GivingTuesday 2024

Jewell Willett · September 2024

December 3rd -- Let's transform the world through radical generosity.

GivingTuesday presents a unique opportunity for companies to engage employees in meaningful philanthropic activities. This resource will guide organizations in planning impactful programs and events that foster a culture of generosity while enhancing team cohesion. By participating in this global movement, companies can inspire their workforce to contribute to causes they care about, creating a ripple effect of positive change.

Over the years, our customers have integrated their events and programs into CSRconnect and GrantsConnect to engage their employees in special initiatives that support this global movement. The ideas shared are inspired by your programs and the features and resources we offer that can bring them to life.

Let’s make this GivingTuesday a memorable experience for everyone involved!

GivingTuesday Resources

Explore tools, resources, and tips to make your campaign a success by visiting the GivingTuesday website. Find toolkits, event ideas, acts of kindness examples, and more.

We especially love the Generosity Toolbox - collection of stories and ideas with checklists and best practices. Here are our top picks for companies (if we had to choose):

Create a Generosity Pop-up Shop: This could be in your stores, in your cafeteria, or strategically planned in regions where you have remote employee hubs. This is about how this could inspire generosity between colleagues or become a way to tie generosity to your band in the community.
- Need help getting your remote employees to stop by? Fun fact: We had a customer encourage their employees to take their pets with them to their organized, outdoor food bank collection station. They gave out pet treats, too!
Commission Public Art that Inspires Generosity: From your lobby to a city park where you host a cleanup day, create a larger-than-life installation that celebrates kindness and encourage photos and posts using #GivingTuesday.
Caremongering: Fostering Compassion in your Community: If your teams or ERGs had $100 (or more if you have it!) and an hour of time, how might they work together to identify a local need or issue that could benefit from collective care and attention on GivingTuesday?
Street-sweeping Generosity: Clean up your community: Did you know Tuesday's are for Trash? This simple, but impactful style of event can bring teams together whether in the office, warehouse, or remote hub. Remote employees not tied to a hub can even join in independently.
- If you are in the US, you could encourage your employees to commit to picking up 152 pieces of trash on GivingTuesday. They can log their hours with Keep America Beautiful, Inc (13-1761633) and earn Incentives, Volunteer Grants, and VTO.
Host a Giving Day: Nearest and dearest to our hearts - tap into all of the features throughout CSRconnect & GrantsConnect to host 24 hours of giving and/or grant-making. Check out more feature ideas below!

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Tips for Planning Special Events on GivingTuesday

This year, GivingTuesday falls on December 3, 2024. Whether it’s before, during, or after your annual giving or volunteer campaigns, it’s a great opportunity to consider how this special day can complement all the other initiatives you’re sharing with your employees.

Decide on your Key Themes

What types of giving will you encourage?
- Employee Time: Plan and promote volunteer events.
- Employee Voice: Encourage support and conversation around building social awareness to a cause.
- Employee Donations: Offer efficient ways for your employees to give and take advantage of their matching gift funds.
- Employee Skills: Promote skills-based volunteering for nonprofits and complete a Project for a nonprofit.
- Employee Support: Get your employees excited about sharing their GivingTuesday story through internal channels and/or social media.
What types of organizations will you promote?
- Charity Partners
- Charity Category or Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
- Employee Choice
How will you share your impact?
- Plan for the data you will track to celebrate your employees after the day is complete. This will allow you the time to build Ad hoc reports or learn new tools - like Impact Edge!
  - If you don't know if you have access to Impact Edge, please message your CSM. All YourCause customers will have access to Impact Edge by 12/16/2024.
- Connect your data with your overall participation goals for the year.
- Think beyond dollars or hours:
  - Charities Impacted
  - Charity Categories supported
  - Countries, territories, and cities impacted
  - Usage Insights
- Long term impact - Assess whether participation in GivingTuesday leads to ongoing employee involvement in charitable activities or increased donations throughout the year.

Choose Your Style

Check out this great blog with a fun approach to three different levels of effort you can give toward executing GivingTuesday. Read through our team’s take on a simplified, elevated, and ‘all in’ approach.
In this article, we break down five great resources for any company getting ready for GivingTuesday. Including a two-week plan for those of us that don’t have that much time!

What would my CSM do? Features and Ideas Compatible with YourCause Solutions

We surveyed our CSMs for their creativity and learned experience with customers on GivingTuesday and here is a collection of great ideas to help you envision your programs in our platform. Items with an * signal that a CSM will need to support with some configuration.

“GivingTuesday is a great way to give back to causes I care about after spending the holiday being thankful for what I have. I love helping customers facilitate their GivingTuesday programs because reflecting back on the immense impact one day can have is so inspiring. Showcasing the goodness that people can have and how individuals can contribute to that goes so far for increasing participation in giving and volunteering. The more people that are excited about making a difference, the more impact is made on the world, and GivingTuesday is a great entry point to this." -- Haley Gross, YourCause Senior Team Lead

Using our Communication Tools

Customize your community branding for the day!
Update your custom text in the cart flow, including your donation confirmation email (located in Client Admin Portal > Give > Cart Flow Text)
Create Message Banners throughout Give and Volunteer
Create a special Splash Modal
Get creative with *Surveys and *Profile Prompts
- Ask employees to 'give 5' on their Tuesday morning in the Community in order to generate more data about their likes and interests. Host a Personalization Challenge for CSRconnect by creating a game that takes the employee through filling out their profile (photo, skills, cause areas, etc.). Guide them to using Profile prompts and a Profile survey that asks them volunteer interest questions. Upon completing the survey, issue them a General Incentive or Cause Card. This time personalizing their experience will lead to better engagement in the future
Don't forget to promote the hashtag #GivingTuesday for any program you create. This is a big part of the GivingTuesday movement and you will want to make sure you're contributing to the worldwide message.

Engagement Elements (EEs)

Voting EE Ideas
- Hold a Voting Contest for Good
  - Tie this to Employee Choice Grants: Allow employees to vote on which nonprofits should receive grants. This fosters a sense of ownership and engagement in the giving process.
- Capture Acts of Kindness commitments by customizing the language and voting tiles in the engagement element setup.
Feature Charity Partners for the day using our Engagement Element Designer.
- Using both Give & Volunteer? Promote the Charity Pages of your Community Partners so employees can choose their preferred way to engage on GivingTuesday directly from the page. Don't forget, on the charity page you can donate, record offline donations, log hours, and search events - as applicable with your community setup.
- Do you have access to an AI tool? Download your latest giving & volunteer data and ask your AI tool to produce a recommended list of cause areas or non-profits you should highlight based on your employees' current interests.
Create a Volunteer Interest *Survey and host it in a Splash Modal and/or Redirect EE. At the end of the survey. encourage the employees to pledge to take action on the site.
Create a focused giving experience by highlighting GivingTuesday volunteer events and Donate Now buttons on a special engagement element.
Using the Give EE can help you curate a 'focused giving campaign' to a small set of charity partners. This EE gives you the capabilities to attach special Match Programs, select donation types, create goals and show totals raised, track usage insights, and pull standard reporting.

Grants

Launch a new Grant Program on GivingTuesday to generate excitement and lean into the meaning of the day
Community Impact Grants: Set aside a specific amount to fund projects proposed by employees that benefit local communities. Employees can submit ideas, and the best ones receive funding.
Themed Grant Challenges: Create themed challenges where employees can propose projects related to specific causes (e.g., education, environment). The most compelling proposals receive funding.

Promote Year-Round Programs

Promote your Reward Programs in CSRconnect (Matching Gifts, Volunteer Grants, VTO, Incentives, and more)
Promote Peer to Peer Fundraising in CSRconnect
- Encourage fundraiser creators to log hours for the time they invest promoting their P2P fundraisers on GivingTuesday to maximize impact.
Host a Volunteer Drive and promote ongoing events to bring volunteers back after GivingTuesday
Create a 'give in honor' campaign promoting the use of the 'Designee Email' feature -- did you know it can email externally allowing the donor to share their donation in honor of with the individual?
Create custom GivingTuesday Reward Programs for actions taken on December 3, 3024:
- Matching Gifts, Volunteer Grants, and Incentives for Volunteer Activity can all be configured to operate on one day only with the start date, end date, and request/redemption end dates set to capture to GivingTuesday timeframe you prefer.
  - Most customers elect to create special programs for the full week and/or a 72 hour period.
- Issue General Incentives or Cause Cards retroactively for those that commit to or meet a volunteer or giving goal you promote on GivingTuesday
- Issue General Incentives or Cause Cards proactively to promote participation on the site - but layer on more for them -- think about the other programs shared in this resource so you can maximize their time on the site and double their impact.

Join the GivingTuesday movement and reimagine a world built upon shared humanity and generosity. In 2023, we supported GivingTuesday initiatives for nearly 30,400 nonprofits worldwide and we cannot wait to see the great impact of 2024's events!

Don't forget to tell us your story so we can help you share it with the world! Contact your CSM today to share your programs, outcomes, and get connected with our storytelling team!