6 Ways to use personalized video on Giving Day
Giving Day is a gold mine for new donors. Why? Because 75% of Giving Day donors are first-time donors. Without a doubt, it’s the biggest opportunity of the year!
Now for the bad news: 4 out of those 5 first-time donors won’t make a second donation.
Luckily, a little gratitude goes a long way. Here are a few ways Gratavid from Gravyty can help you steward and thank new donors on your Giving Day.
Donor stewardship
1. Automate the thank-you process
Penelope Burke found that 93% of donors “would definitely or probably give again to a charity that provided a prompt and personal thank you.”
You already know thanking your donors is important.
But the truth is—we still don’t prioritize the thank you. Why? Because thanking donors takes time. Especially using traditional methods like phone calls and letters.
Phone calls are great for collecting data about your new donor but research shows 81% of people don’t answer unknown callers. Handwritten letters are touching, but it’s draining finding the right address and never knowing if your donor received the letter.
On a crazy day like Giving Day and Giving Tuesday, you need more efficient options. Enter personalized video:
Have a list of contacts you want to thank? Simply upload the CSV list into Gratavid and knock them out one at a time using Gratavid’s task list. It’s never been easier and faster to record a list of personalized Giving Day or Giving Tuesday thank you videos.
Want to make things even easier? Connect Gratavid and your CRM. Gratavid features a suite of direct integrations including Blackbaud, Bloomerang, Salesforce and 2000+ others through Zapier. Use the integrations to automatically send a video or create a Gratavid task as donations roll in.
What makes the Gratavid integrations unique is you can create rules based on the donation amount, first-time donor, lifetime giving, campaigns and so much more.
Here is an example of how rules are created in Gratavid:
For example, you could choose to send a personalized video to anyone who donates over $500 or send a generic video to anyone who donates less than $500.
It takes me less time to do a personal video than to write and edit letters that are not as personal. My donors are super impressed with my Gratavids and mention they have never felt so seen and appreciated.
Mike Salley, Show Mercy International
By setting up your CRM integration prior to Giving Day, you can sit back and relax knowing you have a process in place to steward each donation accordingly.
2. Empower your team and volunteers to help
Giving Day is an all-hands-on-deck kind of day. I’m sure you’ve heard the quote “stewardship is everyone’s responsibility,” but that couldn’t be more true on Giving Day.
Sounds great, right? Luckily, Gratavid makes it easy.
Let’s imagine you’ve set up your Gratavid CRM integration and every donation received on Giving Tuesday over $500 automatically creates a Gratavid task. Over the course of the Giving Day, you might have hundreds of tasks automatically created. You can’t expect one person to record that many videos. Gratavid lets you assign tasks to both internal and external users like board members, ambassadors and volunteers.
Gratavid’s assignee link feature is a private URL that makes it simple for your recorders to complete the tasks assigned to them. Want your president, executive director, or board member to record some personalized videos? Send their assignee link.
The best part? No login our training is required to record videos. This is an example of what your recorder will see:
The assignee link makes it easy for anyone to record a list of personalized videos.
The thanking fun doesn’t stop there! Gratavid features both iOS and Android apps which makes it even easier to record personalized video. Have fundraisers who want to manage their own videos? Tell them to download the app.
Awareness
3. Create awareness
Use Gratavid to create awareness around your Giving Day event. Send a video letting people know how/where the event will take place, as well as where the funds from the event will be allocated. Hype people up with behind-the-scenes information, testimonials, and a countdown on the number of days until the event. You could also use our button feature to add an RSVP link or a link to learn more about your Giving Day specifically.
52% of people participating in Giving Tuesday say that they’re doing it because they want to be a part of something bigger.
Horizons Media, 2019
A great way to stand out in your donor’s busy inbox is to get help from celebrities! Consider buying a celebrity video from Cameo. Once you receive their video, upload it to Gratavid and send it out to your list via email and text.
Imagine receiving a video from a celebrity asking you to be a part of an organization’s Giving Day. How could you say no? These are the types of videos that make people more engaged with your organization.
4. Send reminders
Gratavid makes it simple and easy to send out reminders to your constituents about an upcoming event. People forget to check their calendars when they see it the first time so this is a great way to ensure people are aware of the upcoming event.
You can view each recipient separately in our analytics. It’s helpful to know who has or hasn’t interacted with your previous reminders. Download the list of recipients who haven’t interacted to send out another reminder. You can also send out a reminder the day of the event to everyone on your list.
Top tips for Giving Tuesday donor thank you videos
5. Make templates ahead of time
We suggest creating templates ahead of time in the notes section to make your Giving Day a whole lot easier! Prepare a few different note templates to use, such as an RSVP or Giving Day announcement, a reminder about the upcoming event (which can be re-used on the day of the event) and then one to thank people for donating after Giving Day or Giving Tuesday is over.
You could also create different templates depending on the area of funding, or your donor’s interests to really make their experience personalized.
To complete these templates, collect video testimonials or thank you’s from your leadership team ahead of time as well. That way, all you have to do on Giving Day is send the note out to the corresponding person, or add a quick 15-30 second personalized thank you video before sending it off.
6. Show the impact
Giving Day is more than just receiving donations, it’s also about sharing impactful stories. Use Gratavid’s video requesting option to gather testimonials and impact stories ahead of time so they will be all set to share on Giving Day. Leading up to the event, you could share the impact of last year’s Giving Day as well.
Donors like to see where their money is going and what difference they are making. Most times they aren’t looking for praise but they like to know that they made a difference in a positive way.
Bonus tip! Utilize board members, leadership, clients, students or celebrities
If you want to maximize the impact of your Giving Day, leverage your network. Ask board members, leadership, clients, students even or celebrities who are excited about your organization to help you promote the event, as well as thank donors after the event.
The best way to get members, the leadership team, clients or students involved is to assign tasks to them using the assignee link. Send them the link once the tasks have been assigned, and then they can quickly hammer out the videos all in one location.
Another great way to get your fundraising team involved is to have them download the Gratavid app in the Apple app store or the Google play store. The app makes it super simple to send personalized videos out of the task list in an efficient manner, and that’s exactly what you want on Giving Day!
One minute of video is worth 1.8 million words.
The Psychology of Video, Sprout video
Gratitude is important because it’s the only thing that multiplies in the giving spirit. Fundraising is not about receiving—it’s about giving. Here’s to transforming our communities and making the world a better place one Giving Day at a time.
If you’re feeling inspired to connect on a deeper level with your donors for your upcoming Giving Day or Giving Tuesday, schedule your free consultation today.
