How to Lead a Successful Giving Initiative

Reflections from your Giving Coordinator...

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As Giving Coordinator, my role is to support our incredible Giving Initiative recipients. I help them every step of the way to create a successful online Giving Initiative campaign and ultimately get funded (the best part!). It’s so fulfilling and inspiring to work with folks doing the heavy lifting in their organizations every day. The truth is they do most of the work, and I am there to keep them moving forward and help lift that weight just a bit.

But, recently, I had the unique opportunity to witness a Giving Initiative from the organization's perspective. Through my connection with the Junior League of Greenville (SC), I helped to launch a See Beautiful Giving Initiative to fundraise for the Greenville Cancer Survivors Park. It was rewarding to see these two areas of my life come together for good.

I learned a lot about what makes a successful Giving Initiative. Here are three keys to a victory:

Buy-in from your organization
Since I work intimately with the Giving Initiatives, obviously I understand how it works. But, a See Beautiful Giving Initiative is a bit of an out-of-the-box fundraising idea. So, it’s important that your organizational leaders understand what the Giving Initiative is, how it works, and what the organization’s role is in the process. As the Giving Coordinator, I can help with this! In fact, we created a Giving Guide to help further explain and demonstrate exactly this. This is a great tool to share with your team.

This may be most relevant to larger organizations, but it’s also important that leadership is on board with promoting the Giving Initiative through social media channels, newsletters, etc. Although See Beautiful helps to promote for you, it also takes promotion on the organizational side to be successful. Which brings me to my next point...

A plan to promote the initiative
The key here is to utilize your existing communication or fundraising channels. Do you have a large newsletter list? Let’s send out a newsletter highlighting the Giving Initiative. Is Instagram your thing? That’s where you want to promote it. We’ve even helped to create a Youtube video for an organization that has an engaged and active Youtube following. In-person events can work well, too.
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Formulate a plan ahead of time or early in the process, and go for it! Of course, you’re not alone in this. As your Giving Coordinator, I’m here to support you.

Persistence and follow-through
There’s great momentum with the launch of a Giving Initiative, but as time moves on, that momentum may begin to fade. Don’t worry! I’ll be here to keep you moving and motivated, but it also takes follow-through on your part. I know it can feel like one more thing, but if you commit to taking one action per week, you will see funding results quickly, which will, in turn, keep you more motivated to see it through to the end!
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Then comes the best moment of all. That moment when See Beautiful gets to tell an organization they are FUNDED! And you get to see the hard work pay off through beautiful projects in action.

For our funded Giving Initiative friends, do you have any other tips? ​

Author

Jannan Poppen, Giving Coordinator