If you live in Minnesota it’s likely you knew about or participated in the Great Minnesota “Give” Together that is Give to the Max day (GTMD) on Wednesday, November 16. Two years ago, in the first year, more than $14 million was given in a 24-hour period to over 3000 charities. This year the numbers were equally impressive, especially considering we are still in the throes of a recession.
Nearly $13.5 million was given to 3,978 charities in Minnesota by over 47,500 people. Impressive beyond words and a lot of fun to participate in both from the donor perspective and the nonprofit receiving side.
I worked with a number of organizations late this summer and early fall to help them increase their dollars on November 16 – GTMD. We planned and plotted to make people aware that the date was coming and to make the online giving effort fun and easy to implement. We also discussed ways to thank donors quickly.
One group I worked with, Students Today Leaders Forever (STLF), made an incredible effort to thank their online donors by making a follow up phone call within four minutes or less! At around 7:30 pm on November 16 I received my thank you call BEFORE the email receipt came through for my online donation. Something like 45 seconds after I’d hit the donate button. It was a fun, short call with Josh, one of the three co-executive directions at STLF.
What happened after that was just plain amazing and an example of thanking to the max! At around 1 am I received an email with a link to a short video from the STLF team thanking me for what they had learned and for helping them reach an amazing fundraising goal. You have to realize that these people had been up for over 24 hours thanking donors, sending emails, and working hard. They took the time to create a quick thank you message that was personal and fun and reminded me how easy it can be to be extraordinary.
Here’s the recap of what they learned that allowed them to increase their online giving from around $10,000 last year to over $70,000:
- Include everyone in your fund development effort
- Make it fun and keep your personality in the fund development
- Communication is key: share the funding gap, tell stories, keep the goal visible and keep people updated on progress toward reaching the goal, and give them clear action steps
But I can’t say it as well as Josh, Irene, and Brian can. You can watch their message below.
(View on YouTube)
My thank you right back to the team at STLF for inspiring and teaching me! I’m proud beyond words of all you do…all year long. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of the team.
