Giving Tuesday is Done. Welcome to Stewardship Wednesday!

Giving Tuesday has come and gone, and many nonprofit organizations enjoyed a significant influx of gifts and donors during that 24 hour span.  Across the U.S., it is realistic to expect more than 300,000 charitable gifts worth approximately $54 million to be made solely on Giving Tuesday 2014.

Now, to the next step in the donor cycle:  what are you planning to steward and cultivate your share of those donors to retain them next year and beyond?

Welcome to Stewardship Wednesday!

Many of those 300,000+ charitable gifts will come from donors classified generationally as Millennials or GenX.

Did you know that 86% of Millennial-aged donors want regular updates on the impact of their giving?  And, 50% of GenX donors feel the same way.

Be sure to maximize your success of Giving Tuesday through appropriate follow-up stewardship activities.

Here are 3 easy ways to steward and cultivate your Giving Tuesday donors to help turn it from a one-day event to a longer-term donor relationship:

• Make thank you phone calls and/or mail thank you notes.  Thank you calls can be done through your normal telefund calling, personal staff calls, or consider using a 30-second broadcast voice message from a prominent member of your organization’s community.

• Send videos via email and social media channels.  Total online video viewership in the U.S. is up 43% from last year, and simply including the word “video” in an email subject line has been known to increase email opens by 20%.  Remember, many great videos can be filmed and edited on short notice using commonly available software.

• Develop short informational pages about areas directly impacted by giving on your website, and don’t forget to incorporate those videos!  Now, spread the word about those web pages using any number of channels including direct mail, email, telephone, social media, peer-to-peer, and so forth.

For more information, download our recent white paper on stewardship

For more information, recommendations and suggestions on stewardship activities that can be applied to your entire year (including Giving Tuesday), be sure to download our recent RuffaloCODY white paper titled Stewardship: Creating Strategic Programs That Inspire Loyal Donors.