By Gráinne Mathews, Giving Tuesday Lead and Senior Campaigns and Public Affairs Officer at the Charities Aid Foundation
Giving Tuesday is a global day of giving. What started in the United States of America in 2012 as a day to give back after the shopping days of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, has transformed in to a global generosity movement. Giving Tuesday now happens in over 60 countries, and this year is taking place on Tuesday 3 December 2019.
Giving Tuesday came to the UK in 2014 and it now has thousands of partners across the charity and business sectors. Giving Tuesday is about all forms of giving, not just donating money, so charities can use this day to help them campaign. For example, Marie Curie and the British Heart Foundation have used the day to thank their supporters.
But of course, lots of charities use Giving Tuesday to fundraise, so we thought it may be helpful to provide some examples of what a large charity and smaller charity have done previously.
Fundraising on Giving Tuesday
Dogs Trust began using Giving Tuesday as a means to celebrate its partnership with fashion brand Radley. Since 2016, Radley have designed a special Dogs Trust collection, which launches on Giving Tuesday. Now in its fourth year, the collection features designs inspired by real rescue dogs – Harry the crossbreed, Brandy the Dachshund, Olive the Labrador and JoJo the Golden Retriever. A portion of the sales proceeds goes to Dogs Trust.
Nick Daniel, Marketing Director at Dogs Trust says “Money raised through our partnership with Radley will help us continue to support the thousands of dogs in our care while they await their special someone.”
Speaking about their partnership with the charity, Elizabeth Galton, Head of Marketing at Radley added: “Dogs have always been at the core of our brand DNA and we know our customers love them too, which is why our connection to Dogs Trust means so much to us. To date the collection has raised over £100,000 to help the 15,000 homeless dogs of all shapes and sizes cared for by the charity every year. After the rush of Black Friday, connecting to Giving Tuesday allows both us as a brand and our customers to take a step back and consider how we want to use our purchasing power to help others.”
Muslim Youth Helpline, which provides emotional support by phone, email and web chat, has used the day to re-engage donors and reach new supporters, raising £2,500 in the process. The charity had one simple ask – to raise enough money to help cover the operating costs of their helplines.
They kick-started their campaign with social media activity ahead of Giving Tuesday. By raising the profile of their work, the charity won a $1,000 prize after being featured in the top 20 Giving Tuesday fundraisers. Giving Tuesday gave the charity a reason to reach out to their supporter base and to reach new audiences through social media.
Zohra Khaku, Director of the Muslim Youth Helpline, said to CAF: “It was awesome to reach out to new donors but also reconnect with people we knew as well. The first people you usually ask for help from are friends and family after all. So we used the Giving Tuesday platform as an excuse to get in touch with them again – especially because people get tired of supporting the same thing over and over. So we wanted to reach out to them with something that’s slightly different.”
Make sure you know the standards
Whatever your charity chooses to do this Giving Tuesday, it’s important to make sure that your fundraising campaign is planned with the standards set out in the Code of Fundraising Practice in mind, especially if you are if you are branching out and trying new fundraising techniques.
Part 1 sets out the behaviour expected from all fundraisers. If you’re planning a partnership or working with volunteers or children, part 2 of the code explains what you need to know when working with others. And, given that Giving Tuesday makes such a big impact on social media every year, it’s worth looking at part 3 which focuses on which standards apply to specific fundraising methods, including online platforms, communications and advertising.
We’d would love you to join the thousands of other charities who are using Giving Tuesday to celebrate and encourage giving in all its forms. We also love hearing how our partners use Giving Tuesday, so if you’re trying something new, do tell us how through the #MyGivingStory campaign and remember to refer to the code.
Please note, the Fundraising Regulator does not necessarily endorse any views expressed within opinion pieces by guest authors.