As the dust settles from this year’s Giving Tuesday, our partners who got involved are taking stock and thinking ahead for the next year.

And despite running a campaign that exceeded expectations and helped raise over £12,000, the team at Literacy Pirates is already thinking of ways to do more.

For Giving Tuesday, the children’s literacy charity encouraged its supporters to donate and then nominate a friend to match their donation, to help fund one of their key programmes.

In this piece, we cover what steps were taken and what the charity would do differently for next year.

Here’s how they did it:

• Sent out individualised newsletters to target audiences (volunteers, general supporters) ahead of the campaign launch
• Posted about the launch on social media channels – Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and Linked In
• To attract new audiences, they trialled paid advertisements on Facebook and Instagram. These ran for the last 4 days of the campaign
• Engaged with businesses far and wide; from FundApps, who donated £7500, and Phillips 66, who donated over £1100 to the campaign
• On the Monday, the charity sent another e-newsletter to their warm supporters, reminding them of Giving Tuesday the next day
• On the day itself, they focused on posting across all social media channels almost once every hour, sharing live updates of the increasing donations and photos of their Learning Programme. Head of Fundraising Triona Larkin said: “We kept our message very close to home, to remind everyone exactly what it was we were fundraising for.”

So what made the campaign so successful?

• Planning ahead –Campaign planning started about three months ahead of the day, with the launch taking place four weeks before Giving Tuesday itself.
• Having as clear an ask as possible –Triona told us: “We really tried to make the work of our charity clear to everyone who came across our campaign, as well as the journey we had been on since the last campaign, and what we wanted to achieve with the funds. A good way to show this was the constant stream of posts and photos on our social media page. This made our charity seem clear and accessible to people, helping them to know that their donations would make a real difference in children’s lives.”
• Being part of such a supportive community – Triona added: “We are so pleased that we have built up such positive relationships with our funders, volunteers, schools, parents, and local area. We are so grateful that they were able to support us so brilliantly during this campaign.”

What would they do differently?

• Diversify donation platforms –Triona told us: “As well as using JustGiving, I would use other donation platforms in a more strategic way. By diversifying our donation platforms, for example using Facebook donate, we may have been able to access even more donations, from different types of sources.”
• Have well-known ambassadors supporting the campaign: “Next year, we would like to contact like-minded influencers who would be able to use their extensive online platforms to share our campaign and raise awareness of our work. This could lead to accessing even more long-term supporters and/or potential volunteers and future donors,” said Triona.

Social posts for Giving Tuesday: