Running a Successful Giving Day

For a number of years now, more organizations have been running their own giving days as part of their regular giving and fundraising programs. But how do you make sure your giving day is successful and engaging as many supporters as you can?

Today’s guests, Kelly Cortes, Manager of Annual Giving at St. Joseph’s College and Jeffrey Starrett, Director of Advancement Services at Pine Crest School, joined the podcast to talk about how their organizations successfully implemented giving days and the lessons they’ve learned along the way. Tune in to hear how to make the case to leadership, shifting from phone banks to online and how these organizations pivoted in 2020.

Topics Discussed in This Episode:

  • The benefit of focusing giving days on specific donor segments
  • Planning for a giving day
  • Making the case to leadership for establishing an online giving day
  • Shifting from phone banks to text and email
  • Selecting and approving projects to raise money for on your giving day
  • What was different about giving days in 2020
  • The benefits of running your giving day separately from GivingTuesday
  • Tips for starting a giving day at your organization

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Resources:

Quotes:

“We try to raise about a third of our money in one day now.” –Jeffrey Starrett

“This year, our office—and we’re an office of nine—did all the texting.” –Jeffrey Starrett

“If we have 90-year-old donors that we have to stay in touch with, we do still do a direct mail campaign and we can keep that piece of it there for them so they can still give in a traditional envelope on giving days.” –Kelly Cortes