The holiday season has a way of sneaking up on people. Sometimes it seems as though you’ve barely put out fall decorations, and suddenly people are buying trees, singing carols, and drinking peppermint lattes (no judgment here—we love holiday drinks!).
For your organization, the month of December is probably the busiest of the year. About 80% of all donations are made in December, so you’ll likely be keeping track of many donations while simultaneously juggling event planning, fundraising campaigns, and making sure your website makes it easy for donors to give.
As the holidays get closer, it can be tempting to shy away from creating new fundraising campaigns. It may be because you’ve heard December is too late to launch a new fundraiser, or because you feel like you don’t have enough time to devote to a new project.
Don’t panic.
While you may not be able to create an entirely new physical fundraising campaign, there’s still plenty of time to have a stellar holiday social media campaign that will draw in new donors and connect them with your organization. Since at DonorLynk we love social media and marketing, we decided to come up with a few ways to launch a creative holiday campaign over social media.
Holiday Hashtag
Love them or hate them, a hashtag campaign can be incredibly beneficial for your organization, especially around the holidays. By now, most of us are familiar with hashtags, but as a refresher, hashtags are words or phrases preceded by the # symbol that are used to categorize or classify text. Hashtags help searchers to find tweets, articles, and photos, so they are a great way for your organization to increase visibility around the holidays. A holiday hashtag will also help you to organize people around a cause they care about, and you can better connect with your existing supporters.
There are two main ways to use hashtags during the holidays for your organization. You can either use an existing trend and make it relevant for your organization, or you can develop your own and encourage your supporters to use it. As you think about which strategy you want to use, it can be helpful to search for other topics relevant to your organization, and see which hashtags they are using, so you can get #inspired.
Host a Contest
Creating an interactive campaign on Facebook or Twitter is a fun way to increase interactions with your supporters around the holidays. You can ask donors and potential donors to vote on a question or share their opinions on a holiday topic. When you ask for opinions over social media, it lets your supporters know that you care about their thoughts and ideas, and that you see them as people, not just as sources of income.
In addition, hosting a photo contest is a great way to engage your supporters. When people upload and share their own photos, they will likely encourage their existing social networks to vote for them, which also increases your organization’s recognition. You can have people submit pictures of holiday traditions, moments of holiday philanthropy, or even funny photos with Santa. You can also offer prizes such as tickets to an upcoming holiday event for the best photo.
Gift Guide
Another way to show donors you care is by helping to simplify their holiday shopping by creating an awesome gift guide! You can put together lists of recommended products that support great causes (including your own) and share with your donors over social media. It’s also a great way to connect with other organizations that are changing the world.
If your organization isn’t product-based, consider partnering with a for-profit business. That way, if a supporter purchases that business’s product, a portion of the sale will go to your organization.
If you need a little inspiration for your gift guide, here are a few great suggestions of gifts that give back when you buy.
Create a Holiday Video
Sharing a holiday video is a great way to send well-wishes to your donors and showcase what your organization has been doing over the last year. It’s a creative, visual way to connect with supporters, and provides a different medium to tell your story than a blog or status update.
A video is easily shareable over social media, so you can post it on Facebook or Twitter, and send it via email. You even can include a holiday greeting! Whether your video is funny or sincere, make sure your video stays true to your organization’s voice, so that you can be .
Despite the busy time of year, it is possible to stay on top of your tasks, especially when you have social media to help. Taking a few minutes on a social media campaign can boost your holiday fundraising and decrease your stress levels. So grab a holiday latte and take a deep breath, because you’ve got this.
Want more social media strategies? Get in touch with our team— we’re always here to help you with your marketing campaigns!