As the end of the year is approaching many nonprofit organizations are going to be holding end of the year fundraisers or galas. Before you hold your event it is important you know how to leverage all aspects of social media to make your fundraising event successful, and help get the word out about your organization and your mission.

The first thing you need to do is create a content/communication calendar for the fundraising event. This calendar will tell you what needs to be done each day leading up to the event. The marketing calendar should include where the item is to be posted, by who and what time of the day it is to be posted. What time of the day it is posted is crucial, because it can determine if your marketing material is going to be opened or not. The best time to email people is from 9-11am Tuesday-Thursday or 2pm. The worst times are Monday mornings and Friday afternoons.

After you have your marketing calendar established the next step is to create an event registration page. Some key points of an effective registration page are:

• Title: Be as specific as possible so people know what type of event it is
• Keywords: Include keywords in the title or summary of the event so it can increase your Google search
• Have various types of tickets available that include different incentives. i.e VIP, Early Bird
• Have a Share button available: Having a Share button allows attendees to promote that they are attending on various social media networks

Once your calendar and event registration page is setup you are ready to start promoting your event on various social media outlets. Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn all have different best practices on promoting your event. The first outlet we suggest you to promote on is Facebook. We suggest posting on Facebook 1-2 times a day and creating a Facebook event page to promote your event. Next, with Twitter you should be posting 6-7 times a day. Twitter is a lot more interactive then Facebook is, therefore the more you post on your page the more you will stay relevant with followers. Lastly on LinkedIn you should be posting your event to followers and groups that are relevant to your organization or the event you are holding. You should also be posting your event to any industry groups you participate in over LinkedIn. Social media is very complex with how all the different networks have different best practices. However, if you follow the best practices discussed above you will have a great social media strategy for promoting your event.

Lastly, you need to utilize social media for post-event activities. After your event has been completed send out a survey to attendees on their experience and promote it over social media. Also, sharing a recap blog post, and pictures of the event over social media is a good way to remain relevant to attendees.

Social media marketing is an excellent free resource when trying to promote a fundraising event/gala, and is not used nearly enough by nonprofit organizations.

#GivingTuesday is a campaign to create a national day of giving at the start of the annual holiday season (first Tuesday in December). #GivingTuesday was started by Henry Timms in 2012 and now has continued ever since with more and more nonprofits participating each year. The average online gift during 2013 #GivingTuesday campaign was $140.25. This is a substantial amount of money that some nonprofits are missing out on by not having an effective #GivingTuesday Marketing Campaign.

There are five important aspects of an effective #GivingTuesday Marketing campaign that nonprofits should complete early on.

The first aspect of an effective #GivingTueday Marketing Campaign is to look at where you are as an organization now, and how close you are to your organizations goals for that year. What should you focus on in your #GivingTuesday campaign to get you the closest to reaching your goal?

Next, you need to choose what goals you want to achieve through participating in #GivingTuesday. Do you want to increase Brand Awareness? Increase social media followers? Obtain a certain amount in donations? Pinpointing what you want to get out of #GivingTuesday is essential to determine if your campaign was effective or not.

After you know where you are as an organization and what goals you want to meet you will need to generate content. Your organization should be generating content at least 2 months ahead of #GivingTuesday so you are not stressed and overwhelmed.

Next, you need to communicate your #GivingTuesday campaign. When getting the word out about your #GivingTuesday campaign use your communication avenues that you have already established. #GivingTuesday is centered around sharing so make sure you have an online donation page and your organization is active on Twitter.

Lastly, promote ahead of time! Promoting ahead of time about your organization’s mission and that you are participating in #GivingTuesday is essential.

#GivingTuesday is a great way for nonprofits to participate in the holiday season and end their year on the right foot!

Smartphones are everywhere you go nowadays. From Baby boomers to millennial’s everyone owns them. Overall 58% of Americans now own a smartphone and the number continues to increase. The increase in smartphones has changed the way people give to nonprofit organizations. Before, smartphones no one would give donations on their phone now more and more people are donating over their mobile devices.

As mobile giving continues to grow there are a few things nonprofits need to keep in mind to make sure they are mobile ready. The first is to make sure that there website is optimized for mobile. In 2013 there was a 13.5% percent in online fundraising. If your website is not optimized for mobile devices then you are most likely losing out on this opportunity.

As smartphone owners rise so does Google’s emphasize on mobile. With Google increasing there emphasize on mobile so should nonprofits. Nonprofits need to make sure there mobile site SEO is up to date so Google can find them and promote their website.

Lastly, your mobile website needs to be responsive and easy to use. If someone logs onto your website and it is slow, and having a hard time finding things they are just going to immediately leave. Having a mobile site that is fast and easy to use is key to obtaining mobile donations and having donors stay on your mobile site.

Mobile Giving is just going to keep increasing as more and more people move to smartphones. Make sure your mobile site is up to date and easy to use. Don’t wait till everyone else is ahead!