Daily Buzz: Learn From a Giving Tuesday Flop

Nonprofits raised almost $2 billion this year on Giving Tuesday. Did your organization reach its goal? If not, it’s time for an evaluation, says Julia Campbell on Nonprofit Marketing Guide  (opens in a new tab). Campbell offers three reasons why your Giving Tuesday campaign may not have performed as you’d hoped:

1. You didn’t engage your community before Giving Tuesday. Successful campaigns begin weeks and even months in advance, Campbell says. It takes time to “prime the pump—to build trust, convey [the campaign’s] impact, and share compelling stories and other helpful information to get the audience excited and ready to go.”

2. You make it difficult to give. Examine your online donation process. Ask yourself: Was it too cumbersome? What did your landing page look like? Did you leverage Facebook’s charitable giving tools or send people to an outside website? “On a day like Giving Tuesday with many demands for your donors’ dollars and attention, the process to make a donation has to be quick and seamless,” Campbell says.

3. Your messaging was off. It’s important to explain where the money will go and offer a timely, relevant, and compelling reason to donate.

“Don’t wait until December to communicate with donors. Start planning for next year now and be sure to communicate with your donors throughout the year,” Campbell says. “Thank them, share stories of impact, and be sure to ask them what they want to hear from you.”

How Tech can Boost Meeting Engagement

There is a myriad of opportunities to harness technology for your meeting or conference to add customer service and enhance the live experience in a highly customized way. https://t.co/v0vf712REz  (opens in a new tab) #eventprofs  (opens in a new tab) #technology  (opens in a new tab) #meetingprofs  (opens in a new tab) #assnchat  (opens in a new tab)

— Association Headquarters (@association_hq) December 11, 2019  (opens in a new tab)

Technology won’t replace a live meeting, says Beth Mauro on the Association Headquarters blog  (opens in a new tab), but it can be used in many ways to enhance customer service and the live experience.

For example, chatbots and virtual assistants like Amazon’s Alexa can answer common questions by text or voice, offering a more interactive way to deliver important information. Do you want to give your meetings value beyond the meeting dates? Mauro suggests making a recording of the meetings available to your members for download.

“You may be surprised to learn that many of these options don’t require a huge investment or long-term commitment,” she says. “There’s no reason not to refresh your meeting with a new twist on technology” in the new year.

Other Links of Note

Looking to negotiate for paid volunteer time off? Heather Davidson explains how to convince your boss on the VolunteerMatch blog  (opens in a new tab).

What’s next for social media? Hootsuite  (opens in a new tab) identifies its top five trends to watch for in 2020.

How important is the customer experience? It’s a difference maker, argues Dennis Shiao on CMSWire  (opens in a new tab).

(erhui1979/DigitalVision Vectors)