Last week, the Giving Tuesday organization announced the creation of “Giving Tuesday Now” to battle the effects of the COVID-19 crisis. In their words, “#GivingTuesdayNow is a global day of giving and unity that will take place on May 5, 2020 as an emergency response to the unprecedented need caused by COVID-19.” This day of giving will have the support of numerous for-profits and massive participation from non-profits across the globe. We all have a pretty good idea of how to fundraise around the annual Giving Tuesday event, but this new project may find you asking yourself, “How should I proceed?” or even “Should I proceed?”

First let us say, yes, we believe you should participate. The simple fact is your donors, board and other constituents will expect you to take part. Donors and potential donors WILL be aware of this and visit your website to donate — and you will hear about it if they cannot. It is not the best use of your time to explain why you are “doing your own thing”. That being said, we do have a few concerns about the event, some of which can be mitigated.

            The single largest issue with Giving Tuesday Now is likely to be the overall volume level. We have begun to see this with the original Giving Tuesday — competition for the donor share of wallet has become intense. Worse yet, this competition is occurring with all participants using very similar or identical messaging, graphics, etc. Typically, differentiation of your service should be at the core of driving donations to your station — explaining to donors why your station is more important than other non-profits they might donate to. This becomes more difficult when all the messaging blends together.

            Another potential issue is the rapidly changing environment. In our current situation May 5th is a world away. Many municipalities have set May 4th as a day for work or schools to reopen, or at least for some stay-at-home orders to be lifted. This potential “return to life” could distract from the Giving Tuesday messaging. If the situation has drastically improved, this effort may appear lagging and un-needed to folks, reducing urgency. On the other hand, if the situation has dramatically worsened, potential donors may see stronger need for donations elsewhere.

            Surprisingly, we have looked into recent digital giving data and seen, if anything, an increase in giving. Reports from across the system indicate this continued throughout March, with many stations having better-than-usual pledge results and large lifts in Passport-related donations. During this time, when we are still “new” to this crisis, we anticipate these results will continue. The real challenge for public media will likely come once “normal life” returns. Months from now, when people are no longer in fear of the virus or focused on being stuck at home, the focus will turn back to their financials – they will look at their 401(k) or reconsider their job situation. The immediate need to make a difference will fade. Suddenly that donation they were going to make seems less vital and like more of a challenge to their finances. As such, it is likely September will face a much greater fundraising challenge than May.

            Our last point of concern is the global positioning of this event. From an “on the ground” perspective, successful coping with the crisis has been driven locally. Within the U.S., local organizations have been doing a super job serving folks — local media stations, foodbanks, charities, medical centers and the like have been providing the backbone of support for people. It may seem a bit off tonally for donors to hear about a “global” day when they want to support Joe down the street, who gets food from the local foodbank or Sarah who is pulling lessons from a public media website to help teach her class remotely. This challenge, like others, can be successfully tackled, as we examine how you should approach this day of giving.

            The first important note is: do not dedicate too much time to the project. We encourage you to support Giving Tuesday Now, but do not make it the central focus of your work. That time and effort would be better spent planning for further in the future. Perhaps spend more time planning for a summer End of Fiscal year or even September Pledge.

            Our plan here at the CDP Member Service Bureau is to generate and send two emails — one the day of and one a few days after — on behalf of the 32 stations that make up public media’s largest membership collaborative. At CDP MSB, we work with many types of stations, both small and large, rural and urban and even different genres — radio music only, TV and radio, radio news only, and everything in between. Our focus is always on maximizing net revenue for those clients. We have had great success in the past with “you just missed it” communications, and we believe there is potential here, especially after the main wave of competition has passed. This should be supplemented by some graphics on your main website, along with some social media postings, but should not be the focus of your work between now and May 5th.

             Finally, we should take a moment to discuss WHAT your messaging should be during this time. We encourage you to focus heavily on the contributions only a public media station can make to the local community, especially during a crisis. The community turns to you for both information and comfort, both education and entertainment and both discovery and familiarity Importantly, you do all that with a local focus. The local angle will help separate you from the pack of larger global non-profits that will also be fundraising, and the public media focus will help you compete with other local non-profits. To be clear, we do not simply mean to create a list of all the “local” items your station provides. Rather, talk about the feeling of being local, of being part of a community. This should not be a checklist that appeals to the objective senses. The best fundraising relies on emotion— let that emotion be your guide. Appeal to what being part of the community feels like to your station, and amp up the emotions they will feel when they support you and the community. This crisis is driven by emotion — mostly fear and sadness. Help your donors replace those emotions with hope and optimism and remind them of what the future can be with their help!

              To summarize, be prepared to act on Giving Tuesday Now. Act with emotion. Act with urgency. Act in the way only local public media can. Do not act with every resource you have. Hold your big guns in reserve for when the economic calamity surpasses the health calamity. Giving Tuesday Now will be a large amplifier for general donations – your challenge will be to stand up and stand out from the crowd. But, the mere nature of public media means we have a large media footprint that will help us generate the most message with the least work — it is what we already do every day.