. That's powerful. And here's the gym smaller communities often raise more per capita than big cities. Why? Simple. Stronger relationships, just say it, tighter networks, less noise. You have an opportunity to really um show your mission in action, and I'll get to that as well. But let's keep it real. We're gonna this is this this show is all about the reality and authenticity of this work, right? So the reality is giving days are not equal opportunity. Get it out of here. I mean, you have somebody to write grants, write emails, send the email, check the email data, put the information into the system. You have a whole team of thy folks doing all the things. They usually have a bigger or a marketing budget, period. I don't even say bigger, they have a marketing budget. Most large nonprofits. They have established donor lists, and they have a built-in infrastructure. That's large. Let's get to the small. And what I usually define small is sometimes a small nonprofit is their budget is a million dollars or less, or even four, five hundred thousand dollars or less. That's a small nonprofit, and what they have is a limited staff, sometimes a team of one, sometimes a 1.5, right? They have limited time because that team is doing everything. They are the marketing, they are the IT, they they're they're doing it. So they have limited time to really give it all their expertise and passion, and they have limited reach. But small orgs do have one large advantage over um, small orgs have one large one advantage over larger organizations, and that is authenticity. That's what small organizations have. Think roots of music, think silverback society. You know those organizations are absolutely doing the work. You know that every dollar truly matters, and I'm not saying it doesn't matter for the big boys, I'm saying those small organizations, $20,000 on a giving day is significant fundraising for that organization. Authenticity. That's where small orgs have an advantage. When it's leveraged right, when I'm sorry, when it's leveraged right, I can't even talk, they can outperform the big boys. They absolutely do. Successful organizations when it comes to these giving days, right? You know, um they start planning months in advance. Sometimes a year, like it is way in advance. They're they they're they're they're getting it together. These are successful, not small or large, but successful organizations. They start planning this early. They use storytelling, not just asking for money. They activate their board and their volunteers. It is participatory. Everybody is involved. They build peer-to-peer campaigns, right? So you have your advisory council participating, you have your alumni participating, you so it's peer-to-peer. They engage before, during, and after. They understand that the 24 hours of the giving campaign is just the final act. It is the wedding to the courting to the proposal. It is the final act, it is the marriage after the wedding, right? It is a final act. Unsuccessful orgs, they start, they started yesterday. Like that they they they threw something online and sent an email and say, okay, we did it. Bada bing, bada boom, we're done. That's unsuccessful organizations. They start late, they send generic please donate emails. So here's the what do you call the go no go of giving days for me? Go. It builds visibility, engages new donors. New donors are always important. It energizes your base, creates urgency, and it's a great entry point for young donors. Listen, there's a generation of donors that they won't just send you money, they want to come out and volunteer. They want to absolutely go to the capital and advocate for you. They want to make calls on your behalf. They're not just sending in a dollar. There's a generation that, you know, their work was we send you this money, we trust you, go do it. But these new, our younger generation of donors, they are want, they absolutely want to be involved. So I think it's important for us to understand it. So those are my goals. Those are the good things. The goal. Here's the no-go. The constant barrage of emails and social media stuff in the last week before um the your giving day. This is how it has your donors feeling. Oh Pinky. Like, say something else. So on Philanthropy in the Black, again, we don't just complain. We don't just complain. Almost cuss again. We don't complain. We we work towards solutions. And so I think it's important for me now to talk about here are the ways that I think we can um make just some practical advice on how to make your given day work. First thing we the word of the day is coordinate. Well, the secret is you've got to coordinate. Uh-huh. Most people don't coordinate. You gotta coordinate, people. Your mushroom belt gotta match, your mushroom shirt gotta match to the inside of your mushroom jacket. It it just is an absolute necessity, right? So here's some practical advice. And it's for you who've been doing it a while, you already know this, but you have to make it happen. Here we go. Number one, treat it like a year-long strategy. Year-long. Don't just go, oh, that's in May. Okay, we're gonna do two weeks out. It's in November, we're gonna do a week out. You're failing. You have to treat it like a year-long strategy that's part of something bigger. Build a content calendar. Like, absolutely have a storyboard and what you want to talk about through your donors, not just you riding your own jock, having your donors, your board, people who've received services tell the story on your behalf. That's the goal. That's the goal. Number two, listen, peer-to-peer fundraising is important. The idea of having your advancement, I'm sorry, your alumni board or your parent advisory committee or your president committee actually doing fundraising for you, what happens is their network becomes your network because you wouldn't reach them without them. So having those champions and ambassadors is key. If you don't have that, you're missing a very good component, an important component to a successful give day, right? Tell stories, people, listen. The story always comes before the ask. So whatever the president of the institution or the CEO, the executive director is saying, the board should be saying. Whatever the priorities of the board are, the C-suite should be talking about. And then the advancement team grabs that because marketing has said these are the things. But if I have to push a message from the bottom forgiving, then we are absolutely going to fail because my president is talking about something else, my board is talking about this, marketing is focused on that, and I'm just over here saying, Can I get a post, please? Can I please get a post? I just want you to post one thing. Coordination. Use a specific call to action. Please support us is no longer valid. Get it out of here. But if you say something like, Give 50 to feed a family tonight, that you didn't you that hits home on so many levels, economically, emotionally, in my community. So if you use real-world examples when you're asking, that is way more beneficial than just saying please support us, right? My last thing on that is leverage your videos, make a video. Listen, there's a reason TikTok ain't dead, there's a reason Instagram isn't dead, and Facebook stories and reels like people watch those things. They will they binge watch the hell out of those things, like um uh a Netflix show. So if you are able to incorporate video into your story throughout the year, they're two times more likely to be shared. That's factual data, and it builds an emotional connection. Tease, tease, tease, build momentum, warm up your audience. Don't just drop the bomb on them like, hey, give us some money. See, I have one family member, they'll call me one week, they'll call me another week, send a text the third week. By the fourth week, they're asking for money. But I feel like I've been seen. So at the end of the day, by all means, lie to me, but don't just drop a bomb on your supporters saying, Here we are, we're in give, we're in giving mode. Build them up, build them up to it. And another the last the last thing for real on this before I close, thank your donors publicly. Thank your donors publicly. Follow up after, have your volunteers or your board make a few calls and say thank you for supporting. You know how important that is to have your board members make a few calls so they can talk to the people or your volunteers or your C-suite. It's just 30 minutes out of day. If y'all do it together, even better. But that the return on investment for steward for from stewardship is immeasurable to me. It it's just in it it does something for the donor that no electronic acknowledgement can do. So please show gratitude loudly. Social media, some organizations do it really, really well. And I I love it. Like uh Silverback Society, they're a great organization. The Roots of Music, another great organization. That $20,000 to $50,000 is program changing for those type of organizations. I'm not saying disregard larger organizations. I'm saying on give days, please understand what that kind of support does for those organizations. So let me bring it home. Giving days are not magic, they don't fix weak strategy, weak store storytelling or weak relationships. They amplify what's already there. So if your foundation isn't solid, your giving day is gonna expose that. Your board is gonna look at you and say, where where the money and that is um just kind of again, it was it for me doing not having that kind of support in some instances and just treating it like another thing to do, um, it's just not fair to your donors, and that's it's not fair to the population you serve. So when you have everyone on one team and one accord, it makes a difference. I worked at a place where we when the CEO was involved, we had made more money on give on our giving day than we had ever done in eight, ten years. When that CEO was gone the following year, we lost half that support because uh dollars, because that voice wasn't there, the team effort wasn't there, the collaboration was there. So when I say coordinate, I absolutely mean like you have to get every branch of your team involved. So giving days do not fix weak strategy, storytelling relationships. They expose it. But if it does, if you do it right, your giving day becomes a movement. I've seen it work, especially when you're celebrating an anniversary, a birthday of your organization or something great. It's a movement. It builds your pipeline. You find new donors, you find new friends, new supporters, and it changes the culture of your organization. That's how it shows Philanthropy in the Black, bro. Our goal is to hopefully help nonprofits stay in the black, not only financially, but socially and morally. If you ever give any day in your community, by all means, find the worthy organization is important. And don't forget to support us by like down below share. Philanthropyandheblack.com. High activity doesn't always equal high dollars. Effort without strategy is still a loss.