An 8-Week Plan for Success on Giving Tuesday or Any Giving Day

To help nonprofits make the most of the region’s Big Day of Giving, the Sacramento Region Community Foundation provides this planning tool to participating groups. The workbook, which you can download, contains questions nonprofits should answer to help define their plans for social-media outreach, board and donor involvement, and marketing. The exercises can apply to any giving day, including Giving Tuesday, which this year is December 1 — about eight weeks away.

For each week leading up to the event, the workbook provides checklists and charts to help track goals, assign tasks, and monitor completion. In the first week, for example, the foundation suggests completing your work plan, commencing weekly meetings with staff and volunteers, and finalizing donor-email and contact lists.

Jeannie Howell, community-impact officer of the Sacramento Region Community Foundation has a few tips on how nonprofits can adapt this guide to their needs.

• If possible, start a few weeks before the eight-week mark to answer key questions and develop your goals.

• If the giving day is offering cash prizes, determine which prizes you will compete for and how that factors into your goals.

• Get your board involved. The workbook includes a sample Individual Development Plan for each board member to commit to specific fundraising and awareness-building activities.

• Adapt the checklists in this workbook to your organization’s activities and other scheduling systems as needed.