How to make the most of GivingTuesday with Jotform

The barrage of seemingly bad news and crises hitting us each day — doom scrolling anyone? — only reinforces the fact that the most important thing we can do is to help each other. And when we help someone through an act of kindness, both we and they feel better.

That’s a big reason why GivingTuesday has grown into a global phenomenon, inspiring hundreds of millions of people to give, collaborate, and celebrate generosity.

Whether an individual, a nonprofit organization, or a corporate advocate, you’ll be happy to know Jotform offers easy solutions to help you scale your GivingTuesday efforts on the way to improving someone’s life.

Types of generosity

The way a community shows its generosity can take different forms,⁠⁠ as giving isn’t always about money. Every act of generosity counts. From helping a neighbor to sharing a skill or talent, or advocating for different issues, everyone has something to give.

In fact, this diagram shows participation in GivingTuesday 2023 across three categories: money, items, and time. Interestingly, there’s significant overlap between categories, highlighted by 12 percent of folks giving their money and time.

Also, 6 percent of participants gave in all three ways, demonstrating diverse engagement. This is encouraging news for organizers that have a variety of contribution types.

Making the most of GivingTuesday with Jotform’s solutions

Jotform has a number of products and features that can help you run an effective GivingTuesday campaign. We’ve highlighted some creative ideas that will make this year’s effort a success.

Donation Apps

Nearly 30 percent of all online giving came from smartphones in 2021 and, given the ubiquity of our phones, that number is likely higher now.

Nonprofits (or others) with limited development or financial resources have an easy solution to mobile giving with Jotform’s Donation Apps.

A donation app can help your organization maximize giving opportunities this GivingTuesday with

• Simple, customizable drag-and-drop app creation to promote your campaign
• A Donation Box feature that lets you adjust predefined donation amounts and includes a goal tracker showing progress toward your end goal
• Over 30 customizable donation app templates
• An app that can be shared via direct link, email, QR code, or social media

To set up your GivingTuesday app, start with a fully customizable donation template.

As you can see in the left navigation, you can drag and drop a number of app elements such as forms, headings, documents, images, videos, and a variety of widgets like QR codes, Spotify players, and more to create your app.

For those visual learners out there, on the right of the page you’ll see a live preview of what your app will look like as you build it.

One element of interest for GivingTuesday is how easy it is to add the Donation Box to your app.

Simply click on the element on the left to add it to your app. You can customize the look, feel, and donation details (donation amounts, goal tracker, text, buttons, and more).

Click on the Payment Properties button to configure your checkout options. There are over 30 payment gateways to choose from, including Square, Apple Pay/Google Pay, Stripe, PayPal, Venmo, and more.

After authenticating your account, you can configure the payment details of your selected checkout option. Note that different providers have different options.

In this Square example, you have the ability to send a receipt, and in addition to credit cards, there are five other payment methods for your donors or patrons to choose from.

In the Payment Properties, you can also customize what information you’d like to collect on your checkout page (Name, Email, Address, Phone, etc.).

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The so-called “mobile giving gap” still exists. A majority of people this GivingTuesday will give on their laptops or PCs (because smartphones are commonly used for more self-interested tasks).

As a result, your app should play just one part in a campaign strategy that includes your website, emails, and door-to-door outreach.

Email and Thank You features drive engagement 

If you’re in the donation business, you know email is one of the most efficient ways to drive giving. The good news is that we’ve got a few ways to make your email-based giving easier and more efficient.

Autoresponder emails, which are sent after a form is submitted, offer another opportunity to remind your form fillers about GivingTuesday.

Just go to any of your donation forms in the Form Builder and click on Settings in the top navigation, then the Emails tab on the left.

You can customize your autoresponder emails by inserting a hyperlink to your donation page and adding any graphics that support your brand.

Thank You pages are another way to casually mention GivingTuesday while you still have your form submitter’s attention.

These pages are displayed once the form has been completed. You can use this customizable space to drive visitors back to your website, have them download your app, or invite them to a GivingTuesday event.

Donation awareness methods 

According to the RKD group, over GivingTuesday 2023, the giving rate of both broadcast and peer-to-peer text messages beat that of email messages.

Our Push Notification feature is an easy way to scale text message distribution to your target audience this year. You can customize your message as you’d like it to appear on your patrons’ phone screen with a preview as you type.

Once your notification goes out, your patrons can fill out the associated form, click a donation hyperlink in your message, or be taken to your website or app for a giving opportunity.

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Social media is a huge engagement opportunity for the nonprofit sector. According to GivingTuesday.org, Stories, Reels, and TikTok are where most users spend their time (as opposed to scrolling their feeds).

In the Publish tab of both the Form and App Builder, Jotform allows you to easily share your donation form (or app) on a number of social platforms.

A great way to engage your audience is by pairing your form or app with a heartfelt story/video that motivates users to give on the spot.

Finally, if you’re having a day-of in-person drive or event, try incorporating a donation form QR code into your branded one-pagers, posters, and retractable banners. Giving your audience one more touchpoint is never a bad idea.

Conclusion

Whether for a nonprofit, school, religious organization, or on behalf of a corporation, if you’re organizing a donation platform for GivingTuesday, we’re here to help you get started.

Election years in particular tend to feature heavy giving, so whichever way the political winds blow it’s a savvy move to give your audience the tools they need to engage with the causes that matter most to them.

This #GivingTuesday you can make use of Jotform’s customizable donation form and app templates, email and thank you page features, push notifications, social sharing options, and more to turbocharge your campaign.

These capabilities will empower your organization so you never miss a chance to include your donation instructions (in every email, every post, every mention).

And, don’t forget that each year, an estimated $4–7 billion in corporate matching gift funds goes unclaimed. Be sure to ask your donors if their employers will match their donations to your cause.