7 Ways to Build a Culture of Philanthropy after Giving Tuesday

Giving Tuesday is over, now what?

This past Tuesday, corporations and individuals around the world came together to give back. This year, through the Giving Tuesday website alone, donors gave a combined 1.64 million gifts in nearly 100 countries that totaled $177,000,000. The Global Good Network gave $4.23 million, more than double what was given just one day before.

Many corporations joined the Giving Tuesday efforts through both internal and public-facing campaigns. CVS Health has a Giving Tuesday Grants program where employees nominate their favorite charities to receive grants.

This article looks at how companies can use this amazing day to propel the trend of giving back throughout the new year.

With any campaign, CSR practitioners always hope that giving and volunteer events will align with the company’s overall CSR strategy. But at the end of the day, employees will give where they want to give and volunteer where they want to volunteer. Find those Giving Tuesday stories that do align with your CSR strategy and hold onto them for marketing campaigns or social media posts throughout the year.

Take the time to sift through social media. Many employees used social media with company hashtags to tell friends and family about their Giving Tuesday experiences. Engage with those employees by liking and resharing their posts and stories. When you find especially compelling ones, reach out to those employees to interview them and learn the story of their Giving Tuesday activities. This will allow your CSR team to collect anecdotal data that may have been overlooked at various volunteering sites.

Look at your employee giving platform to understand which types of nonprofits employees chose to support. Find out which NPOs your team loves – are there any that stand out as highly supported? Are there any surprises that might affect which NPOs your company partners with in the future? Giving Tuesday is a great day to look at this data because more employees than normal tend to make donations on that day. Once you’ve identified the nonprofit that has the strongest support, offer a double match day and/or volunteer events for that specific charity in the new year.

Those stories that your team collected? Utilize them throughout the year in internal and external messaging surrounding CSR. Consider sharing these stories in a way that makes sense for your company (internal newsletter, intranet, Engagement Element) to spread visibility of CSR within your company. It will remind employees of the wonderful day they had participating in Giving Tuesday activities throughout the rest of the year!

Even if supporting nonprofit partners runs deep within the culture of your company, some employees may participate more often or more readily than others. To encourage new donors to give, surprise first-time donors who gave on Giving Tuesday by entering them into a drawing. The prize can be creative – anything from a gift card to additional paid time off. This way, first-time donors have a positive experience with their first gift and want to give more in the future.

Giving Tuesday, in many ways, is the kickoff to the end of year giving season. During this time it is important to educate employees, especially new donors, about the different ways to give in the upcoming year. Recurring giving, often done through payroll deduction, is a great way to provide ongoing support and stability to nonprofit partners. It also allows the donor to fit donations into their budget each month. Because the recurring gift is spread out over the course of a year, the donation size is 42% larger on average than a one-time gift. Increasing both the stability and budget of the nonprofit partner. Recurring giving also leads to a greater number of donors, as well as increased donor loyalty. Messaging these benefits internally through the intranet, email, and campaign leaders will lead to a strong participation rate in the new year.

Giving donations often gets the bulk of the hype on Giving Tuesday, and every other day of the year. But it is important to encourage employees to give their time and their skills as well. Often these skills are priceless to nonprofit partners looking for specific work. One way to boost employee volunteerism is to ask employees to commit to their volunteer projects for the year. Employees who commit to their volunteer goals via social media, or even by writing their intentions and posting it to their office doors, are 65% more likely to follow through with those commitments.

While we certainly don’t want to take anything away from the incredible, grassroots effort that is Giving Tuesday, there are ways that companies can utilize employee’s experience on that day as part of their storytelling efforts for the rest of the year. CSR professionals ensure success by setting up Giving Tuesday events that support the overall CSR strategy, encouraging employees to share their experience, and then collecting and utilizing those experiences to support CSR efforts for the rest of the year.