Maximize Your Giving Tuesday Fundraising Data

Giving Tuesday is a Year-Round Fundraising Goldmine for Healthcare and Nonprofits

Giving Tuesday, a global day of fundraising, is a huge deal for healthcare development offices and nonprofit organizations. Last year, 34 million adults in the United States alone donated $3.1 billion in support of their favorite causes.

On this one single day, you can reach a lot of people in a lot of places. Just think of the data you could gather from your donors! Beyond fueling your next campaign, collecting, monitoring, and analyzing Giving Tuesday data can help shape your overall fundraising strategy. This data can help you understand your audience, identify the messaging they resonate with most, and adjust your approach to better engage and steward them. And spoiler alert – this can lead to some long-term success!

With Giving Tuesday just around the corner, your campaign plans are likely prepared and ready to roll. But once the donations are in, what comes next?

Do a Deep Dive on Performance

After Giving Tuesday is said and done, analyze your results. These key insights can provide direction for future fundraising campaigns. Some key metrics you’ll want to focus on are:

• Total donations this year vs. previous years: How has your campaign stacked up year over year?
• New donor acquisition rates: To figure yours out, take (new donors / total donors) × 100. The average for nonprofits is between 1.5% and 3%.
• Donor retention: How many of your donors are first-timers, and how many have renewed or strengthened their support?
• Median gift size: It’s often tricky to represent the ‘average’ gift size. One large donor can make 1,000 smaller donors look like they gave more than they did. Determining the median gift size will give you a more ‘average’ average.
• Revenue concentration: Determining who gave what can help you identify high-level donors (psst, this is crucial for targeting!)
• Peak giving times and patterns: Was there a particular time or day that donors gave most? Did you see more donations after a certain number of touchpoints?
• Number of communications and mediums: Notice a spike in gifts after adding that follow-up email a day or two later?

Learn by Segmenting Donors

Not all donors are created equal and treating them as such can cost you. Post-Giving Tuesday data analysis provides a clearer picture of what your donors care about, their interests, and what motivates them to give. This information can help you craft, segment, and personalize your communications for stronger engagement, more loyal supporters, and yes – even larger gifts!

Some common data points used for segmentation include:

• Tenure: How long have you been a donor?
• Frequency: How often do you give?
• Type: Which channels do you give through?
• Amount: How much do you give?
• Reason: Why do you give?
• Interest: What are you passionate about?

By segmenting your donors post-Giving Tuesday, you can create tailored thank-you messaging, custom impact reporting, targeted follow-up campaigns, and more.

Track Donor Journeys

Looking for patterns or trends in donor behaviors using Giving Tuesday data can give you valuable insights into their journeys – and how you should nurture and steward them in the future. You’ll specifically want to look at:

• Channel performance: Which channels generated the most donations? Which channels brought in your most valuable donors? What’s your return on investment on each channel? What sparked meaningful interactions? Use this information to double down on the top-performing channels for your EOY campaign, for example.
• Conversions: Which triggers converted recipients into donors? Did gift matching drive more donations? Did emotions have an influence (i.e., a personal story vs. a general ask)? Replicate these triggers in future campaigns.
• Touchpoints: What percentage of donors engaged with your first touchpoint? How many donors engaged after their first gift? What percentage of donors made a second gift (and at what point did they make it)? Based on this information, adjust the number of touchpoints for future outreach and their frequency, dates, and times.

Analyze (or Add) Testing

Chances are you’ve already experimented with A/B testing in your outreach, maybe even this year’s Giving Tuesday campaign. Analyzing this data can help you understand what drives your donors to act. Take the results of your tests, refine your messaging, and document your winning formula.

If you skipped out on testing this time around, make sure to incorporate it into your next campaign. It’s one of the easiest ways to fine-tune your strategies and determine what works with your audience. While planning your next campaign, try testing some of these elements:

• Email subject lines
• Email personalization (i.e., using the donor’s first name vs. a generalized salutation)
• Calls to action (general vs. specific)
• Different ask amounts or strings
• Using ask amounts vs. no ask (i.e., My best gift of: _____)
• Donor stories vs. general impact
• Email/letter signers
• Envelope teaser vs. no teaser
• Images vs. infographics
• A more graphic design vs. stationary-style

Continue to test these for another campaign, then once you see true patterns in behavior, tailor your outreach (or segment based on donors) moving forward.

Adapt Future Campaigns

Having all the Giving Tuesday data is great, but if you don’t do anything with it, what’s the point? If used correctly, the information you gather Giving Tuesday will help you sharpen your strategies year-round. Leverage your insights by:

• Setting clearer campaign goals.
• Segmenting your audience by trends.
• Refining and personalizing your messaging and timeline.
• Strengthening and stewarding your relationships with high-level donors.
• Expanding your testing and analytics.
• Adjusting your campaign channels and tools.

Work with Us

At Graphcom, we know a thing or two about leveraging donor data for fundraising success. Evaluating and evolving are built right into our five-phase approach! So, if you’re coming off Giving Tuesday feeling overwhelmed and unsure where to go next, let us help!