NPO 046: Starting a Giving Day for your Small Nonprofit (Molly MacCready, CROSO)

Today's Topic: Creating a Giving Day for your Small Nonprofit
Molly MacCready, executive director of CROSO, shares how CROSO started their Giving Day, #CROSOcommits in 2019 and have grown it to be a significant revenue line on their annual budget.

Nonprofit Spotlight: CROSO
CROSO is dedicated to making possible the transformation of Ugandan communities by providing comprehensive post-secondary scholarships to former street children in Uganda.

CROSO believes providing their scholars with access to higher education gives them the tools to provide for themselves and their families for the rest of their lives. The CROSO scholarship is unique in that the scholars can study at any post-secondary institution in Uganda (university, college or technical school) and can pursue a course that is specific to their skills, talents and dreams. Armed with the academic skills, career skills (learned through their internships) and a new professional network, the graduates have the ability to become leaders in their communities!

Lessons Learned:
In this episode, Molly shares her experiences with starting a Giving Day for her nonprofit. Her lessons learned included:

  • Setting it up

    1. Choosing a Date

      1. Revenue cycle

      2. Non-saturated time (When do YOU have time?)

      3. Is there an existing recognized day during that time that you can tie to your mission?

    2. Determining Goals

      1. Financial goal:

        1. First one: REALISTIC… want it to be achievable, but not too too easy

        2. Add in a matching donor

      2. Other potential metrics: Number of donors, number of fundraisers

    3. Branding

      1. Name for giving day

  • Getting peer-to-peer fundraisers

    1. What to expect

    2. Who to invite/target

    3. How to communicate with fundraisers

      1. 3-6 months out: let them know it’s happening

      2. 1 month out: email with link for sign up and all the details

      3. 2 weeks out: get excited with them

      4. 1 week out: share toolkit with templates

      5. Day of: 

        1. Morning: reminder email

        2. Afternoon/evening: update

    4. What kind of toolkit to provide for them

      1. Social media written post templates

      2. Social media image templates

      3. Email template

  • Marketing Plan

    1. E-blast to whole donor community a month in advance

    2. Share video 2-4 weeks in advance

      1. 2021 #CROSOcommits video

      2. 2020 #CROSOcommits video

      3. 2019: #CROSOcommits video

    3. Social media posts leading up to the day and several on the day to share updates/progress

    4. E-blast following the day to share the results.

 
 


NEVER MISS AN EPISODE OF THE NONPROFIT OPTIMIST PODCAST BY CLICKING THE LINKS BELOW TO SUBSCRIBE!

41-60Molly MacCreadyVolunteers, USA, Partnership, FundraisingComment