Giving Days are one of the most important fundraising events today for institutions and nonprofits alike. According to EAB, 12.7% of private institution alumni and 19.8% of public institution alumni make their first gift on a giving day. In turn, powerful Giving Day platforms have cropped up to help teams get the most out of these events.

With so many excellent giving platforms available today, we’d like to zoom out and let you know which features you should consider essential and how you can make the most of your eventual choice. Let’s get started:

Key features for any Giving Day Platform

1. User-friendly interface

A good giving platform should ideally be:

• intuitive and easy to navigate for donors
• fast, responsive, and easy to integrate for staff
• easy to set up and customize for supporters in peer-to-peer campaigns

Test your dashboards, giving pages, forms, and all other touchpoints to make sure all the people involved in your Giving Day have a smooth and memorable experience across all devices.

2. Social media integration

For social media, your team should be looking for features such as:

• pre-populated social media messages
• shareable campaign links
• ability to celebrate donations publicly
• engagement touchpoints synced to your CRM

💡 Consider which social media your donors and supporters are most active in. You’ll want a platform that integrates to the same level of depth on those specific platforms.

3. Flexible and scalable payment processing

Giving Days, due to the nature of being a focused fundraiser within a short window, will naturally need a platform that can handle many transactions at the same time. You will have bursts of transactions, such as when the campaign launches and after a successful promotion. A good Giving Day platform also needs to incorporate SSL/PCI-compliant payment processing as well as any other compliance requirements depending on the national or state laws applicable to your fundraiser.

4. Donor engagement tools

You need to be able to engage donors and potential donors before, during, and after your Giving Day. Automated and personalized engagement through email, text, and social media may be crucial, especially if communicating with a larger pool of donors.

💡 Depending on your overall engagement strategy, you may want a fundraising platform that has a few donor engagement features on top or a dedicated engagement platform that works in tandem with your fundraising tool.

5. Donor analytics and reporting

With a relatively short burst of high activity, you should be looking for platforms that support:

• real-time progress tracking and insights
• accessible and customizable dashboards
• comprehensive post-event overview
• streamlined donor segmentation for long-term planning

💡 Keep the above features as well as your needs in mind as different might CRMs interact with different tools in varying capacities.

6. Mobile optimization

Engaging and enabling donations from mobile device users are no longer something novel. Today, you’ll want a giving platform that not only engages mobile users but also optimizes their experience so that they don’t end up with an inferior experience.

Some platforms provide an app-based approach, while others go for mobile-optimized browser experiences.

💡Surveys and donor device metrics should help you get a sense of how much of a priority mobile features are for you as well as which method your donors prefer.

7. Customization and branding

The cornerstone of any modern-day Giving Day campaign is a well-designed, customizable fundraising page that captures your organization's unique brand and mission. Customization is especially important for peer-to-peer fundraisers, where you’ll want to find the right mix between flexible templates and recognizable branding.

8. Long-term fundraising

If you are regularly hosting Giving Day fundraisers, chances are that you have a long-term fundraising plan. This is where you’ll want a giving platform that is viable for both long-term and short-term fundraising efforts. Depending on your needs, look for platforms that include:

• recurring gift opt-ins or enrollments
• affinity groups
• volunteering programs
• segmentation
• personalized and automated communication

to make sure that your Giving Days produce an effective ripple effect.

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Best practices for using Giving Day platforms

1. Keep storytelling at the heart of it

It’s easy to get lost in all the fancy and innovative features that fundraising platforms offer today. Instead of trying to use a feature simply for the sake of trying something new, keep your mission and the people involved at the heart of your Giving Day campaign by enabling your storytelling and vision through the features available.

2. Make the most out of segmentation features

Whether it’s connected to an existing CRM or comes with its own, you will most likely get a good amount of data about your supporters, donors, and prospects throughout your campaign. Make detailed segments to optimize your outreach and communication efforts and enrich these segments after your campaign to make your engagement better with each fundraiser.

3. Keep mobile users in mind

Always test your forms, pages, and communication efforts on mobile devices to check how they would feel for a donor trying to donate. Your CTAs might be a couple of scrolls away and on the side of your giving page when it’s front and center on other devices.

4. Keep the momentum going

Your recent first-time donor might just be your next superstar supporter. Make sure your donors feel good about their contribution by keeping them informed on goals reached throughout the day. Keep them looped in on how the funds are being used and inform them about future initiatives coming up.

Conclusion

Giving Days are so integral to your long-term fundraising plan that you might feel like the choice of platform might make or break your strategy entirely. However, a lot of work goes into making these platforms work optimally for a specific institution or organization.

If you’re looking for a platform that syncs effortlessly with CRMs with a team committed to ensuring your giving day success, get in touch with us, and we’d be glad to show you how we can help. 🫡