Thanksgiving has passed, and you’ve long finished eating (hopefully.) The madness of Black Friday and Cyber Monday has faded, and your Christmas shopping is starting to shape up. Make way now for Giving Tuesday!
“Yay! Wait … what the heck is Giving Tuesday?”
Don’t worry, Confused Stock Photo Man, we’re here to educate! Giving Tuesday is a brand new holiday tradition, the roots of which trace back to the good ol’ days of December 2012. Every Tuesday after Thanksgiving, we honor the charities and community service organizations around us, and encourage people to come together and help those in need. We always say that Christmas is about giving, not receiving, and this holds double for Giving Tuesday, which is literally all about giving to others.
So what does Giving Tuesday mean to you and how can it help you attract business to your website? On paper it’s simple; embrace this rapidly growing holiday and its charitable spirit, then win new fans who respect your spirit.
But that’s on paper. You need to put your all into it. It’s not enough to slap a “Happy Giving Tuesday” banner on the top of your home page and then sit back while the hits roll in. You need to make it clear to everybody that the act of giving means something to you, and you can do so with great, meaningful content that focuses on the wonders of giving and helping others.
1. Ask Readers to Submit Their Stories of Giving (and Share Your Own)
Since Giving Tuesday is all about community, why not open up your website to the virtual community? Since you now know Giving Tuesday is an annual thing, plan ahead for 2014 and invite guest bloggers to contribute their own personal stories of charity. A few hundred words about, say, somebody’s child requesting that all their Christmas gifts go to needy children instead, will go a long way towards helping people understand this new holiday, not to mention possibly drawing positive attention to your website.
Though it might irk Santa, who just went all the way down your chimney for nothing.
But don’t just rely on guest bloggers and their anecdotes; contribute some of your own as well! After all, it’s your website, and this holiday is supposed to be about all of us. What have you done to help people? Have you worked in any soup kitchens lately, or given blood, or anything else helpful and noteworthy? The blog-surfing public wants to know.
2. Write about Current (Legit) Charities Most in Need of Aid
There are so many charities out there and, unfortunately, not all of them are created equal. Some are legitimate, but many others are shady (keeping most of the donations in-house, while only releasing a small percentage to those in need) or completely bogus (100% of the proceeds go to some rich crook’s bank account.) A website that can convincingly inform readers what’s real and what’s not will look a lot better in the public eye than one that simply says to give to whomever.
On a similar arc, some charities — depending on current situations — need more aid than others do. For example, when appealing to readers with only a few bucks to spare, it might make more sense to ask them to help the many victims of Typhoon Haiyan than a charity like the Jimmy Fund. Obviously, the Jimmy Fund is a legitimate cause, worthy of your time and money, but they operate year-round, and the time to donate is evergreen. With cases such as Haiyan, the time to donate is now.
3. Offer Suggestions on Non-Monetary Ways to Celebrate and Donate
Not everybody can just give up money. For some, even five bucks to the American Red Cross could mean not paying the electric bill on time. It’s important for you, as a writer of Giving Tuesday content, to understand this, and a great way to do so is to write about the many ways people can give without swiping their credit card. They can give blood, volunteer at a shelter, buy food for the hungry — just about anything that helps somebody, even if it’s just one person, would help make the world a little bit brighter.
Unless of course, you couldn’t pay that electric bill.
However, when writing about this, be sure to make it clear that some charities, such as ones devoted to the aforementioned Typhoon Haiyan, need one thing and one thing only: MONEY. Canned goods, old clothing, and even volunteer work will not help the victims, as groups like the Red Cross already have those things covered. All they need from us is money, and not everybody knows that. If you tell them that, you and your website will not only gain a reputation for being charitable, but also honest and informative.
Awesome, interactive content will not only help readers understand the significance of Giving Tuesday, it will convince them that you and your website truly care about the day. And, as your increased traffic numbers will tell you, a website that cares about others will go a lot further than one that only cares about itself. Ready to embrace Giving Tuesday? Get started here.