Every day of every year, we are energized by the incredible work our member nonprofits are doing to change the world for the better. It’s our privilege to provide powerful and practical fundraising tools that are free for nonprofits so they don’t have to sacrifice their means to satisfy their missions.

Just as we did last year, in anticipation of this year’s giving season we wanted to share a few examples of inspirational GivingTuesday 2023 fundraising. Several of these examples focus on ways to use donation matching to motivate donors, while others emphasize the power of added visuals, including video and original designs.

Whether you need a little inspiration or some new tactics for this GivingTuesday, we hope these examples help. 

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Maximizing impact: a school uses corporate matching on GivingTuesday

About the organization

PS 11, or The Purvis J. Behan Elementary School in Brooklyn, New York, serves over 900 pre-K to 5th-grade students. The school believes that every student deserves a rich, well-rounded education that goes beyond the basics. That’s why the PS 11 PTA fundraises each year and invests over $500 per student in essential enrichment activities that exceed the full-time enrichment staff and programming supported by the school budget. From vibrant dance classes and dynamic drumming sessions to exciting capoeira lessons and inspiring choir performances, the PS 11 PTA helps weave a tapestry of experiences into the PS 11 curriculum, igniting curiosity and fostering a love of learning. Its commitment extends to areas like swimming lessons, garden science, free academic support and recess coaching – all components that enhance the school’s students' educational journey.  

What we saw on GivingTuesday 2023

For the PS 11 Giving Tuesday 2023 | Keep our PS 11 Support Staff campaign, the organization took an approach to donation matching called corporate matching. 

On its Campaign Page, the PS 11 PTA wrote, “Please check with the Human Resources Department at the company you work for to inquire about Corporate Matching, it is a a [sic] great way to multiply your impact! Please notify us of your corporate match by emailing us at development@ps11bk.org.”

Although this manual way of processing corporate matches is effective, Give Lively’s integration with Double the Donation is a streamlined way to process corporate matches.

• It automatically identifies matching gift opportunities through a donor's email address, information gathered through donation forms and confirmation screens, and responses to follow-up emails.
• It drives matching gifts to completion with customizable tracking and automated messages.
• It provides access to a portal through which nonprofits can review data about matching gift activity.

The results

The GivingTuesday Campaign Page received over $45,000 in donations from 198 donors.

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Lights, camera, fundraise (and match): raising the curtain on fundraising for musical theater

About the organization

The Emberlight Festival is a branch of Theatre North (Ironwood, Michigan), one of the oldest continually-running community theaters in the United States. Each summer the Emberlight Festival brings unique art shows, independent films from around the globe, enriching artistic events and showstopping performers from the world's stages to Ironwood, Michigan.  

What we saw on GivingTuesday 2023

As part of its strategy to incentivize donations through a matched amount, the Emberlight Festival wrote on its #GivingTuesday 2023 Campaign Page that “A generous donor has agreed to match $5,000 in donations on Giving Tuesday! That means your donation today can have twice the impact!” 

It also took full advantage of the design customization options for Give Lively-powered Campaign Pages by placing a video in the primary media spot, as well as embedding a different video in the Campaign Page description. The video serving as primary media is a season overview, showcasing some of the highlights of the past year. The second video is a behind-the-scenes interview with two performers active within the Emberlight Festival: Miles Mykkanen, Emberlight Festival Artistic Director, and Adam Rothenberg, pianist, conductor and music director. The combination of videos gives donors an intimate look into all aspects of the organization, an effective way of to solicit support. 

The results

The #GivingTuesday 2023 Campaign Page garnered just over $5,200 in donations from 37 supporters, surpassing the goal of $5,000.

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Beyond the goal: the impact of simple video campaigns

About the organization

This organization promotes positive body image to youth through theater arts. Realize Your Beauty brings plays, workshops and camps to youth to promote self-esteem, body positivity and eating disorder awareness. Realize Your Beauty provides school year programs in NYC for pre-K through 12th grade, and summer camps in Colorado. 

To meet its mission, Realize Your Beauty travels to schools, festivals and local theaters to offer educational plays, presentations and workshops. The organization encourages students to put their energy into kindness, integrity and respect towards themselves and others, and focus on developing their own unique inner qualities. For older students, Realize Your Beauty focuses its educational content on the dangers of dieting and disordered eating. It encourages students to love themselves exactly as they are and to learn the warning signs of an eating disorder.

What we saw on GivingTuesday 2023

A picture is worth a thousand words, and a simple video showing the mission of an organization in action is priceless. Realize Your Beauty demonstrates this by capitalizing on the ability to embed a video as the primary media on a Campaign Page. 

The results

Realize Your Beauty exceeded its Giving Tuesday Fundraising Drive! Campaign Page. With a goal of $2,500, the nonprofit raised over $3,500 with the help of 33 donors.

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Building pawsibilities: powerful visuals help homeless pets

About the organization

This organization helps homeless pets find their way to loving homes through rescue and adoption in Virginia. Since 2001, Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation (LDCRF) has saved the lives of more than 45,000 homeless pets, most facing the threat of euthanasia at overcrowded municipal shelters. LDCRF is overwhelmingly a volunteer-run organization with a small paid staff providing direct care to animals at the Lost Dog & Cat ‘Rescue Care Center’. LDCRF was founded with the belief that an open, friendly adoption process allows great people to match with homeless pets without unnecessary barriers. 

What we saw on GivingTuesday 2023

Video may not be the right choice for all nonprofits. They may lack time or video-editing know-how. Instead, images can be easy to create and employ as effective design choices. Even the least tech-savvy fundraiser can make images like the ones LDCRF created for its Campaign Pages. This was accomplished using Canva, a free, online graphic design tool. While the Campaign Page description and impact stories are great ways to speak directly to donors and communicate how their generous donations will make a difference. As the saying goes: a picture is worth a thousand words. We made Canva even easier by including customizable GivingTuesday-friendly Canva templates. 

The results

The GivingTuesday 2023 campaign, called Building Pawsibilities – New Beginnings Start Here, raised over $240,400 from 1,403 donors, a vital part of maintaining the mental and physical health of adoptable dogs.

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A match made in Seattle: donation matching helps the unhoused 

About the organization

This organization helps people struggling with homelessness, substance use disorders and serious mental illness achieve their highest potential for health and well-being through comprehensive services, treatment and housing. The Downtown Emergency Service Center (DESC) was founded in 1979 to provide emergency shelter and survival services for people in Seattle, Washington, living in a state of chronic homelessness and who, due to their severe and persistent mental illnesses and substance use disorders, were not being served by existing missions of that day. Today, DESC is a recognized national leader in implementing innovative, cost-effective strategies that end homelessness.

What we saw on GivingTuesday 2023

DESC was up front with donors about a $50,000 matching grant, making it possible for donations to carry even more weight than usual. This motivated donors to contribute before and on GivingTuesday, not wait until later in the year.  

The results

Donors rose to meet the challenge with almost $58,000. After the generous match, DESC brought in around $108,000 for additional housing, expanded mobile crisis response teams and 419 more units of permanent supportive housing.

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Recurring donations: the gift that keeps on giving

About the organization

This nonprofit has open, honest conversations with young people about topics most adults in their lives will not discuss with them, because young people deserve to have the information they need to live happy, healthy, authentic lives. OkaySo does this by pairing young adults with trained experts through a secure and confidential free app accessible on all smartphones, and connecting teens with partner agencies who can provide additional support where they live.

Founded in 2018 by queer sexuality health educators who work with young people, OkaySo aims to combat shame, stigma and misinformation, and reinvent the support service ecosystem to democratize public health access for youth. 

What we saw on GivingTuesday 2023

OkaySo incentivized donors to give more than once by signing up for recurring monthly payments. In the Campaign Page description, the nonprofit emphasized that for every monthly donor (of any amount) who signed up on GivingTuesday, OkaySo would receive an additional $100 from an anonymous benefactor. This demonstrated to donors the vital importance of monthly donations and how they can make philanthropy go further. 

The results

Over $17,000 was raised through 78 donors for the OkaySo Giving Tuesday Campaign, far exceeding the goal of $10,000. 

Even more impressively, recurring monthly donations continue today. At the time of writing, one year later, all the donations listed in the “Recent Donations” list came in within the last seven days. This shows the long-term benefits of incentivizing recurring donations. 

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Flying in formation: nonprofits work together to motivate donors

About the organization

Dream Flights is dedicated to honoring military veterans and seniors with the adventure of a lifetime: a flight in a Boeing Stearman biplane. As these heroes' wishes come true, the experience inspires them to share their stories. Dream Flights then collects, preserves and shares their tales of survival through times of great strife to remind people of their shared humanity, connection to each other and the value of listening. Dream Flights aims to close the generation gap and give people a greater understanding of themselves and the world.

What we saw on GivingTuesday 2023

For its Giving Tuesday: A Day to Give Back to Those Who Gave campaign, Dream Flights put its own spin on a donation-matching approach.

The nonprofit shared the following on its Campaign Page: “Our goal is to double the donation of $4,923.11, made to Dream Flights by the nonprofit Aviation Days.” This demonstration of support from a variety of sources – individual donors, other organizations and the aviation community – helped underscore the legitimacy and worthiness of the cause. 

Dream Flights also incorporated two other effective communication strategies: it shared a quote from a veteran who was a recipient of Dream Flights service and was transparent about the cost of that service. 

"We didn’t get this when we came back from Vietnam," said Doug, a Vietnam War veteran who spent 13 months in the hospital before returning home. When he landed in Detroit, he was greeted by protestors who spit at him. 

"This is a great thing you’re doing for veterans," Doug told us after his Dream Flight.

The magic of Dream Flights is priceless; the actual cost of a Dream Flight is about $250. This Giving Tuesday, celebrate the global day of giving by supporting our mission of giving back to those who gave, one free Dream Flight at a time. 

The results

Together, 37 donors more than matched Aviation Days’ gift, accumulating over $7,000 in donations. That’s about 28 flights for veterans. 

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