Write One Core Message Before Your First Giving Tuesday Email

Every email, post, and announcement you write for Giving Tuesday will say something. Make sure they all say the same thing. A campaign without a core message ends up with a different pitch in every channel, and supporters get a different story depending on where they meet you.

Giving Tuesday is 39 days away. One short document fixes this, and it takes an afternoon.

What a Core Message Contains

Write 4 sentences. Each answers one question for your reader.

1. Who is struggling, and with what?
2. What does your organization do about it?
3. What does a gift make possible?
4. What should the reader do today?

Keep each sentence plain enough that a volunteer could say it from memory. Once these 4 sentences are written, every subject line, caption, and announcement is a shorter or longer version of them.

Make the Supporter the Hero

Your organization is the guide. The supporter is the person who steps in and changes the outcome. Messages built that way speak to what the reader can do.

Look at your last campaign email. Count how many sentences are about your organization and how many are about what the reader's gift accomplishes. If the first number is larger, rewrite the opening line so the supporter's action comes first.

Why Campaign Messaging Goes Flat

Messaging goes flat when it asks the reader to work. Jargon asks them to translate. A list of 5 programs asks them to choose. Cut until the reader meets a person in need, then a clear action and a result they can picture.

Write Down the Words Your Team Will Reuse

Put the core message, the one big ask, and the goal on a single page. Share it with everyone who will write, schedule, or speak during the campaign. When someone drafts a post on a busy afternoon in November, they can copy from the page and stay consistent.

The Whole Series in One View

Over the past 5 days we covered the date, the goal, the one big ask, the calendar, and today's core message. If you have the goal, the ask, the calendar, and the message written down, you have a complete plan on paper.

Finish Your Blueprint

We are releasing an entire suite of workshops because we believe more nonprofits' missions should be funded. There are so many good causes. Funding limitations throttle their impact. Giving Tuesday is an opportunity to give some new life to a cause-driven team's work.

The Giving Tuesday Campaign Blueprint is the first workshop in that suite. It is a video course with 4 modules and 12 lessons, and you leave with a clear goal, a working calendar, one big ask, and a core message ready to build every asset from. Enrollment is $99.

Enroll in the Giving Tuesday Campaign Blueprint and put a finished plan in front of your team before November starts.