How to set up a GivingTuesday donation system using Jotform

GivingTuesday is November 28, 2023, and the celebration is now over 10 years old.

The ambitious cause that comes on the heels of all the Black Friday and Cyber Monday spend-a-thons brought in an astounding $3.1 billion from 37 million global donors in 2022 (the dollar amount was a 15 percent increase compared to GivingTuesday 2021).

This year the anticipated amount is even bigger!

For those planning to organize a donation platform for GivingTuesday (or for your nonprofit needs in general), we’re here to help you get started.

Before we jump in, here are a couple reasons the nonprofit industry should feel upbeat about the state of giving in 2023:

• You can raise smarter, not harder. The growth of online tools, software and resources has helped many in the nonprofit sector achieve their goals. Now it’s possible for all nonprofits to scale their organizations across communications systems and devices with solutions that make project management a snap.

• We all want the “glow.” Numerous studies from psychologists and others have demonstrated the science behind why giving makes us feel better. In particular, a 2008 study showed that spending money on other people has a more positive impact on happiness than spending money on yourself. 

How Jotform helps you conduct a successful GivingTuesday

Whether you’re setting up a new donation system or refining your existing one this GivingTuesday, Jotform can help you get the most out of your efforts.

Here are our recommendations for a carefree and stellar giving season.

1. Begin with a donation form that can be the basis for your fundraising efforts

Your form should serve as the branded, customer-facing front end for all the backend management your organization needs.

Consider including functionality like payments, recurring donation scheduling, post-campaign reporting, and even access to a variety of distribution methods (including QR codes).   

Jotform provides easy access to hundreds of customizable charity, donation, and volunteer form templates that will quickly get your campaign up and running for GivingTuesday.

Jotform has been a great tool for our fundraising and marketing department. As a nonprofit leader, I am always looking for tools that are easy to use, priced well and multi-functional.

We started using Jotform to allow our supporters to request marketing materials for a fundraising walk, but we continue to use it for post-event surveys, community voting on new projects, and recently, for our guests to pre-order food for a fundraising event.

Nathan Smith, VP of Philanthropy, Carolina RAIN

2. Facilitate easy donation payments

Our payment integrations allow you to connect your online form with the payment method your customers use most. Whether that’s a credit card, Google Pay or Apple Pay, PayPal, or even Cash App, we’ve got you covered. Plus, the payment integrations for your form work just as easily on a mobile device as they do on a laptop or tablet.

3. Scale your campaign to reach more people through mobile

In 2021, an estimated 28 percent of online donations were made using mobile devices. A branded app where your patrons can donate helps you reach more people.

Make GivingTuesday even easier and more accessible by setting up and distributing your own branded, no-code app. 

Setup is a breeze with one of several nonprofit app templates, or you can customize your app by adding your own mix of pages, volunteer forms, and social links.

Plus, with Jotform Donation Apps we’ve made it easy to combine your app with collecting donation payments. The Donation Box feature comes with a donation goal status bar, an automatic contact information database, secure payment gateways, and more.

When your app is ready, you can easily share it via link, email, or QR code.  

4. Collaborate on your management needs

Need to manage your volunteers, their schedules, and other administrative tasks? Use a table that makes teamwork and campaign collaboration simple this GivingTuesday. Jotform Tables contains all the data from your submitted forms in one convenient workspace.

Turbocharge the back end of your donation system by efficiently taking actions like sending prefilled donation forms directly from your table, emailing previous donors or volunteers with the click of a button, or sending your table’s data to the cloud or your CRM service.

The best part of having a multifunctional table is that it frees up your time to focus on more important duties.

5. Prepare for your post-campaign results

Post-campaign, our Report Builder has you covered with professional quality reports. These reports — fed by your charity form’s data — make it a snap to present and discuss your performance over GivingTuesday with all of your stakeholders.

Additional GivingTuesday campaign advice

• Once you have your patrons’ attention, be sure to include your donation instructions everywhere. Because when your donor is finally ready to give, you don’t want them to have to search for directions. In every email notice you send, every social post, and every mention on your website or in printed materials, show them how to give.
• In 2019, #GivingTuesday was among the top trending topics on X (formerly known as Twitter), with more than 20 billion social media impressions. So don’t forget to set up donation links on social media. Try linking from your socials to a directly embedded donation form so your donors have fewer clicks to get through. Another tip: Pair your GivingTuesday hashtags with hashtags that directly support your cause/effort, such as #GivingTuesday and #EndChildhoodCancer.

Conclusion

Even during the pandemic, charitable giving in the U.S. grew, up 4 percent in 2021. The strong headwinds of inflation slowed growth in 2022 across giving sources, but on the bright side, giving from foundations has grown significantly over time.

That’s why it’s so important for the nonprofit sector to diversify its giving sources (and types).

Non-monetary giving — donations of goods, services, and people’s time volunteering — is twice as common as monetary giving, and many people give to groups that aren’t even registered nonprofit entities.

When you combine that with a consistently growing fiscal contribution for GivingTuesday, the state of giving is indeed very strong.

With more organizations involved in coordinating giving activities, more giving is taking place, and we’re excited to support your efforts.